An possible update to the moderating rules.

[Iain]

True.  And that is why you shall be forever banned.

Did your school put on a production of The Crucible at any point? You're liking this whole thing just a bit too much.

Blackburn - I'm not sure there is such a thing as a forum that operates as an 'organic whole'.

[Nightfall]

Nightfall, do you know I got the same response from Barbara a couple of days ago?  At least you all know who I am.

Heck, I probably read it, filed it away as "funny" in the back of my mind, and subconsciously regurgitated it. I'm not witty enough to come up with this stuff on my own. :p

The motion to ban Oleg Volk has been seconded.  Evidence against member Oleg Volk may be presented at this time.  Anybody got anything?

He takes purty pictures of guns that make me want to pawn everything I own just to get one. Guns I never previously had a desire for. Suspicious...

If we can add an "ignore" feature to this board, everyone will have the tools they need to customize their APS experience completely to their liking. Don't like what somebody has to say? Click ignore and move on with your life.

[280plus]

Oleg, that's the way it should be. It takes two to tango. Learned that from a marraige counsler.

[Tallpine]

I pretty much just ignore those few (un-named) posters on APS whom I consider to be jack asses.

Or I read their post and just think to myself "consider the source"  

I guess everyone is free to do the same with me.

[Perd Hapley]

No, Iain, but I did see the play for the first time just a year or two ago.  

A lot of very intelligent, reasonable, polite people disagree with my point of view, and on a very deep level.  Shocking, I know.  If these people are rude, I'm afraid I just can't ignore them.  I don't put the peacefulness of the board first, and I try not to put my own pride first.  I try not to get myself dirty by wrestling with pigs, but if the right is mocked by the wrong, I feel duty-bound to reply.  Of course, I will refrain from commenting if I don't know how to answer their post, or if they lay down three-hundred-line paragraphs.  

According to the Proverbs of Solomon, a kind answer turneth away wrath, but fools only learn through punishment.  If they learn at all.

[Winston Smith]

what tallpine said.

As far as polite goes, the internet is no place for sensibilities. All out attacks obviously need to be mitigated, but if something offends you by all means discuss. But SCREW POLITE CONDUCT OVER A DESK.

See what I mean? You get my point... your feathers may be a little ruffled, but you'll get over it... I hope. If not, there's probably more a problem with you, then me.

Oleg, the ignore system seems a lot better than witch-hunting.


EDIT:

lot of very intelligent, reasonable, polite people disagree with my point of view, and on a very deep level.

Thank you ;-)

[MicroBalrog]

Remember, it is the Internet.

People on the Internet have an interesting tendency to bunch into groups of human baboons (or if you prefer, high-school cliques), and I feel that allowing to hold what essentially are reverse popularity elections is not a good idea whatsoever. It is, in fact, a morally corrupting one as far as this board is concerned.

So yes, make with the ignore feature.

[The Rabbi]

I'd second (third, fourth etc) the ignore feature.  As it says, Do not put a stumbling block before the blind.

[Monkeyleg]

Oleg, this is your forum, and it's yours to do with as you wish. Whatever your decision, I hope you know the majority of us here will respect it.

That being said, I don't see posts here that I think are out of line. Or maybe I'm just not reading those posts. (I tend not to look at long threads, unless they're ones that I either started or participated in).

You've created a small corner of the internet where a relative handful of people can meet to discuss anything from Salsa to serious personal issues.

For that, I thank you.

[Guest]

A better way to do this.

How about we test the libertarian approach? No bans would be necessary, as no physical interaction with the life or property of others can happen on THR. If somebody acts manly or without civility, just ignore the person. Let the rude folks type into the void. They'll get tired soon enough. Could that work -- you not reacting to provocations?

I'd still remove spammers just to save screen space.

I always thought that this was the plan from the getgo. It gets my vote (I mean that figuritively, i know we arent going to be voting). Im not sure who bothers me more; jerks on the internet, or the people that whine about being "victimized" by jerks.

I agree with MicroBalrog (i so rarely get to say that) about the popularity contest idea. We stand too much of a chance of ending up with a homogenized core of members and beliefs that strives to eliminate opposition and dissent. The last thing I want is to see this place degrade into the sort of forum that has 5 members who spend 20 hours a day stroking each other and expelling infidels (not that I would ever see that as I would go pretty early in the "purges").

[Antibubba]

I hope this isn't an oblique attack on really bad puns, or Preacherman and I will forced out onto the cold superhighway.  

Honestly, I'm not really seeing any problems.  I admit to being thick-skinned as far as the Net goes, but I think most of the folk here know the boundaries.  It's sort of like the same people who are still on the barstools long after happy hour, when the "cheap eats" rabble have gone home-lots of needling and old arguments trotted out, but also a great desire to not push things too far and hurt someone.

What's wrong with the current system of PMing Preacherman?

[Perd Hapley]

People on the Internet have an interesting tendency to bunch into groups of human baboons.

It's always harder to be impolite in person than on the internet or in a letter to the editor.

[American By Blood]

If somebody acts manly or without civility, just ignore the person.

I feel like I'm having a "Spinal Tap" what's wrong with being sexy moment but...

What's wrong with being manly?

[Jamisjockey]

I think its unneccesary.
Very few thread around here deteriorate to the point where anyone stepping in off the street would think we're nothing but myspacing trolls.  Stuff gets heated, but rarely goes 'too far'.
Satus quo.

[280plus]

By manly I think he means gruff or harsh. Just a guess though. Either that or we're all going to have to gay up a bit...

[Guest]

I have been paying attention to Internet fora.

It is the people that make a forum work.

While I am a member of THR, TFL, APS and other sister sites, I also use Internet for Long Distance Learning. Learning tools such as WebCt and Moodle, which I have been behind the scenes in a "administrative role" as they say. I also use Fora related to class work and peruse forra for not only personal, and academic reasons, I also used them for research. For instance persons I know going through Cancer, or Physical Limitations and reading fora to gain some insights from those going through a common situation.

It is the people that make a forum work.


In my humble opinion, APS does not need a sub forum, or ignore feature. I personally like the simplicity of "Less is More" format  APS has.

Staff, Admins, Moderators only need to concern themselve when the fora needs attention, such as software , or other behind the scene needs.  I personally liked being able to peruse and use a fora as a member, and not that of an administrative role.  I have/ had  enough energies expended with studies and such, I just want /wanted to be a regular reader and participate.

The more sub-forums, and rules and limitations , the more energies expended for member or staff roles.

It is said one cannot change people, places and things - only thing a person can change is themselves.

It is the people that make a forum work.


Respectfully,

Steve

[Oleg Volk]

"meanly"

[Guest]

Dang..typo?..must remove the "Success" entry in my World Takeover Logbook.


The forum is great, Oleg. We have discussions. We have really smart people with passionate beliefs who can present their ideas for the most part without getting personal.

Fistful is a great example. I like him. I disagree with him on almost everything. We argue. We laugh at each other. We have fun. We maybe learn some stuff from each other. He's wrong a lot but I don't hold that against him.

I once participated in a forum that was very contentious..lots of arguing, lots of deep conversations and loud rants and that kind of thing. In response, a group of people cloistered themselves in another forum and then made that forum private and kicked out anyone who raised their voice. It was very safe and secure and fuzzy and everyone liked each other and said only nice things and we all floated around on clouds and petted bunnies and I never learned a damned thing the entire time. I learned tons more on the forum where we argued and had to defend our ideas.

APS is the best of both..we're kind to each other, but not the extreme that we're not allowed to say things others might not agree with. We're all practical people and we're all curious about other viewpoints and we're all also mature enough to know that everyone might not agree with us. We argue, but we don't fight. If someone steps over the line, we let them know.

I think we work well together. I think benign neglect is what we need the most.

[mfree]

This kind of moderation is simple if you can get the users to go along with the "ignore" principle.

Every so often, just review a list that details how many people ignore particular users.

If a "trouble user" pops out, say one that has been ignored 35 times, there you are... time for a discussion.

This would also allow you to filter out "Those who protest too loudly" by seeing, on another list, who has the most ignores. This would allow you to determine the veracity of someone's complaints int he light of how easily offended they are.


And the best part is, it's silent, it's fair, and it's already in the code base.

[Ron]

The forum seems to be working well to me.

The trolls or troublemakers don't hang around except for a couple that you had to deal with in the past.

I never use the ignore feature anywhere else so I doubt I would use it here.

Those I dissagree with here who use condescension or thinly veiled insults I naturally avoid/ignore. If they are so insecure in their beliefs or are so closed minded that they have to attack those that are different, then that tells me all I need to know about them. Their opinion becomes meaningless to me and I skip their posts. No need to have a function in the site to do something so easy.

[SpookyPistolero]

I hadn't really known there was a problem until this thread came up. There have been a few moments of heat, but the vast majority of the time everyone is very respectful of the fact that this is not a homogenous group of followers. I think one of the main reasons we're here is that we can see lots of different perspectives on a topic, often with lots of dissagreement, that doesn't devolve into name calling, etc.

I can only say that I'm here pretty often and have not found many of the kinds of problems we're discussing.

If there's more than meets the eye, I do like the idea of an ignore feature, such that an admin could review how many folks have ignored a specific user. A full subforum to overtly discuss problematic individuals would only serve as an inflammatory agent and detract from the 'good vibes' in this place that I'm so fond of.

[Guest]

No kidding. Where else are you going to find a group like this? We have  conservative white males talking medicine with transexuals and Jews discussing food with Mormons and bankers and bikers giving each other advice on video games and hardly anyone gets really mad at anyone else.  If that ain't success, I dunno what is.

[mtnbkr]

conservative white males?  

Git a rope!



Chris

[Monkeyleg]

Oleg, without mentioning anyone by name, would you please point to a thread that you think is below the standards you've set for APS?

I'd just like to get an idea of where you think the forum should be, and where it shouldn't be going.

[grislyatoms]

I was going to write a long-winded and rather disconcerted (probably, I am in stream-of-thought mode now) essay detailing the good this site has done, but this says it well.

"No kidding. Where else are you going to find a group like this? We have  conservative white males talking medicine with transexuals and Jews discussing food with Mormons and bankers and bikers giving each other advice on video games and hardly anyone gets really mad at anyone else.  If that ain't success, I dunno what is."