Calm Down

[dingbat]

I've jut been reading up on the last couple of days posting and one thread in particular got quite heated. Now I don't want to be a spoilsport but message boards are really not the place to launch personal attacks. An extremely well-known organisation had an enormous amount of trouble last year when things got out of hand. It started out with a bit of a squabble and ended up with the police being involved in a still on-going and extensive investigation. That message board service is now virtually unusable for its true purpose, nobody dares use their own name and lurkers with bad intent abound.

Now I'm not suggesting the good folk on this forum will take things so far, but then nobody expected what eventually happened in 'the other place' either. The simplest thing is just to think before you submit a post.

Does it say exactly what you think it says? Are there any personal comments? To what purpose? There really is no need to call somebody an idiot; you can challenge their comments without getting aggressive. And if somebody is trying to wind you up, why take the bait? Banter is fine, but wait until you've established some kind of rapport with the object of your wit.

There. My two penn'orth.

 

[supersparks]

very true


what was this forum?

 

[dingbat]

I don't think it would help matters to name the name. Suffice to say the forum belongs to an organisation that probably all of the developed world has heard of. Even with their status and means it became almost impossible to police the forum effectively without screening every single message before publication with the result that the helpful regulars simply fell silent through frustration and a desire not to become the next target.

 

[supersparks]

ok, but what happened to bring the police into it?

 

[dingbat]

Mostly racist comments, deemed sufficient to incite racial hatred/violence. Once a staple of Bernard Manning's act, now illegal, apparently. The individual concerned, having come off the worse from a number of vitriolic on-board disputes decide to flame the boards with anything offensive that came to mind. With multiple log-in identities and multiple repeat posts s/he managed to dominate the entire board for days on end. Not a pretty sight.

 

[Big_Spark]

I've seen things get heated on forums, and been involved in a few disagreements, in the 8 or more years of using them, but I have never heard of the Police being called in in the manner you describe.

I have known the Police involved INDIRECTLY, but never directly. Man that would need to be really bad to get that far. The Admin and Mods must have really let things go a long way for it to get that bad.

It is a crying shame, I can be an argumentative git on occasion ( I don't need anyone to tell me that ), but sometimes there seems to be people who simply pick a fight with someone for no real reason. If the Mods and Admins on the forum do not pick up on it straight away then it can iterate into something ugly farely rapidly, and it tends to destroy the whole board.

The victims of such attacks can be their own worst enemy as the more they defend themselves they are accused of fanning the flames, and due to being a "face" on the board, often bear the brunt of responsibility for the problem.

I have seen a number of sites where a disagreement between two can then involve hundreds on the site and then things go quiet as the "club" splits up into two camps that hate each other after that.

We should all try to avoid the conflict...sometimes I fail in my endeavours and fall prey to the red mist..I think I may have done that a few times in the last couple of day I do not intend to let it happen again.

 

[dingbat]

It is very easy to take offence and react aggressively, or thoughtlessly. The only way to cope with attacks is to alert the mods then clam up. Simply walk away. Trust me, I know how hard it is at times. It's often made worse when well-meaning third parties try to pour oil on the waters - exactly like pub arguments that get out of hand. It's because of my experience at this other site that I will never again use my real name on a message board. Some people ended up feeling in real personal danger - remember all the advice you hear about internet chat rooms?

The police are still involved - racist slurs are taken very seriously and the site was almost closed down as a result. But it doesn't matter what has happened elsewhere; let's just make sure it doesn't happen here, eh?

 

[plugwash]

any forum that needs an alert moderators function shows that the moderators are not paying proper attention to the forum

 

[dingbat]

Very few websites pay people to be full-time moderators. And with the number and frequency of posts here some days it would be a full-time job. Besides, if everybody behaves themselves there should be no need - the panic button is there for those times when the kiddies come out to play.

 

[plugwash]

it's one of the symptoms of a forum not controlled by it's users

the owner of the server is afraid to let the well known and respected regular users who would read all the posts anyway have moderator power

but also he doesn't have the time to (or the money to pay people to) fully monitor the forum himself

the best forums are those moderated by people who actually use them and really care about the community

 

[Big_Spark]

Dingbat, I can certainly understand your reluctance to let people know your real identity after such an experience, but I feel, and this is only for me personaly, that I will be more thoughtful of my behaviour if people know my name.

OK it can backfire, I have seen it backfire, and I have certainly seen the kind of racist comments you refer to, although I sincerely hope we are not discussing the same site without knowing it. Racism must never be tolerated in any way shape or form, I have sacked Guys in the past for "off the cuff" comments.

It is a simple solution to say report it to a mod, clam up and walk away, but I have seen situations where this has occured, and that only fanned the abuse and the arguments even more. Accusations of "grass", coward and numerous other insults banded about.

One Guy I know was so abused at one forum 4 years ago, the lies told by an Admin and Mod of the forum have lasted to this day, and they have resulted in his banningfrom other forums simply because he made the mistake of initially fighting his corner, then deciding it wasn't worth it and walked away.

Later it was made worse as two "friendly" admins of the forum convinced him to return, and against his better judgment he did. It then transpired that it was all a set up to attack him again. The so called "freindlies" denied being involved in the return, I have seen the emails, there was not a single doubt as to their part, consequently he left a second time, but the idiots on the forum followed him to a second BB and started there, they managed to convince enough that he was no good that it all started all over again. He almost had a nervous breakdown as a result.

There are still a number of sites he dare not go near as a couple of people just have some kind of psychotic attachment to him and will not leave it alone.

His website was taken down, his own BB was removed, a lot of "freinds" stopped being touch as they did not want to be caught up in it.

I will never hide behind annonymity, I am me, not perfect, warts and all. These people who do this are sad, they have no life outside of the **** mags under their beds and the PC beside them, I do not feel anything for them, but I will not hide because of them either.

My friends experience made me determined to never hide from these people.

 

[supersparks]

VERY well said FWL
it is a shame that there are such fools in this world, but there are
i still want to know this forum for the benifit of my own forum not becoming like it...

 

[Big_Spark]

That is one advantage to IP logs. Forum software is becoming increasingly secure and pro-active, and I will do all I can to help that process along.

I'll make no bones on my BB, feel free to post, feel free to disagree, advocate illegal activety, make racist or discriminatory comments or start to make sustained personal attacks, and you will never post there again (obviously not you supersparks)

Be nice to see you there actually, your knowledge and experience would be a great mine of information.

 

[supersparks]

i would have joined
but
"The administrator has banned your email address. To contact the administrator click "

 

[Big_Spark]

Do you not have a none hotmail address? It will be private.

You can use your hotmail address for the publicly veiwable address if you want to, but for registrations it will not accept Hotmail.

Alternatively, email me and I will create the account for you, then you can simply change the password to something you can remember.