Example of what AARP allows far-righters to get away with

[cactusrose]

This may or may not be removed after several days - depending on how many people complain.

I wish I could say this is an abberation. Unfortunately it's only one of many by this poster and others like him on this particular thread as well as on other threads.

The overwhelming majority of the people on the AARP board are NOT far-righters. But the far-righters are allowed to get away with stuff like this. On the other hand, a non-far-right veteran was moderated just for calling a far-righter who trashed him and other veterans a "punk".

Also note the handle chosen by the abusive wingnut.

http://community.aarp.org/n/pfx/forum.aspx?msg=34171.95&nav=messages&webtag=rp-issues

From:LibsR4NAMBLA


Jun-03, 2006 12:47 PM
34171.95
Reply to 34171.92


To:SRandon40
(95 of 119)




yes you have standards, they are the same standards any other street walker would have as they seek their fortune one 20 dollar bill at the time.

[Anna Lee]

1. Hi, cactus. I see you bailed too.

[CountAllVotes]

2. Welcome to the Democratic Underground both of you!

:hi: and welcome!

:dem: :kick:

[cactusrose]

3. Thanks

Glad to be here.

[cactusrose]

4. It's really out of control on there now

I thought it was bad before. It's gotten worse.

[Anna Lee]

5. Yea, I've been reading it.

How do you like the liberal impersonator advocating pedophilia and the like as his liberal values?

[cactusrose]

6. He has several aliases along that line.

AARP is acting like they can't track his ISP and get him off permanently.

It's quote after quote like the one I quoted above while the regular wingers sometimes chip in to support him.

[BubbaCitizen]

7. AARP Boards

Cactusrose is correct about the liberal impersonator interrupting that board... Actually we need more people to create an account and post on the AARP board. Seems so many people have fled that it's turning into a RNC convention there.

It's a good forum for reaching out and defending our principles, especially with the important election coming up in Novemeber.

[cactusrose]

8. Update

AARP has banned another non-winger poster. They've banned him on the basis of something he said weeks or months ago to a winger.

AARP was forced to finally ban one far-right poster because of the outcry. But, in retailiation, they banned a non-winger. AARP has a track record of doing this. In addition, several non-wingers are having trouble logging on.

As for the poster who was banned, he got no warning.

[BubbaCitizen]

9. Re Update on AARP

The AARP message forums seems to be tilting to the far right, apparently under the direction of the RNC. There have been many posters insulting others by using racial prejudice when they don't agree. Many that support the democratic principles seem to be targeted for close moderation.

The Administrator of the board was questioned as to what is a violation that subjects one to editing, and perhaps eventual removal, and the answer was very ambiguous to state mildly.

All this is in a thread starting at: http://community.aarp.org/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=messages&tsn=1&tid=34633&webtag=rp-issues

The moderator who answered the post did a very fine Fred Astaire dance all around the subject. And not surprisingly, was joined in not too many posts later with insults against the liberal posters from all the neo-conservatives that are the usual suspects, including the one that has been the most active in degrading anyone who disagreed with him, including Vietnam Vets and especially the long time female posters.

[cactusrose]

10. AARP/ PRC has locked the thread because

the non-far-righters aren't buying their song and dance.

[BubbaCitizen]

12. Re Update on AARP

Apparently AARP has removed the thread, and the post where everyone is threatened with removal if they question any of the moderator's actions. The conservative supporters of the RNC has apparently gained control.

[cactusrose]

11. Post about cats zapped

One technique that the far-right moderators use to dishearten non-far-right posters is to arbitrarily censor their posts which in no way violates TOS. The more outlandish the censorship, the more demoralized non-far-right posters become.

This one represents a new low for the AARP/ PRC censors. They zapped a post where two non-far-righters were talking about their cats!

[cactusrose]

13. Another example of the blatantly unfair moderation

Name-calling and profanity are against TOS on the AARP board. This post by a far-righter will not be moderated unless there is a huge open outcry against it on the board. It does no good to use the Report Violation button as the moderators just ignore those. It has to be a public outcrying of disgust, and even then moderators frequently will refuse to take action until they absolutely have to take action.

These tactics and the blatant unfairness are designed to wear down and discourage non-far-right posters and cause them to go away.

Also note the way the far-righter incorporates the word "democrat" into his handle. The incorporation of the words "democrat" and "liberal" are becoming more and more common by far-righters.

http://community.aarp.org/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=messages&tsn=3&tid=34843&webtag=rp-issues

From:democratsluvkids


Jun-20, 2006 12:09 AM
34843.3
Reply to 34843.2


To:Quackers
(3 of 6)




"You're a total waste of bandwidth."

Then ignore my post MORON.

You are not funny. Nobody wants to see your stupid

SPAM.

You are now on IGNORE DUMBF*CK.

[ima_sinnic]

14. still have not renewed my AARP membership since they kissed

*'s butt on the prescription drug thing, and will let them know their openly right-wing biased and hatefully "moderated" forum is another reason why I don't give in to their barrage of unwanted junk mail soliciting my membership.

[cactusrose]

15. The blatant far-right bias continues

The far-right Host of AARP now has another tactic which is being used to silence non-wingers. The Host is locking threads in which non-wingers present a lot of info that counters the lies of the far-right. The AARP host also eventually locks threads in which the AARP moderation is criticized by non-wingers. BUT there is one thread criticizing the AARP moderation that the Host is not locking.

http://community.aarp.org/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=messages&tsn=91&tid=35427&webtag=rp-issues

35427.97
Reply to 35427.96


To:ALL
(97 of 97)

This is a thread a winger started in which he is criticizing the moderators for occasionally censoring some (not all by any means) of his posts in which he calls non-wingers names and is quite abusive to others. By not locking this thread like the Host has locked non-winger threads criticizing the moderation, the AARP Host is sending a clear message that wingers not always being allowed to insult and abuse others is a valid criticism of the AARP moderation but non-wingers complaining about the blatantly unfair moderation is not a valid criticism.

I also want to point out that the AARP Host is still ignoring most of the violations of the far-right posters while arbitrarily changing rules and censoring non-winger posters. A situation still exists on the AARP board in which wingers are only moderated after many repeated PUBLIC complaints from a lot of board members if then. The AARP Host also continues to claim that their moderation isn't biased while their actions continue to say the opposite.

[cactusrose]

16. Update: Host forced to lock winger's thread too

Too many non-wingers were reading the winger the riot act and pointing out that what he was complaining about was that once in a while he got moderated for calling other posters names instead of being allowed to always insult non-wingers.

[cactusrose]

17. Winger AARP moderator locks threads instead of moderating wingnuts

The far-right continues to refine its takeover of the AARP board (and eventually the entire Internet in the US). One of the latest ploys is the locking of threads started by non-far-righers and occasionally threads started by far-righters if they're getting their behinds handed to them with logic and facts.

One of the latest locked threads started by a liberal is on stem cell research. BTW, the far-righters on the board and the moderators are working hand-in-hand to drive non-far-righters off the board. (More on this later.) There also is suspicion that some of the far-right posters are moderators.

The ploy the far-right uses to close down threads that they object to or their own threads that have become an embarassment to them is to have one or more far-righters deliberately disrupt a thread. Then, instead of moderating the far-right disrupters, the far-right moderators lock the thread, citing violations of TOS and rules. The far-righters who disrupted the thread to begin with are still free to disrupt other threads the far-right doesn't like and get them closed.

In one of the latest examples, a far-righter named tripledude spammed a thread with plagiarized material. When this was pointed out by more than one poster, this was the moderator's response:

http://community.aarp.org/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=messages&tsn=161&tid=35800&webtag=rp-issues

From:AARPHost2


Jul-28, 2006 9:43 PM
35800.169
Reply to 35800.164


To:ALL
(169 of 169)




The AARP Host is concerned that extensive material posted in this thread is not being attributed to its original source and is not being authored by the member: tripledude



We are stopping further posting in this thread until the authorship of said “expert” commentary is presented or determined.



AARP Community Host

[e-mail]
****************************

Both the spamming of threads and plagiarism violate AARP TOS. But instead of moderating the far-right offender, AARP locks the thread. Which is exactly what the far-right wanted.

I don't know if the link I provided to the post will work or not. It appears that AARP recently has changed its software to make reading posts impossible unless one is logged on. Please let me know if the link doesn't work.

The reason for this change is that too many liberal posters were wise to another ploy that AARP uses. Instead of notifying a liberal poster that he or she has been banned, the AARP software is set up so that the person's posts only show up to him/her when logged on. The posts don't show up to other users, and the posts don't show up to the banned person if s/he isn't logged on. Liberal posters were wise to this ploy and not logging on in order to check if they had been banned without notice.

Why do many people suspect/ know there is collusion between the moderators and the far-right posters? One of the latest examples concerns a liberal named Libmike who has been banned in the above manner. Libmike is/was one of the best posters on the AARP board. Keep in mind that because of the way he was banned, Libmike had no idea he was banned. His posts were showing up to him when he logged on, but not to anyone else. One of the far-right posters slipped up with a reference to his banning. How did this far-righter know he had been banned when Libmike didn't even know it and none of the regular posters on the board knew it? Libmike doesn't post during the week because of work demands so his lack of posting during the week couldn't have tipped the winger off. There is either collusion between the moderators and the far-right posters OR the moderators and some of the far-right posters are the same people.

Since a lot of us have learned to pay attention, we contacted Libmike via email, asked him to post something on the AARP board and tell us where he posted it. Sure enough, the post was showing up to him when he logged on but not to the rest of us.