Pete George nothing is unconditional in life.

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.

On 5 March 2013 I asked the following questions.

Sorry, I thought I’d responded to you at some stage but may have missed one.

1. Is a comment on a blog site a serious matter?

Some can be, many aren’t. Depends on the blog, depends on the topic, and it depends on who is commenting.

I generally take blogging seriously with a purpose in mind, but not always, sometimes some light relief and humour is worthwhile (I’m sure some don’t always pick my humour or they don’t get it).

2. Is it not up to those who visit the site to decide the content for themself?

Again it depends on the blog. Sometimes staying on topic is expected, so the content is guided by the authors. Open Mic/General Debate threads allow for those who visit to decide, but it’s not uncommon for others to try and shut down or shout over someone’s choice of content.

3. Is backing off a sign of weakness or a sign of strength?

It can be either depending on the circumstances and common sense. Not sure exactly what yoiu are getting at with that question.

In relation to the topic of the day, I’m not backing off. I had persevered and stood my ground at TS for so long, often if the face of extensive harrassment and abuse, simply to not back down. lprent eventually pushed me off.

And I’m not backing off now, I’m carrrying on doing what I’ve been doing for some time. In fact I’m making significant progress on a numbers of things.

I am pleased that there is an amnesty at the Standard because I am not in favour of a permanent ban being given, (I stated this previously).

I’m pleased to see them give it a go too, but we’ll have to see how it works. Redbaiter didn’t exactly kick it off to an auspicious start, but if you look beyond his grandstanding there were signs that the lprent education may be better directed at some of the regulars, going by their comments. But I don’t expect that to happen.

Any blog or forum needs to have a permanent ban as an option, but it should be only used in extreme situations. Some of the permanent bans at TS were ridiculous over-reactions. My own was expected because I was staring lprent down, but even while the moderators were considering the amnesty there were pathetic permenent bans, a recent one being a prime example – The Standard – yawning is banned.

I will leave you to think about why you would take the oppertunity to return to the Standard as you are no longer banned due to the amnesty?

I have no inclination to return to The Standard at this stage.  I think the culture there is toxic, and Lynn Prentice seems to be most responsible for that. Here is a typical example from one of the main culprits, Te Reo Putake:

Anyhoo, with rare exceptions, I’m not keen on bans, because it removes some of the sport from the site. Puncturing the egos of pompous righties is always tremendous fun.

Shitting in the nest is fun for some. And bad12 followed that with:

Yeah true as far as the fun of using such overblown egotistical wankers as PG for sport, but, it can become pretty tedious when as befor a situation develops where half of the comments in ‘Open Mike’ on any given day are taken up with such circular arguments which go no place in particular,

Plus, i have forgotten how to make the ‘rolls eyes’ icon which seemed the best means of addressing that particular commenter…

That’s an entrenched culture, and what does the master moderator think of that? An lprent comment followed, with no concern shown for their intent to disrupt threads and harrass again. lprent not only allows it, he leads by example.

It’s been interesting to see TRP taken to task by others recently, but that won’t stop him, and obviously lprent won’t stop him. But some are brave enough (or don’t care if they are banned) by criticising this, like Jenny…

If you enjoy that sort of sport TRP you should go to their sites.

…and Colonial Weka:

I agree. The poking at the righties sport that goes on here is one of the downsides of ts. It’s ok within limits, but when it goes on at length in multiple threads, it’s just boring, distracting and most likely puts off new people getting involved. I’ll take new blood over returning tr*lls and spoilsports any day

I think there are plenty of commmenters at TS who would prefer a more civil and less abusive, bullying culture, but Prentice obviously leads and rules the culture.

He obviously has no intention of listening or changing, so I have no intention of returning to comment at his whim. And as Prentice seems to be a fixture there I don’t see any prospect of this situation changing.

I think forums, particularly political blogs, should be level playing fields. The Standard is far from that. A pity, it could be a far more effective left wing forum but for a few selfish bullies dominate the culture with impunity.