Pipe dream

[Shrimpbox]

I have enjoyed my short time at USMB and have been impressed by the caliber of some of the members, but the longer I am on the more difficult it is becoming to digest the threads. As a busy person(as I'm sure most others are on here) it is becoming extremely hard to use my time available here productively. Too many discussions devolve from substantive ideas and issues to pissing contests. And on too many threads the bullshit gets piled so high I cannot plow through it. Furthermore, those who seem to be sabotaging good debate are repeat offenders, over and over again.

Now I know there are many who will say put your big boy pants on and deal with it,but I would like to make a suggestion that will probably be greeted with peals of laughter by the overworked mods. How about grading members by how many postings they make, maybe even on a per idem basis, and then on an objective 1 to 5 scale, how substantive the aggregate postings are as opposed to personal references. Create a major threshold number to winnow down the work(I for one do not post enough to clog up anyone's pipes). Then post the info at beginning of thread. For instance if member a has posted 25 times on one thread I would tend to avoid that thread because I would feel that two or three people have taken over and neutered the subject.

I am not advocating restricting anyone's views or the expression of them, but give some of us some tools if we want to edit out the stuff that we feel is a waste of time. Let's keep USMB as the premiere debate zone.

 

[Grandma]

I have enjoyed my short time at USMB and have been impressed by the caliber of some of the members, but the longer I am on the more difficult it is becoming to digest the threads. As a busy person(as I'm sure most others are on here) it is becoming extremely hard to use my time available here productively. Too many discussions devolve from substantive ideas and issues to pissing contests. And on too many threads the bullshit gets piled so high I cannot plow through it. Furthermore, those who seem to be sabotaging good debate are repeat offenders, over and over again.

Now I know there are many who will say put your big boy pants on and deal with it,but I would like to make a suggestion that will probably be greeted with peals of laughter by the overworked mods. How about grading members by how many postings they make, maybe even on a per idem basis, and then on an objective 1 to 5 scale, how substantive the aggregate postings are as opposed to personal references. Create a major threshold number to winnow down the work(I for one do not post enough to clog up anyone's pipes). Then post the info at beginning of thread. For instance if member a has posted 25 times on one thread I would tend to avoid that thread because I would feel that two or three people have taken over and neutered the subject.

I am not advocating restricting anyone's views or the expression of them, but give some of us some tools if we want to edit out the stuff that we feel is a waste of time. Let's keep USMB as the premiere debate zone.

There's a deluxe assortment of trolls here. They have boring nothing beige little lives, so they spend most of their waking hours posting crap and imagining themselves popular because so many people read their crap. Kick or run one off the board, 2 more will join.

Your best option is to put the trolls on ignore. Do not respond to their posts (you can still see them if they're quoted.) If enough members ignore the trolls then the trolls will move to greener pastures.