Permanently ban Bavuma Rabada

[Flakeman]

It's high time this guy got the boot. Please let's unite on this front as while he may be causing more forum activity, he is stirring up racism in our heads and hearts and that is good for nobody. The Bad far outweighs the good in his being here.

[Jemisi]

Use the Troll feature mate. You don't have to read his essays if you don't want to.

[bavuma_rabada]

For someone who has been posting some of the most contemptible vocabulatory, and displaying a debased sense of morals you have quite a nerve. It is this very sense of entitlement that is a problem. Crimson called out someone for doing that, and of course the moderator has been in overdrive too, but unless many others highlight below the belt and vulgar comments, you will see no problem in posting them and still feel entitled enough to come in and insist on such, despite being a 10 month old formite. You sense power behind not being called out or condoned by the majority of your peers when you write what you write.

[Flakeman]

Did he reply? I can't see anything. Got my "hide idiots" switch on.

[SpitfiresKent]

I'd like to know why his previous accounts were banned, anyone? Before this topic gets zapped by maehara

[Googly]

No don't ban him. He's renewed all our interest. I'm not going anywhere unless I get banned myself, or get picked up by CIO or whatever. I want to be here to keep reading his theories about why it's not working and what his solutions are. He epitomises what's wrong with our country and it's karma to see it unraveling and his next instalment as to why. Zim was flushed down the toilet when the farmers were booted and it's no different with the cricket. Maybe corporate farming will resolve our food crisis in a couple of years time (in the meantime we need 800 000 tons of maize to stave off starvation because our A2, A1, B7 or whatever farmers can't grow more than half an acre of their own staple crop!) but you're not saving cricket without us and it's too late she cried. I don't want it to fail, but when it does I want to be here to see the puzzled disbelief.

[maehara]

I wouldn't normally discuss this sort of thing in open forum, but just this once.

As I've said before, for every member here who would love to see BR banned, there's one who believes he's entitled to his platform. As infuriating as he is (and if it weren't for the fact that I have to moderate you lot, I'd have him on Ignore as well), there are nuggets of worthwhile conversation in there. And no-one can deny traffic has gone up since he came back (although since I don't carry advertising, that's not a reason on its own to keep him...)

So bottom line:
- I am for the moment more inclined to moderate y'all heavily and keep him around than I am to ban him. Mostly for the lulz. But that does mean you'll be seeing a lot of "Mod edit:" in posts. Deal with it.
- You all have the ability to use Ignore if you don't want to see his ramblings - although for those that do, I'd encourage the rest of you to quote responsibly, as you can't Ignore that.
- Leave the moderating to me. Use Alert if you need to, and I'll deal with it. I've seen a number of posts along lines of "maehara why don't you..." and they're just deleted on sight.

It's worth pointing out that BR is not the only member who steps out of line from time to time. There are warnings that are issued that you don't see, and they're not just to him. You would all do well to take time before hitting 'Submit' on a post, and taking the opportunity to remove any personal attacks or unacceptable language.

EDIT: On the matter of race. I get very antsy whenever the subject comes up - it's unavoidable in a Zimbabwean context, but being out of the country for a long time has highlighted to me that both sides have very large chips on their shoulders (not without reason) and that there's no way of tactfully dealing with the issue. And any attempt to moderate the issue means I get accused of racism and taking sides. There is no other subject more likely to make me click delete simply because I'm sick of it being raised like a red card at every opportunity. Word your contributions on this subject very carefully.

And, should the worst come to worst and I do drop the banhammer on someone, before anyone even dares to raise 'Free speech' as a defence:

[eugene]

Well said omnipotent leader.

[foreignfield]

I've become increasingly frustrated by the tone and direction this forum has taken in the last two months. I've found it hard to ignore the 90 % of **** which is swamping the forum outside the match threads, getting involved in the tussles does not generally appeal to me, and I don't like myself when I eventually do. In my forum infancy I have indeed used the option to alert admin to posts which crossed my lines of tolerance but soon stopped because it only lead to more displeasure and things tended to quiet down anyway with time. I'm not so sure now.

I'm wondering if I really want to be associated with what this forum seems to stand for at this point of time: endless mud-slinging. The surge in traffic is about to bury what this forum used to stand for (for me at least). I will not leave because there is no better place to gather up information and gossip or "talk" to fellow suffering fans on a match day, but I'll try not to get too involved any more.

[jaybro]

FF is right the forum has become quite nasty .......