WTF mods? Blocking users from other users.

[repentance]

As some of you may know, there's a dispute going on between AfricanHunter and johnniewalker over a silver deal which didn't quite work out.  It's pretty tedious, but what is really concerning is this claim by johnniewalker.

Mods have agreed to block him from my future posts.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=131841.msg1425897#msg1425897

I'd like to hear the justification for such an action by the mods given that johnniewalker could have placed AfricanHunter on ignore or the mods could have given AfricanHunter a time-out if they felt he was derailing threads in which his deal with johnniewalker wasn't relevant.

Is this going to become a regular means of silencing criticism around here?

[1715450134]

1715450134

[1715450134]

1715450134

[1715450134]

1715450134

[1715450134]

1715450134

[John (John K.)]

As some of you may know, there's a dispute going on between AfricanHunter and johnniewalker over a silver deal which didn't quite work out.  It's pretty tedious, but what is really concerning is this claim by johnniewalker.

Mods have agreed to block him from my future posts.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=131841.msg1425897#msg1425897

I'd like to hear the justification for such an action by the mods given that johnniewalker could have placed AfricanHunter on ignore or the mods could have given AfricanHunter a time-out if they felt he was derailing threads in which his deal with johnniewalker wasn't relevant.

Is this going to become a regular means of silencing criticism around here?

No idea on this. I generally make it a point to not censor users from threads unless they are blatantly trolling/going OT. And I just delete the offending posts in this case, not to block them completely. 

[error]

It would be quite surprising, since johnniewalker has just about earned himself a scammer tag at this point.

[theymos]

It's my policy to usually enforce local rules. See:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=31782.0

I think that being able to ban someone from a thread is generally a good thing. Someone might be damaging a thread in ways that moderators don't normally react to. If you don't like the local rule, you can start a new thread. Also, banning someone from posting in a topic should be a red flag to potential traders. This makes it easier to identify potentially dangerous traders.

[repentance]

It's my policy to usually enforce local rules. See:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=31782.0

I think that being able to ban someone from a thread is generally a good thing. Someone might be damaging a thread in ways that moderators don't normally react to. If you don't like the local rule, you can start a new thread. Also, banning someone from posting in a topic should be a red flag to potential traders. This makes it easier to identify potentially dangerous traders.

I'm somewhat confused.  johnniewalker's statement implies that AfricanHunter will be blocked from responding to any future posts of johnniewalker's.  If you're saying that you've advised johnniewalker that he can start a topic with a local rule excluding AfricanHunter and you'll enforce that rule, that's one thing.  If you're going to exclude AfricanHunter from ever posting in any johnniewalker topic and somehow prevent him from responding to posts from johnniewalker in threads which were started by neither of them, that's another thing entirely.

[theymos]

Yeah, I just told him to use local rules.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

Yeah, I just told him to use local rules.

That's reasonable and actually a quite good idea for forum moderation..