Zone1 Do threads die naturally

Status
Not open for further replies.
We barely have THE TIME to respond to all your angry PMs and threads. What makes you think ANY USMB moderator has the power to "secretly manipulate the outcome of a thread"..

There's a 600 page manual and user forum for Xenforo. That's the S/ware platform we're on. It's a MATTEL TOY that barely gets the basics done compared to Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc. GO read it or find any "traffic obstructions/obstacles/secret shadow banning features in there. NOT MADE for censorship of ANY kind. You could buy a license for maybe $12K.
I scanned through all that looking for one thing. I was looking for the answer to if mods have the capability to secretly suppress posts in a way that could cause a thread to die prematurely. I did not find a clear and direct answer.

It's interesting to read that the software was not made for censorship of ANY kind, yet I am witnessing a heavy censorship campaign on this site.
 
I scanned through all that looking for one thing. I was looking for the answer to if mods have the capability to secretly suppress posts in a way that could cause a thread to die prematurely. I did not find a clear and direct answer.

It's interesting to read that the software was not made for censorship of ANY kind, yet I am witnessing a heavy censorship campaign on this site.
The censorship and locked threads have kicked up a notch in the last few weeks in an effort to increase civility.

I’m not sure why, but I do know that a conservative blog I read used to have a comments section, and there was some pressure to remove it or be branded a different form of media against which lawsuits could be brought. It really had the effect of silencing conservative voices, and changed the whole flow of the thing. I lost interest and rarely read it.
 
I scanned through all that looking for one thing. I was looking for the answer to if mods have the capability to secretly suppress posts in a way that could cause a thread to die prematurely. I did not find a clear and direct answer.

It's interesting to read that the software was not made for censorship of ANY kind, yet I am witnessing a heavy censorship campaign on this site.

If censorship means deleting personal flaming, derails and brawls NOT ALLOWED by the Zone "effort" rules -- then we're guilty. But REFEREES/librarians is a better description of what we do. We understand that refs are currently getting assaulted FREQUENTLY by the crazy fans. But NOBODY assaulting THEM is GENERALLY ASKING to change the rules of the game like some of our members wish we would..
 
If censorship means deleting personal flaming, derails and brawls NOT ALLOWED by the Zone "effort" rules -- then we're guilty. But REFEREES/librarians is a better description of what we do. We understand that refs are currently getting assaulted FREQUENTLY by the crazy fans. But NOBODY assaulting THEM is GENERALLY ASKING to change the rules of the game like some of our members wish we would..
Interesting. Do mods here have the ability to suppress, alter, or otherwise secretly manipulate posts in a way that would cause a thread to die prematurely?
 
The censorship and locked threads have kicked up a notch in the last few weeks in an effort to increase civility.

I’m not sure why, but I do know that a conservative blog I read used to have a comments section, and there was some pressure to remove it or be branded a different form of media against which lawsuits could be brought. It really had the effect of silencing conservative voices, and changed the whole flow of the thing. I lost interest and rarely read it.

It's an election year. The calm before the storm. And any site with public discourse is buckling down and ratcheting up "expectations" of members to keep from being scoured by the storm surge. Gonna be a nasty next six months with all the political bovine scatology, lying, dirty tricks and super-hysteria.
 
If censorship means deleting personal flaming, derails and brawls NOT ALLOWED by the Zone "effort" rules -- then we're guilty. But REFEREES/librarians is a better description of what we do. We understand that refs are currently getting assaulted FREQUENTLY by the crazy fans. But NOBODY assaulting THEM is GENERALLY ASKING to change the rules of the game like some of our members wish we would..

I'm genuinely curious about what I mentioned in post #21.

But I can take that up in pm at some point with you.

I'm not interested in a conversation over it. Just wanna know if you'll acknowledge whether my intuition was or was not correct in those instances. Yes or no will suffice and it can be left at that.
 
Last edited:
Interesting. Do mods here have the ability to suppress, alter, or otherwise secretly manipulate posts in a way that would cause a thread to die prematurely?

No. Our primary JOB to membership is to KEEP THREADS OPEN and compliant with the rules. We dont "secretly" Strangulate them in their sleep.
 
If censorship means deleting personal flaming, derails and brawls NOT ALLOWED by the Zone "effort" rules -- then we're guilty.
I go by Wikipedia's definition:

"Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments, private institutions and other controlling bodies."
 
I think that postings can be delayed or sandboxed from view until ''approved.''

I've seen what appears to be the scenario with my own posts.

But it's only happened a few times and only in threads where a specific mod is participating.

It doesn't happen and has not happened any other time, aside from that specific scenario. My postings always display immediately otherwise.

But whatever. Maybe just coincidence? But if it's not coincidence, then it's pretty slimy stuff.

Mods have no ability to "hold up posts" or threads for that matter other than deleting/closing them. THERE IS a "registration screener" that looks at VERY NEW MEMBERS threads and content and FLAGS content that looks like SPAM or porn or selling anything. A human mod has to decide the outcome on those threads or posts and it CAN be delayed. BUT - anyone here with a couple hundred posts or more than 2 weeks is OUT of this "registration" screening by then.
 
Mods have no ability to "hold up posts" or threads for that matter other than deleting/closing them. THERE IS a "registration screener" that looks at VERY NEW MEMBERS threads and content and FLAGS content that looks like SPAM or porn or selling anything. A human mod has to decide the outcome on those threads or posts and it CAN be delayed. BUT - anyone here with a couple hundred posts or more than 2 weeks is OUT of this "registration" screening by then.

No? So no workarounds? Like..I dunno...limited administrator privileges or something?
 
Last edited:
I go by Wikipedia's definition:

"Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments, private institutions and other controlling bodies."

You can be as objectionable, harmful ,insensistive, or Inconvenient as you WANT in Zone3 (barring the few restrictions in the SiteWide rules. We ARE NOT PURITANS. No offense to our Puritan members. We are here to PROMOTE "topical discussion". That's our "value" as a social media. So we dont DO "content control", we do (and the rules are designed for) "topic control".

If the topic is approved as a clean start -- the discussion is DIFFERENT between Zone2 and Zone1 by LEVEL OF EFFORT AND FOCUS -- on the specific topic. NOT by disallowing opinions, assertions, other topical content such as memes, links, etc.

If anyone is here more than a couple months and DOESN'T KNOW what our "value" is and how we moderate DIFFERENTLY from most other social media -- there's really no excuse. Its ALL in the rules and posted policy discussions.
 
No? So no workarounds? Like flagging them for moderation or anything prior to visibility?

No. that's inner workings of all the tasks running in background. We dont get to affect the task list or timing.

We either stop it DEAD (like in a thread close) temporarily or permanently or we dont. And that's NOT SECRET, because all replies will be held up and mods are trained to put "close messages" in if they are cleaning or otherwise working a thread to write warnings/thread bans, etc. You will SEE that the thread is temp or perm closed, when you attempt to post.

FOR COMPLETENESS here and full disclosure.

There was an instrument of torture that was a ban alternative that SLOWED DOWN BANNED users rather then just cutting them off totally. But that just made them madder when their bans expired, and they came back in madder than when they went out. :dev3:

So we largely stopped using it. Its effect is obvious because it could take 15 minutes to edit/post one reply.
 
You can be as objectionable, harmful ,insensistive, or Inconvenient as you WANT in Zone3 (barring the few restrictions in the SiteWide rules. We ARE NOT PURITANS. No offense to our Puritan members. We are here to PROMOTE "topical discussion". That's our "value" as a social media. So we dont DO "content control", we do (and the rules are designed for) "topic control".

If the topic is approved as a clean start -- the discussion is DIFFERENT between Zone2 and Zone1 by LEVEL OF EFFORT AND FOCUS -- on the specific topic. NOT by disallowing opinions, assertions, other topical content such as memes, links, etc.

If anyone is here more than a couple months and DOESN'T KNOW what our "value" is and how we moderate DIFFERENTLY from most other social media -- there's really no excuse. Its ALL in the rules and posted policy discussions.

We dont "secretly" Strangulate them in their sleep.

Mods have no ability to "hold up posts" or threads for that matter other than deleting/closing them. THERE IS a "registration screener" that looks at VERY NEW MEMBERS threads and content and FLAGS content that looks like SPAM or porn or selling anything. A human mod has to decide the outcome on those threads or posts and it CAN be delayed. BUT - anyone here with a couple hundred posts or more than 2 weeks is OUT of this "registration" screening by then.

I seem to remember, a long, LONG time ago, and it might be now, on different forum software, we had either a super mod or administrator, that did not especially care for me.

I was given a, or put on a governor, when I first got here. It slowed down how much I could view and post. It basically forced me to go do something else, till they took it off.

I am not sure if this forum software has that? I do remember other new members would complain when they would get clapped with that same penalty, instead of a temp ban.

Not sure if it was on this forum software or previous versions.

:auiqs.jpg:

There was an instrument of torture that was a ban alternative that SLOWED DOWN BANNED users rather then just cutting them off totally. But that just made them madder when their bans expired, and they came back in madder than when they went out. :dev3:

I was just composing about this. Thanks for answering my question. I was wondering if this software still had that option. :113:
 
No. that's inner workings of all the tasks running in background. We dont get to affect the task list or timing.

We either stop it DEAD (like in a thread close) temporarily or permanently or we dont. And that's NOT SECRET, because all replies will be held up and mods are trained to put "close messages" in if they are cleaning or otherwise working a thread to write warnings/thread bans, etc. You will SEE that the thread is temp or perm closed, when you attempt to post.

FOR COMPLETENESS here and full disclosure.

There was an instrument of torture that was a ban alternative that SLOWED DOWN BANNED users rather then just cutting them off totally. But that just made them madder when their bans expired, and they came back in madder than when they went out. :dev3:

So we largely stopped using it. Its effect is obvious because it could take 15 minutes to edit/post one reply.

Alright. Well thanks for that. As I said, I was just genuinely curious, as it has only happened a few times for me, and always in a specific scenario.

And I do know that the software has a built in ''reply ban'' that can be turned on and off.

Thread tools > Manage reply bans > User name is how it used to be. Which I suppose is basically the thread ban. Wasn't sure if it cached the reply until it was turned off or not.
 
Last edited:
EvMetro -- For transparency here -- if you experience "slow response" or intolerable response from USMB in the middle of the night -- it's because Xenforo needs to INDEX and UPDATE the post counts, award points, infraction info, etc and SEARCH INDEX ALL NEW CONTENT for that day and for each MEMBERS "content lists" of posts and threads. And this is done over a database OF EVERY POST EVER POSTED on USMB since 2009 or so. That's why we're upgrading servers all the time because these background tasks that run in the dead of night can otherwise make it intolerable. If I see that happening and it's not COMPLETELY frozen -- I just give it up and log off and make another donation to the server fund.
 
I seem to remember, a long, LONG time ago, and it might be now, on different forum software, we had either a super mod or administrator, that did not especially care for me.

I was given a, or put on a governor, when I first got here. It slowed down how much I could view and post. It basically forced me to go do something else, till they took it off.

I am not sure if this forum software has that? I do remember other new members would complain when they would get clapped with that same penalty, instead of a temp ban.

Not sure if it was on this forum software or previous versions.

:auiqs.jpg:



I was just composing about this. Thanks for answering my question. I was wondering if this software still had that option. :113:

It was a "feature" on BOTH the old forum software and the Xenforo package. Some programming genius spent a lot of time inventing this senseless thing.
 
I seem to remember, a long, LONG time ago, and it might be now, on different forum software, we had either a super mod or administrator, that did not especially care for me.

I was given a, or put on a governor, when I first got here. It slowed down how much I could view and post. It basically forced me to go do something else, till they took it off.

I am not sure if this forum software has that? I do remember other new members would complain when they would get clapped with that same penalty, instead of a temp ban.

Not sure if it was on this forum software or previous versions.

:auiqs.jpg:



I was just composing about this. Thanks for answering my question. I was wondering if this software still had that option. :113:


YOU? On "discouraged user" ban? Who would have thunk THAT possible? :biggrin: I heard stuff like "I'd rather be water-boarded". You should apply for damage compensation...
 
Last edited:
I scanned through all that looking for one thing. I was looking for the answer to if mods have the capability to secretly suppress posts in a way that could cause a thread to die prematurely. I did not find a clear and direct answer.

It's interesting to read that the software was not made for censorship of ANY kind, yet I am witnessing a heavy censorship campaign on this site.
That’s odd. We have an entire, finished basement zone complete with a well stocked bar, pool tables, and comfy furniture just for folks who feel constricted by the rules upstairs. Have you considered posting there?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Forum List

Back
Top