Ok guys and gals,
I came to work this morning and logged into PF with a brew as usual and was met with a whole host of topics related to the recent banning by our Moderator Mr. Manchester of the user “Chip”

Due to workload it has regrettably taken me until now to read all the relevant threads, and then, importantly I feel, read them all again as an outsider to gauge as best I can a new members perspective.

As I see it; A new user has joined us and been met with some very heavy banter from a few users, most notably “Chip” It has been said this could have been spurred on by the slightly Controversial username of the member in question, but that is by the by as far as I am concerned.

I agree with everyone that this banter from Chip was both excessive and unwarranted, not to mention unnecessary even if the lady on the receiving end was a hardened forum user and well used to such treatment. For the record I personally don’t want that kind of posting style to start polluting the generally friendly posting and topic style that PassionFord currently enjoys, not because I want to silence folk like Chip with his unique sense of humor, but because I don’t want new forum users to misunderstand the meaning of such controversial posting styles and take offence, which could VERY easily happen when such an attack is levied at a new individual.

The rape comment side of things I think was taken out of context by most people but it was still a comment that was unacceptable for PassionFord no matter what the context or the user. Make no mistake, had the comment been aimed directly at Emma instead of being in reference to another PF user this essay would have a different ending to the one you will soon read.

I want to make it clear that Mr. Manchester was fully within his rights to ban Chip for this incident and he has my full backing. Please remember, the fact the thread took 12hrs to develop is wholly irrelevant when you come along and read all 5 pages at once, then to that user the whole issue is only minutes old, which throws a different perspective on things, but the fact is, personally levied abuse is outside our acceptable behavior criteria and a ban is possible at the moderators discretion. Andy exercised his discretion last night. End of Story for me.

So what shall we do now?
I will now make the controversial decision to unban chip, due largely to three simple facts:

1) Chip did indeed apologize to the lady in question, and, at least publicly, had that apology accepted.

2) Chip has expressed remorse for upsetting people and indicated there was no malicious intent behind the comments and they were in fact just examples of banter taken way too far.

3) He deserves a 2nd chance as do most users in most cases. The rules clearly outline how these cases are dealt with should anyone wish to review them so I see no need to repeat them here.

I would however like Chip to acknowledge that boundaries were overstepped on this occasion and that we would like him to tone down his personal insults in the future and perhaps reserve them for members whom share a similar sense of humor, and if he does wish to engage in personal banter with consenting members, that he do so in a manner that will not be offensive to other members. I.E: The rape and rough sex fantasy he obviously shares with Miss T16, whilst not an uncommon fantasy and role-play topic, it is not really a topic I want to see on my Ford Forum In the future. That way no one can get upset.

Hopefully, this decision will agree with the masses and not cause too much upset amongst our valued members.

Finally:
All those who complained that it took too long to be moderated.. well, erm, Where were your PM's and compliants? The webteam is NOT equipped with a crystal ball each and if they havent read the problem, they are bloody unlikely to do anything about it. Help US to help YOU eh?