It’s with some sadness and great reluctance that I’ve had to ban someone today. While I uphold free speech principles, those principles don’t extent to wild conspiracy theories, made up bullshit, trolling and personal attacks.
I’m a patient person and have given this one long enough. The commenting facility here is to discuss whatever it is I’m talking about. You might disagree with me and we can have an exchange. However, if people cross the line into blatant trolling, I’ll pull the plug. To explain, I’ll repeat this quote from my comments policy:
The way I put it on our blog, is that the comments section is like our front porch. It faces the street. You may drop in and join the conversation. But you are on our property and if you cannot respect the basic rules of civility you will be asked to leave or if necessary compelled to leave. There is speech which invites a conversation or at least a response in kind, and there is “speech” which is nothing more than vandalism. We harm rather than help the cause of free speech if we pretend the latter should be given the same respect as the former.
What’s been happening of late is very much the latter. I am not being hypersensitive here, indeed I’ve been more patient than many others might have been. I have simply run out of patience. Given that this person has been commenting here for a long time, I do find it all a bit sad, but I gave enough warnings.
I think you’ve been more than patient. A damned sight more than I would have been!
He has been commenting here for a long time. Hence my reluctance. If it had been a newbie, I’d have binned him before this.
Wasn’t just your wick he was getting on.
You’re telling me the government isn’t colluding with African, Afghan and other government to bring their soldiers over illicitly?
Next you’ll be saying we aren’t run by a cabal of blood drinking lizards and that UFOs don’t exist?
In all seriousness, he had more than enough warnings. He’d have lasted precisely one post at somewhere like Tax Research U.K.
I’ve been coming here a long time and I would say that our host has always been scrupulously fair when dealing with idiot commenters. There are always plenty of warnings to behave before any smiting occurs. You really have to be a total bellend to get completely banned.
Assuming you mean “Paul”, I could never understand what he was blathering on about anyway. Something about the British Navy and Afria.
All sounded like codswallop to me.
I really don’t know. It was all complete fantasy. In the end it just served to irritate me.
It is an interesting idea though. Take advantage of a foreign country’s really sloppy immigration policy by sending numerous SAS style super highly trained special soldiers into their territory. Send the call to action via a silly news story and take over their country. The flaw in the idea is that Africans just aren’t that clever and resourceful. If they were they would be able to make their own countries into places that were worth living in and that people weren’t so desperate to leave.
And as I mentioned, I’ve met some of them. Clever and resourceful enough to ride a pizza delivery scooter badly.
The front porch needs sweeping every now and then LR.
I don’t say much here but consider the comments part of the whole enjoyment of visiting this site every day.
No need to apologise. Your gaff, your rules is the terms that anyone commenting has to accept. if they don’t like it, then there is nothing to stop them creating their own blog for their arguments etc.
Indeed. However, it does leave a bad taste in my mouth.
No need for an apology, he had too many warnings to say it wasn’t made crystal clear what the rules were…
To be fair, I don’t have lots of rules, but if I tell someone that I’ve had enough, then I expect them to respect that. In this case, the repeated defiance pushed me too far.