Permanently ban the trolls (and annoying people)

[pilotdave 0]

Just do it. We all know who the trolls are. Get rid of them. It would make the dropzone.com experience more enjoyable for the rest of us.

Dave

[JohnRich 4]

Or at least give us a twit filter where we can exclude viewing of messages from chosen users.

Certain people are turning this forum into just another rec.skydiving forum, and that's a bad thing.

Decent discussion is being destroyed by people who interject bullshit into every discussion.

[Eule 0]

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a "permanent" ban. Or at least
not for technically savvy users. AFAIK the most common 'ban' feature
in forum software is banning by IP address. That works OK as long as
the person banned doesn't know how to easily get a new IP address,
which is fairly trivial these days. You could take the draconian approach
and start banning whole IP ranges, but do that for a month and there
will be three people left on the Internet who can post to the site.

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Or at least give us a twit filter where we can exclude viewing of messages from chosen users.

This is probably a better solution. This also helps address the point
that "one man's troll is another man's hero" - everybody gets to
choose for themselves who to listen to and who to ignore. Over time,
the more egregious posters will end up in most people's filters.

A twit filter has been discussed before and one of the objections seems
to be "Then you don't see the entire thread!" I would argue that that
is the _point_ of a twit filter, and if someone has earned a spot in your
twit filter, then the follow-ups to his or her posts are also unlikely to be
of interest to you.

Another way that some people have handled trolls is to have a
standard "This person is a troll, please don't reply" that gets posted
as a follow-up to all the troll's messages, either manually or
automatically. This can have the side effect of cluing newbies into
the fact that not everyone on the forum is sincere.

This site uses Gossamer Forum, and looking at the vendor's info on it,
it doesn't seem to support or have a plugin to support a twit filter. It
does have "ban by IP" support.

I will also observe that a newsgroup has a little bit different motivation
than a web site. For most news servers, the admins don't care if a
non-binary group gets postings or not - the volume is so low that they
could serve the text groups off of an old 386 if they wanted to. For a
website with ads, if the following conversation took place several times
at the next big boogie, the twit filter would probably be implemented
so fast it would make your head spin:

Company rep: "Hey, good to see you! Sure, grab a pull-up cord. Hey,
we're having a drawing for our new NiftyPig Turbo++.net - you can sign
up right over there."
Joe Jumper: "Huh? Turbo-wha?"
Rep: "You haven't heard? It's our latest container; it's great! We've
been running ads on dropzone.com for a couple of months..."
Joe: "Oh, I don't go there much anymore. Too much crap in the
forums."

I'm not saying that this is a good thing or a bad thing; I'm just saying
that when money is in the equation, the people with the money tend to
get a stronger voice.

Eule

PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

[PhreeZone 15]

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For a
website with ads, if the following conversation took place several times
at the next big boogie, the twit filter would probably be implemented
so fast it would make your head spin:

Thats the general opinion of a lot of the jumping population anyways I get a lot of shit from my friends at the DZ since I have so many posts and seem to know stuff weeks before they read it in Skydiving or months before its in Parachutist. But to them the fourms are a bunch of people arguing online that have nothing better to do. I'll admit a lot of threads go that way, but if you can sort the good from the bad there is a LOT of useful info out there.

Most people use the classifieds, the news articles and the gear reviews, the fourms are a mixed bag to them.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[bch7773 0]

theres one troll on here in particular that posts stuff in every thread, trying to start arguments.

the standard solution of ignoring them doesn't work, as they just keep posting stuff over and over.

a twit blocker would be great.

MB 3528, RB 1182

[lisamariewillbe 1]

except for the threads in SC and Bonfire I would agree... I hate while trying to learn in the general or safety threads and theirs someone trolling...

Sudsy Fist: i don't think i'd ever say this
Sudsy Fist: but you're looking damn sudsydoable in this

[nitrox100 0]

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Or at least give us a twit filter where we can exclude viewing of messages from chosen users.

Gee, sounds a lot like the post whore filter I recommended a few months back.

[skybytch 259]

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I hate while trying to learn in the general or safety threads and theirs someone trolling...

As I understood it, the intent of the topical forums is to have a place where you don't have to scroll through a bunch of chit chat, trolls and/or people trying to be funny (i.e. "noise") to get to topical information that might be useful (ie "signal"). Unfortunately it seems to me that the larger this community has grown, the more noise we see in places where there should only be signal.

I think it's too bad that many people don't seem to care that they are wasting the time of (and in some cases driving away) not only people who want to learn but also people who have a lot of knowledge that they'd love to share.

[JohnRich 4]

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As I understood it, the intent of the topical forums is to have a place where you don't have to scroll through a bunch of chit chat, trolls and/or people trying to be funny (i.e. "noise") to get to topical information that might be useful (ie "signal"). Unfortunately it seems to me that the larger this community has grown, the more noise we see in places where there should only be signal.

I think it's too bad that many people don't seem to care that they are wasting the time of (and in some cases driving away) not only people who want to learn but also people who have a lot of knowledge that they'd love to share.

Well stated. And a twit filter would allow each of us as individuals to restore this situation back to its desired state, by allowing us to eliminate what we perceive as "noise" from certain people. Yep, it's been suggested before, and at the rate things are going, it will be suggested again in the future. This is something we need.

[sangiro 4]

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Just do it. We all know who the trolls are. Get rid of them. It would make the dropzone.com experience more enjoyable for the rest of us.

The idea is certainly not without merit...

Safe swoops
Sangiro

[Broke 0]

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Just do it. We all know who the trolls are. Get rid of them. It would make the dropzone.com experience more enjoyable for the rest of us.

The idea is certainly not without merit...

Yeah but then you have to get into the, "What constitutes a troll?" Debate. There may be some people who are trollish in some aspects, but they are quite normal and personable in other aspests

Divot your source for all things Hillbilly.
Anvil Brother 84
SCR 14192

[skybytch 259]

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Yeah but then you have to get into the, "What constitutes a troll?" Debate.

Actually, no, he doesn't. He can do whatever he'd like, whenever he'd like.

For he is HH, and this is his swoop pond.

[slotperfect 7]

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There may be some people who are trollish in some aspects, but they are quite normal and personable in other aspests

So what aspects constitute someone being "trollish?"

There are always subjective elements to moderation of anything - internet forums, conference calls, meetings, etc. The key is for those responsible for the moderation to be focused on the "end state" for the gathering in question. In our case, these forums are about skydiving. Yes, there are provisions made for general purpose, political, and associated sport conversations (BASE), but primarily this site exists to forward the sport of skydiving.

From the Forum Rules:

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To participate in our online forums, you must agree to abide by our rules and policies. We encourage open discussion and active debate, but remember you are our guest here. Civil and ethical conduct is required. To this end, you agree that, if asked, you will yield to the requests of the forum moderators or administrators. By posting, you have agreed to follow our rules and policies.

The "Golden Rule" is in effect for discussions on Dropzone.com: Treat others as you would wish to be treated. We ask that you be professional and polite and respect our intention to create a friendly and inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome to participate. We do not wish to censor or control your opinions, but we will ensure that the policies of the board are respected. We reserve the right to delete, edit, or move posts at our discretion.

There are a select few (countable on one hand) posters that intentionally conduct themselves outside the parameters listed above for no other purpose than to stir the pot and disrupt otherwise worthwhile content simply for their own entertainment. A couple of those few conduct themselves exactly the same way in other internet forums as well.

So, personable or not "in other respects," if they are not personable here, they may be asked not to post any more.

Arrive Safely

John

[Broke 0]

Ok I see your point.

I wonder how many people have actually read the forum rules.

Divot your source for all things Hillbilly.
Anvil Brother 84
SCR 14192

[slotperfect 7]

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I wonder how many people have actually read the forum rules.

That's a great question . . . I will toss out a poll in a separate post.

Arrive Safely

John