Medium Format melt down

Yep. I got banned on MF for stepping on Doppler9000 ego several months ago, due to hypocritical application of the rules by Doppler9000.
Admin team unbanned me because they couldn't find confirmation of the accusations that Doppler9000 made against me, but he later banned me again as soon as he got the news.

So much for Jim's "but you can appeal our decisions" nonsense.
I love how Jim recently said that no one was banned for simply disagreeing with the mods - an obvious falsehood.
It is also obvious that many see through this deception.

I got the feeling that Doppler9000 and Jim are doing it on purpose per "discussion control goals", as was stated on Sigma forum by other users (before that thread got nuked).

Otherwise it makes no sense why would one deliberately stifle the conversation on a forum one dedicated his/her unpaid time to keep clean .. the forum that one supposedly loves to continue to exist in the future. I think they are doing it deliberately since neither Doppler9000 nor Jim are stupid enough to not recognize the problem and its consequences. So, it is either a large ego/dishonesty or some form of soft sabotage.

There is obviously a crisis of trust in the Mf mods, hence why they had to write that "mod decision non-explanation" MF thread.
If they were honest and just stroked their ego a tad too much, then they should step down as mods. Third mod that was brought in, will do nothing as 2 of them will always outvote him, even if he was against them. And I dont even think he is playing a more neutral side to Jim/Doppler9000.
I don't even think that third mod is any different in the rule application process.

Jim pretty much confirmed that they have additional hidden rules that no one outside of mod "community" knew about, and that the rules are so vague they interpret them as they please. At the same time he said that they are bound by the Rules of DPR so they have to ban people. This is yet another contradiction.

These chutzpah levels of gaslighting is what made a large portion of users flee/cool off their engagement with DPR and Mf in particular. I know, it certainly "worked" for me.

Let me guess - you weren't "nice"(tm) ;) ?

@StanDisbrow
stillton

Do something easy. PM all those that are pissed of with the MF forum an DPR, and invite them to join/comeback here. Tell them that they will not find all the walking on eggshells bullshit that is present on DPR MF forum apparently.

I believe they banned some guy because they considered him a clown. That is stretching the "nice" rule a bit.

ego trip is the problem, mod sandboxed me a year ago because i asked him on a thread how was his 10x macro going, fully knowing it was never going to get off the ground as he didnt have the skill to pull it off with MF vers FF, a year later and nothing has happened, crushed ego, but it was fun watching the defeat 😁 how dare anyone criticize there superior MF gear 🤔 the main concern is they throw away the key now when it used to be just a week with an explaination.

Doppler9000 got his ego bruised by me in one particular MF thread. Then he sandboxed me, and then he "found" one of my posts where he "saw" racism, which he used as a reason for a ban.

When that was reverted by the admin, Doppler reinstated the ban and provided another "explanation" of "not being nice". Somehow racism just vanished. Oh no...

I sent him a DM asking to explain himself and his change of heart on "racism" accusation. He provided some vague story about how they work together to render that decision collegially, but when reiterated my question about him inventing the reason for the ban, he went silent and didn't reply.

I have no expectation that such weak mind would revert its earlier decision. It is perceived as a personal attack against his fragile ego - of course the keys will be thrown out.

I've butted heads with the Doppler guy a good few times over there - surprisingly enough on the Sigma Forum - where he likes to play the circling shark, swooping in to correct us on technical matters. Puh-lease don't let him in here ...

Well well. the topic that got me sandbagged 2 weeks ago ,i raised the same question on another forum about the A1 and all the die hard users give it there best shot to discredit my readings have now stuck there head in the sand as other users have now surfaced experiencing the same AF inaccuracies with certain lenses and subjects. this topic would have been totally deleted and pushed under the carpet in DPR forums, a win for "facts" 😁

I imagine that the stuff I'm reading in this thread is a good example of why DPR don't allow moderation discussions. Much unfounded, unevidenced opinion, insinuation, sniping attacks on people (the mods) on another site and so on. You can see exactly how that can lead to a pile up. I don't know what the solution is over there, I feel that the current arrangements are not good enough and leave the community too much in the dark. The ban on moderation discussions makes it impossible to even open a debate on the wider issues. Perhaps some kind of community panel made up of a wide number of members could be set up to investigate controversial cases? Would that work, or get hijacked?

On the Greg case, I know very little of the circumstances other than that Greg was a poster who was no stranger to punitive action across forums. Bans and sandboxing have come his way before from different mods. It's not the case he has fallen foul of a particular mod. He and I have history on the MF forum, he is no angel. He has cultivated a persona of the bombastic good fun prankster, which to an extent masks his more egregious side. The one thing I do know is that the mods have not made some random decision in this case, they have been working for some months with Greg to try and find a middle course. That process has clearly failed but I don't think it is fair to just assume the mods are at fault. Don't forget he has been sandboxed, if his recent history seem benign it is likely that is because his postings have been managed. I don't like the idea of perma-bans, except for the most extreme cases, but I suspect that Greg was simply incorrigible despite the mod's efforts.

I think they are allowing some discussion now because Greg is a prolific and long time poster whose sudden absence people might be concerned about. We will never be told what he has done but whatever it was, the ban was agreed by all three mods plus DPR management so I doubt it was unfounded. Anyone is entitled to disagree, but the truth is none of us know the facts. Personally, I don't want Greg perma-banned despite our clashes, but that is an emotional decision, I don't know what facts the mods had to deal with. Perhaps if I did I'd be at the head of the queue calling for the ban. Or not, I just don't know and I'm not going to volunteer to be a mod to find out these kinds of sordid details.

Greg is active on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/139148982@N02/albums and you can contact him via that site if you want to keep in touch.

Interestingly this whole discussion has kind of soured my view of that particular forum. I've taken a little look at some of the discussions and can see one of the mods definitely being unnecessarily aggressive, one could almost say not abiding by their own rules.

Time I think to move on, but here's a thing. If Greg was sandboxed then how could his posts be considered offensive when the mods would have to release them to cause offence, and if only they saw them theres a case of judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one with no appeal

Either way, I think its enough to make me drop back in here

It would be a terrible decision for Greg to be permanently banned. I don't know if that has actually happened.

He can be very irritating to some. To others he is funny and livens up the Forum. He has never attempted to disrupt the forum and cause chaos. There are those who do that, who should be permanently blocked from ever returning.

I was banned several times because I took offense at his "style" and his penchant for making almost any discussion he was in about him. The way I expressed myself was considered "NOT NICE," and that was that. My last ban was for over a year because the way I was "sandboxed" I could communicate with no one, no PM, couldn't even come back in the front door by requesting a new account. I really didn't think I had done anything to warrant the action, but there were several Mods there who seriously abused their "power" and who deserve every bit of the vitriol that has been expressed about them on this site.

Greg PM'd me at DPR last week, so he hasn't been sandboxed so thoroughly that he can't communicate with members. In the past he has admitted that he often "gamed" forum rules and knows how to set others up so that it looks like they are baiting him. But he's also disavowed that kind of behavior as something that he hasn't done in years.

I don't know the details of his current punishment other than he has accumulated so many wrist slappings that a long sentence is now necessary.

I hope he's let back in. I've told Jim I would be among those voting that way (if there were a vote - there's not, and will be none), but he's apparently now labeled as someone who has caused DPR to lose membership, and that is probably an unpardonable sin at a site driven by advertising.

Rich

Hi,

I invited Greg7579 to come back over here. He used to post in the MF forum here, so I think he still has a login

I thought maybe we could resurrect the MF forum here using shots from his latest trip. The shots folks were asking about over there.

So far, nothing. Maybe later. I don't know that he's back home yet.

That would be a good reason for me to post that fact in that particular thread over there. As in: Hey, if you want to see those shots go have a look.

As far as other's usernames, I don't know if they'd use the same here or not.

Stan

the discussion is not just about greg. its a general opinion, I had 30,000 posts on DPR before the admin told me to create another account so the mods could not stalk me. the problem was that my extreme macro is a dead giveaway and they just banned me again and again without any reason, well me and NCV know the real reason and its been mentioned before. i posted 2x on the MF forum banned instantly. the mods arnt telling you the facts ,behind the scenes they are part of the marketing team for the manufacturers period, and so are many other members. and id say Greg was one that kept on about Fuji gear and he had galleries that proved he was no fool with a camera. The problem is that members with extensive galleries to back up there skill/knowledge are the first to go. GB and others are all in the same boat.

Umm..er..ok

Just caught up on this discussion.
It's a tricky area. Free Speech is fine but it can also be totally destructive to the site providing the service. On Dprevived we had a regular troll poster who did huge damage on the forums. Flooding sites with troll posts can be such a turnoff, especially new arrivals that the whole site degenerates. Participation numbers just fall away. Any site has the responsibility to ensure its on going ability to reach participants with the information they value. Every site provider doesn't have an obligation to give space to every post and opinion. There's a difference between censorship and the health of the discussion channel. Opening any forum, and not just photography forums, to unlimited free speech is a guaranteed way to reduce participation first to a small group of combatants and then to irrelevancy.
Being a moderator is a difficult balancing act and a very time consuming role. I thought Jim Kasson's guidelines were pretty good. I wouldn't want the job though of having to read all posts and agonize over whether or not a post might or might not be infringing one of the guidelines.
Jim Kasson has been around photography for a long time. I'd be happy to cut him some slack on this one.
The admin behind Dprevived walk the same difficult and time consuming line.

Stan,

I don't know how good a fit that would be.

I honestly wish him the best in getting back on DPR.

I would certainly welcome him here.

But he's the most gear-oriented guy I can name.

Other than posting static landscapes, buildings and scenics to check how sharp his lenses are at every pixel, confirming maximum DOF, advocating for pixel-peeping on 32" 8K monitors and wanting to possess every piece of MF equipment Fuji makes, he has openly expressed a lack of interest in images themselves.

He argues endlessly about the supposedly vast superiority of MF "image fidelity" over FF.

Blessedly, that's not the vibe here.

Rich