Fork in the Road

WWWP · 06-07-2014, 12:06 AM

Anyone who thinks Paul seeks drama doesn't know ****, tbh.

**Scarlett O'Hara** · 06-07-2014, 02:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Charlie

No, I agree, and I wasn't implying you do create/seek drama. It seems you do, but I'm often mistaken, hence the question.

So you're saying that he doesn't seek drama, but actually he does. Way to contradict yourself.

You can't assume things about people without getting to know them first.

WWWP · 06-07-2014, 04:05 AM

Vanilla has been on point for weeks.

Rjinn · 06-07-2014, 04:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

Shame the mod team as a whole can't seem to wrap their head around this ****ing concept. Dirty stuck around too long, butthead stuck around too long, FireWaterBurn turned out to be dirty too, and stuck around too long...

And every time I saw the same pattern - someone logs in who's obviously dirty, everyone calls them on it, it gets ignored and eventually dies down, troll troll troll for god knows how many months, then finally a couple temp bans (Usually along with Hermione getting another temp ban at the same time for arguing with the ****er) then a perm.

Then dirty freaks out and makes a hundred alt accounts again to get back at the mods.

Not to mention the number of other little ****s around here that should have been gone long ago, and where I know mods are basically fighting between themselves because some of them want these people to stick around.

As much as I didn't like the guy and I agree about his trolling, you can't really ban someone just because you suspect they may be another member. Butthead was using proxies, kept his identity hidden, and attempted to take on a different persona. No proof. That's like throwing a guy in jail for life solely based on the accusation that his wife told the police he killed their son.

**Scarlett O'Hara** · 06-07-2014, 05:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junkyard Donner

Vanilla has been on point for weeks.

Thanks JD.

GuitarBizarre · 06-07-2014, 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rjinn

As much as I didn't like the guy and I agree about his trolling, you can't really ban someone just because you suspect they may be another member. Butthead was using proxies, kept his identity hidden, and attempted to take on a different persona. No proof. That's like throwing a guy in jail for life solely based on the accusation that his wife told the police he killed their son.

There are tons of online forums out there that will ban people just for being blatantly terrible fits for the community that site is trying to Foster. Teamliquid for example. There's nothing wrong with pruning your userbase of people who don't add any value to discussions. You're not impeding some great god given freedom that person has to be an *******, you're just making sure everyone else has a good goddamn time without someone skirting the edges of things bringing it all down.

Rjinn · 06-07-2014, 06:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

There are tons of online forums out there that will ban people just for being blatantly terrible fits for the community that site is trying to Foster. Teamliquid for example. There's nothing wrong with pruning your userbase of people who don't add any value to discussions. You're not impeding some great god given freedom that person has to be an *******, you're just making sure everyone else has a good goddamn time without someone skirting the edges of things bringing it all down.

I think you're missing my point, I'm not saying he shouldn't have been banned for being a negative influence on these boards, I'm saying banning someone on inevident grounds of being another banned user isn't reasonable.

From what I understand he was banned for constant masses of crass trolling which I agree with.

Mr. Charlie · 06-07-2014, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junkyard Donner

Anyone who thinks Paul seeks drama doesn't know ****, tbh.

Doesn't know sh*t or doesn't know Paul? Let's not get melodramatic again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vanilla

So you're saying that he doesn't seek drama, but actually he does. Way to contradict yourself.

You can't assume things about people without getting to know them first.

There's no contradiction. More a poor choice of words on my part. I meant to say accuse rather than imply.

It seems to me like Paul does like drama, but I don't know him, and I'm fully aware that not everything that seems is. So I asked him. He didn't tell. So I still don't know. Haha.

Lisnaholic · 06-07-2014, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vanilla

Just to clarify, JD was not banned for an insult. She actually requested a ban because of her annoyance that butthead/dirty was still here. I subsequently banned him and unbanned her and Paul. Sometimes, people need space from here. Many people take it too seriously.

In terms of welcoming new members, that has been kept up to date. Many mods and members welcome new people in their introduction threads. In fact, we have plenty of great new people that have joined the forum in the last couple of months who have stuck around. MB is a pretty welcoming community but at the same time we can argue over things.

My personal commitment is to keep trolls like dirty off the forum so that people don't feel like they can't be bothered to post with the endless drama dominating.

^ Thanks Vanilla ! I realise now that I was unaware of the behind-the-scenes story on those bans.

It`s good to hear that established members are responding to Intro threads; I never intended to belittle those efforts, especially given that I do it so seldom myself.

GuitarBizarre · 06-07-2014, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rjinn

I think you're missing my point, I'm not saying he shouldn't have been banned for being a negative influence on these boards, I'm saying banning someone on inevident grounds of being another banned user isn't reasonable.

From what I understand he was banned for constant masses of crass trolling which I agree with.

Fair play then.

In that case I feel I should clarify my broader point - a lot of people here get a ****ton of leeway to be dicks and generally bring people down, by virtue of "not having technically done anything wrong".

We have very flexible rules that basically allow mods to ban whoever the **** they want whenever the **** they want to. Unfortunately it seems that the mods within themselves consistently fail to actually agree on how much is too much, with regards to members who have a deleterious effect on the morale/attitude of the boards. It's generally left up to a specific, high profile incident, before any consensus is made, and even then, its usually a big ****ing deal and isn't acted on swiftly when it does happen.

A key example was what happened with sopsych. Any other forum would have handed out bans, and lots of them, long before that ****storm degenerated into the farce it was.

There are other people who are still here, where I've been told by certain mods myself, that there is longterm, ongoing debate in the mod cave as to whether these people should be kept around. In fact, the phrase used was "I've been campaigning to have [member] banned for a while".

My view is that if there needs to be a debate about whether someone should be allowed to stay, then the first question should be "Is there a really, really good reason *not* to ban this person? Do they add something irreplacable to everyone elses experience of the forums, that outweighs their worse qualities?"

The answer to this question is usually just a flat no. Dirty for example, brought no expertise and no personality to the forums beyond being a troll. That's a case where the answer is "ban. now.". In comparison, someone like boo boo brought a ton of prog knowledge to the forums along with his worse qualities. As a result, he got a lot of chances to turn himself around and was only banned when he failed to do so.