Do you Favor Increasing the Topical Content of Threads? (Read OP 1st)

[miketx]

I think some people don't really know what the word "trolling" means. There seems to be confusion about what is trolling. Trolling is when you make comments or start threads for the SPECIFIC purpose of garnering a negative reaction. Trolling is NOT when you are in a heated discussion and start getting a little aggressive. That is not trolling. That is normal human behaviors and emotions at play. Those things are not done on purpose just to get a reaction but is a reaction out of frustration or anger. Totally different from trolling.

 

[MisterBeale]

Keep this conversation on the topic of the poll. It's NOT a gripefest about moderation or your opposing political team. The reason for this poll is to get membership feedback on a possible means to reduce the troll population. Let's be frank. BOTH sides are bitching about out of control trolls. That's a fact. Frustration levels are high.. That's NOT a USMB Moderation fault. It's the way the 2 tribes have polarized this country that is the problem.

All Zone2 and 3 rules are focused on TOPIC CONTROL. If you respect the topic -----

1) You'll hardly ever hear from moderation.
2) You're not trolling.

So if you want to REDUCE the troll population, folks need to up their up their "topical discussion" game. Currently, too many only use token references to the specific topic before they haul off and WHACK someone personally or go off onto a thread diverting rant. We could easily just change the requirement to be MOSTLY topical discussion.. That would spell doom for all trolls right there.

THINK before you vote. Every one would be focusing more on topical discussion, much less on trolling or personal flaming. So YOU are making a PERSONAL commitment with your vote.

This is NOT been discussed as a Staff Issue. There are NO PLANS to change the way we judge posts and content. So it's my neck hanging out asking the question...

There should be at least some hint of rebuttal or support for the topic of the thread in each post.

That the way it currently is in Zone2 and 3. That's the whole evil Mod plan. We don't READ the flames and the nonsense if the post contains a "Shred" of topic. But the trolls are smart and have learned to give token winks and nods to the topical content rule. All we want is for folks to be respecting the topics and producing readable and hopefully informative single topic conversations.

And to be honest, we're letting them get away with almost no contribution to the actual discussion.

This is not the only way to do something constructive about reducing rampant "Troll Fatigue Syndrome" (TFS) on USMB --- so if you have other ideas -- please suggest. I'm just reacting to BOTH sides complaining about the trolling issue..

New idea.

If the mods are getting fatigued, anyone that complains, ban.

 

[Damaged Eagle]

So does this thread mean no more Chinese take-out? I never did get my sweet and sour shrimp.

*****SAD SMILE*****

 

[asaratis]

The thing is...when comes to threads in stuff like structured debate...or a proposed invite only section...we mods don’t much mod it. We are only looking out for violations of major site wide rules...porn, pedo, family, data mining. Otherwise we don’t do anything unless someone complains. It isn’t partisan.

The rules in CDZ say trolling is not allowed. Can you not recognize troll bait when you review posts for the violations you listed?

Do you report them? I can’t recall seeing many reports from you.

You claim to be looking out for a list of transgressions.

I have reported before. Perhaps you weren't on duty.

 

[Disir]

No --- if you did that --- it might be construed as disrespecting the topic and starting a thread diversion. How did you find out that Limbaugh has 3 accounts here? Don't answer that....

I run 2 of them.

In one of them I pretend to be a moonbat.

Guess which one?

This one?



Just kidding.

 

[Bruce_T_Laney]

How many rules does a board need to tell trolls not to troll the upstairs?

 

[theDoctorisIn]

The thing is...when comes to threads in stuff like structured debate...or a proposed invite only section...we mods don’t much mod it. We are only looking out for violations of major site wide rules...porn, pedo, family, data mining. Otherwise we don’t do anything unless someone complains. It isn’t partisan.

The rules in CDZ say trolling is not allowed. Can you not recognize troll bait when you review posts for the violations you listed?

Do you report them? I can’t recall seeing many reports from you.

You claim to be looking out for a list of transgressions.

I have reported before. Perhaps you weren't on duty.

In the past 3 years, you have made a grand total of 6 reports, all of which were handled by staff.

None of those involved posts in the Clean Debate Zone.

 

[asaratis]

The thing is...when comes to threads in stuff like structured debate...or a proposed invite only section...we mods don’t much mod it. We are only looking out for violations of major site wide rules...porn, pedo, family, data mining. Otherwise we don’t do anything unless someone complains. It isn’t partisan.

The rules in CDZ say trolling is not allowed. Can you not recognize troll bait when you review posts for the violations you listed?

Do you report them? I can’t recall seeing many reports from you.

You claim to be looking out for a list of transgressions.

I have reported before. Perhaps you weren't on duty.

In the past 3 years, you have made a grand total of 6 reports, all of which were handled by staff.

None of those involved posts in the Clean Debate Zone.

According to the CDZ rules, watching for trolling is on the list of moderator duties.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

whatever is vintage I love ((((( hehehehe)))))

So, there IS hope for some of us here who are getting a bit long of tooth.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

Most posts here divide the world into two simplistic camps and then demean the shit out of one of them. Those who feel they have been demeaned then respond in predictable ways.

Until you are willing to consider the action rather than just the reaction as trolling, you are not dealing with the actual issue of trolling. It would also help if you did not moderate according to personal animosity or point of view, but that is simply a given here.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

Whatcha really want?

I want you to stop conflating trolling and flaming, myself. Trolling is a term to describe postings that are intentionally enflaming. Flaming is the term used to describe the angry response.

As an example -- all the endless " you white devils are racist" type postings are an act of trolling. They lack intellectual content and are posted simply to enflame. To expect some sort of measured response is silly, because the gauntlet has already been laid.

As far as any real or perceived "troll infestation", I find it hard to take you too seriously when you allow so many sock puppets as you do, and especially because the sock puppetry is being used by the worst partisan hacks to troll.

 

[flacaltenn]

The thing is...when comes to threads in stuff like structured debate...or a proposed invite only section...we mods don’t much mod it. We are only looking out for violations of major site wide rules...porn, pedo, family, data mining. Otherwise we don’t do anything unless someone complains. It isn’t partisan.

The rules in CDZ say trolling is not allowed. Can you not recognize troll bait when you review posts for the violations you listed?

Do you report them? I can’t recall seeing many reports from you.

You claim to be looking out for a list of transgressions.

I have reported before. Perhaps you weren't on duty.

In the past 3 years, you have made a grand total of 6 reports, all of which were handled by staff.

None of those involved posts in the Clean Debate Zone.

According to the CDZ rules, watching for trolling is on the list of moderator duties.

We can't review ALL the content daily. Not possible. Stuff happens in the Gardening forum for Pete's sake.

About 30% of the reports are passed as "no action" on THAT POST. Because the reporter is not taking into account what ZONE the post is in --- or --- because it's an opinion (often partisan) about a thread being a "conspiracy or fight thread".. So some folks get the impression we are NOT acting on reports.

But from from the context of the quotes that appear AROUND the reported post -- about 1/2 of that 30% "no action" reports POINT to other problems in that thread and ARE acted on.. And it's neccesary to POINT us to the trouble to evaluate. Might not be the EXACT post that was reported, but it helped.

We do CRUISE on our own. But it's a SAMPLING of various forums and "active topics"..

I think it's time to either close this experiment or get back to the question of whether the MEMBERS would prefer to discourage trolling by having us raise the standard we use for post TOPICAL CONTENT. That's the TOPIC of this thread. Not general mod whipping..

 

[Coyote]

The thing is...when comes to threads in stuff like structured debate...or a proposed invite only section...we mods don’t much mod it. We are only looking out for violations of major site wide rules...porn, pedo, family, data mining. Otherwise we don’t do anything unless someone complains. It isn’t partisan.

The rules in CDZ say trolling is not allowed. Can you not recognize troll bait when you review posts for the violations you listed?

Do you report them? I can’t recall seeing many reports from you.

You claim to be looking out for a list of transgressions.

I have reported before. Perhaps you weren't on duty.

In the past 3 years, you have made a grand total of 6 reports, all of which were handled by staff.

None of those involved posts in the Clean Debate Zone.

According to the CDZ rules, watching for trolling is on the list of moderator duties.

According to common courteousy we rely on your reports to help us. We aren't paid, we are volunteers. If your preference is to whine rather than fix it is your choice.

 

[Picaro]

Keep this conversation on the topic of the poll. It's NOT a gripefest about moderation or your opposing political team. The reason for this poll is to get membership feedback on a possible means to reduce the troll population. Let's be frank. BOTH sides are bitching about out of control trolls. That's a fact. Frustration levels are high.. That's NOT a USMB Moderation fault. It's the way the 2 tribes have polarized this country that is the problem.

All Zone2 and 3 rules are focused on TOPIC CONTROL. If you respect the topic -----

1) You'll hardly ever hear from moderation.
2) You're not trolling.

So if you want to REDUCE the troll population, folks need to up their up their "topical discussion" game. Currently, too many only use token references to the specific topic before they haul off and WHACK someone personally or go off onto a thread diverting rant. We could easily just change the requirement to be MOSTLY topical discussion.. That would spell doom for all trolls right there.

THINK before you vote. Every one would be focusing more on topical discussion, much less on trolling or personal flaming. So YOU are making a PERSONAL commitment with your vote.

This is NOT been discussed as a Staff Issue. There are NO PLANS to change the way we judge posts and content. So it's my neck hanging out asking the question...

Well, the giant elephant in the room is what is considered 'content' in the era of fake news and a bunch of parrots constantly babbling idiot 'talking points' from their favorite Pravda site. This may seem weird to Millennials, but Stormy Daniels and sniveling about whatever Democratic Underground directs the spammers to whine about isn't actually 'content', it's just trolling and rubbish, period. Everybody knows it, so why waste time 'debating' the 'merits' of silly rubbish? If that stuff counts, then just post Onion articles or James Comey and Cory Booker speeches all day every day. Those are at least funny.

 

[flacaltenn]

I want you to stop conflating trolling and flaming, myself. Trolling is a term to describe postings that are intentionally enflaming. Flaming is the term used to describe the angry response.

All of the Zone2 and 3 rules are a recognition that we CANNOT stop or judge the flaming. So we NEVER confuse flaming with trolling if there is significant TOPICAL CONTENT in the post.

In fact --- we don't even READ the flames if the post is contributing to and respecting the topic. We do chuckle a lot tho.. That's how we judge. That's the criterion for EVERY moderator.

Trolling is never "content YOU don't like".. If you find yourself thinking that --- ask if the post is essentially ON the discussion topic.. Because that's the criterion. If you've ever gotten a warning for "no content" you know this.

We don't care WHAT or how topics get discussed as long as the discussion coherency is there. The only exception to this is the topic of THIS discussion. We currently have a very lenient standard for checking off that a post is respecting the topic. TOO MANY times there is a token reference to the topic just so some troll can personally bait and badger other posters or attempt to derail the topic.

If we UPPED that standard -- it would have a "fire and hellstorm" effect on chronic trolling. I had a THEORY about what folks would say about changing that standard. I wanted to know if I was right. What would be the member committment to "upping their gaime" in exchange for moving out chronic trolls.

 

[Coyote]

Many of the people who complain seem to be trolls themselves, turning the topic into an attack on members rather than content. I think our rules on requiring content in Z2 help.

 

[flacaltenn]

Keep this conversation on the topic of the poll. It's NOT a gripefest about moderation or your opposing political team. The reason for this poll is to get membership feedback on a possible means to reduce the troll population. Let's be frank. BOTH sides are bitching about out of control trolls. That's a fact. Frustration levels are high.. That's NOT a USMB Moderation fault. It's the way the 2 tribes have polarized this country that is the problem.

All Zone2 and 3 rules are focused on TOPIC CONTROL. If you respect the topic -----

1) You'll hardly ever hear from moderation.
2) You're not trolling.

So if you want to REDUCE the troll population, folks need to up their up their "topical discussion" game. Currently, too many only use token references to the specific topic before they haul off and WHACK someone personally or go off onto a thread diverting rant. We could easily just change the requirement to be MOSTLY topical discussion.. That would spell doom for all trolls right there.

THINK before you vote. Every one would be focusing more on topical discussion, much less on trolling or personal flaming. So YOU are making a PERSONAL commitment with your vote.

This is NOT been discussed as a Staff Issue. There are NO PLANS to change the way we judge posts and content. So it's my neck hanging out asking the question...

Well, the giant elephant in the room is what is considered 'content' in the era of fake news and a bunch of parrots constantly babbling idiot 'talking points' from their favorite Pravda site. This may seem weird to Millennials, but Stormy Daniels and sniveling about whatever Democratic Underground directs the spammers to whine about isn't actually 'content', it's just trolling and rubbish, period. Everybody knows it, so why waste time 'debating' the 'merits' of silly rubbish? If that stuff counts, then just post Onion articles or James Comey and Cory Booker speeches all day every day. Those are at least funny.

Exactly. Makes it harder when the go-to political tactic is to finger point right back at the OP slant. ALL national debate is a stand-off on "who did this first or worse".. Never GETS to whether the event is morally/legally right or wrong. It makes our job a LOT more difficult in setting the topic scope.

BUT ---- since we have a virtually hands off approach to WHAT folks WANT to discuss, we just have to all suffer thru the noisy, salacious, hypocritical crap that passes for news and debate. It's not for folks who CARE about their country or have weak stomaches.

 

[Picaro]

I used to come here because at one time the Current Events and couple of the other forums were among the best on the net for keeping up with breaking stories and good editorials; that hasn't been the case for the last two years now, and now that we're supposed to pretend 'pedophiles have feelings too!' and make a 'safe space' for them, I don't really care what the site does, it's going to lose genuine posters and become just another sounding board for sociopaths and deviants like most of the others have, censored and PC Friendly, and one might as well just read the NYT's political puke.

 

[miketx]

Implement this tool, and all the trolls will fold.

The electrocute cry babies panel

 

[theDoctorisIn]

The highlighted statement is a non-starter. All mods moderate all parts of the board.

You don't get to pick your favorite.

So, you admit there are significant differences in their moderating skills?

....and who made you the boss hog?

I would say there are significant differences in moderation styles - and as for your second question, it was prior administrators and the owners of this site who made us the bosses.

This is a non-starter. It's not going to happen. We work as a team, consult each other, and make decisions as a team - on all issues. That's not going to change.

I asked about YOU, not Y'ALL. You answered as if you made that decision all by yourself. While some other mods may agree with you, that doesn't matter. I'm sure y'all can be overruled.

I wouldn't hold out much hope of me being "overruled", if I were you.

We are not going to change the way this board has functioned since it began because you stamp your feet and demand it.

I'm not demanding anything....merely making suggestions. You flatter yourself.

.....

The reason for this poll is to get membership feedback on a possible means to reduce the troll population.

.....

I'm just putting my comments in writing. Duh!

I think you might have missed the previous sentence in the OP - or at least you're pretending that you missed it.

Keep this conversation on the topic of the poll. It's NOT a gripefest about moderation or your opposing political team. The reason for this poll is to get membership feedback on a possible means to reduce the troll population. Let's be frank. BOTH sides are bitching about out of control trolls. That's a fact. Frustration levels are high.. That's NOT a USMB Moderation fault. It's the way the 2 tribes have polarized this country that is the problem.