You’re right, we did just ban you. I should have been more clear. Last year I also banned a half dozen cruise ship tourists without any warning whatsoever and we ban spammers daily.
By “we” give warnings I did nit mean administrators, I mean the collective we. This forum is self governing, the admins aren’t out looking for people breaking the rules. The admins respond to complaints.
You did not receive formal warnings but there were numerous members who asked you to stay on topic and replied to your posts with concern and gave warnings about your behavior.
And, as mentioned above, experience counts. Both experience on this forum and experience at sea. We welcome everyone but, unlike most forums, this one is not run by weekend warriors or armchair admirals. All the admins have at least a decade of industry experience and knowledge. Before banning anyone we look at a sampling of previous posts and determine the signal to noise ratio.
DanmYankee (to whom I was replying to specifically) has a significant amount of sea time and industry experience and has demonstrated that knowledge and experience to the group. He’s been “vetted” and will be given more latitude than new member with limited seatime.
This post specifically is about c.captain and ombugge who have proved repeatedly that they posses a very high level of maritime knowledge and expertise. We gave them many warnings because both their signal (the quality of information in their posts) AND noise (the bullshit off topic stuff) were both high.
To be clear nee members with high noise levels and very low signal levels (e.g. spammers) will continue to be banned without warning.
P.S. I know that you have square rigging and naval experience. That makes it harder for us (the admins) to judge your experience. We are not perfect.
I’ve had my hand smacked once or twice but to paraphrase Ayrton Senna. If you don’t shoot for a gap, you are no longer racing. Or was it Duvall with “rubbing is racing”? Either way works
When I specifically and respectfully asked in a post what it was that got one of my posts deleted further back up the thread, I got exactly zero responses. I was genuinely concerned that I had done something wrong and was keen to rectify it but had no idea what. Nobody ever said words to the effect that they were flagging me, that my posts were off topic, or watch out you’re heading into danger.
Oh there were insults including from your exemplar Damn Yankee, but am I supposed to know he’s
And finally the way you could judge my experience is by reading what I write and not prejudging because I’m new or naval. For the record I’ve been at sea or in maritime work all my life from ocean racing as a boy, Navy at 16 for 39 years and ever since as master of a sail training ship gradually reducing my commitment as I’m 68 and have trained several relief masters. It’s in my profile. I’ll quote from my experiences. They’ll be different to others, but I have things to contribute.
I’m not an amateur and I’m not a spammer. Some contributors actually said so at the time.
Anyway, thanks again for your personalised response, John.
The most specific response I got from John after it had happened was that it wasn’t that I had broken any rules but had disrupted the conversation. No specific examples were ever cited.
I agree with you to very large extent, but I also understand the compelling overarching USMM strategy John Konrad is trying to accomplish and many readers from time to time MYSELF am very guiltyat times have strayed and been baited to enter into vivid political and ideological postings; I will really endeavor to restrain myself in the future and especially if/ when Umbugge returns. I was on the same political page as CCaptain but I will not excuse myself. I do not think that if this were the kitchen table MM discussion board it would not matter in the least except to snowflakes, but John is on a mission to actually do something strategic and something which is greater than the sum of its parts, I tip my hat to him and will do everything I can to aid him in the mission of informing the non-maritime public of our industry, Lastly both of the banned gentlemen have a depth of experience and knowledge I could only wish for, I hope both return after 6 months and learn to play well with the rest of us kids.
I tip my hat to you Captain John. As previously posted, I will likewise endeavor to stay on topic at all times in the future (well almost at all times). You are strategically looking at leveraging this USMM forum at the 30,000 ft level, well beyond our earthbound sensitivities and first amendment influenced rants. You are trying to actually execute a business plan and I believe few members quite understand the ramifications and how the sharp edges need to be honed if we ever wish to educate, inform and change public and political policy IRT to the maritime industry. Good luck and God bless.
It’s not easy to run a forum, I mod on a different forum with about 25k users and it can be a pain. I remember one of them complaining about the Cooking At Sea thread. I’ve yet to meet someone who doesn’t want to eat well out on the ship, it was uncalled for and unnecessary but they chimed in to steer the thread and denigrate those who felt otherwise. They’ve had their chance and have had multiple warnings. This is not a free speech issue as this is a private forum and we have to abide by the rules set forth by the admins.
I couldn’t agree more. c.captain would start a thread about any disgruntled thought that ran through his head then insult creators of threads that he felt weren’t “maritime” enough. I will probably never buy a ship, an industrial size generator or 100t crane that c.captain would try to peddle on gcaptain but I eat everyday & cook whenever I can.
I’m against censorship just like everyone else but if you want to play with someone else’s ball on their playground the least you can do is respect the simple rules that the owners/investors put in place to keep the playground & ball in working condition. The last I checked craigslist had a “rants & rave” section where anyone could say anything about whatever they wanted without any restrictions. I’ll stick with reading the moderated gcaptain forum though.
Hijack is a good term. Someone goes to the trouble of starting a thread, giving it a title, writing out the first post and someone else want to take the discussion in a different direction.
I mean if you want to fly to Cuba buy your own ticket, the other passengers were planning to go to Miami.
Many on this thread keep using the word censorship, so I feel the need to point out that there is no censorship here, c.captain and ombugge are perfectly free to express any opinion they like they just don’t have the right to a forum provided by another person.
If it makes it easier think of this forum as John’s Bar, and John can kick out any person he wants.
It has happened that my posts on the forum just disappear. I think it is when I inform that according to IMO/SOLAS/ISM every merchant ship trading internationally should have an international safety management system describing what all seamen aboard shall do (job descriptions, etc) and associated responsibilities. ISM also says that ultimate responsibility for seaworthiness rests with the ship owner ashore, which protects the seamen on the ship. Of course, in reality, it is much easier for dishonest ship owners to blame the crew for anything going wrong on the ships and many administrations do not object. Naval/war ships do not have ISM for national security reasons in peace. I have never understood why.
Absolutely true - and if you are in the bar, and someone insults you, you can always give them a smack in the mouth. I think this tends to make people more civilised.
Not really, c.captain, among others, disagreed with her,so she deleted her posts and left.
Yes c.captain was rude, very rude in my not quite humble opinion, but he wasn’t the only one who took issue with her, and it was her choice to delete her posts.
I hope she comes back, but if she does, she should be prepared to have people disagree with her.
Basically we all had our knives well sharpened from previous discussions among our selves. Instead of turning them on a potentially ally it would have been better to have pointed out that some points had been discussed here and many were not in agreement. Explain the layout of the terrain here so to speak.
I sat on the sideline for that one until she just kept banging the WW2 mariners were all that mattered drum with no regard for any points being made by the dearly departed crotchety old man. Granted, he was doing the same to her, which really isn’t the best tact in a debate. It should have a decent bit of concession in a rebuttal but after several posts went by, I couldn’t stand it anymore.
I’ll also add that she made that “you’re not even an American” quip which on a subject like that was serious fighting words in my opinion. I was expecting scorched earth after that one.
Same here. But for the grace of God. Anyway, I appreciate the forum and John I also appreciate that you gave them a time-out versus a perma-ban. I have enjoyed posts from both of them. Hope to see them both back.
Sheila’s comments about the veteran to mariner program really irritated me the most. Many posters here (myself included) are veteran hawsepipers who have helped other veterans get their credentials. It’s not a new thing at all, even if the President signed something to that effect. Other than that, she does do some very hard and thankless work getting recognition for WWII MM veterans. Not many left.
That’s true but it seems that Shelia was just taking what was announced at face value. There were a lot of “but there is no mariner shortage” takes on here as well till it got gradually sorted out after at least a couple threads and many posts.