Quote:
Originally Posted by mental4astro
Mods. Where are you in these discussions?
We see threads closed down, but the offensive posts are left to fester.
Reports are made. PMs and emails sent asking for resolution. Yet the bullies and serial pests persist.
I am not asking for bans. That is last resort. But are words of caution issued privately to these members?
Like Chris, hotspur, I've noticed things change here in the past year. What I was most proud of with this site has changed profoundly. There were very few abusive posts erupting, but now with monotonous regularity. No one who's responded here wants this behaviour to continue, nor the site degrade. We value it too much. I know I do.
Where has the civility gone everyone?
Like I wrote in my original post, I understand misunderstandings happen. But it seems like first resort now is to rip apart.
Silv, I think I see where you are coming from, but I don't see anything normal in trollism. It's poor form, uncivilised and dehumanising. I don't see why it should be tolerated anywhere, here, at work or at home. But bullying is different. Some folks have developed a liking for their personal bunnies, and target them thread after thread, and that is bullying.
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I find these things usually calm down on there own. It's not useful for me or another moderator to step in as soon as someone posts a thread like this because it stops other people having their say.
Leaving it run it's course for a while before stepping in and replying gives others a chance to state their concerns, or give their opinion on things - and we usually end up with some great comments - like these:
Quote:
Originally Posted by erick
You'll be fine, Earl. If anything does arise, it's only words on a computer screen. I agree with Alex, making good use of reporting to the moderators, private messaging and the ignore option is the way to go. Mind you, I've just checked and I have only one name in my ignore list after all these years.
I've seen examples of heated differences of opinion taken offline into email and private messages, resolved and reported back in the thread.
In a community of thousands of registered users and what must be now some hundreds of posters, there will be a whole range of people. Those spoiling for a fight will find other fora much more to their liking - they won't hang around for long.
It is no surprise to me that I find many posters see things differently to me and have a completely different style of communication. That's the world we live in - it my job to learn how to function in that world.
If I'm feeling a bit troubled, I just move on - there are more threads that interest me than I can read and post in.  |
And this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by syousef
I've seen this sort of thing happen on a lot of Internet boards. Technical hobbies unfortunately do seem to attract egos and bullying. The best ones seem to peak then be taken over by trolls. It's the way of things.
It's not just the board. In fact it's not just hobbies. It happens within the scientific community and within other workplaces too. History's full of it.
All you can do is try to maintain your own composure and remain civil, while fully realising that there is a wide gamut of other attitudes. So people will want to be civil. Others contribute to bignote themselves. Others to help. Still others just to stir.
When it all gets too much, say what you have to then walk away and do some observing or planning or spend time with your family. Life's too short to waste on misunderstandings and quite frankly on individuals that have social attitude problems.
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People will have disagreements and differences. In real life you can walk away and choose not to deal with the person again.
On the forum, things can fester for longer because unless the post is deleted, or you put the person on your ignore list, you're always going to have to 'deal' with the person in some way in the future.
We all can understand where you're coming from Alex, and like we've seen in this thread, many people can come up with instances of where they've felt wrong-done-by, or bullied, or pestered, or put-down, or talked down to, or whatever.
If there we NO instances of it, then I'd be VERY surprised. This is real life, not a cartoon or a kindergarten.
We're all human. We all have different points of view, and some people are better at getting on people's nerves than others.
I'm not going to order EVERY post deleted where SOMEONE may get offended. Of course there are instances where it needs deletion - and other times if it's not deleted, then at times all we can do is shrug it off. I've had to deal with it myself on other forums.
Regarding the original posts that led to this, I'll email you rather than post it here because it's better done in private.