fionamw

Good post, and I agree with Rosemary on fairness, solutions, etc and indeed thanks.

Might be worth suggesting Fredbargate's scale at the next opportunity with whoever else is involved in the 'powers that be', though.... seems an ideal and VISIBLE way for everyone to know who's been treading on increasingly thin ice and whether or not they should perhaps mend their ways.

tonrob

No-one ever bans me...

bxpuser24710519

Oh Fred that would be unfair to anyone running the fine line, ( not that I condone uit ) on last warnings or the like. They could get some good advice but I fear they would also be likely to receive unpleasant e mails and be goaded in posts by trouble makers.

In a past life as a moderator I know how difficult it can be and it depends on how the site owner wants it run as to how many banned members you end up with. The system where members get 2or 3 warnings about their conduct/rule breaking then get anything from a days ban to permanent ban is good but can be a lot of work especially on a forum the size of this one. It also depends on the forum format I should think. This site is more tolerant than many I know of.

Fredbargate

bil is on another forum that runs this type of warning and I cannot remember him ever having received a warning there.

With respect to them receiving unpleasant e mails I believe it is someones objection to having received what they consider to be an unpleasant e mail that has led to bil's ban

Sue

I will comment one last time in this thread just to clear up a misconception. The majority of moderator actions are taken behind the scenes, so if a member is warned or approached about the content of their posts those actions are not broadcast on the public forum. So one is not privy to what goes on behind the scenes. Hence see my post here on this particular issue:
This is incorrect.




We've allowed this thread to continue so as to clarify a few things and allow a discourse, but I would rather we did not discuss a specific member's banning in this thread, out of respect of the individual's concerned, the matter will remain private. So lets keep this general.

Thanks

rugbymatt

Nope, I was caught up in someone's mad power trip once and the situation was rectified very quickly, other than that I've never been banned, and rightly so!

I believe its because I am almost the perfect poster... Fact.

Jerseygirl

HBG

If you're reading this, Bil, many thanks for some interesting debates over the time.

If, like me, you find writing therapeutic, write a book. Here's a suggestion on how to start, it's in the first person and you may find the third easier to start with.


Chapter ONE

The small cloud alerted me that morning. It was tiny, almost lost among the blue I had become accustomed to. Yet, it reminded me of some dark times in that cold country far away. Would I ever forget?

I strained my eyes to study the distant cloud. It was darker now, and bigger . . . .


Good luck, Bil.

fionamw

Provocation? Tu? !!

As to writing being therapeutic, that may be true but in my humble opinion only if done bashing it out without a thought then NOT pressing send, going back over adding and amending (with a lot of parentheses and ellipses in my case!)... () but fiction? To quote rugbymatt: Meh !

HBG

I was honestly trying to be helpful to someone I regard as a pal. You're quite right about the send button - after a writing period of around eight months, there come four months of the important part, the editing, again, and again and again.

That's a year taken care of, and another year of tussle with your editor is bound to follow. Three years later you might be sitting in Waterstones signing copies of your book.

But, being a writer, you've long ago started on the next one, or two; and you get up at six every morning and write till midday, take a rest in the afternoon, and try for another few pages in the evening, or early hours.

Ten pages a day is a decent target, for eight months every year until you die.

Meh.

fionamw

Apologies. (I'll miss him too)
6-12? Must explain my workrate
... oh, and Waterstones? !

HBG

Thank you for the apology. But can I write some more about writing? It's something dear to my heart, or something I can't escape from, probably a mixture of both.

I both love it and loathe what it has done to me. I lock myself away for hours every day, and I have failed relationships by the score because of my obsession with it.

And I'm not even that good at it. My writing success, apart from some extraordinary years in the late eighties, doesn't even sustain me financially.

I'm on my last warning from the latest lady to suffer from my obsession; she's only yards away from where I'm writing right now. If I was a genius, there is a six in seven chance that I would be an alcoholic; six out of the last seven American winners of the Nobel prize for literature were alcoholics, and my favourite shot himself at the height of his success.

Probably luckily, I'm not a genius, but I'm easily led and occasionally try to emulate my writing heroes. The bestseller will probably elude me, and my liver is bound to be grateful.

Dick Dasterdly

So who are your writing heroes HBG and what sort of writing style and material do you prefer ?

jimenato

I did 35,000 words of a novel a couple of years ago which I quite enjoyed. Then the hard drive of my laptop blew up. I could probably get it retrieved but I can't be arsed. It was starting to be hard work anyway.

HBG

Christ Dick, it's approaching midnight. I'm sorry to say they're mostly American: Hemingway, Steinbeck, Roth, Mailer, Erskine Caldwell etc.

Brits: Dickens, Shakespeare, JK Rowling (through jealousy), Burns (don't laugh, I went to school in Scotland) and many more.

Guenter Grass, Dostoevsky, and many, many more.

The writing style I prefer? Brave writers who tell it the way they see it and don't pull punches.

I hate Jeffrey Archer.