Charles Anthony

Folks, Stop the personal attacks. This thread is filled with childishness. From this point onwards, anybody who tries to sneak in some trolling or who responds to trolling will take a brief vacation. Ch. A.

Guys, This thread is locked because the OP is a poor attempt to start a discussion. I am not going to justify the reasoning. Just accept it. I invite any and or all of you to re-start this topic with an improved focus. Here is a hint: The Opening Poster in this thread COULD answer his own questions. Ch. A.

Guys, We are teetering into scattered thread drift here. I do not have the energy to delete or move posts into a new thread. More than half of the posts so far bring up great issues that are only peripherally related to the OP and deserve proper attention in their own light. I demand that you guys start a new thread. Perhaps title it: "Logistics and Presentation of Leader debates" or something like that. Perhaps start a 3rd thread too. Thanks!

I agree but that is a lot of work for mod staff sometimes. Sometimes we get swamped and we can not send everybody a message with a copy of the post we took down. When we are swamped with an increase in trolling, our tolerance drops. If there is a personal attack snuck into the mix, we nix it due to the malintention demonstrated by the poster. It is a pity when the post-minus-the-snark addresses the discussion but C'est la vie! I am not surprised that you only perceive bias. If all you have is a hammer, how can you possibly screw something up?? Prejudice and or faith cloud perception. Prejudices lead folks to portray the world with only 2 sides. Folks will perceive moderator bias because most trolling is evenly spread amongst the membership. Every moderator intervention will appear-to-you to be for/against your opinions --- as opposed to for/against your posting decorum. The odds of a moderator intervention NOT distressing at least 1 person's sensitivities is slim. Most posts are taken down because they are clearly just snarky drive-bys that invariably lead to thread drift. If a post of yours is taken down, feel free to start a new thread. Instead of viewing the world thusly: "I am being censored!!!!" perhaps it is time to consider: "I have an opportunity to start a NEW THREAD on this micro-issue that concerns me!!! Hoooray!!! I am sooooo lucky! I can bring this micro-issue to the top of the forum list and garner more attention!" However, we get it: starting a new thread does NOT perpetuate thread drift. We get that some of you intend to create thread drift. Oh, I get it now! Your opinions are so vastly different that they require and must fall into 1 of only 2 binary labels! It all makes sense! There can ONLY be a right side to a discussion since all other disagreeing sides must be sinister.

Would such a post inherently require moderator intervention?

I have a better idea: stop calling eachother anything! Seriously. What difference, at this point, does it make whether I call you "Argus" as opposed to quoting your post without any attribution other than the backlink to your post?

Guys, Please avoid thread drift. Thanks! No.You should engage politely the topic at hand or ignore it. Yes and you were told why through the Private Messaging function. --- because it was off topic and derailing the thread. You were told that privately. Decide what?ANSWER: Off topic. There is no need to make stuff so personal. It derails discussions. It takes one to know one.There is a lot of wisdom behind your rhetorical question. It presupposes an obvious difference in opinion amongst your fellow members on what constitutes trolling. BTW - you are free to start a new thread asking that question. Just make sure the Opening Post is fleshed out enough so that off-topic derailment can be avoided. If it derails a thread, it will be nixed.----- I suggest that we organize a real life party. Perhaps we could get together on Parliament Hill on election night and laugh at eachother afterwards at a pub. Any takers??

I think the moderator didn't like the tone - or the poster had second thoughts. Neither. The Opening Post was a poor attempt to stimulate a discussion. This OP is good enough.

Guys, Please avoid personal attacks and please stay on topic.

Make an offer! Otherwise, thanks for sort of staying on topic. No, it aint so. The fund raising is NOT to bring forward actual moderation that properly yadda yadda yadda. The OP asks a hypothetical question of raising funds to bring forward my firing. Playing The Donald for a day is just a bonus prize to put my firing into perspective. The OP never said anything about WHY funds would be raised. The OP only asked for bids. So far, it is at $1 and it does not seem like anybody is interested in getting me tossed. Since nobody cares to address the OP, I am going to ask a new question: How much are you willing to pay to become moderator yourself with the authority to permanently and irrevocable ban Charles Anthony from the MLW forum? NOTA BENE: Your answers are not commitments on your part. Please do not think we will hold you to them. Congratulations! Do you consider derailing a discussion and thread drift to be forms of trolling?!?

The picture was taken down because it was a waste of space. Now, move on and stop the thread drift. The acccreditation and or discreditation of MLWebbers is not the topic of this thread.

Thanks for the movie recommendation! I will check it out.

Guys, Stop the rude language.

No. He is on vacation.

Guys, You all need to cool off for a bit. This thread is locked temporarily.

Unfortunately, it doesn't stop at that. Members should not have to deal with the threatening personal messages.You are right. However, it can stop. I think so....especially when manically directed at multiple members.Without seeing any of such Personal Messages, we mod staff can not judge. Please Report them when they occur. It has been several years since anybody has reported harassment through the PM function. We commend those of you who ignore such nonsense but if these incidents are not reported, we mod staff do not learn of them and we do not act. If they are reported and if we agree that the messages are either "barbaric" and or simply harassment, we will act. Let me be clear: 1) harassment through the Personal Messaging function is treated as a grave offense; it is 1 of the few offenses which will lead to a permanent ban; 2) your PMs are personal and private; we mod staff do not access any of your messages; we depend on your reports. Technically, Greg has the ability to find your private communications by sifting through the database but the inordinate amount of work involved to achieve that is not going to happen. Even if it was easy to read your messages, we have no good reason to do so. It is easier and more reasonable just to ask the parties involved what happened.

Guys, Please avoid thread drift! Not from where I am looking!

Guys, Stay on topic. Unless you can tack ".... and that is Why I Vote Green." to the end of your post, maybe, just maybe you are posting thread drift.

How much would you be willing to pay each year to have Charles Anthony fired as moderator? How much would you be willing to pay to moderate this forum yourself?

Use your own definition. What difference, at this point, does it make?!? If you ignore trolling, it will go away. You are expected to deal with trolling by reporting it and ignoring it. In your report, saying "This is trolling because..." and provide your reason. Then you should suggest a warning or an intervention like: "I recommend you ban this member permanently from the forum due to this infraction!!!" If you can not give a reason, then perhaps you are wrong. The frustration has nothing to do with the definition of trolling. Your frustration is because you do not want to ignore it. You want to engage it. Some people ignore what others perceive to be trolling and keep the discussion doing. We are telling you the same thing: if you think it is trolling, ignore it and do not respond in kind. Others may disagree. You have it all wrong. Some of you folks are acting like children. We are the ones treating you like adults. In real life, most adults step away and ignore people who are annoying. I dare say that is the Canadian way. No, context does not matter. On a long enough time line, an infinite number of Canucks hacking randomly away at their keyboards, it is an absolute certainly that some guy who just happens to coincidentally be called Cyber Coma will run for office and then we will never know the truth!!! We will leave you alone. We reckon that nobody can reasonably be expected to interpret sarcasm or disrespect through the use of initials. In my opinion, I think it is sloppy. They never cease to amaze me. This is nothing more than a simple objective rule that Greg has asked us to follow purely for the sake of clarity and to avoid any miscommunication. Some people will read snide sarcasm when none is intended and vice verse which can then detract discussion. It is not that much extra effort. It is only a little more pounding on your keyboards to make sure your reader does not mistaken a fellow member name with a third-party name. Who said anything about disrespecting public servants? The disrespect is toward your fellow members in this forum, your reader and Greg who is essentially providing this fun opportunity to you all for free. What is with some of you?? Are you just sloppy in your communication and you can not see it?? Do you care so little to make your reader certain of what you are writing?? Help me out here, please. I am getting curious to understand what is with you all. Hey, I am still struggling with the thought that some of you folks would want to meet with these characters, let alone give them a job!

Guys, Does it not seem like this discussion has drifted away from the spirit of the Opening Post?

Did you introduce yourself as Cyber or as Mr. Coma to them? Regardless, MLW is not a meeting place. MLW is a writing place. For those of you too ornery to care whether your readers clearly understand what you write, Harper is not the only Stephen in Canada, May is not the only Elizabeth in Canada and Trudeau is not the only Justin in Canada. To those of you who can see the obvious, I suggest you ignore members/posts that do not follow the rules THAT YOU LIKE TO FOLLOW and let those other members converse with whoever can meet them at their level.

On topic - referring to Harper as Steve and Muclair as Tommy and Trudeau as Justin are not ok. That is to be discouraged. When you encounter members being disrespectful in that manner, please report them and ignore them. We tell folks to stop it. If they do it repeatedly, we are more stern. Admittedly, Pierre Elliot Trudeau's son uses Justin as part of his promotional image. That throws a wrench into the cogs. Nevertheless, Greg wants us to use proper names as much as possible.

Guys, Try to keep the discussion focussed on the Opening Post as you carry forward.

Guys, Stay on topic. What is wrong with you?? The last 3dozen posts have been taken down from this thread because they were CLEARLY off-topic thread-drift all stirred up by a half dozen of you. I left 1 up so that you can all see how that works. From this point onward, any of you who perpetuate the thread drift run the risk of having your posting privileges suspended. Ch. A.