Something's troubling my mind....

[Stuart]

My only comment on this is that if it was such a tough decision and if it has been going on for so long why could you not pass on all the information and evidence to Tony on his return and let him take the decision?

I am very interested to see which moderators have taken this decison and are defending it.

I also ask you what Amnesty means?

the decision was taken by consensus with all the moderators, this is the procedure when tony is not present (again there is no preferential treatment for gary)

the Amnesty means that anyone who privately admits to us that they have a second username and asks for it to be removed during the amnesty period will not be penalised

the decision to hold an amnesty was only made after the the evidence against gary had been discussed and the agreement that there was no other choice than a ban, the amnesty is designed to prevent the need for this to happen again

i can see where this may have caused confusion so I will make it clear

the decision to ban gary was made before the decision to hold an amnesty

gary did not admit that he was whitebuffalo untill after a pm had been sent to notify him that we were aware of his duel identity and that action was being taken which would result in a ban

 

[Hoodoo]

I am saddened by Gary's duplicitous postings and shocked that he used BCUK to manipulate its members to promote himself and his business. People can defend him and dump on the mods all they want, but facts are facts. It's one thing to have a couple accounts with different names, it's quite another in the way Gary used the White Buffalo account to deceive others. His actions were deliberate, calculating, and dishonest. He's a grown man and I have little doubt he knew exactly what he was doing. Obviously Gary must be upset at being caught with his hand in the cooky jar, but I haven't seen any remorse beyond that. Instead, somehow this is all the fault of the mods! Anyone who believes that, I have a bridge I'd like to sell ya.

 

[Tony]

Ok, I’ve not got long on the PC so I’ll be quick….Well for me anyway!

I’ve read a lot of this now and all I can say is it’s time to leave it alone, I’ll have a more in depth view of it when I get back in a week.

In the past there have been people banned for using multiple accounts to promote themselves and for using them to provoke, it’s something that happens on nearly all forums, the same as people get banned for slanderous comments, posting inappropriate materials etc…The difference is that most of the time it’s not noticed and just gets sorted. In this case it’s more public so that’s not the case and people are taking sides, the ‘them and us’ syndrome.

Let me just make a few points and then I’ll close this thread as it’s going back and forth.

- As I said, people get banned on bcuk, more often than many of you think, and for good reason.

- There is no way to read the PM’s of members of the forum, if you have come to the conclusion that there is, you are wrong.

- The mods do work hard on bcuk and are as fair as they can be. They enforce the rules that have been established for years now and have worked well for bcuk. They do this objectively and even though some of you think otherwise there are no personal vendettas and they do not pick on people. For the most part it’s a thankless job and they only get noticed when people don’t like the decisions they make. I am grateful for all the work they put in on this site and all the hours that they spend keeping the place together. It’s been said that the mods are just a bunch of people that sit at computers all day and don’t get out doing any bushcraft etc For the most part the Mods are very proficient in the outdoors and they get out regularly, they give up their time in the outdoors to help with bcuk.
- There is no argument, people have opinions and they are voicing them, the bottom line is that people get banned, as I said before this has become public where usually it does not, but, it is no different. If there are arguments over this they are not because that was the intention.

The bottom line is that people will think what they will and they will react how they want, more will always be read into things than are really there, what has been done is no different than has been done many times before, for less. The forum is not intended to be a discussion place for this type of stuff and it’s not a place where people can vent and other people feel the need to defend themselves, it’s for talking about bushcraft and the outdoors, the wonderful world around us etc.

Anyway, that’s enough from me, I’ll close this now and I suggest that people get on with doing what they love, get out and about.