I understand and agree with the first part of your post Grahame. As far as the part highlighted in blue is concerned I assume your refence to the admin is a reference to me. I was not online yesterday evening when all of this blew up, so I was not in a position to take any action. I am this morning catching up with posts. I will then be making some enquiries in order to decide what to do next. I will certainly as you suggest be splitting this thread and moving a number of posts to Off Topic.
It is dificult to know what to do in situations such as this when insults have been hurled and responded to. Any action against a member will result in howls of protest and complaints that similar action has not been taken against others. I have to protect members from abuse but I also have to protect the forum. Sometimes letting things blow over may be the best course, even where firm action could easily be justified. I know some disagree with my approach to moderating the forum but other more robust approaches in the past have not achieved positive results in my view. If I accepted the advice I have frequently be offered several members would now be banned and I suspect others would then have left in protest. I can only do what I believe is right in the circumstances and I will continue to do that until Mike tells me that he is not happy with my approach.
NGB,
A quick response because I'm in my office.
As you know, I emailed you and Rochford yesterday evening - I also emailed Grahame - regarding the - alleged -pm that Mat had posted to the main forum. I have given you an open invitation to read through my pms so that you can see for yourself every communication I had with Mat prior to Mat's post. I have been completely transparent in my response to this because I had not (and have not subsequently) made any deals of any kind with Mat.
I do not accept that Mat made that post in error, I believe it was deliberately constructed and deliberately posted in an attempt to discredit me and to cause chaos on the forum. As such, I believe that Mat should be banned. At the very least he should be subject to a temporary ban.
You have stated that it's difficult to know what to do when "insults have been hurled and responded to".
Jackie repeatedly attacked me yesterday with 15 poisonous posts, each of which was a complete fiction from end to end.
Jackie accused me of carrying on with Mat, of giving Mat the personal details of all our members to help him to persecute them, of doing deals with Mat to help him sue members, of betraying Grahame, of being old enough to be Mat's grandmother, of failing to mod Mat (I twice temp banned him!) and of going over to the guilty side. Each of these claims are complete fabrications: lies.
