Will The Real Dave 198lbs please stand up!!!!

I'm really pi$$ed right now. Dave just sent me a message, letting me in on the juvenile antics and behaviour that seems to prevail on this site. He's in fact banned for 30 days, this being his last chance. This is ridiculous. My 5 yr old has better social manners then some of the people who creep the boards looking to "report" someone. If you're the one who reported him, do yourself a favour, stay outta the forum, do your little ditty thing with your calories and sit behind your keyboard being angry with the world, just leave the guy alone already, jeezus.

hmmm interesting very interesting

from a moderator stand point I can see why he would be banned if it was directed at a member of the board itself, considering he didn't address anyone in particular it could be very easy to think it may have been aimed at the author or the person in the post above his, but the board I moderate don't ban people for their blunt actions unless they get really obnoxious, which is not very often. I usually ask the person in question to tone it down a bit in a pm.

As from a member stand point I would've asked him on who he meant and if he was serious or not. Sometimes blunt comments like that can get you in a whole leap load of trouble if you're not careful on who you comment it too. If the person doesn't know Dave that well then yes I can see how someone would be offended by that comment.

Anyways this is just me being able to switch from one mind set to the other from two different points of view.

Considering I know he was kidding

Free Dave

Cody-

Since it was to you perhaps a PM to Mike saying it was a joke would work??


PS
The secret word for the day is COOL WHIP.

I agree that a PM to Mike might help. When I read the thread I thought the 'do not breed' comment was directed at the person who originally did the post.....

Bull. Crapola.
We want Dave!

Cody-

Since it was to you perhaps a PM to Mike saying it was a joke would work??


PS
The secret word for the day is COOL WHIP.

I agree that a PM to Mike might help. When I read the thread I thought the 'do not breed' comment was directed at the person who originally did the post.....

I already sent a message...hours ago when it 1st happened!

Hmmm....I guess Mike still decided to unfortunately ban him

:sad:

I'm on the bandwagon with you all that this is crazy.. I read the 'offending' thread and I don't think it was worth getting banned for 30 days over.. I also sent Mike a PM saying that I dont think it's fair that he's being singled out...

For what it's worth, Dave...
There are a great number of folks on this site that genuinely love your attitude and your blunt advice.. it's a better site when you're around! MUCH better than the sugar coated advice on some of these threads... maybe we should start reporting some of THOSE threads as offending!

FREE DAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

can we bake him a low fat pie with a file in it?

You could hide it in the cool whip on top!!! :laugh: :laugh:

Folks -

I see a lot of inaccurate information on here and I just wanted to clarify a few things:

1) I would never suspend someone solely based on one person's Abuse Report. I review and investigate every Abuse Report I receive, and in many cases, I simply delete the report. This is because, after looking into the situation, there has been no violation. Filing a report doesn't guarantee that a user will be warned/banned or a post will be deleted - only if I agree that a forum rule violation has occurred will any action be taken.

In other words, if there was a member who was "out to get" another member on the site, they couldn't get someone banned simply by filing a lot of abuse reports. If anything, they might end up getting themselves banned as a result for filing frivolous abuse reports.

2) A suspension of this length (30 days) is almost always the result of a whole series of actions and subsequent warnings. In other words, there is a long history behind such a suspension. The user almost always will have received many warnings prior to their suspension, and would have had to violate the rules again after such warnings in order to receive a suspension.

Suspensions are very rare, but when they do occur, they are usually the result of a long process during which the user has been given many chances to remain on the site. All of you do not see that long process - you only see the final result. Please keep that in mind when judging the actions taken.

3) I very, very vehemently disagree with this notion of a user being a "tattle tale" for reporting another user. It is much better for a board to be moderated than to have it be the "Wild West" where every person has to defend themselves. Because the boards are so huge, even with moderators, it's impossible for the mods and admins to read every single post. We rely on you to help alert us of issues, and if we are alerted early enough, we can often take action to stop a bad situation from happening. We can send a polite warning, or edit/delete a post, and the result is often that a lot of hurt feelings are prevented. Filing an abuse report helps us to avoid those situations. But if you don't do anything, it's often too late by the time we realize what's happening.

If you see another user violating the forum rules, I STRONGLY encourage you to use the Report Abuse button to let me know. Far from being the childish thing to do, notifying a moderator is the adult, mature way to handle the situation because you know it will be handled in a fair, respectful, and appropriate manner. Taking matters into your own hands is the truly childish thing to do.

4) Finally, in Dave's particular instance, if you value his friendship and want him to stay on the site, then encourage him to stay well within the forum rules, and to be diplomatic in his posts. If he violates the rules again, he'll be permanently banned from the site. I would like for him to stay, but he needs to follow the rules in order to do so. So give him some support if you are truly his friends and make sure he doesn't even come close to a rule violation.

I believe there have been a lot of issues lately on the site, not just in Dave's case, about users giving "tough love" to other users. I want there to be room on the site for that kind of motivation and encouragement, because frankly, some people both value and need it. But everyone is different, and many users don't want that kind of encouragement - in fact, it demotivates them and does more harm them good. And in many cases, when giving "tough love" or "honest opinions", posts often cross the line to insults or attacks. At the very least, such posts can be extremely abrasive. If you're going to give "tough love", you need to be tactful, sensitive, and diplomatic when doing so, and if you want someone to listen, you need to develop a positive relationship with them before you can give them a kick in the pants.

There have also been a lot of issues lately about users having very strong opinions about the "correct" way to lose weight. And again, I think we should all be a little more humble and accept the fact that our opinions are just that, opinions. Even amongst health professionals there is a lot of disagreement about various health and fitness issues. Does starvation mode exist? Can diet pills (not the scammy ones) be an effective part of a dieting program? Should you eat your exercise calories? The bottom line is that if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. But there are a lot of different paths to get there, and MyFitnessPal was designed to allow people to choose their own path. All of you are free to give other users advice, but please, also understand that everyone is different and what works for you may not work for someone else. Be humble in your opinions - your advice might not be correct for everyone.

I am aware of both of these issues in the forums lately, and I am trying to figure out how to deal with them in a fair and appropriate manner. I am considering adding some forum rules to address them, but I still have not come up with wording that I am happy with. I also am considering creating a special "Tough Love" forum where users can go if they WANT to get an honest opinion and a tough talking-to, but not allowing "tough love" in other areas of the site. But the "tough love" forum won't be an excuse to let loose on other members - all of the other forum rules will still apply, including no personal attacks or insults, and such "tough love" will still need to be delivered diplomatically and respectfully.

But regardless of what solutions I come up with, personal attacks and insults will not be tolerated on the site.

Hope this helps clarify things. Thanks for listening, and hope you are all enjoying the site.