Moderators: Can we ban people for racist and sexist attacks in piano threads?

[ffchopinist]

Hey Moderators,

I posted this within another thread someone titled "Revitalizing the Forum" (which talks about how the forum is going downhill and how to keep new members from leaving), but I'm posting it again here because I do think what I've encountered is an issue that is ruining the spirit of the forum and may need moderator attention:

I'm a new-ish member here (only made a few posts thus far), and I'm actually debating whether or not to bother sticking around and posting here due to an experience I've just had on my thread.  

Can you some of other forumers help me out?

I posted a thread in the Piano section, Student's Corner (https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=57534.msg639122#msg639122) to try and get help on something piano-related (specifically to get tips on how to play fast octave scales when I could only play octaves comfortably from the edge of the keys)...

However, I have been unfairly bashed on the thread with inappropriate, off-topic, and offensive posts by another person (@desherron).

This forumer has bashed me on the thread I started about octaves for "trying to be like a man" (in terms of trying to play these Liszt and Rachmaninoff pieces), told me "women should stop obsessing over size" and focus on "cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children" , "he is an enemy to feminism," and then started to bash the country I live in (USA) while making inappropriate comments about "black men" and "white men."   He has also stated, "No wonder your civilization is dying under both long continuing constant and recent flood of Latin (in States) or Arabian (in EU) refugees and immigrants. You will just get immerged in their traditional strong culture that is lacking such deviations. "

I'm not here to debate about gender issues or politics with anyone.

I'm just trying to get and give advice on playing octaves and was met with blatant racism, sexism, and more.

I'm appalled by the amount of sexism and racism I've been met with on my own thread, which was started with the purpose of trying to get advice on piano-playing.  I had posted an updated a few days ago with some friendly tips that I found worked for increasing my hand span...   and then proceeded get attacked and see my thread in the piano forum degenerate into a political / gender discussion... which is NOT productive.  I have tried to be respectful, polite, and understanding of other cultures in all of my posts on this thread (including to said person).  I cannot say the same has been done by the offensive poster in question.

Moderators and fellow forumers, please help!

It's people like this who are ruining the community for those of us piano lovers who are sincerely trying to improve our skills and learn from / contribute to this community in a positive way.

Is there anything we can do to get people removed from this forum, blocked from certain threads, unproductive posts removed, etc.?

I'm trying to decide whether or not this forum is a waste of my time, or if I should be looking to another forum or give up on forums altogether when it comes to trying to find fellow piano-lovers and pianists to share tips with and chat about music-related topics with.

[hfmadopter]

Please don't take this as offensive as it's meant in a constructive way. If you are going to be participating in forums you will need to develop a bit thicker skin and overlook individuals who really bother you. Just ignore them. I say that because in text you can't always know the real intent, there are multi cultures involved in these kinds of forums and some just are not all that friendly, others are and same for individuals. Try to weigh the value gained by good solid posts you get. When one participates in open forums like this then over time you learn to not take things so personally that it actually bothers you ( this stuff is everywhere, you want bashing try a camera and photo forum out some time but in between there you can gain some real true knowledge too). Now I understand that coming in all new you don't expect what you got nor what I'm telling you. I'm just giving you advise that I follow myself or try to at least. I've learned to not get too over involved in details or posting length. I used to write paragraphs, well the average reader here won't get much past the first few lines anyway !! Lol.  But you might find there is a lot of benefit in between the negative lines.

Additionally, everyone has an off day. I've posted a few things that could have been held close to the breast myself over decades of various forum use. Either coffee didn't kick in yet and I said a blunderous thing or it over kicked and I said an offensive thing. Usually people call you on it like you did. Then the decent ones will fess up. Or if not you know to ignor.

Try to be calm, stick around a bit longer LOL !

[ffchopinist]

Please don't take this as offensive as it's meant in a constructive way. If you are going to be participating in forums you will need to develop a bit thicker skin and overlook individuals who really bother you. Just ignore them. I say that because in text you can't always know the real intent, there are multi cultures involved in these kinds of forums and some just are not all that friendly, others are and same for individuals. Try to weigh the value gained by good solid posts you get. When one participates in open forums like this then over time you learn to not take things so personally that it actually bothers you ( this stuff is everywhere, you want bashing try a camera and photo forum out some time but in between there you can gain some real true knowledge too). Now I understand that coming in all new you don't expect what you got nor what I'm telling you. I'm just giving you advise that I follow myself or try to at least. I've learned to not get too over involved in details or posting length. I used to write paragraphs, well the average reader here won't get much past the first few lines anyway !! Lol.  But you might find there is a lot of benefit in between the negative lines.

Additionally, everyone has an off day. I've posted a few things that could have been held close to the breast myself over decades of various forum use. Either coffee didn't kick in yet and I said a blunderous thing or it over kicked and I said an offensive thing. Usually people call you on it like you did. Then the decent ones will fess up. Or if not you know to ignor.

Try to be calm, stick around a bit longer LOL !

No offense taken here (as you can see in my calm and rational responses to said poster and choosing to steer the conversation more than once back to piano and ignore most of said poster's remarks)...in all honesty, I couldn't care less what an anonymous stranger in a forum thinks about me.  As an adult, I am probably older than many of the younger folks in the forum, though, and have a more detached view of things.... but I would hate for the same thing to happen to someone else, as there's no need for a kid learning piano to be exposed to verbal abuse in the form of racism or sexism should someone else post a similar topic about learning to play octaves and be met with the same time of response.

I do agree that there will always be trolls or bad eggs everywhere (especially forums).  On your point about other cultures, I completely agree and have been more tolerant I think than others may have been as a result -- I had mentioned in a post in the thread in question "I won't take offense to this, since I understand this may be a cultural difference."

I do think in this particular case, it would be appropriate for moderators to take action to curb this kind of inappropriate racist behavior, as it may drive away many other pianists or aspiring pianists.  

Just trying to do my part to make this a better / supportive place where possible and keep the community alive and helpful for everyone else by calling it out to the mods..... and then going back to actual piano practice. Like you, I don't have time for online haters.  

[kevonthegreatpianist]

no. they have the right to be racist, and even thought it's very disrespectful and wrong, they have the freedom of speech. i ignore very racist and distressing comments and sometimes report them outside of piano street

[ffchopinist]

Re: Freedom of speech - I tend to agree with you that people should have freedom of speech, since I live in the USA, but that's not true of many parts of the world technically speaking.  I do think the mods also (if they choose to) have the right to shut down or delete threads of their choosing, since this their website.  Racism / sexism or not, it's also not a topic that's relevant to the piano thread itself and could also be removed or flagged in terms of just actually being irrelevant / in the wrong place on the forum.  It sounds to me like racist comments and political debate, if it does get allowed to exist, would be better off in the "Anything But Piano" thread and not in the "Student's Corner" of the Piano Section.

Anyway, whatever mods decide to do is fine by me. Just doing my part to call out an issue I identified.  Am still currently debating whether this forum is worth spending time in depending on what the community as a whole is like.... For that last part, we'll see!  I agree with you that ignoring offensive people is usually the way to go, and I chose to more or less just try and steer the thread back to the topic at hand several times - which is how to play octaves.  It's supposed to be a thread about technique after all.   I for one am not here to argue with anyone and if many threads about music and piano technique degenerate into the aforementioned, then I'm totally OK with just not participating or seeking / sharing tips elsewhere... no biggie.

Since I have already pointed it out to the mods (and I'm sure they'll decide to deal with it accordingly), let's all just move on and talk about music, since that's what most of us are here for anyway - no need for any of us to debate whether or not racism should exist in the first place or whether or not this kind of thing should be reported or not.  

[hfmadopter]

FF, that's all well and good but this is the Non Piano Board and you brought it up !! lol

Guess now you're shutting it down. What ever. See you over in the other forums.

[ffchopinist]

FF, that's all well and good but this is the Non Piano Board and you brought it up !! lol

Guess now you're shutting it down. What ever. See you over in the other forums.

Nah, I'm bringing this up in the Moderator board to see if they have a way to deal with the problem from a moderating standpoint, since this seemed to me like a relevant place to address it - this message was aimed at moderators specifically.  I also posted it in the thread about Revitalizing the Forum that someone else started, since someone solicited feedback on how to keep people from leaving the forum - and that seemed like a very relevant and appropriate place to give the feedback that was asked for.  

 Not looking to spark a discussion here necessarily - just alerting the moderators as to an issue I noticed, since I'm new and didn't know the best way to do it.  Not looking to shut anyone or anything down.  As I said, I'm just here to learn piano technique tips and share any that I come across not to get into arguments with anyone, that's all.  To me, racist/political debates are a waste of everyone's time that could be spent actually practicing or discussing technique, so I'm just trying to help steer the discussions to something else actually about piano now that it's been reported.

 Hope no one misunderstands or gets the wrong idea, as I think I've done my best to be very polite and respectful in every post I've made on this forum thus far and to everyone even when addressing sticky issues (or by choosing not to in some cases).   

OK, moving on!

[chopinlover01]

Freedom of speech doesn't exist on private internet forums.
We can and should be enforcing that, but there are very few active moderators.

[keypeg]

Two things to do with garbage.  1. ignore, giving it the attention it deserves.  2. use report button.