Moderation on mp.com

I've noticed a certain poster who joined less than a week ago has had two inane discussions deleted by admins already, and yet he's still on the site.

I'm not here to belittle your moderation in any way, I think this site is great and I understand that it's a huge PITA to moderate a community like this (that's part of my job, too—I feel for you!). But, I'm wondering what it does to constantly delete discussions from an obvious troll, without taking care of the troll himself? Does the troll at least get some kind of a warning message after his stuff gets deleted?

Well they do what they can..there is a certain "Beetleguise" (don't say it 3x), that just keeps coming back with a different name no matter how many times they cancel the account.

The mods can only do so much.

I keep thinking there should be a feature where you 'unfollow' certain folks (yes, like Fb). So, say I find a given user's posts and comments to be utter crap and of zero value to my MP experience (in actuality, it has negatively affected my MP experience, such that my use of the site has drastically decreased as a result of users X, Y, and Z continually starting flame fests on every thread).... anyway, at that point I just simply 'unfollow' said user and thereby never see a single comment or post he makes again on the entire site. Ever.

I'd pay $10, neh, $20 into a fund to make this feature a reality. I used to love MP, now it's barely a step above rockclimbing.com

Erik W wrote:I keep thinking there should be a feature where you 'unfollow' certain folks (yes, like Fb). So, say I find a given user's posts and comments to be utter crap and of zero value to my MP experience (in actuality, it has negatively affected my MP experience, such that my use of the site has drastically decreased as a result of users X, Y, and Z continually starting flame fests on every thread).... anyway, at that point I just simply 'unfollow' said user and thereby never see a single comment or post he makes again on the entire site. Ever. I'd pay $10, neh, $20 into a fund to make this feature a reality. I used to love MP, now it's barely a step above rockclimbing.com

Yeah, that could be a nice feature, although I'm sure it would require a TON of dev work from the mp folks. Something to think about for the future, I guess...

I don't think it's THAT bad, comparing it to RC.com is a low blow ;-) They try really hard, and overall I get so much out of this site/community that it's more than worth the few bad apples.

EDIT to add: Just heard from an admin too (thanks, M!) and it sounds like they have some good reasons for why they handle things in this way. Keep fighting the good fight, mods!

Abram Herman wrote:I've noticed a certain poster who joined less than a week ago has had two inane discussions deleted by admins already, and yet he's still on the site.

It's the interwebz. Without the idiots, it wouldn't exist. Furthermore, if you can't handle or disregard the idiots, you're in the wrong place.

TheBirdman wrote: It's the interwebz. Without the idiots, it wouldn't exist. Furthermore, if you can't handle or disregard the idiots, you're in the wrong place.

I guess they just shouldn't bother moderating at all then, by that logic. ;-)

Exactly.

The person doesn't have an IP address they can block?

About a year ago, I started making a killfile similar to jt512's over at rc.com (here).

In the end, I stopped because I didn't think there would be much interest. It's fairly easy to ignore people.

JLP wrote:I would like a feature that allows only me to electrocute certain users.

I'm willing to agree to this arrangement....mostly because I think that there will be significant overlap between your zap list and mine. For my own gratification though, I will want a notification algorithm so that I know when/who is getting zapped. I guess that makes me a petty, petty person....oh well, I can live with that.

Abram, I noticed the same poster, joined MP on July 24, post three or four comments that were negative or inflamamatory, but the posts subsequently disappeared. I didn't know why, but your assertion that his inane discussions were deleted makes sense. If the moderators/administrators deleted him, GREAT
Does the troll get a warning? My guess is the troll already has a clue that this consequence is coming and just ignores that internal filter mechanism that suggests he's being "socially inappropriate," until the plug gets pulled and the lights go out.

What is the criteria for whole topics being deleted?

I understand the need for moderation, but by the same token, there needs to be room to allow a certain level of "boisterousness" (is that even an official word?) so that a few bad apples don't ruin it for everyone. Just curious what the criteria is.

Maybe flag a topic in red font as a pre-warning to others and that it is in danger of deletion? (I know its easy to make suggestions from the sidelines and way more difficult to actually implement or to even bother with....just thought I'd throw in my 1/2 cent worth)

GMBurns wrote:The person doesn't have an IP address they can block?

I don't moderate forums but IP addresses are dynamic and thus you cannot simply block an IP. Additionally folks these days use multiple devices which all have their own IP's.

Mark, if you're looking for a set of criteria...you're not going to find a single set. It's a judgment call each time.

We're admins are human...each of us has our own personal threshold where we may say it's gone too far, and that threshold may vary month-to-month or day-to-day or even hour-to-hour.

In general, we try hard not to delete, but at the same time given the time we devote to this website, sport, etc., we take some pride in trying to keep things tolerable to most.

Thanks for understanding.

Leo- Thanks for the response. Understandable. Its mainly just the curiousity of looking for a thread later on and wondering WTF happened in the inter-rim that got it yanked.

Just feel like I must've missed out on something juicy :)