Zone1 Trolling/"Off Topic" Posts Will be Removed From the Politics Section

[ReinyDays]

So ... we can still troll and post off-topic in the "Announcements and Feedback" forum? ...

 

[TheReaper]

Wow. I started this thread less than 2 hours ago, walked away from it, just came back, and BOOM it blew up like a balloon.

And now folks, behold with your own eyes . . here come the defenders of derailing threads. I yield the floor:

As I suspected, that's pretty much what happened. A bunch of degenerate Leftists insulting me simply for wanting the posted rules enforced - well, they did steal an election, so rules mean nothing to them right?

A few good conservatives stating the obvious, the Leftists derail threads because they have nothing intelligent to actually say.

Yep, the responses only confirm the first post. Leftists and their fat foul mouths are their own worst enemy. That would be okay if it were not for the fact that they make things suck for everyone else too.

Adding more mod controls to the Racism forum has not, in my opinion, improved the communications. I doubt it will in Politics either.

Most mods are corrupt and don't do their jobs correctly. That's all. I know there is one good mod, one wishy washy mod, and two that put Hunter Biden to shame, but thats all I know of to date..

 

[RhodyPatriot]

View attachment 699885

"To cut down on the abuse and to increase the quality/exchange in threads in the Politics Forum, it is imperative that we begin to eliminate "off topic" posts, aka trolling, in the Politics Forum. Below you will find examples of what is unacceptable and will be removed from the the forum."

I love this. This is great.

Its too bad its not enforced.

Every time I start a thread a swarm of leftists come in and derail it. Its getting real old man. Any when I report it? My reports are met with crickets chirping, or if I am lucky a mod my derail my report and start accusing ME of stuff..

I see some mods have plenty of time to post stupid Marxist leftwing bullshit in threads (no names but rhymes with Peyote and Won't Phase Me Moe) but apparently they have not time for this, and when its reported they have no time for that either.

If a forum allows threads to be destroyed then whats the point of even having a forum.

And now folks, behold with your own eyes . . here come the defenders of derailing threads. I yield the floor:

As one who is new to this forum I will say this:

I find the "hands off" approach of moderation here genuinely refreshing.

The last board I frequented had helicopter moderators and was a pain in the arse to navigate. And nothing was ever explained, so you'd never know what was going to be considered an offensive thought crime.

It also only ever tended to flow in one political direction. (I'm sure you can guess.)

I appreciate your concerns and don't doubt their validity - but trust me - it could be way worse!

 

[Auld Phart]

Then you might as well ban me because I love cats and they're more likeable than you after the way you've been treating me lately. You're the one who's a troll.

So does alf

 

[TheReaper]

As one who is new to this forum I will say this:

I find the "hands off" approach of moderation here genuinely refreshing.

The last board I frequented had helicopter moderators and was a pain in the arse to navigate. And nothing was ever explained, so you'd never know what was going to be considered an offensive thought crime.

It also only ever tended to flow in one political direction. (I'm sure you can guess.)

I appreciate your concerns and don't doubt their validity - but trust me - it could be way worse!

If I had to choose I guess I will say that hands off is better than over moderation. But when you can't even start a thread, that really should be dealt with, especially since the mods are the ones who posted the Sticky about it.

I like your posts by the way

 

[RhodyPatriot]

If I had to choose I guess I will say that hands off is better than over moderation. But when you can't even start a thread, that really should be dealt with, especially since they are the one who posted the Sticky about it.

I like your posts by the way

And I appreciate your plucky, witty MAGA optimism.

That was the other thing.

Even the MAGAs on the old board were a bunch of doomers.

 

[TheReaper]

It's not the rules so much as the agenda-driven manner in which they are actually enforced that is the real issue, here.

I do believe we have a winner here folks. You hit the nail on the head. Well done.

 

[Road Runner]

View attachment 699924


So does alf

Not sure whether or not I should be mad about this or think it's awfully cute... I do believe that I'm going with the latter lol

 

[hjmick]

View attachment 699924


So does alf

That's Gordon Shumway to you...

 

[Natural Citizen]

At the end of the day, there's really no such thing as a ''troll.''

You're either capable of making your case, which theoretical ''trolls'' aren't interested in anyway, and if they see you doing that, they'll go away....which makes them a non-entity. Trolls aren't interested in functional debate. They're only interested in destroying it. But If they are met with functional debate consistently, are shown that you will not back down from encouraging and expecting them to participate relevantly, fruitfully and functonally, they will go away. Because that's the opposite of what they're looking for. It's antithetical to their function.

Or...you can't make your case or defend your own spew and rely on the ease of just calling them a troll as some kind of defense mechanism, and to avoid any kind of responsibility for not demonstrating the capacity to make your own case or to defend your own spew. And, of course, that's when 'trolls'' actually spring into existence. Their entire existence is dependent upon you're own ability or inability to support your own argument. Your ability to enforce the expectation that they contribute to discussion fruitfully. If they recognize that they simply won't be expected to contribute in a meaningful, fruitful, functional way, because you yourself aren't placing that intellectual burden on them, they'll flourish. Or, as I'd mentioned, spring into existence.

It's kind of like when people go blaming things on the devil. Its so much easier to do that than to take responsibility.

It's a bit of a backward phenomenon, however, when an OP itself is a low-value ''troll'' thread. In that case, you end up with a troll calling you a troll because you held their feet to the fire.

 

[Calypso Jones]

For some it seems, a counter point is nothing but trolling.

I don't think insulting the poster is actually a counter point Unless you've changed the definition.

 

[candycorn]

View attachment 699885

"To cut down on the abuse and to increase the quality/exchange in threads in the Politics Forum, it is imperative that we begin to eliminate "off topic" posts, aka trolling, in the Politics Forum. Below you will find examples of what is unacceptable and will be removed from the the forum."

I love this. This is great.

Its too bad its not enforced.

Every time I start a thread a swarm of leftists come in and derail it. Its getting real old man. Any when I report it? My reports are met with crickets chirping, or if I am lucky a mod my derail my report and start accusing ME of stuff..

I see some mods have plenty of time to post stupid Marxist leftwing bullshit in threads (no names but rhymes with Peyote and Won't Phase Me Moe) but apparently they have not time for this, and when its reported they have no time for that either.

If a forum allows threads to be destroyed then whats the point of even having a forum.

And now folks, behold with your own eyes . . here come the defenders of derailing threads. I yield the floor:

 

[odanny]

View attachment 699885

"To cut down on the abuse and to increase the quality/exchange in threads in the Politics Forum, it is imperative that we begin to eliminate "off topic" posts, aka trolling, in the Politics Forum. Below you will find examples of what is unacceptable and will be removed from the the forum."

I love this. This is great.

Its too bad its not enforced.

Every time I start a thread a swarm of leftists come in and derail it. Its getting real old man. Any when I report it? My reports are met with crickets chirping, or if I am lucky a mod my derail my report and start accusing ME of stuff..

I see some mods have plenty of time to post stupid Marxist leftwing bullshit in threads (no names but rhymes with Peyote and Won't Phase Me Moe) but apparently they have not time for this, and when its reported they have no time for that either.

If a forum allows threads to be destroyed then whats the point of even having a forum.

And now folks, behold with your own eyes . . here come the defenders of derailing threads. I yield the floor:

 

[flacaltenn]

Paid staff = payroll = User fees

I do not think paid staff would make a diff. There's 8 mods currently. We clear all reports in less than 6 hours. Usually, members get pissed after 20 minutes and have NO CONCEPT of how the Report was handled. They DONT SEE the results. I would guess the % of reports that are marked "no action" would be like only 15%. Of the 8 moderators, about 3 cover 60% or more of the reports.

The problem is -- most of the mods dont want to SPEND a lot of time in Politics. There are plenty of other forums that ACTUALLY IMITATE what discussion really is. Every politics thread is like a bunch of Maori warriors facing off yelling and intimidating and poking spears across the combat line.

And even if someone COULD TAKE an 8 hour shift in the politics forum for min wage -- they WOULD NOT LAST A MONTH doing that job. We (mod staff) are all here because we like "free expression" and it's getting harder and harder to find mods who are PREPARED to go into battle every day with adults acting like gang-bangers.

USMB is running at about 210 threads per day and over 8000 posts. That will SKYROCKET up until election time. Unless members REPORT violations in Politics forum, we not likely to catch it all. Not even 8 PAID mods -- could fix that problem.

It's not totally YOUR fault or my fault or USMB moderations' fault. We HAVE NO MEDIA, We have no honest and competent national leadership. SO -- you can expect a lot of TROLLING and flaming from the PRIMARY media sources themselves. OUR titles and Oposts are cleaner and more accurate now than MOST mainstream sources.

When you SUBMIT REPORTS -- make sure to tell us that there are OTHER ISSUES in that thread.

Also -- make sure --- that you're actually reporting illegal posts. We dont judge flame by itself in Politics. It depends on topical content.

And keep your panties unwadded for a few hours before you CHECK for results.

okfine -- not picking on you. Just read far enough to guess where this thread is going.

 

[flacaltenn]

The problem is who defines trolling. Currently it's an issue

Not really an issue at USMB. If you're IN THREAD for the topic in every post -- you're legal. If you there to JUST flame or change the topic -- it's not. What trolls do -- is TRY to make the convo about you to incite or something OTHER than the topic of the conversation.

 

[flacaltenn]

It's nor the rules so much as the agenda-driven manner in which they are actually enforced that is the real issue, here.

Why dont you describe that agenda to mod staff in PM? Because we HAVE NO agenda other than trying to cajole adults into honest topical discussion.

 

[flacaltenn]

At the end of the day, there's really no such thing as a ''troll.''

You're either capable of making your case, which theoretical ''trolls'' aren't interested in anyway, and if they see you doing that, they'll go away....which makes them a non-entity. Trolls aren't interested in functional debate. They're only interested in destroying it. But If they are met with functional debate consistently, are shown that you will not back down from encouraging and expecting them to participate relevantly, fruitfully and functonally, they will go away. Because that's the opposite of what they're looking for. It's antithetical to their function.

Or...you can't make your case or defend your own spew and rely on the ease of just calling them a troll as some kind of defense mechanism, and to avoid any kind of responsibility for not demonstrating the capacity to make your own case or to defend your own spew. And, of course, that's when 'trolls'' actually spring into existence. Their entire existence is dependent upon you're own ability or inability to support your own argument. Your ability to enforce the expectation that they contribute to discussion fruitfully. If they recognize that they simply won't be expected to contribute in a meaningful, fruitful, functional way, because you yourself aren't placing that intellectual burden on them, they'll flourish. Or, as I'd mentioned, spring into existence.

It's kind of like when people go blaming things on the devil. Its so much easier to do that than to take responsibility.

It's a bit of a backward phenomenon, however, when an OP itself is a low-value ''troll'' thread. In that case, you end up with a troll calling you a troll because you held their feet to the fire.

Obi-wan -- where ya been? Great post. EVERY MEMBER gets slightly LESS than what they PUT into a message board. Up to them to pick the dance partners. Not USMB moderation. DONT NEED a frickin Ignore button. USE you time wisely, MAKE YOUR CASE, and just post a "disagree" when someone is trolling you AND WALK AWAY a winner.


Maybe not an actual winner, more of a person that VALUES their time and thoughts enough to make AN EFFORT on a Message Board and not an ass of themselves trying to out-troll the trolls.

 

[flacaltenn]

If you're really culturally deprived and didn't understand my comparison of the Maori Warrior Haka dance to what goes on the USMB Politics forum -- here's the proof.