45th President of the United States, Donald Trump (Vol. 12)

[DanL]

Centurion07 said:

Right, and?

We were all happy for it to continue in that way. In fact, that was exactly WHY it had continued to run for so long.

My point is that if only one person is driving a thread, it should die - it’s someone’s personal obsession, rather than a discussion. Might as well just run a blog.

His input to the thread during the Trump years was great, but that time has (happily) passed. It makes more sense to me to start a new thread detailing the fallout from Trump’s time as president, and this would have the happy side effect of being a thread Byker isn’t banned from… It may also draw others to comment, making it a little “healthier”.

[silentbrown]

DanL said:

My point is that if only one person is driving a thread, it should die - it’s someone’s personal obsession, rather than a discussion. Might as well just run a blog.

Err. Reader's cars section...???

Plenty of others contribute to this thread. It's bit of a game to post something before byker does. It's not a game I win very often

[anonymous-user]

I don't post much, but I have followed this thread for a long time. I'm shocked and saddened that Byker has been banned. Given some of the petty arguments, insults and lies that seem to fly about on other threads it seems a bizarre action to ban someone who has consistently provided the source for his posts.

I am now questioning if I should bother with Pistonheads, I wonder how many others feel the same.

[mikef]

DanL said:

if only one person is driving a thread, it should die - it’s someone’s personal obsession, of rather than a discussion. Might as well just run a blog.

In this case, to me it’s possibly the most (only?) valuable resource on PH after car reviews and advice

I don’t do blogs, twitter, FB or youtube. Having someone continue to research and post the ongoing misdeeds of the orange baby and his followers is, for me, a hugely valuable public service

And car reviews and advice are available elsewhere

PH should be able to tell exactly how many monthly active users and page views are driven by Byker’s contributions here

[anonymous-user]

I would just like to add my thanks to Byker for all his input and effort over the last few years. I have decided that it is time to move on so have requested that my account be deleted.

[KR158]

How very odd.
Many thanks to Byker for his considerable time & quite exceptional investigative efforts over many years.
I do hope that this is some kind of error to be corrected in the very near future.

[Flippin' Kipper]

I really only come to ph for this thread and Bykers contributions. PH has gone massively downhill in recent years, and I have been shocked by the views of some posters especially the amount of anti vax posting. Time to find a new forum I think.

[pipe'n'slippers]

Just posting to thank Byker for his invaluable insight into the last five years and to add my voice to the call for the mods to review this arbitrary ban

[renmure]

pipe'n'slippers said:

Just posting to thank Byker for his invaluable insight into the last five years and to add my voice to the call for the mods to review this arbitrary ban

Same for me.

Just a reader and not a contributor to the thread but thought one of the main attributes of Byker's (and others) contributions was the links to the full reference material partially quoted. I've probably visited and read more US based media and news sources over the past few years that I would ever have done.

[BadBull]

For shame, moderator.

[hersh]

Agreed

[Stuart70]

What is going on? Byker28 posted a perspective and a point of view with evidence and references,

I have come late to this debate, but I would be disturbed at any “odd” outcomes… just me?

I did not need to always agree, to support the right to express the views….

[S7Paul]

This was one of very few "go to" threads for me, thanks largely to Byker. Regardless of whatever weasly excuse anyone comes up with for this decision, it stinks.

I've had PH smiley stickers on the back of my TVR since 2007, and my BMW since I bought it in 2016. I'm peeling them off tomorrow, as I no longer want to be associated with what PH has become. Quite sad and disappointed that it's come to this - it used to be good.

[pquinn]

Sorry to disagree on the detail but when he was doing news links it was basically a full cut and paste of multiple paragraphs, followed by the link to the source.

That isn't a summary and it isn't fair use.

Maybe it shouldn't have resulted in a straight ban but it was definitely outside the rules and exactly the sort of thing that triggers automated snotograms from companies searching for infringement and making the sort of threatening noises mods react to.

This isn't new and I'm amazed it went on so long without anyone having a word.

[stemll]

valiant said:

According to website feedback it’s because he’s broken rule 16 about copying/pasting news articles but I’ve seen no change in what and how he posts and he’s been doing the same since the thread started. Seems odd to ban him now?

We’ve had mods contributing regularly as well!

Why are Trumpettes the biggest snowflakes of them all?

Given the quote from the mod that "and any such threads will be deleted", why is the whole thread still here? Don't ban Byker, delete the thread if that is what the alleged infringement is. No? Didn't think so....

[HM-2]

pquinn said:

Sorry to disagree on the detail but when he was doing news links it was basically a full cut and paste of multiple paragraphs, followed by the link to the source.

That isn't a summary and it isn't fair use.

Byker seldom, if ever, posted more than the first 2 paragraphs of an articles. And we're mostly talking three sentence paragraphs here. Always cited, almost always with his own commentary.

[Tycho]

pquinn said:

exactly the sort of thing that triggers automated snotograms from companies searching for infringement and making the sort of threatening noises mods react to.

If that was the case then why is all the linked content still up? Maybe there wasn’t any requests from the content originators and just repeated reporting from people who couldn’t rebuff any of the articles and didn’t like what they said?

[pquinn]

HM-2 said:

Byker seldom, if ever, posted more than the first 2 paragraphs of an articles. And we're mostly talking three sentence paragraphs here. Always cited, almost always with his own commentary.

Having randomly looked at what was posted on Monday 14th that isn't exactly true. Some *very* long cut & pastes from the source, 5 paragraphs in more than one example representing the bulk of the source story.

A summary is usually a single paragraph distilling the key point with maybe a short quote embedded.

Blending in the commentary without clear separation might have muddied the waters if you didn't follow the links and realise what was original comment and what was quote.

Maybe mods were slack for a very long time but something kicked them off and the rules around copyright are a notorious trigger for trouble.

[pquinn]

Tycho said:

If that was the case then why is all the linked content still up?

Can you imagine the wailing if the thread had gone too?

Maybe it should?

[paulguitar]

pquinn said:

Maybe mods were slack for a very long time but something kicked them off and the rules around copyright are a notorious trigger for trouble.

Was it you, then?