I didn't want to be the one who brought this up...

Doctor_Ay

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With the recent (in my opinion) abusive posts by certain members of this board, I'm sure it has been in the back of some peoples minds:

-What does it take to ban or remove an abusive user?

I know that marko has a VERY liberal approach to operating this board (and has instruced the other moderators thusly). However, there needs to be a line, which when crossed, would subect the offending user to disciplinary action. What exactly IS that line?

Freedom of speech is something this country was founded on.. that part is true. Excercising it without regard to others is a whole other ballgame.
 
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Thumper_10x7_CA: Personally I haven't seen anything too overtly abusive or offensive. I'm not even sure what an abusive post would be aside from being spiteful or hateful directly at someone.
 
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gigantikok: One particular poster finally crossed the line. He showed to everyone that despite all the warnings to cooperate he was recieving, he simply couldn't be a team player. He proved to have absolutely no redeemable qualities, and provided absolutely NOTHING to the discussions. He was a pompous jackass, and too quick to insult and point fingers at others. For that, and many other reasons, he has been temporarily banned. I think it is REALLY hard to get banned from this group, because Mark is of the opinion that if someone is being unproductive or annoying "you can just ignore them". Dispite all that, we were finally able to rid ourselves (at least temporarily) of this one particular scum-sucking virus.
 
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Krowax: I hope it's someone whose name begins with a T and ends with an igerwolf.
 
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mindseye: I'd like to ask everyone not to engage in flaming or verbal abuse on here -- especially of people who are unable to respond. You can all see why it's obviously unfair to post messages attacking another person when that person can't respond.

That sort of behavior may be acceptable on other boards, but I think we're above that sort of thing.
 
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Jimbo: HURRAY!!!  Good call.  After the exchange I had with Mr. Humongous in another thread in this topic "Are africans crazy about dick size too?", I could not agree more.  Is it possible to add more emoticons to the set we have?  I would like one for "applause". ;D
 

Doctor_Ay

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I understand marko's point of view, to an extent. However, simply ignoring someone is usually NOT quite enough. What if someone else "quotes" their post, who does not have them ignored. Like someone new, who might be easily inflamed by the posters comments, and not know that they were basically a troll.

I feel that "ignoring" someone is basically a temporary solution to a much larger problem.

Other boards that I belong to have installed hacks which allow the moderators to "warn" a user for an abusive post, and if the user gets 3 warnings, they are banned automatically. I'm not sure if they write that sort of hack for this particular (I'm not a fan of YaBB) message board system, but anyone with knowledge of PHP and MySQL systems would be capable of writing (or porting) that sort of hack.
 
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mindseye: Thought I'd try to form a coherent response to the question:

[quote author=Doctor_Ay link=board=meetgreet;num=1069752359;start=0#0 date=11/25/03 at 01:16:59]

-What does it take to ban or remove an abusive user?

[/quote]

There are only three situations that I can think of in which I'd feel comfortable banning a user without waiting to hear back from Mark first. Those are (1) someone deliberately flooding the board, (2) posting a clear threat against another user, (3) posting information about another user that could be exploited (i.e., credit card numbers, PINs, home address, etc.) There's an immediacy to those situations that IMO justifies taking action first and then consulting Mark later.

For other situations, I'd defer to Mark's discretion.

Since I'm pretty sure I know who you're talking about, let me ask a few questions:

  • Is the poster's abuse confined to a particular thread (say..."Is this for real?" ::) ) If so, can the problem be contained by locking that board instead of the more drastic step of banning the user?
  • Is the user spontaneously initiating acts of abuse, or are other people fueling the fire and inciting the abuser to respond?
  • Has the abuse spread to IMs? If so, definitely let Mark know about that -- other people can't see your IMs on here.
 
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gigantikok: Well, the abuse did spread to IMs. At least for me it did, and I am sure he did the same to many others.
 
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CardiffDillon: While we're on the subject of showing respect to other posters maybe we could add another unwritten 'rule'...... and that's to tell the truth.

IMHO the greatest disrespect to members of this site, it's viability and it's worth are wild claims and seriously misleading statements perpetrated and perpetuated by some members. I managed to avoid the word 'lying' :)

cheers

Dillon
 
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tigerwolf: Thank you, Cardiff. Its nice to see at least SOME people agree with me on that.
 
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andywerks: [quote author=CardiffDillon link=board=meetgreet;num=1069752359;start=0#12 date=11/25/03 at 11:02:23]While we're on the subject of showing respect to other posters maybe we could add another unwritten 'rule'...... and that's to tell the truth.

IMHO the greatest disrespect to members of this site, it's viability and it's worth are wild claims and seriously misleading statements perpetrated and perpetuated by some members. [/quote]

Here here! I was participating in this group years and years ago prior to the 'meltdown' (I remember Donk and jonb were there...). One of the things that made it work was an expectation of truth, and a certain level of trust (if not that, then at least the benefit of the doubt).

We had to deal with the blatantly psycho posts, the pervs, the abusers. Nothing has changed since "way back" then.

Something that hasn't changed that is a GOOD thing is the overall sense of community here. Those that post are generally kind to one another. We all have a great place here if we all stick together and lead by example.

Those who are lying are probably doing it for attention and won't really understand anything that we're talking about anyway.

Those who are abusive lack tact and won't get far in the world.

My personal approach is to simply let it slide. In "real life" I don't go out of my way to interact with those that I don't like, but I will be polite if I find myself in the same room. They might not act the same way, but at least I know I behaved appropriately.

IMHO, banning is useless. Use the ignore feature, or don't and just read with a chuckle and move on...
 
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andywerks: Forgot to add a thought... (*slaps forehead*)

Banning should be used, however, when personal threats that compromise (or potentially compromise) safety are made (such as threatening to club someone with a peice of styrofoam).
 
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7x6andchg:
While we're on the subject of showing respect to other posters maybe we could add another unwritten 'rule'...... and that's to tell the truth.

IMHO the greatest disrespect to members of this site, it's viability and it's worth are wild claims and seriously misleading statements perpetrated and perpetuated by some members. I managed to avoid the word 'lying'

My only problem with this, Dillon....is this:

Those who offer their opinion as fact do the same disservice as a liar.
 

Max

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Andywerks,

As another long term member of this board in its various stages I agree with everything you say, very much including your recommendation for dealing with "out of order" posters. I think if we all acted like that any problem would diminish pretty rapidly.
 
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Krowax: [quote author=7x6+C link=board=meetgreet;num=1069752359;start=0#16 date=11/25/03 at 19:52:08]

My only problem with this, Dillon....is this:

Those who offer their opinion as fact do the same disservice as a liar.[/quote]

So true. Seems like our friend Tigerwolf and co. doesn't put that much weight on the truth anyway.
 
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prepstudinsc: [quote author=Krowax link=board=meetgreet;num=1069752359;start=0#18 date=11/26/03 at 03:19:33]

So true. Seems like our friend Tigerwolf and co. doesn't put that much weight on the truth anyway. [/quote]

To him, the truth is only what he thinks the truth is, not what it really might be, and he's not open to finding out what it, in fact, is.