Harassment And Bullying - FYI Moderators And Members

[ABSpareEditor]

The role of the AnswerBank Editor is to maintain the quality of the website content. It is not to get involved in personal disputes between users. The harassment and bullying occurring on the site is now affecting the quality of the website.

The sly digs and conversations full of insinuations are being dragged across different threads and categories. It's making the site unpleasant.

Regular and well-established members should know better. It's a shame that those involved are regular and longstanding.

We're implementing a zero-tolerance stance when it comes to this now.

Moderators, please suspend well-established users if they involve themselves with this ongoing drama. If we feel the suspension is justified then we will leave it in place indefinitely.

[jno]

still calling anyone who doesn't agree with you a 5C, TTT?

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1818003.html

"Personal attacks and abusive language" have been tolerated in the News section forever, regardless of what successive Editors have said, presumably because "We understand that debates get heated".

Debates needn't get heated at all. I think that special exemption for News should simply be removed from the page.

[murraymints]

Thanks for reinstating my post on yesterday's morning thread..as you can see there is/ was absolutely no reason for its removal.. ?

[wolf63]

Ed, I agree with this but I have one reservation.

Sometimes playful banter in Chatterbank may be perceived as harassment by a mod. Especially a trigger-happy one.
This would result in a few unhappy ABers who have never intended to hurt or insult anyone.

When the mod suspends someone do they have any accountability? The last thing we need on this site is more disgruntled ABers.

[ToraToraTora]

jno: "still calling anyone who doesn't agree with you a 5C, TTT? " - I've never done that. In that link they are labelled thus because they are seditious and treacherous, not because they disagree with me. Unions went on strike during WW1 for example. I'm glad you picked that subject jno because unions by their very nature are seditious, they seek to undermine the nation for their own ends.

[pastafreak]

Good decision spare Ed.

[MissTerious2]

Jno. They can still get heated surely without insults and bullying. They dont have to mirror PMs Question Time! ;0)

[Khandro]

TTT //...Unions went on strike during WW1 for example...//

Are you talking about the UK? I can find many examples of strikes word-wide (they were very turbulent times) but nothing in the UK until immediately after the war.

[barry1010]

Khandro, is this relevant? https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/first-world-war/home-front-stories/strike-action/

[Tilly2]

Hopefully, this thread will stop all the unpleasantness. Thank you Spare Ed.

[jourdain2]

Thank you, Spare Ed.. I very often don't post these days because of this problem.

[SparklyKid]

me neither jourdain, bad memories.

[jno]

///I've never done that///

TTT, you are casually averting your eyes from your own first post on that thread, in which you called Canary and me "the two 5C in chief ".

I don't think News should come with a special defence built in. Insults are insults wherever, and I would like to think the Eds will sort it out.

[Lie-in King]

Apologies once again for not being on-topic...

...SpareEd, I'm getting your emails & replying to them.

[Lie-in King]

^To clarify - I'm replying to your email, not sending a separate one.

[ToraToraTora]

jno: //TTT, you are casually averting your eyes from your own first post on that thread, in which you called Canary and me "the two 5C in chief ". // - well you are among the representatives on this site.

[Khandro]

barry, Fascinating, I'd never heard of it.

Apologies to spare Ed. for deviation.

[piggynose]

Out of interest, what exactly is a 5C?

[jno]

a fifth columnist, aka traitor

[Zacs-Master]

One of Tora's shorthand epithets for someone who he thinks is a 5th columnist, which Wiki describes as 'A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within'

[Barmaid]

Well said, Spare Ed. I hope your warning is heeded since we do not want to lose anyone.