TOS Enforcement

From Wiki Gonzalez

On October 30, 2005, Jim Furtado deleted an active Weekend Lounge because it featured links to photos of topless women.

That same weekend, Furtado deleted all prior Lounges, saying it was a temporary measure until Google's next spidering of the site. As of May 2008, the old Lounges have not been restored.

During the same baseball off-season, Furtado apparently authorized Matt Rauseo to write up a Terms of Service for the website. He started a thread about it asking for people what sorts of things they think should belong in it. To date, no TOS has ever been posted on the site. Some have said Furtado decided to kill the idea, but that may just be a rumor.

(This is currently not true. A TOS dated 4/15/06 exists on the "Stuff" link of BBTF. Also here (http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/stuff/discussion/tos/).)

On March 8, 2006, Furtado closed [1] (http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/36861/P800/#1889945) the "Bonds exposed in book" flamewar, claiming he had received complaints from users. UCCF later claimed responsibility for some of the complaints. Discussion proceeded from the closed thread directly to a thread on a related Miami Herald column by Dan Le Batard [2] (http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/36877/).

In the March 11-12 Weekend Lounge [3] (http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/community/discussion/primer_lounge_weekend_of_march_11_12_2006/), Bernal Diaz quoted a Saturday Night Live sketch that used the phrase "mid-morning fellatio". The posts, as well as all those quoting it, were deleted, and a warning about sex talk was added to the Lounge introduction. Diaz later claimed to have used the spelling "fellacio".

Backlasher has alleged that another post by Diaz have been retroactively edited, by Larry Mahnken. Reputedly, Larry jokingly edited a post Bernal made in a thread, and Bernal initially didn't realize it was a joke. Larry apologized in an e-mail, and Repoz accepted it, ending the matter as far as he was concerned. Others were infuritated at the perceived abuse of power by Mahnken, and have brought it up since then. Occassionlly, there are those wondering why he wasn't stripped of his keys when others have been for lesser offences (see below). Dan Werr said that he's similarly made joke edits of others' posts. Further edits to this page will hopefully clarify these stories.

Meatwad was stripped of his status as an editor, either for experimenting with the Cybernanny, use of the word "fart" in his handle, or both. This writer does not know the exact story and hopes someone else can provide enlightenment. To date, he is the only person to lose the keys.

(Meatwad lost his keys for experimenting with the new nanny, he discovered that it didnt blank out just the whole thing and replace it with #### but actually used the correct number the the total number of letters; and amazingly a few words slipped through. He did get warned that the handle "farting with a walkman on" was offensive. He thinks this is all bullshit since he missed the whole new TOS because he was on active duty for a training tour and hopes you all die a horrible painful death.)

On or about April, 2006, the classic PETCO thread was closed for further comments. Members of the Lounge had revived the thread with new subject matter. Jim Furtado closed the thread.

May 17, 2006 will go down as the date of the Great Primer Purge aka The Times-Union Vincent Massacre. The prequel to this event started a few days earlier. A thread about Barry Bonds and steroids authored by David Vincent was opened. The thread became heated early and even drew in Dan Szymborski. The level of ire subsided thanks to Joe Bivens and timely references to Cool Hand Luke. Then it heated back up and began to die a normal death.

On the morning of May 17, 2006, a thread was posted about Russ Springer hitting Barry Bonds with a pitch. The thread contained a minor altercation between Aadik and Kevin, but moved into conversations about pitching strategy by Chad Bradford Wannabe; the perception of Aaron by Andy and Harveys Wallbangers; and eyewitness accounts of the event by baseball chick. At 4:28 PM, Jim Furtado posted a thread about steroids that received very few posts. On or about 6:54 PM for reasons still unknown to the author, Jim Furtado posted a Jim's Lab Notes thread with a stern warning regarding the "tone" of the site. He then closed the Springer hitting Bonds thread.

A few of the participants moved into the Furtado posted steroids thread and questioned the reasoning for the thread closing. On or about 10:30 PM, Jim Furtado then closed the Vincent thread and the thread he had posted earlier in the day. The day also is believed to have multiple TOS citations being issued. Dan Szymborski reported that several people on the list were scolded.

At some point, that day's Lounge was also deleted. This deletion was not discovered until Monday, May 22. Dan Szymborski provided this explanation from Jim Furtado:

“The 5.17.06 has been permanently closed as a result of a message from Kevin. While investigating his complaint I found a bunch of irresponsible messages concerning his personal/work life. There really is no place on the site for such stuff.”

May 18, 2006 had the aftershock of the The Times-Union Vincent massacre. Backlasher who had looked to escape the previous day without a TOS citation posted the following to the Lounge:

"'Los Angeles Waterloo of Black Hawk - 18 May 2006 02:17 AM

Yesterday, I posed the idea that we, as Lounginistas, invade flamewar-ridden threads and hold the Lounge in them so as to fight the fire. After the Massacre, I’m somewhat prone to propose the opposite solution, and have everyone go around making steroid arguments in unrelated threads, just to see if Jim will follow them around and essentially shut down the site.

Obviously, that would be a bad thing, but for some reason the idea amuses me.'

I don’t think you should sit-in on ‘roid threads now. It would make you look like a carpetbagger.

If you want to expand and take back some Primer Real Estate you need coordination and a decoy. The Jim will be focused on the Union, so we could set some misdirection for you. Then you could slip in beneath his notice and take out the new parcels of real estate.

I wouldn’t go after a classic thread though. Remember that the Jim’s wrath even extended to Petco.

But now that he’s got the Lounge out here in teh Forumlands, he’s preparing his assault on the Union. It would be the perfect time for a counteroffensive.

To which he received a TOS offensive. Previous Lounge reports indicated a post was deleted from the May 18, 2006. Upon inspection, Backlasher's post did remain in place. It is unknown if a lounge post was also deleted on May 18, 2006.

Later in the day on May 18, 2006, craig3410 posted to the Le Batard steroid thread that had most of its action occur in March. He questioned whether the Le Batard thread would also be closed. Ron Johnson stated that threads are only closed when there is a problem with tone. Backlasher pointed out the closing of the previous three threads and questioned the basis for TOS enforcement. Jim Furtado then posted that Ron Johnson was correct, told Backlasher he really felt sorry for him, and closed the thread, bringing the two day total of thread casualties up to four threads. Jim Furtado posted later in the lounge that "he would have to do something else"

To summarize this page, Jim Furtado is intent on moderating conversations to minimize any content that contains tone or language that violates the TOS every member of the site agrees to abide by. His goal is to promote a collegial, respectful atmosphere so every member of the site can feel comfortable expressing his ideas, whether those ideas jibe with the site's mainstream opinion or not.

To note: the paragraph above was edited by someone other than the original poster. The original poster considers this to be either ironic or an extremely clever play by a Machiavellian mind. The original poster stated that Jim Furtado was intent on minimizing any content outside of his own narrow viewpoint and has demonstrated a willingness to use Orwellian tactics to accomplish this goal.

The story told here as well as the Balkanization of Primer has left this lesser Primate wondering whether or not he'll just leave Jim's website to Jim.

Anyone who has ever attempted to engage in a serious artistic endeavor eventually realizes that the more they try to control the way it comes out, the crappier it is. Jim is many years away from understanding that BTF is in actuality his great artistic endeavor.

On Tuesday, June 13th, 2006, Furtado issued Backlasher a one-month suspension. The events were primarily discussed in the "Scientologists and Sabermetricans" thread (http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/baxter_bulletin_scientologists_and_sabermetricians/P200/). It is widely believed that the provocation was Backlasher's referring to Furtado as "Nelly Furtado", after the Canadian pop singer. John Brattain and Kevin have boycotted the site since, and several Loungers have claimed boycotts of the non-forum parts of the site.

The August 2006 crackdown.

Retrieved from "http://digamma.net/btfwiki/TOS_Enforcement"

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