Red Alert !! Red Alert !!

"I AM better than him, and so are the vast majority of the members here. Heck, even YOU are better than he is!"

thanks JD. :)

is that as in "out on the streets for a living....."?

I don?t agree or disagree with your first point. I think only time will tell if troll capping is overused.

To an ISP underage is just another customer he pay?s fee?s like everyone else. I don?t believe that any ISP is going to view this as big enough threat. For example, in the news lately some US ISP?s have been saying that sites (Google, Amazon) should pay for the bandwidth users consume by using them. It may be different in the US but here in OZ, my ISP seeks to isolate customers from one another (for security mainly).

I agree with your third point, no-one likes to be ignored. While some people can work well with little or no recognition (above social recognition) my point was that opinion-oriented people will be more adversely affected by being ignored (or belittled).

I know that stargazer rased this but I would like to know as well.

?Over all I do agree with you so: reverse, contrareverse, I don't no.?

Do you mean ?I don?t know? or ?I don?t, no?. It?s a bit confusing after a double negative (I know I?m nitpicking).

Your method of alienating seems rather negative. how about doing something positive.

Rather than putting a dunce cap on the user (who ever they maybe) you could promote your good threads, with something like a shout out, have look below for example.

http://www.shoutwire.com/comments/4463/My_God_is_Better_than_Your_God

Here in this site if someone likes the post they can add a shout out. If you take this positive approach, people can still post there threads that offend regulars, but if it doesn't get many shout outs they can visibly see that they are wasting there time, without feeling attacked or picked on or singaled out.

The reason less intelligent users post such garbage is to get attention and/or slander others. If the post is not there for anyone to see or reply to, then there is no glory in posting such remarks since it cannot get any reply. However, if the post is deleted, then it infers that the admins/moderators ultimately have taken notice (which is many times the desire of these types of people). This translates to more attention = do it again, and again, and again... So there is no single real solution and a combination of all would be the best. Putting the Troll Cap on that user and then deleting the posts would be good, that way every body knows that that person is a complete and utter moron. And it also does not allow the person to revel in their pseudo spray painted message on the "wall". They can no longer say, "Look [idiot] friend! I did that..."

The best way is to ignor the person all together and remove the posts, as well as any further posts by similar users. Also, please please please... Do not have full blown discussions about it afterward!!!! That is even worse! And I suggest that this entire thread be destryed as well. Since now he/she can come back and say, "Look what havok I started... two months ago, and they are still talking about it!!! hahaha!"

Unfortunately few people cannot "hold back" on the desire to reply to such posts in hopes to slander that person in return. The few return posts becomes the fuel to the fire.

Imagine if you had a great discussion (such as, all the comments before and after mine), and the same complete idiot does his/her work again in this thread... If none were to reply at all. That person would begin to think that no one can see their posts or even care if they can, get no thrill from it, and simply go away.

...

Not familiar with that browser, the link works in IE 6 SP2 and FireFox version 1.0.7 on a windows OS. It should also work in safari no problems.

Your level of cookie blocking could be to high. If your firewall is blocking the cookie's, that might be cause the problem. SBSD teatime could also be blocking cookies. Your virus software could also be blocking cookies.

The site might require the latest java VM run-time environment to be installed, I'm not to sure cause I use the MS Java VM run-time dll that is not installed with the OS.

Here is the root site.

http://www.shoutwire.com/

;)

they have up at Shuswap here in BC.

[ residents of shuswap area have to teach children to watch for the 'skeeters, or they'll get carried away impaled and never be seen again. :) ]

did you know that Shuswap Mosquitos are able to use the lake as a runway? These things can land on water or on dry land.

Three classes of member eh?

1st class users

Top e-personalities go here.

2nd class users

Average e-personalities go here.

3rd class users

Lower class e-personalities go here

So how does it work? Like this?

The lower class can achieve normal class by atoning for the 3rd classness, but to be one of the top or one of the best you have to be "well liked" and "popular" or just "popular".

And maybe, the top class of the e-society can coach the lower class of the e-society on correct e-interaction, maybe offer e-counselling services for "put out" e-personalities (for a small fee of course).

Anyway, when is TR going to go multilingual? So the foreign e-personalities might be able t migrate to the e-society but can feel more comfortable here cause it's in there own e-language.

Are all the top class e-personality, white western european IT people?

Are all the lower class e-citizens of the TR "newbies" or people you are individuals and don't act or react like the e-majority?

Would the class system be popularity based, i.e the person with the most contacts?

What e-status to you have to achieve to make it to the top?

Are the top class automatically exempt form have to have a dunce cap?

Who do the lower classes have to model them selves on to make it to the first class?

Man. I should do some work, It's starting to stack up.

;)

And you're right. Did mean: ... I don't know.

Rush, rush, rush, no excuse but ... (should kick myself in the a$$) :D:D:D

Rob

Ok. I am a member of many forums and in most cases, a member who flames another user or trolls is normally kicked out of the forum and the user is banned from entering the forum again. In this case, I think having an "Ignore User" button is a lovely idea. By having such a button, TR users get to choose whether they want to read a particular users posts or not. In the case of this troll, I'd say "bring it on" baby... put the button in...

I don't see the button...

Freaking out over so-called trolls is every bit as annoying as the trolls themselves.

I've seen this in other places... the people worried about some "horrible troll" end up being ten times as disruptive as the troll themselves.

A good case could be made that anti-trolling is a form of trolling itself given the disruptions it causes.

Simply fix it up so that a given reader can ignore the messages of a given author.

It is THAT simple. Trying to figure out what is "trolling" or not is a form of thought-policing that simply never works. There is no objective standard. It is all subjective fuzzy opinion as to what constitutes trolling.

Anti-trolling campaigns lead to the end of the usefulness of the forum or chatroom or whatever since the label of "troll" soon is used to stifle dissenting ideas or ideas differing from the accepted dogma.

A simple "ignore" feature, activated by the reader and not the administrator is the only sensible thing to do.

An aside...

Personally, I wonder if people these days have any visceral understanding of the ideals of freedom given the huge amount of effort people exert in arguing which form of police-state-type environment they are going to impose instead of resisting the police-state mentality entirely.

You just sicked Beth onto him didn't you? :)

She's someone I wouldn't want to cross at all, ever and she comes across as [b]So Nice[/b] :x

Col ]:)

Of course I would have to be the first one to get it and try it on. Also if you where to hard code my site rating to 666 of the top 100 that wouldn't go astray either. :x

But since we are in the process of nominating total ID10T's how about this one?

https://www.techrepublic.com.com/5213-6341-0.html?id=4314182&redirectTo=%2f1320-22-20.html

The questions that it asks are at best comparable to a 10 year old and the answers given by this one are downright wrong and misleading. Like one who asked a question about Media Center and this ones response was to buy new hardware. :(

And I will not go into that ridiculous gelatinous mess that it is expounding as some form of Drive or storage media and asking for donations for his brilliant ideas. :D

Col ]:)

Come on you're a New Zealander and you expect those comments all the time. I even got honored with an Honorary PHD in the [b]Erogenous Zones of Sheep[/b] by a Pommie Peer, [i] it took ages to clean up the mess that I made by laughing so hard that I chocked on what I was drinking at the time.[/i] :(

But the thread that I was disappointed about being pulled was started by the Infamous [b]Guru of Dos GOD for short[/b] and it appears that at least one person took offense to the contents about the current Spam Problem and one particular word caused the entire discussion to just disappear. Seems that it's perfectly acceptable to extol the virtues of female chest enlargement but not the enlargement of certain male parts. :D

Anyway I've been called just about everything over the time I've been visiting TR and it's all water off a ducks back to me except that number 1 Site Rating as it a real pain in the rear end so many people think that all they need do is e-mail you and you'll drop everything travel half way around the world to fix a 30 second problem. I'd settle for a site rating of 666 and never give it a second thought. :p

Col ]:)

You forgot to mention me in that post. :(

Col ]:)

I think the latter - you'll just be giving him the attention he seeks. I'd suggest some sort of policing mechanism as is suggested in other posts, where people seeing inflammatory messages can alert you, and the offender's comments are hidden or deleted, as well as his account being inactivated. I realize that only stops him until he gets a new yahoo account from which to create his TR account...

Aside from policing, which is already being done to some extent, is there a vulgarity filter built into the posts submission process? Again, I realize that it's awfully easy just to misspell the words the filter would be looking for...but even the obvious misspellings could be included in the filter. We've all seen them.

I do it about you all the time and Beth in her calf length Black Leather high heals, Black Leather Dominatrix suit and whip is constantly checking out your postings just waiting to pounce when you put so much as put a toe out of place. :p

Sorry I couldn't resist that one, well I could actually but it's so much fun typing it in and thinking of how Beth will react. :D

Pity that we can not see her face when she reads this. :(

Yes Beth I'm a [b]Bad Bad Bad boy[/b] and deserve to be punished. But as your whip will not reach here you can demote me to a site rating of 666. :p

Col ]:)

But those [b]Terrible US Soaps[/b] make it impossible for me to watch the TV all day! I've even run out of DVDs to watch after all you can only watch the Complete Star Trek so many times before it starts becoming a TAD repetitive. :(

I don't want to work 14 + hours per day it's just that Day Time TV forces me to, so that I can part way retain what little sanity I have left. :p

Col ]:)

I just loved the attack for your link to his question and then his praise [i]ur a real techy person.[/i] :)

It seems that your damed if you do and dammed if you don't. :p

Col ]:)

why not let the poster know what percentage of the members in the forum have hidden his replies. This way he'll get the message that no one is interested in reading his comments.

lets them just know how many people they got to and they can make it some kind of game.

That, or they are able to KNOW why no one is answering them and create a new account.

Leaving them to wonder is a much better punishment!

we can't see your posts when you have the hat on, of course! (silly boy!) ;\

My experience with this kind of forum is more on the internet gaming side than in the techie type forums, but I have to agree with NZ_Justice that censorship is a slippery slope. Yes, high temp flames are easy to spot and delete for the moderators, but there's a line out there between that and valid opinions that don't agree with someone else's. Who is to say where that line is?

I'm all for letting the moderators just delete the obvious stuff without fanfare (as long as they can handle the load). People posting flames and inappropriate stuff are looking for the thrill of attention and the community's outrage.

If you don't give it to them, they'll just find another board to bug. If you do give it to them they'll keep it up.

Go to any finance board (like on Yahoo!) and watch how the conservatives and liberals fight it out on boards like IBMS. They get a lot of attention, and they like it. And they keep doing it (no moderation until it becomes a court case, and yes I've seen that happen on at least one occasion).

some people just take themselves way too seriously, which is often a sign of others not taking them seriously enough IRL?

I would be easy on a poster after only making two posts. Let them learn the "lay of the land" before they judge.

"police state". Sounds like another CA resident to me, or maybe Seattle?

It is just a fact, being "on-topic" in a misc section is not acceptable!

Trolls are the obnoxious ones that have nothing to add and aren't at least funny to watch.

Filtering or Sensoring is not a good idea, unless his replies are Criminal.

I haven't seen the thread, but it's certainly well within TR's right - if not their obligation - to keep material that's inappropriate to these discussions hidden. It's just unfortunate that some individuals are pitiful enough to selfishly do something that's offensive or off topic just because it gives them some sort of juvenile thrill.

I think it's a shame that organizations like TR try to provide a community, and then wind up spending resources trying to protect both their users and of course themselves from the rare but vocal individual who can't control themselves. It's unfortunate but to be expected given the 'human animal' and the anonymity of the internet.

For my part I'm a quiet observer, rarely wading in on discussions here at TR. But I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the folks at TR for providing this community, and to thank them for all their hard work that has made this work so very well so far - and hopefully into the future as well.

Im an Admin for a forum with some 50,000 rowdy active members, we are using VBull 3, and while "coventry" as you discribe it is useful, they trip to it rather quickly.

IP banning is also of limited use, since so many trolls are on a dynamic IP, or simply employ a proxy

in short, there is nothing for it vigilance, detective work and reasoning with the little miscreants. That and a superior wit :p

Greetings,

Not personally being an IT professional (I'm in healthcare and run a medical practice, act as my LAN admin though with IT support) I usually don't comment on TR forums. But every industry, medical specialty and niche has its forums. We have flamers, including those that post too frequently, too voiciferously, or out of proportion to inherent value in forums I monitor. It's a problem. These people seem to derive some odd (inflated?) pleasure from seeing their own words posted in cyberspace.

But hiding posts by a flamer seems only a temporary fix. He or she will surely figure out sooner or later that nobody else is receiving those posts, and won't know why so will accuse the forum admin of censorship or worse.

If someone's posts are perceived as inappropriately annoying, offensive, or unprofessional, I personally favor a single warning post from forum admin, followed (if necessary) by temporary suspension of forum list participation privileges. The "third strike" option would be a more protracted or permanent ban from participation (but of course a simple workaround is for the flamer to register with a different username/email address).

Even in my medical specialty (laser refractive surgery) there are certain chat forums with flamers. We have to gently and periodically remind these folks to keep discussions professional rather than personal. Sometimes it helps to point out that others use the forums to teach and/or learn, but not to criticize or rant.

Hope this helps.

Those are my [b]good[/b] points...

Bwahahahahaha!

I?m all for free speech, however there needs to be standards set for each forum. There could be a flamer?s forum out there some ware on the internet.

It like your getting an invitation to her a speaker you like in a local auditorium and you go to the event and after all are in to auditorium the security guards lock all the doors so no one can leave the place and someone else (Flamer asshole) is the speaker and you, along with the others (how feel the same as you do about the person speaking) are forced to her him speak.

I think the answer is just to conceal his postings. Even if he gets another account, we can just keep on concealing his postings as the show up. Evenly he will get a clue, as to what going on.

Here is my addendum.

The Troll Cap could serve as a limit to the amount of posts a troll can place per thread.

Sort of like a cutoff valve or a restriction. You could make this automatic or just have this as a user submission. I think flagging the person as a troll is still a good idea, just make sure they know that their posts are about to be limited as well.

Thats the best Idea Ive heard. The only issue is that how would the decision be made to do this? and how long would it take to put into action. I believe a squelch or ignore button seems easier so each individual can squelch them for that disscussion. kind like what these other people are saying.

I love when a forum or chat has the ignore button because you can rid yourself of annoying people, if only life was that simple.
I think its an excellent idea to add the ignore button.

This person is probobly a quiet little nobody hiding in his/her parent's basement playing on the internet looking for a way to wind you up ... AND YOU FELL FOR IT !!

Don't give them any more attention then you have already I relize that it may get frustrating having to put up with it but ignore them and don't reply is the best response

Like children you should only give attention to positive action's ... if you really can't punish them with time out ,or grounding them(and you can't) then ignore is your only recourse

Great idea. Wish I could do the same with some of the trolls in several other forums

I run two forums, of course very much smaller, but they are game forums. Game forums as many of you know have trolls everywhere and that is the only solution we could come up with. We used to just kick ban IP and delete the accounts, but they were always able to get back in and start all over. So we put each one into a user group of their own and then when they posted, only they could read their own posts, but they apparently are unaware, because they have never left or stopped the spamming. It surprises me though that they haven't figured it out, for one good reason. No one ever replies back to them to shut up and go away. I guess some people are just too ignorant to believe that they could be suckered into thinking they are still a part of their community.

Thanks Jim C.

I quite like the idea posted about the points system
Sure this is an open forum, but if there are any techie questions come up then maybe the questioner could rate the answers, say 1-5.
I,m sure we dont all know all the answers to all the probs we find, We could all pool are knowledge to help each other

I think SHMBO car will be ready in a few weeks time as there is a lot of work to do fixing up the "Professional Repair." :)

Actually what is left of the outer shell looks quite nice now even if it's bare metal. The bloke doing the work should have most of the panels replaced by now or new ones made up and tacked on in place just to make sure that things look perfect before he welds everything together and then paints it properly. :O

But what's worse is currently I don't have a car here all my staff stole my Mercedes and left their company cars here [b]Mongrels![/b] They know that I just will not drive a new car as I don't like them and as they are advertised here as [b]Recycled Pet Food Containers[/b] I prefer to walk. Actually they are attempting to give me the weekend off so I only have couple of things to do and it's relatively quite. :(

I'm just not sure how to discipline them all for this. :)

Oh I forgot that's much better now I forgive you. :p

Col ]:)

that way you do not censor, and people can read the troll's comments if they wish, (I do not know why they would want to tho) and leave it up to each individual to killfile those posters they do not like.
It also prevents unneccessary flames, of which I have seen quite a few- and personally I find flamers more annoying then trolls. Why? Because flamers are sincere, and think they are doing us all a favor by ripping those people they do not like. In other words, they think they are God's gift to forums, or the forum police.I cannot think of anyone more arrogant then a flamer.And people that flame trolls, well, what can I say, than they are doing exactly what the troll wants them to do.
Personally , I find "underages" comments exactly that- immature and potentially annoying, I do not let him bother me. I have seen way better trolls then that. I have seen some outstanding trolls that had me riproaring with laughter bacause they would approach forum topics with a sense of humour-which very few people seem to have when they are discussing something that is dear to them or when they run into an opposite opinion.

Somewhere there was a link to another Discussion about some one complaining that their IP was blocked and that they where not whoever.

They then asked what something was and you replied with a URL and telling them [b]Goggle is your Friend.[/b] To which they took offense and then further down the page you offered some other help and you where thanked for it and told what a [b]Great Tech[/b] you where. [i] of course the rest of us here know better. :p[/i]

But I can't even find that link now. I'm actually at another computer as I killed my NB last night after reading one of Oz's posts in the Friday Yuk apparently lemonade and keyboards don't mix well together now I've got to replace the NB's keyboard and maybe then I'll be allowed back in the lounge room again instead of stuck in this horrible air conditioned room surrounded by computers with no TV. :o

I'll have to do as I've been telling [b]SHMBO[/b] and run in an Aerial cable into this room and connect up the DVD, VCR to the tuner card in this Desktop so I can escape her SOAPS and still watch what's worth watching and switch off when there is nothing worthwhile on. I only took 10 years to run some CAT5E cable through the place so you can't rush these things. :D

Col ]:)

https://www.techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=8&threadID=189260&messageID=1949172

Somehow it ended up at the bottom of the page when I clicked on Post A Reply. :(

Col [:(

I was instructed to make up a Web Page recently by a New Zealand Citizen living in AU. I was given a basic outline to work within but was allowed a free hand on the main content. While she loved it some of the people that she sent it to took offense so I was asked to tone it down quite a lot but retain the original for those that she wanted to send it to. :p

The Censored one is here

http://tinyurl.com/adrky

I'm not going to post the RRRR one but if anyone wants to see a copy they can contact me through the Peer Mail and I'll send then the Link. :D

And I didn't say anything about [b]SHEEP![/b] :p

Col ]:)

Hiya,

I say post his e-mail address for everyone to see and e-mail him directly while also setting up his e-mail address to receive ALL POSTED REPLIES in essence slamming his e-mail box and letting him feel the "love".....I have a personal HATE for spammers that invade either my e-mail box directly or repeatedly post to forums I participate in when they have been told by many members no one is interested in your stupid affiliate driven garbage website. I make it a personal mission in life to trace their e-mail address back to what ever company(ies) they might be using for e-mails either directly or covertly and I notify those companies of the spamming transgression and threaten to sue their company directly if they don't bounce the person. I also fully trace back their actual website and notify that company (even all the way back to the original affiliation company) and notify them in the same manner. This usually gets the person's account/membership terminated thus making every cent they spent and every minute too totally wasted and thrown in the trash. In other words I cyber stalk them and make them "feel my love"....This also causes them to have to recreate all of their original work with new hosting/affiliation companies and have to redo every bit of link posting they did.

I am mean and I mean it.

Alisa

Hiya,

I have been reading over some of the other postings on this and it has been suggested that this idiot is doing his inappropriate postings on his employers time using his employers equipment and connections for inappropriate usage. I say trace back his e-mails to his companies and send them some of his inappropriate postings and his e-mail address that he uses (and even if possibl his IP address) so that they will be able to take appropriate action against him. That will teach him a valuable lesson. Idiots should suffer the consequences of their own stupidity. Either he will be put on notice by the company or fired outright (depending on their policies).

That will teach him good!

Alisa

I have only seen SPAMMERS get ejected up until the point of Underage getting booted in the last few years. There may have been others, but nothing I have heard about.

This shows that TR is NOT having to spend a lot of time on this issue.

If you go into the specific tech discussions, you will not find all the "IM/chatroom banter" that you dislike so much. If you CHOOSE to go into the Misc section then it is more of a free-for-all. Read what you want, join in where you want, and have as good of a day as you want.

If you really take a look around, very few people are asking TR to do anything about anyone (accept make the pages load FASTER!!!!)

If your around more often, you will see that in tech life you CAN be a person as well as a tech, and not have to be thinking and talking tech every minute of your day. The "chattier" people are not having closed conversations that you are not allowed to join in. Feel free to join in where ever you may, and even start a discussion about things that interest YOU.

Adding a personal touch does not take away the very valid tech points of this board.

"Come on in, the waters fine!" :D

Childish flamers are just an annoyance. What is much more difficult to handle are expert-level users that monitor beginner-level newsgroups and humiliate posters of basic questions.

Mate, your e-personality is awesome . Every time I read this thread, that I am replying too, it makes me smile. :)

I would like to buy your e-personality an e-drink. Do you know any good or bad e-pubs? :p

But regarding what you have said about using common sense, I would have to ask, whose sense is most common?

Doesn't the server have the capability to block certain e-mail addresses?

intentionally give wrong answers, some that are potentially damaging.

Is seriously way better, It makes more sense and is way more funny. :D :^O

Is it the correct English to say "way more funny"? Should it be "even funnier"? Or perhaps something else should be said? But what?

Was it the animal rites group that found it offensive? They shouldn't have, it sounds like she was treating the sheep very nice. :p

Is it "rites or "rights"?

Thanks for the great link Col.

but I still dont believe that an ISP will act on a complaint about a single customer.

Not to an individual's attributes. Just thought I?d clarify myself a bit.

She was very upset by the wording and was horrified that I was making it Public when actually I only sent it to the recipient and she passed it on to everyone. :)

Now the Infamous Mary M is quacking in her shoes too scared to post it to anyone at all. :D

I still didn't say anything about sheep either as that was mostly all the original persons idea I just added a bit to it to make it funnier. :p

But judging by the reaction that it got I'm not posting it anywhere where someone might take offense. :O

Col ]:)

Stop using that obscene 4 letter word W**K! :p

Col ]:)

Awsome idea i think every long standing forum could use a ignore this user button. Trolls can be so anoying. It seems that some of them have nothing better to do then make people feel bad about themselves. If you go on the WoW forums alot you would know what I'm ranting about

The Troll Room
This is a small room with passages to the east and south and a forbidding hole leading west. Bloodstains and deep scratches (perhaps made by an axe) mar the walls.
A nasty-looking troll, brandishing a bloody axe, blocks all passages out of the room.

Your sword has begun to glow very brightly.
The troll swings his azxe, but it misses.

>swing sword
Whoosh!
The troll swings, you parry, but the force of his blow knocks your sword away.

>get sword
Taken.

The troll hits you with a glancing blow, and you are momentarily stunned.

>kill troll with sword
The troll is staggered, and drops to his knees.
The troll slowly regains his feet.

Understood what you are saying, (now).

I don't look at status like that until it is pointed out, so that is not the way I took the discussion. I am a firm believer of people earning their keep, and being judged based on who and what they are.

Do I judge people? Every day of my life.

Do I exlcude people from my life because they are not worthy of being a part of my life? Every day of my life.

Am I a snob? Only according to a few on here it seems.... ;\

Have I told a few certian members here that they are mental? More than once! Will I do it again? More than once! :D

Life is too short to waste it on people that don't measure up. Has nothing to do with what they look like, it DOES have everything to do with what they ARE like.

The gene pool needs some chlorine!~ ;\

I think it's better to stab him in the heart. Then rip off his head. Then drag his lifeless corpse through broken glass. Then draw and quarter him. Then stick his head on a stick outside the city walls :)

Why not hide his replies from him so he thinks he is no longer getting through and he quits. However as this goes out over the net he may see what is being done either way?

This remindes me of the old cb radio days. You get a@# holes in any crowd. Let me know your 20 good buddy and I'll pin your coax!!!!!!!!

JD about your second point

[i]"Do I judge people? Every day of my life."[i]

We all make judgements about the people we meet, whats important is a) that we don?t make judgements based on class (or race, religion, ETC?) b) that we don?t force our opinions on others (just to clarify this, sharing an opinion is OK, IMO).

Unfortunately these malcontents are watching to see just what you will do. They use bots thru proxies to do the posting. Then they use a valid account to watch the fun. In chats you could tell the most likely suspects by seeing who was chatting and who was just watching. This has been a problem since the early BBSes...

I have drifted in and out of chats and forums these past 20 years E_Caroline and I have found one thing to be true. That being you will always have to sift thru the chaff. In a good forum, if you ask a question you get help. I have been here several time under different accounts (got to remember to be more careful with my account info)and I have always got the information I came for. One liners I can stand. Abusive posts and flooding I can not. :-)

I know I wouldn't want to be accused of being "off-topic, blatantly inflammatory, or otherwise inappropriate or vapid" - that would include my best stuff .

I didn't see the offensive posts but am concerned about how the decision would be made. I assume that the censors would have to publish an appropriate behaviour list ?

What about a squelch feature where a user could create an ignore list. Everybody could choose to ignore anybody they wanted and wouldn't see the posts from people they 'squelch'. Wouldn't take too much programming.

Just a reminder about us who live under the bridge.

the youpers are a breed all of their own, and we seldom admit that they are there!

To outsiders, we just tell them it is just a myth, like "nessie". You see fuzzy pictures, but no real proof! :D

"your more likely to see BigFoot!"

which is why I had said at the beginning of the post [i]"I don't look at status like that until it is pointed out, so that is not the way I took the discussion.[b] I am a firm believer of people earning their keep, and being judged based on who and what they are."[/b][/i]

I would hope everything else I wrote also indicated that?

Ending point is, discrimination is NOT illegal, nor is it bad provided it is based on WHO someone is, not WHAT someone is. What color someones skin is, is a real STUPID reason to hate them. The way they act around other people [b](like Fake James)[/b] IS a reason to dismiss them.

--Added in--

About FORCING your opinion on others. No, you can't FORCE your opinions on others. But if you have ANY convictions about your own beliefs, you will not continue to associate with people who are in direct contridiction of your opinions.

There is NOTHING wrong with chosing not to be around certain people. They have their "freedom" of choice and speech, and I have my freedom to not tolerate them in my daily life. Wacky "freedom" people forget that they have the right to say things, but people CAN and SHOULD hold them accountable for anything they say and do. I also have the right to not listen to their free speech.

I vote for a "Hide replies from this user" button. I've seen it and used it on other forums and I love it.

I don't like the idea of Admins deciding if I should see replies or not though.