Greg

Some of you might have noticed that I've activated a "bad" word filter on the site. I've only got a few bad words on the filter - I need to do some brain storming to come up with some more... so the list will slowly grow as I add to the list. In the past, I've avoided implementing this type of filter because I figured we'd all be adults and there would be no need for such restrictions. But here we are! Note: the filter will ONLY filter posts going forward (i.e new posts). So any past post that contains a "bad" word will remain. Any issues or questions, post them below!

Ha, perhaps a sense of satisfaction!

Agreed 100%! I looked into limiting this functionality this morning, but came up with nothing. I'll double check, maybe I missed something obvious.

Agreed. I'm open to providing limited moderation status to senior member of the forums, who could approve these new members quickly... Lets see how this all works out, and if it becomes too difficult of me to respond quickly to the new members, I'll see if members want to contribute to the effort.

OK, the new conditions have been placed on new members. Does anyone want to try it out? Sign up as a new member, and post a few times - those posting should be dropped into the moderation queue. Once 5 posts have been approved, the new member will graduate to a full member, and presumably they won't be a degenerate (hopefully, anyways)

Yup, there is actually another way I could do it... Currently all new members are placed in the New Member group, which limits their ability to do specific things (create new thread, etc). Once they make one post, they graduate (basically, they're promoted) to the full Members group. Rather than manually approving registrations - which would be a pain. I might force moderation on the new member group, which means their first couple of postings have to be approved, then they'll be graduated to the full Members group (if they're not degenerates). I just don't want to discourage new members, so it's a careful balance. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll make this change to the new members group right now and report back.

Due to a recent spat of offensive materials posted to the forums, I've activated a automatic moderation feature that should mitigate some of these problems in the future. If you see something offensive, just continue to use the reporting feature to report the post. I won't go into the specifics of how it works (if I did, then perhaps people could manipulate the system to cause even more trouble). Also note, moderators cannot to be available 24/7 - even if we had dozens of mods on these forums, offensive materials will get posted. However, if we all use the reporting feature responsibly, then something like what happened over the past few days would quickly be stamped out. Any questions, or comments, please post them below.

They have been banned. A new thread will be created shortly with an update.

Just for clarification, Micheal is not a moderator, so trying to bait him into banning you is futile - he doesn't have that power. I do, and so does @Charles Anthony Also note, that no one has ever been banned from this forum (in its 22 years of existence) for the content of their postings. However, there have been plenty of members who have been shown the door, but it was their disruptive behavior and disrespectful attitude that necessitated their removal. You won't find a political forum on the Internet more committed to freedom of speech that this one... You can argue whatever you want, just do it in a respectful manner. Probably cause it's a weak argument, created by someone with little or no respect for anyone else. I'm not surprised no one is interested in your thread. You should probably take the hint and drop the subject...

Folks, lets tone down the rhetoric and stick to the topic.

He's been shown the door.

Just for clarity, Micheal is a spam cop. His only official role is the help remove any spam postings/posters. Charles is a moderator, and as everyone probably already knows, is responsible for day-to-day moderation of the forums.

I'm afraid you're going to see a lot more posts remain, even if there is a moderation action. I've never really felt comfortable removing posts just because a small portion of the post breaks some type of rule. Particularly when there has been some time lapse between when the original post was made, and when the moderation action happens. Inevitably, people engage with the post, and then when the moderators remove the post, there is a glaring hole in the middle of the thread.

There is nothing wrong with linking to your own website on these forums, we just ask that you refrain from flagrant advertising and or making the focus of your postings about your external websites. However, you are free to post whatever you want in a club that you can create.

You can also stripe out formatting using the stripe formatting button in the editor toolbar. See attached image.

It's can't be too difficult to provide some reference/context to the link, can it?

You shouldn't presume that no action was taken.

FYI, the best way to alert me (or anyone else) is to add a @ symbol before their name... See @Charles Anthony

That is because they are disabled. They can be a HUGE distraction and difficult to moderate. If enough people want signatures to return, just post a note below and I'll reconsider, but otherwise I'm going to keep them disabled. BBCode is a legacy markup language that is being depreciated and because of that I've disabled it in the forums. It also can affect forum performance, and the functionality will likely be completely removed in the next few months/years. Is there a reason you want to edit the source code of your postings? If you're trying to stripe out the formatting when cutting and pasting, you should select "paste and match style" in the edit menu (in Apple)... I can't remember if it's called the same thing in Windows machines. This article should be able to help: https://www.themuse.com/advice/copy-paste-same-formatting-trick-how-to-do-it

@Great American Thanks for bringing this issue up. Charles is correct, the Canada / US relations was merged, but the old forum section shouldn't still be visible and old references to it should redirect. I will fix this issue and update this thread shortly. Thanks!

Personally, I'd rather give someone that benefit of the doubt (a private warning to calm down and relax), than kick them to the curb (i.e. ban them) and never hear from them again... But that's just me, the guy that's been running this political forum successfully for the past 22 years. Cheers!

Did anyone send him a PM and ask him?

Ok, if it happens again, update this thread.

20 reactions is the daily limit... Are you still getting that error? The server is located in the ET timezone, and the stats should reset each night at 12AM ET.

I've gotten a report that 504 Errors are happening once in a while. Can anyone confirm whether they've seen the following errors (or any other errors) when trying to access the forums? And if you ever get an error, please feel free to post a report in the Support section of the forums. Thanks!