Forum Censorship in SA

[Jason]

I used to think MyBroadband.co.za was the trendsetter when it came to online censorship. My dear friends, I was proven wrong.
The biggest douchebag forum I have ever found in my life, is www.e-dirt.co.za
Tell everyone what a bunch of codswallop that forum is!

What happened was this: I found, in Google, a link to a post on that forum which was publicly viewable. It was a For Sale post, guy was selling a tracking device, and I wanted more info, so I created an account to send him a private message. The next day in my e-mail I got a notification of the private message, log in, and the forum gives me access denied to pretty much everything.

I complained about this, their action was, to DELETE the private message that was in my Inbox, and then lock me out of my complaint, I am not allow to see their response, nor post anywhere on the forum.

I thought that this was a special breed, but then I realized I am dealing with the THINK BIKE fraternity, the same bunch of douchebags who hide behind the THINK BIKE campaign and ride motorcycles worse than taxis and are honestly trying to see who can take off my mirrors on my car. The same lot who see fit to wheelie a bike on a busy main road, because, golly, gotta show off them BALLS! The same lot who see fit to have a wheelspin and motorbike revving contest in the complex while my son is trying to sleep.

[Outrack]

Treading dangerous ground by saying this, but based on personal experience I've noticed that a majority of South African moderators and administrators tend to be the touchiest group of people and the slightest off-hand remark about how things could be done better is taken as a personal insult and is met with an all-out abuse of authority.

Maybe it's a case of "money see monkey do" and a reflection of the poor leadership in the country. Whatever the case, sorry to hear about the experience and hope you either manage to find the device elsewhere or get in touch with the guy via other means.

[Epsilon]

Treading dangerous ground by saying this, but based on personal experience I've noticed that a majority of South African moderators and administrators tend to be the touchiest group of people and the slightest off-hand remark about how things could be done better is taken as a personal insult and is met with an all-out abuse of authority.

Maybe it's a case of "money see monkey do" and a reflection of the poor leadership in the country. Whatever the case, sorry to hear about the experience and hope you either manage to find the device elsewhere or get in touch with the guy via other means.

Yes Outrack, those are a number of the reasons that played a large part in a few of us starting up this forum. As you may have noticed we are a pretty relaxed bunch here and as yet, have not seen any of the bickering, in fighting and abuse you mentioned that happen in a lot of other places. (We've had one or 2 instances of spamming but that's about the worst of it) We'd like to try and keep it that way by attracting the right kind of membership profile and providing a platform that encourages free, open discussion and debate without members, mods or admins resorting to abuse etc.

All of us that were involved in the formation of this forum suffered at the hands of some or all of the problems mentioned at some stage at other forums and most of us have been around the block a few times, so I completely understand your point of view.
We have what I feel is a great site policies document which clearly lays out what is acceptable and what is not. A lot of thought went into that and Jacques especially, did a great job in drafting that document.

Open debate and suggestions on how to improve matters related to any issue in the forum itself is always welcome.

[jGLZa]

Can't say I've really experienced anything similar to you guys but then again I don't frequent the bigger forums in SA. It pretty much works out that the bigger the forum the larger number of douches there are on it, because douches love attention.

Small communities for the WIN!!

[Jason]

Outrack- there's no dangerous ground to tread here. However, do be advised that a certain influential South African forum owner does read this forum, and if you're a member of his forum, he will use what you say here, against you, as he has done to me personally. If you work in the telecoms industry it could be a career-limiting move.

I have found that, many ZA forum moderators are definitely of the "too big for their boots" type. I have traced some of them to being well-connected higher-ups (i.e. directors) in some SA telcoms companies. I got into trouble for dissing a moderator from another forum, on a totally separate and unrelated forum, they traced me and then began to e-mail me at home with thinly veiled threats, and at the same time I had to hear how, ag shame, he had cancer, etc, etc... Like Epsilon said, this forum exists because of people like that. This forum's administration is none of the bigotry and arrogance that you would find on many SA forums.

As big as they are, especially on that well-known ZA forum, they still don't have the balls to meet with me face to face. They still view me as a troll and an enemy, but the funny thing is, and the biggest joke of the century, is that I am labeled as such because my views don't fit the majority, and that is a forum full of JuJu, negative political ZA news, and competitions which have been proven to be fraud. Like I've said before, my real name is all over this forum, there's no pretense here, or hiding behind an anonymous internet nick. You have a gripe? Talk to me about it, I'll even be a man and give you my cell number!

[Jason]

It pretty much works out that the bigger the forum the larger number of douches there are on it, because douches love attention.

Small communities for the WIN!!

Agreed... and it becomes almost impossible to be heard above these "popular" douchebags. Another characteristic of them is their prejudice towards Afrikaans people, they frequently get people joining asking for genuine help, and these guys hail from the farm and battle to express themselves on an English forum, they get torn apart, and things such as Die Heuwels Fantasties, DJ Ossewa and comparisons to an infamous forum member known as Chasel, get made and thrown into the mix, along with heaps of taunting... Same old chain of events happens... they piss the guy off, he strips, and he gets banned and the taunters get away with it, because hell, their high post count and "rep" makes them so much more important!!