Charles Anthony

Meh. I think more of you subconsciously just want censorship but none of you can admit it. Regardless, answer my questions. What do YOU want done AFTER you identify trolling? Do you want the post removed? Do you want the post left public but the poster banned permanently? Do you want some middle ground? What intervention do you want??? We are open to suggestions. However, I repeat: Half of the Reports of trolling we get are frivolous. If you can not formulate your Report thusly "This post is trolling because.... and I believe this member should be suspended for X weeks. Please remove the offensive post too while you are at it." then I suggest that you spend more effort putting yourself in the shoes of your target before complaining. If you can not bring yourself to such an exercise, then at the very least, try to put yourself in the shoes of your reader. If everybody-except-for-you managed to ignore the trolling and you insist on responding to it, then you need to take a breather before you demand moderator intervention. Perhaps join some other forum and vent there for a while before coming back here.

Indeed. Their 1st order of business is to ask themselves: "After whatever-I-want-to-be-deleted is deleted, what is the moderator to do with my response to the deleted post???????????????????" if "Now that I have given the moderator more work than necessary, will the moderator find this funny??" never occurred to them.

That is not in dispute. What is in dispute is WHAT to do AFTER trolling has been identified. If you see something in the Status Updates that is rude, report the member or send us a PM. Please tell us where we can find the posting. If whatever-you-want-deleted occurs in your own Status Update, feel free to delete it yourself ---- that is why the option is made available.

This is a stupid question. It's like asking why should cops determine whether or not something is illegal.No. It is like saying "Stupid is as stupid does." If you believe something is trolling, do not respond to it. If you believe something is trolling and you want moderator intervention, report it and do not respond to it. As long as folks respond to that which they believe to be trolling, they have no business asking for moderator intervention.

No. Yes.

No. I am serious. I will make you a deal. You answer my question 1st and then I will answer your question. Are you able to press the Delete button associated with somebody's reply on your own Status Update feed?

Are you able to press the Delete button associated with that whatever you want deleted??? Sorry. Clearly it never occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, people on your left are cordial. Those on your right? Not so much. Well, the sun does appear to arrive from the east every day and from a Santa Claus perspective, that is to the left. Thank you for that confirmation. Unless somebody has trouble finding the Delete button for replies on their own Status Updates, I have nothing further to add.

Yes. That is correct. The title of this thread was changed.

OK. I deleted your entire status update. The whole thing was trolling from the get go.You should be able to delete individual responses to your own Status Update posting. You were told that. Perhaps it is not working. Can the rest of the membership confirm or deny that function? There should be a Delete button that appears to the top-right of every response to your status update. It may appear only when your mouse pointer hovers over that area. Avoid doing that. We choose to deem that as disruptive and confusing. You can not just post a quote. You have to state your point. If you do not state your point, your quote will be taken down. Please review the forum rules and guidelines:

Folks, A few posts have been deleted. If your post was deleted and you object to the deletion, please take 1 week off the forum voluntarily. Thanks! Ch. A.

-- because there is no action to be taken. What action do you recommend be taken? This is not all about you. Sure, you did not respond. Good. You ignored whatever-you-want-to-be-deleted and so did lots of other folks. If everybody ignores whatever-they-want-to-be-deleted and moved on, then there is no action that needs to be taken.

Good. Keep it that way.

I just thought of a great idea! Please tell me if you have ever encountered this sort of forum feature elsewhere on the web. We design an algorithm that automates moderation based on member Reports submitted with useful information. Each post has a Report button which is more elaborate that opens up into a survey. The complainer must enter what the infraction is, his opinion on how severe the infraction is, what he recommends as a mod intervention, what he recommends for a warning, what he recommends for a penalty, duration of supsension, etc. etc. whatever. Then, based on # of reports and how they all balance out among the complainers, the alleged-troll is sent an automated message. Here are some hypotheticals: "1 member UNNAMED of the forum has complained about blah blah blah. Please consider this notice in a civil and constructive manner without prejudice." or "3 members UNNAMED of the forum have complained about blah blah blah. Please consider this notice in a civil and constructive manner without prejudice." or "10 members have complained about this post. All of them recommend that your post be deleted. Your post has been deleted and it is attached at the bottom of this email. Feel free to re-write and re-post." or "100 members have complained about 99% of your posts. You have been warned 1000's of times about this same type of infraction. Your posting privileges have been suspended 1 week." or whatever we want. We could add more forum facilitators by adding extra weight to the votes of particular members.

--- because you and everybody else who responds to trolling are an enigma. For the life of me, I can not understand why any sane MLWebber would want me or MH to constantly decide things based on what is acceptable to us, the mod staff. Why would you want us to define trolling for all of you?? For the umpteenth time: Do not respond to what you perceive to be trolling. Report it, ignore it, move on and do NOT respond it kind. For the belligerent: Do not respond to whatever you want the moderator to delete. It is not that difficult. Why do you guys make this difficult?

You are confused. If you want mod staff to delete a post, do not respond to that post. Capice?

That does not mean we do not make mistakes. The same as his, I suppose.If he is trolling, then you would be responding to trolling. Why is this difficult?

Guys, Please stay on topic.

What are your motives?

To provoke a momentary lapse of reason. About 1 in 10 is my guess. I have my theories but the reason eludes me. I have encountered a lot of people in my life who are incredibly rude and it escapes them. I have encountered lots of folks who defend rude behavior in the most astounding ways. Heck, I can even be rude at times! When I am treated rudely in a retail setting, I tend to turn around and leave. I know if I am rude to my customers that I can not expect to make a sale. I have fired staff for being rude to customers. I am afraid to understand what goes on in their heads. Perhaps there are Canadians who can be rude to their customers and still make sales. Perhaps there are Canadians who can not be polite. Too bad you can not recall what you actually said. I guess the moderator's intervention was a success given that the only thing you recall is the only thing that matters: you insulted. We are making some headway here. Sure, but time matters and the reverse is also true: We have folks calling for the deletion of posts which contain 1% insult/drift and 99% substance. We can not do that if other folks ignore the other 1% and respond to the 99% substance. To do so would be disrespectful to those other folks who had the discipline to ignore what they deemed unworthy of discussion ---- only to appease a few whiners. We do that but obviously, we cut most folks more slack than you would extend. We recognize that difference in opinion and we make no apologies for it. We have banned very few folks in the past decade. I wished every single 1 of them smartened up their behavior and stayed. Unfortunately, they chose to degrade the forum more than contribute. We tend to leave a post under the following circumstances: -- if the complainer responds to the allegedly-offensive post; -- if everybody-except-the-complainer ignores the allegedly-offensive aspect of the allegedly-offensive post and addresses the allegedly-non-offensive aspect of the allegedly-offensive post. -- if somebody calls out the allegedly-offensive post in a civil manner or otherwise publicly asks the allegedly-offensive poster to avoid offending again. Moral of the story: Do not respond to that which you want deleted. Corollary: If you want us to work for you, do not give us MORE work than necessary. It is that simple. It is not that simple. You can not objectively discern mental illness from ill intent. There the poster never identified you nor anybody else specifically. Instead of having a hissy fit, you could have counter-attacked the poster's argument. Perhaps explain why the statement is false? Perhaps explain why it is not "difficult to debate reality with those with bigoted minds." would have been a better response. Try that next time and then Report the next post as thread drift.

Guys, Stop abusing the freedom of speech offered to your fellow members by fueling thread drift. This thread is locked. Anybody is free to re-start this topic. If the 2nd thread stays on topic, it will be merged with this thread. If the 2nd thread does not stay on topic, then it will be locked as well.

Guys, Please avoid thread drift even if a fellow member provokes thread drift. Thanks!

This thread is locked because it is out of control and off topic by the usual suspects. Anybody is free to start a new thread called "Paris Summit 2015 - continued" or something like that.

Simple: most of you can not be trusted to ignore what you perceive to be trolling. If it makes you feel better, just think of it as a technicality. You yourself state quite clearly that you refuse.

Give it a rest, guys.

Use this link: http://www.jwwaterhouse.com/paintings/images/waterhouse_the_shrine.jpg instead. That hyperlink is not an image. It is a link to a page that renders an image. Yes. I believe PNG files work too. No.