Request for intervention to Paley Media

[Calum Mac Neill]

The following e-mail has been posted by me to Paley Media.

"I am writing to complain about a culture of abuse which is being permitted to exist upon the forum Scotland.com which states that Paley Media are responsible for administration, development, and management of their site.

This culture of abuse is targeted at those expressing an interest in the Gaelic language. All attempts to raise awareness of the issue have been poorly handled by moderators of the site who insist that moderators of Scotland.com will not be criticised publicly over the matter.

I ask for your intervention in the matter so that those who wish to make enquiries about the Gaelic language are permitted to do so without being the target of Anglophone Scot harassment or intimidation or other such negative behaviour."

[Calum Mac Neill]

If you would like to support this initiative, please write to Paley Media at the following webpage. You must select a subject option before the e-mail will be sent.

Contact Paley Media - Publishing and Consultancy Company - Paley Media INC

It is hoped that this current action will make it unnecessary to resort to contacting Gaelic organisations in America and elsewhere in the world for support over the issue of the culture of anti-Gaelic abuse on this forum.

[Crofter]

I see we have been denied the right of reply on your thread, Calum.

To the administrator - Please answer me this, the very least you can do, then you may do as you wish.

Am I expected, required even, to tolerate attacks on my culture and my integrity by some on this forum, including moderators? Who do they think they are?

If your answer is in the afirmative, then closing the whole site would be doing the world a favour.

You would do well to consider defending a charge of violating freedom of speech and human rights.

I would strongly advise that you contact your legal advisers. In the meantime pray that they are up to it, and that you can afford it.

PPS I have no idea what trolling is. My remark was in jest. We have a cat that we love dearly. If that moggy in the photo is offended, let it sue.

PPS Calum, if there are no further contributions from me, you may take it that I have been denied access.

Regards, and good luck if this is the end. Alba gu bràth

Crofter.

[JCfromGA]

Sorry, I'm still surprised that it is considered harassment when a specific group has been exposed to persistent harassment and they decide to protest that harassment.

That attitude is frankly not acceptable here in the US. We have gone as far as to sue school systems because they dare expel our children for wearing kilts.. said they were cross dressing.

Utah school forces student to change out of kilt

Teen Who Wore Kilt Gets School Apology - CBS News

So, they couldn't physically run everyone out of the area back then... but there is obviously an undercurrent attempt to stamp out the culture... especially if some of these remarks found on this site that are anti-Gaelic in nature are representative of the atmosphere in Scotland. Why all the negativity... perhaps someone's a little jealous for not being part of the party? Secretly wish that you were Gaelic? I'm sorry... I'm just shaking my head in disbelief.

“When the heart is full the tongue will speak”

[Calum Mac Neill]

Crofter,

You state, "I see we have been denied the right of reply on your thread". To be fair, we have been given the right of reply to one moderator on the thread "Crofter's comment about 'sheer abuse' " but not given the right of reply to admin on the same thread.

Whether this current thread will be closed down merely for raising the issue of specific behaviours on the part of certain admin, moderator and users remains to be seen.

This denial on the "Crofter's comment about 'sheer abuse' " thread, which is twofold, comprising both a verbal and active measure, may be interpreted as indicating that we cannot publicly address the decision of admin as admin "will not tolerate attacks on forum moderators" plural, since admin has performed a moderatory function in this instance.

You ask, "Am I expected, required even, to tolerate attacks on my culture and my integrity by some on this forum, including moderators?"

The Scotland.com Terms of Use state, "Company reserves the right to remove any materials it becomes aware of that are, in our sole discretion, potentially illegal, could subject Company or Scotland.com to liability, violate this Acceptable Use Policy ("Policy") or that Company otherwise deems inappropriate." The key term here is "sole discretion".

Therefore, any remark such as, "Gaelic is a useless, backward language" or "Anglophone Scottish anti-Gaelic diatribe is tolerated on Scotland.com" may be removed or retained at their sole discretion. If you are denied the opportunity to criticise such statements in equally robust terms, this effectively means that, in context, you cannot adequately address any attacks on your culture except by requesting that Scotland.com remove them.

Whether Scotland.com should provide the opportunity to question any particular discretionary choice is, however, another matter legally and this is not mentioned in the Terms of Use.

My concern is that if Scotland.com continues to run away from the issue of anti-Gaelic abuse on its forum (regardless of whether any other kind of abuse also exists), then it runs the risk of being treated as a pariah by the relatively small Gaelic-speaking community which would then regard the site as being better titled "AnglophoneScotland.com".

Crofter, if you are denied further access on account of defending your culture or integrity (ie, accusations of harassment) from abuse, then I salute you. Even if the harassment accusation is defendable, then if the harassment originates from another or others, and your harassment is found to be counter-harassment, then I would condemn any singling out of you for censure.

I am particularly concerned that you would be condemned for posting in defence of anything I have said and even more concerned that JCfromGA would be condemned for posting in defence of anything I have said. Nevertheless, it may be appropriate that other Gaelic speakers on the forum raise their voice publicly about the treatment of this issue by admin/moderators.

Alba gu bràth gu dearbh, se sin ri ràdh, an Alba a bhios a' cur luach anns a' Ghàidhlig an àite a bhith a' dèanamh dìmeas oirre.

[Calum Mac Neill]

JCfromGA,

Thanks for your support and I too am incredulous that "it is considered harassment when a specific group has been exposed to persistent harassment and they decide to protest that harassment".

You state, "there is obviously an undercurrent attempt to stamp out the culture... especially if some of these remarks found on this site that are anti-Gaelic in nature are representative of the atmosphere in Scotland." Thankfully, the anti-Gaelic sector of the Scottish population have very vocal spokesmen but, nevertheless, they are only a sector.

However, an American website is developing an undesirable name for itself amongst Gaelic speakers and Gaelic supporters on both sides of the pond, mostly through the heavy-handedness of admin and the bias of moderation.

Unless Paley Media establish with Scotland.com a functioning, and I stress 'functioning', zero-tolerance policy against intimidation of those who enquire about Gaelic translations, and permit Gaelic-speakers, or their supporters, to defend the Gaelic culture against criticism from Anglophone culture just as robustly as it has been criticised, then Scotland.com will get the reputation that it deserves in the Gaelic-speaking community on both sides of the pond.

[JCfromGA]

You know, this whole scenario has really opened my eyes. When I first came on the site, there was a lot of meanness towards anyone who was Scottish descent that was not 'born and raised' in Scotland.. because "Scots don't run around in kilts, playing bagpipes, and eating haggis." (yes, I've seen them say it just like that)

I have a suspicion that this is the stance on Anglo Scots who don't want to see the survival of Gaelic culture. Now that I think about it... it makes much more sense. Most Scottish American are Gaelic... and since they settled together and never even married outside of the Gaelic population... a lot of the culture has been preserved... I now see this attitude of defining who is Scottish as an attempt to divide and conquer the Gaelic culture.