Announcement : deliberate attempt to disrupt the club

[Christopher]

Dear all,

Every now and then, since setting up this club, as moderators we have had to resort to activities that are not pleasant - gladly these are few and far between. However, we have rules and these rules are there to guarantee a smooth running club and to allow members to enjoy their time on the club. If those rules are broken we will take action.

There have been a recent spate of threads and posts from a small group of users who have gone above and beyond "free speech" and in fact have gone out of their way to make sure they are as disruptive as possible. This small group of users have an issue with the way the club is run, and seem to have an issue with me personally. For the former I will comment further below - for the latter, there is not a lot I can do about that - sadly (for them) I am here and I am here to stay.

In particular this group have been in repeat violation of rule 6:

6.1 You may not "Troll" the forums - A "troll" is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community such as this, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

Now some of you may argue the "free speech" angle, and that I am trying to silence the dissenters - and on the face of it I would understand why you might say that. However, what makes this case particularly unpleasant is the fact that this "trolling" is cold and calculated and has been arranged beforehand with planning and "egging on" going on on the very Facebook Group that the users are encouraging everyone to join. I attach the "evidence" for all to see - I have to say it makes for very sad reading, it shows behaviour of grown men acting in a way that is most unbecoming of their age or status. Name calling, vulgar, libellous words and for all to see in this group. That they sling mud my way is par for the course, that they sling mud at the moderators (or green team) using their vulgarities is sad and pathetic. Especially from some who have been on the other side of the fence and know full well the difficult path mods must take to be fair and even in their handling of matters. Thankfully, there are a number of people on the group who are also sick of reading this and sent us all the "evidence" we need. We apologise in advance for the displaying of vulgar language in these attachments - but it is necessary in order to show the extent of the trolling.

Faced with this, and with the very clear indication that these people are not happy in this club, and have every intention to keep up this trolling, then I have made their minds up for them and banned them from the forum. It is not a step I take lightly and I have taken the time to read both the threads started on this forum as well as the "evidence" carefully - it is plain to see for you all where their intent lies ... so, so be it.

My apologies to those members who have had to sit through this, the silent majority in fact. Bear in mind that we have over 2,000 active members in this club and the half a dozen or so who are intent on causing trouble are less than a drop in the ocean ...

Of course not everyone agrees with the way this club is run, however this has been dealt with many times before. The club structure has been laid out and is on this forum if you search for it and this is how it is likely to remain at least for the foreseeable future. Of course if you have suggestions, send them in, we are glad to listen, but ultimately the decisions remains ours. So please, there is no point in resurrecting the same points again and again - we have structured the club such that members can choose to not pay and still still get good information "for free" - and if you subscribe you get that little bit more (and hopefully that will increase as we move forwards). I strongly believe that the members get a very good deal for the money (especially those that don't pay!) ... and if people think I was in it "for the money" my answer to them is that I would have sold out long ago, and believe me I have been contacted ... for - contrary to what these few conjecture - every single indicator shows that the vast majority of the membership is happy and content with this club and the club is very much on an even keel.

My apologies for the long post, I just wanted you all to know that we don't like doing this but we needed to do it in this case especially in light of the blatant way in which this "trolling" has taken place.

Kind regards,

Christopher

The Facebook screenshots have now been removed as it would seem that some of the authors are not happy that their offensive posts and underhand scheming was exposed.

We were not happy posting such vulgar language on our boards as noted above, so in the interests of good taste these have now been removed.

Clearly copies are still available and can be obtained if there is a valid reason.