Post by Graham on Oct 26, 2016 16:51:55 GMT
I just sent a letter to Danial Hutchinson re. his "amnesty" offer. I've pasted it below:
Dear Mr. Daniel Hutchinson,
Having just read your offer to consider “amnesty” for some of us who were unceremoniously banned from CWDF with no warnings and no explanations, I felt compelled to reply to your offer.
I was a member of CWDF for a little over two years and had over 1,000 posts with no warnings whatsoever. One day some member posted a “joke” about sealing cats in a water tank and basically torturing them to death, then throwing in another cat to continue the carnage. As an animal rights advocate in general, and a cat owner/lover in particular, I reported this post as offensive – the only report for content I ever made on CWDF. Your moderator replied that she thought the joke might be in bad taste, but that it was harmless and she would let it stand. I wrote back to the mod with a few comments about how animal cruelty was not a joke, and I also posted a reply to the “joke” in that thread expressing my opinion on why animal cruelty jokes aren't at all funny.
Your mod removed my post as confrontational, gave me a warning and put me on modque. I then sent a PM to you and the mod about how absurd it is that you allow your mods to support and endorse animal cruelty and act against those of us who work to prevent it. I then quit posting on CWDF. Three weeks later I was banned with no explanation. I never did receive a reply from you to my PM.
This brings me back to your amnesty proposal. It appears that many, perhaps the majority, of the people banned in the mass cull had already quit posting on CWDF before they were banned. Don't you think they had already made their decision about CWDF? Since the cull, and thanks to your abysmal management skills, CWDF has turned into a clusterfuck of you and the mods, supported by a clique of sanctimonious wankers who want to turn CWDF into a floating church social, versus many of the people who were instrumental in CWDF's former success.
You seem incapable of understanding that your personal contribution to the forum is somewhere between negligible and non-existent. Any idiot with a few quid in his pocket and a modicum of computer literacy can start an internet forum. It is the contributions of the membership that make or break a forum. You and your mods have adopted the attitude that members of your forum are inarticulate children who can be demeaned and controlled by you and your mods at their pleasure, apparently because you firmly believe that it is YOUR forum, rather than a treasure that was foolishly entrusted to you, and that you and your mods are the only truly important people there.
Personally I would never return to CWDF for the simple reason that I would never support a forum that endorses animal cruelty. Even if it wasn't for the animal cruelty aspect, I still wouldn't return to CWDF just because of the way you run the place. In any event, you don't have the integrity, the wherewithal, or the testicular fortitude to make an honest apology to the members who were wronged in the purge.
On a final note, I would like to thank you for outstanding participation in the most recent Thunderboat membership drive. Your contributions have been immeasurable!
Sincerely,
PaulG2
Having just read your offer to consider “amnesty” for some of us who were unceremoniously banned from CWDF with no warnings and no explanations, I felt compelled to reply to your offer.
I was a member of CWDF for a little over two years and had over 1,000 posts with no warnings whatsoever. One day some member posted a “joke” about sealing cats in a water tank and basically torturing them to death, then throwing in another cat to continue the carnage. As an animal rights advocate in general, and a cat owner/lover in particular, I reported this post as offensive – the only report for content I ever made on CWDF. Your moderator replied that she thought the joke might be in bad taste, but that it was harmless and she would let it stand. I wrote back to the mod with a few comments about how animal cruelty was not a joke, and I also posted a reply to the “joke” in that thread expressing my opinion on why animal cruelty jokes aren't at all funny.
Your mod removed my post as confrontational, gave me a warning and put me on modque. I then sent a PM to you and the mod about how absurd it is that you allow your mods to support and endorse animal cruelty and act against those of us who work to prevent it. I then quit posting on CWDF. Three weeks later I was banned with no explanation. I never did receive a reply from you to my PM.
This brings me back to your amnesty proposal. It appears that many, perhaps the majority, of the people banned in the mass cull had already quit posting on CWDF before they were banned. Don't you think they had already made their decision about CWDF? Since the cull, and thanks to your abysmal management skills, CWDF has turned into a clusterfuck of you and the mods, supported by a clique of sanctimonious wankers who want to turn CWDF into a floating church social, versus many of the people who were instrumental in CWDF's former success.
You seem incapable of understanding that your personal contribution to the forum is somewhere between negligible and non-existent. Any idiot with a few quid in his pocket and a modicum of computer literacy can start an internet forum. It is the contributions of the membership that make or break a forum. You and your mods have adopted the attitude that members of your forum are inarticulate children who can be demeaned and controlled by you and your mods at their pleasure, apparently because you firmly believe that it is YOUR forum, rather than a treasure that was foolishly entrusted to you, and that you and your mods are the only truly important people there.
Personally I would never return to CWDF for the simple reason that I would never support a forum that endorses animal cruelty. Even if it wasn't for the animal cruelty aspect, I still wouldn't return to CWDF just because of the way you run the place. In any event, you don't have the integrity, the wherewithal, or the testicular fortitude to make an honest apology to the members who were wronged in the purge.
On a final note, I would like to thank you for outstanding participation in the most recent Thunderboat membership drive. Your contributions have been immeasurable!
Sincerely,
PaulG2