Charles Anthony

Some folks post videos gratuituously turning the forum into the cartoon section of the newspaper. We are creating a balance.

Yes.

Answer my question 1st and then I will answer yours. After deleting that post, what would you have us do with the reply directly below it? The reply quotes the post you ask to be deleted. Point of order -- Who cares? Just follow the forum rules and guidelines and you will be free to post whatever you want. There is nothing in the forum rules that state you must express respect for the moderators. Please keep us out of your discussions. I am delighted to go on record asserting that MLW does not compel anybody to be here. Are you compelled to be here? Easy: We read what you folks write.

I would like to see the ability for members to toggle in and out of alternate displays of the forum. Posts deleted or edited would be viewable to all members at the push of a button. However, discussion in the "Edited/Deleted" display would not be possible.

The last post of yours taken down in this thread was 6 months ago. It was taken down because you were feeding trolling. Here is a pre-emptive warning: Do not feed whatever-YOU-perceive-to-be-trolling.

Thanks for the recommendation. What issue might that be? How many MLWomen want to weigh in on this?

Why? Who would you recommend and why? Who do you recommend? Do you want to try? What statistics? What are you counting? Do you want to see all of the reports? If so, I would have to check with Greg about that because we treat the reports as private communication. I suppose we could inform you which posts have been reported and leave out the names of the members who reported them. We tend to leave posts up if it is clear that folks have ignored the trolling and carried on the discussion. We tend to leave posts up if somebody else responds to it and takes the trolling to task in a constructive manner. Lots of you folks are good at that and you should be proud. Some of you folks are bad at it. We recognize that the outward appearance of our interventions give the impression that we allow trolling or that we are doing nothing. We do not care. We are proud to respect and foster your freedom to self-moderate as much as possible. SHORT VERSION: More of you and less of us makes us happy. No. That was not a personal attack. Rather, it was an attempt to derail the discussion. Other than the mod staff, I can not see any reason why anybody should take offense. If you refuse to report that which you want to be deleted, we ask that you ignore it and refrain from responding in kind. However, if you are convinced that we are doing nothing, then act that way. Act as if we did not exist. We appreciate it. We agree with approximately half of your reports. That is high compared to most other posters. Ever since I started, I always appreciated your reports Argus because I knew for certain that if a post got YOU upset such that firing back in the forums was not enough, there must be something peculiar with the alleged trolling post. That still is the case to this day. We also enjoy reading your posts as contributions to the discussions. Reporting anything about anybody on the left is an excersize in futility, as I'm sure you are well aware.No. I was not aware MLW was a poetry contest. You are going to have to explain yourself if you want to be taken seriously. Your "left" becomes "right" after I turn my back to you. As far as I can see, there is only up, down, clockwise and counter-clockwise. The rest is just perception. MH does not agree with me on that, mind you.

Amen.

Next time, please report it and ignore it.

Folks, If you have nothing to add to the discussion, do not post. I took down some thread drift and lots of fuel.

MH drew moderator (his own) attention. A swift intervention was warranted and executed --- by himself. He is enduring a self-imposed suspension. Indeed it is! Being judge, jury and executioner comes with its benefits! Blame Canada!!! Is the trial over yet? Can we all go home? Are we all free to leave? Alas, I missed the show! The real convenience is that he did it all himself. I did not have to do anything. Before I logged in, the mess was all gone. Motives do not matter.

Guys, Canada is not even 150 years old yet. Please keep the discussion focussed.

I disagree. I see lots of racism and bigotry on the forum. Some of it is suble. Some of it is not so subtle. Some of it is interesting. Some of it is tiring. I would not expect otherwise because there is no universally objective definition of any of those concepts. I do not understand the stage upon which the Right/Left imagery sticks. Maybe it is a hypnotic distraction to keep folks looking Down instead of looking Up.... I am not sure. Speaking only for myself as a reader, I am constantly pleasantly surprized by every single 1 of you. I don't see how such a statement would be inherently "bigoted".Can you see how such a statement would be inherently off-topic or distracting to the focus of a thread? We intervene when we judge a comment to be off-topic, distracting, thread drift or otherwise a waste of space. Rarely do we care who or why or how anybody is offended when we deem a post to be disruptive. What difference, at this point, does it make? From a moderator's perspective, the labels are not universally defined to the level at which discussions are conducted here. So, once somebody takes offense and responds in kind, the discussion begins to derail. The same could be said if the terms were accolades and the target of the accolades kept blathering on thanking for the accolades. It does not have to be that complicated. Being called a Catholic or an Anglican or a Muslim can also be an invasion of privacy. --- because they always come back here anyways. Lots of reasons come to mind but perhaps your frame of reference is limited. Maybe, just maybe, some folks are not as free to leave as most folks might think. You know what? I don't even mind that. I"m fine with it. It'd just be nice to have a bit of notice ahead of time.Great! How about you let us know ahead of time when you are going to post something that needs moderator intervention BEFORE you post it. Deal? I suspect that Charles is ROTFLHAO at this. He should be in some cases. The comedic value is starting to wear off. Here is the post from which Argus flung his interpretation: Sorry. Clearly it never occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, people on your left are cordial. Those on your right? Not so much. I never wrote "it seems to be Right wingers who are causing more trouble than Left yadda yadda yadda." and I am not going to explain how to properly read the English language to anybody. As demonstrated by his immediate Status Updates to that effect, the member to which I replied understood EXACTLY the difference between what I wrote and what Argus just wrote now. TRANSLATION: "You could always just do more work than...." Let x = the amount of effort exerted by an asshat in posting a submission to the Hall Of AssHattery Fame with a stop-over at the MLW forums Let y = the amount of effort Mod staff need to exert to moderate asshattery in the forum If x < y , Then you can forget about it. You are reading too much into that phraseology. To be arrogant to a point where I portent to speak for you is what I am doing right now.

Guys, Please take personal banter to the Personal Messaging function. We are raising the bar. The observation is that: Oh, good. Folks have moved on.

It is not an insult. Rather, it is drive-by trolling that stifles the discussion. If you have nothing constructive to add to a discussion, do not post.

I have an idea! How about we all avoid using the term "crackpot" for a brief while? During that time, let us reflect upon its usage.

I have encountered that with MicroSoft's browser. I suggest you try a different browser.

What do you want to post? Send us a Personal Message of what you want to post and we will help you.Do you want to create a new Opening Post to start a new thread? or Do you want to post a response inside an existing thread? Some posts have been taken down recently because they were clear violations of the forum rules.We take down posts that serve no constructive purpose in a discussion. We take down posts with no original commentary. We take down posts that are nothing but a quotation or a link with no original commentary provided by the poster. We take down personal attacks and drive-by trolling as well.

Guys, Please avoid thread drift. Stay on topic.

Folks, A bunch of posts were taken down because they were nothing but thread drift.

Deal.

SHORT VERSION: If we have to delete posts, do not give us more work. People are starting to get it. Hey! Guess what? The other day, some guy bumped into me in the mall --- he was looking down at his trichorder. Like a punch-buggy moment, we BOTH stepped back and said "Sorry!" to each other like as if each of us were at fault. How odd! We were perfectly timed, like as if choreographed for a commercial. How does that work?? It gets better! We just turned away and moved on like as if nothing happened!!

Not only do people react to it but sometimes they ignore what-you-perceive-to-be-trolling and stick to the discussion topic. They keep the discussion going. Sometimes people get offended by what-they-perceive-to-be-trolling and respond in kind. What?!? Who are you kidding? Do I have to remind you that MLW is a Canadian discussion forum??

Here is a list of your topics.

Folks, Please avoid thread drift. From this point onward, if your post disappears, it is because you posted thread drift. Ch. A.