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| Trolling |
| 2007-10-12 |
| We've had a little problem lately with trolls, some old, some new, infesting the Burg. Consider this post as a dose of Kwell for the problem. The mods will troll-dump anyone who spams. We'll troll-dump anyone who's main purpose on the Burg is to pick fights and antagonise others. We'll troll-dump anyone who forgets how to behave decently in a civilized, on-line society. Some behaviors that will lead to troll-dumping include repeated insults to other posters, hijacking of posts and comments, and antagonizing others. We do not troll-dump people who have divergent opinions and express those opinions in a reasonable and respectful way. Divergent opinions are helpful to all of us, they challenge us to defend what we think. Troll-dumping is different than redacting. We occasionally remove (redact) comments that violate our policies, but a person who is redacted may continue to post (remembering why their one post was redacted). The mods discuss troll-dumping at the Moditorial Ranch-n-Day Spa. We monitor the situation and agree on when to pull the trigger. We try not to act precipitously but when pushed to our limit, we'll act. Regulars should know that we won't put up with trolling. It may take a few days to deal with borderline cases, but we will indeed act. A private e-mail to a mod is very helpful in alerting us to a problem. And trolls should understand that Rantburg is not a place to poop. If your main goal in life is to antagonize others, go draw a cartoon of Mahommad. That should do it. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #62 How long did Aris last this time? Like a week or something. Too bad. Heck, I'm even man enough (or stupid enough) to admit that I thought 3-4 yrs ago he was good for a point here or there. I even thought he was fairly bright about playin' devil's ad. However, after observing his infantile reasoning this past week, along w/not answering valid challenges, & bringing up huge non-sequitors (i.e. chinese exclusion policy, & muslim converts to christianity still being murderers, lol) made me remember that for the 10% of validity he brought to a discussion there was the 90% of non-sensical crap that came w/it thus making the aforementioned 10% not worth bearing. So goodbye again Aris, I used to think you we're just an *sshole, albeit an intellectual one. Now I'm certain you're just the former. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2007-10-12 23:11 |
| #61 So who's Pheager...Aris or Mike Neither. It's a pest from the Chicago area. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-10-12 20:44 |
| #60 My deepest thanks to the mods, but one question still remains. For me anyway. It's something near and dear to my heart. What about actual trolls? Is there a height restriction for this ride? |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2007-10-12 20:43 |
| #59 While we're on the topic, count me among the mods who have grown fed up lately with a) tendentious comments by people who just HAVE to have the last word in a thread (despite having posted dozens of comments that day) b) snide pooping comments. You know who you are, and some of you are already troll listed. c) 'clever' trolls who use umpteen 'nyms &/or umpteen IP addresses to play these games. d) guests here who issue belligerent challenges and demand, DEMAND, an answer. Who indeed strut proudly about claiming vindication if they a) don't get one that night or b) don't like the one they got or c) are too stupid to see that they did indeed get answered. Like Fred, Dave and Steve have already said: knock it off. |
| Posted by: lotp 2007-10-12 20:17 |
| #58 Thank you. And like Steve has said: pick one nym-- ONE-- and stick to it. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-10-12 19:58 |
| #57 Done |
| Posted by: Thomas Woof 2007-10-12 19:56 |
| #56 Knock it off. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-10-12 19:55 |
| #55 they c me rollin, patrolin, they spamin IMA KICKIN |
| Posted by: U Wanna b A Mood 2007-10-12 19:43 |
| #54 I know you're probably surprised, but I welcomed it. Easy for you to say, but I got them bad erupting Teefes. |
| Posted by: Thomas Woof 2007-10-12 19:37 |
| #53 A while back I registered at DailyKos and DU because I wanted to honestly debate their take on the war against radical Islam and other issues. Not only was it very difficult to post criticisms because of the layout of those sites but my comments - well-reasoned and delivered nonconfrontationally - were soon deleted. Aris can go and complain to them about the unfairness of their "guest speaker" policy (assuming there is a subject in which he is in disagreement with them). |
| Posted by: Grumenk Philalzabod0723 2007-10-12 18:49 |
| #52 ...the frigging hammer |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-10-12 18:45 |
| #51 I know you're probably surprised, but I welcomed it. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-10-12 18:44 |
| #50 "You have not suffered alone." Yeah, we know; and it's primarily because of the annoyance caused to the regular readership by these jerks, that we decided to drop the hammer on 'em. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-10-12 18:40 |
| #49 A roaring round of applause for all who are working the bilge pumps! |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-10-12 18:27 |
| #48 The moderators are sick and tired of this crap You have not suffered alone. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-10-12 18:26 |
| #47 tomorrows' headlines: "Klass Sans Class. Ass Passed" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-10-12 18:21 |
| #46 The moderators are sick and tired of this crap, is what's happened. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-10-12 18:20 |
| #45 pumping out the bilges, DD? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-10-12 18:18 |
| #44 [Hans Klass has been pooplisted.] |
| Posted by: Hans Klass 2007-10-12 18:13 |
| #43 Mike S. is now also on the pooplist, by the way. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-10-12 18:04 |
| #42 Aris is not welcome here any more THANK YOU!! That has been a long time coming. |
| Posted by: JerseyMike 2007-10-12 18:00 |
| #41 That's another example of behavior that won't get a good welcome here: what I call the "Drive-by Lefty Taunter." Hans, get out. You want to be an asshole? Then go be an asshole somewhere else. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-10-12 17:57 |
| #40 Hans Klass: Nein Klassen |
| Posted by: McZoid 2007-10-12 17:45 |
| #39 Nimble S: Okay, maybe the "casnios" attempt self-interested promotion here. Let me see if another designation for self-promotion is also a "Roadsider": DONALD TRUMP. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2007-10-12 17:45 |
| #38 Fred you're a hypocrite!!! And you accuse Muslims of being easily offended!!! Stop promulgating this nonsense about privacy when you've opened your website to the public! Sure you can pull the trigger on anybody for whatever reason you wish, but what does that say about your character? |
| Posted by: Hans Klass 2007-10-12 17:38 |
| #37 plz tell me the winning numbers! plzzzzzzz! ~;) |
| Posted by: Red Dawg 2007-10-12 17:30 |
| #36 Casnio. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-10-12 17:17 |
| #35 "When I tried to post on the "gambling" post, a different website opened up. I haven't broken rules here." You must have used one of the Forbidden Words that are on the list for Fred's spam-blocking It doesn't mean you did anything wrong; it just means the |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-10-12 17:14 |
| #34 We found the World's Largest Catsup Bottle there "You want fries with that?" |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-10-12 17:11 |
| #33 Nimble S: Try the cas- etc word. See what happens. Cas=ino = perverse satanic pit of iniquitous trade and amoral pursuit |
| Posted by: McZoid 2007-10-12 17:09 |
| #32 What's the problem with Roadside America? We found the World's Largest Catsup Bottle there and visiting it was one of the highlights of this summer's vacation. Thanks for the tip, Fred. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-10-12 17:04 |
| #31 I got it!!!!!! Use the word that begins with cas- and ends with -ino, and you end up in "Roadside America." "Gambling den of iniquity" would be OK. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2007-10-12 17:01 |
| #30 Appropriate action. Thank you. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-10-12 17:00 |
| #29 One addition: Aris is not welcome here any more. We mods are very tired of his thread-hijacking and insults. All of his comments will be troll-dumped and he's on the poop list. That's just the way it is. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2007-10-12 17:00 |
| #28 I was able to post without a "roadside america" site opening up when I deleted some content. There is nothing even remotely offensive in it. ---------- Local regs make my local betting place pay 93% of slot machine receipts back to players. If they are not subject to national law, what would prevent them from keeping 20+ percent? The government may treat betting as a moral issue, but they have consumer interests to protect. The WTO can go to blazes. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2007-10-12 16:59 |
| #27 When I tried to post on the "gambling" post, a different website opened up. I haven't broken rules here. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2007-10-12 16:50 |
| #26 This thread reminds me that the best way to suck rats into a trap is to put out a piece of stinky cheese. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2007-10-12 16:03 |
| #25 I dumped lightnings lighting spam the only way I could. Other buttons don't work from here. |
| Posted by: Steve 2007-10-12 15:01 |
| #24 Well, I'm in the market for a new vanity & medicine cabinet... |
| Posted by: Raj 2007-10-12 14:42 |
| #23 I concur with Zen and Barb: Dr. Steve wins the coveted "Snark of the Week" award hands down. |
| Posted by: Mike 2007-10-12 14:22 |
| #22 Some people are |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-10-12 14:03 |
| #21 Need any lighting stuff, Pheager? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-10-12 14:00 |
| #19 Another thing to keep in mid, Pheager: this website is private property. Fred owns it. He's generous enough to invite the rest of us to come play in his sandbox, but that's always with the proviso that Fred gets to make the rules, and reserves the right to withdraw the invitation at any time for whatever reason strikes his fancy. That's the same set of rules, by the way, in effect at every other website I know of that allows comments: LGF, Kos, MyDD, Brothers Judd, the Amazon "Car Lust" blog, and millions more. You might also note that your friendly local dead-tree newspaper has the same degree of control--absolute--over its Op-Ed page and Letters to the Editor column. The concept of "free speech" protects political and artistic expression from government censorship, but it doesn't give you an easement over someone else's private property. You have a free speech right to campaign for Hillary Clinton, but no right to put a Hillary! sign in my front yard if I don't want one. There are plenty of opinionated websites that enforce absolute ideological conformity in the comboxes--the Chomskyite site "zmag.org" for example. As private citizens exercising dominion over their private property, they're of course free to do so. Fred doesn't do that. He has a standard of civility that he enforces, but it's not so tight that it doesn't prevent raucous and freewheeling debate, and more'n a little hostility from time to time. (You shoulda seen the flaming I got on an immigration thread a few months back--and what I got was mild compared to some other combox wars I've seen!) You wanna play in Fred's sandbox, you have to observe Fred's rules. If you don't like Fred's rules, start your own site (it's free on Blogspot!) and set the rules you want. If you have something interesting to say, you'll build an audience and attract a group of regulars. If you're gonna hang out here, spend some time reading old threads and lurking to get a feel for the place and the people here. Argue intelligently, try not to get personal, and you'll do fine. We might even get you to change your mind--or vice-versa! |
| Posted by: Mike 2007-10-12 13:26 |
| #18 (checks bottom of shoe) |
| Posted by: mojo 2007-10-12 13:02 |
| #17 Rantburg represents my free speech, nobody else's. You're welcome here as long as you're reasonably civil and well-behaved, and we don't push the definitions to extremes. But even if you are, if I decide I don't want you around, I have every right to ban you. If you want a site where your free speech is being showcased, you should 1. Contract with a hosting company and write them regular checks 2. Write or buy and install the software 3. Administer the database 4. Write whatever you damned well please I have no problem with people who don't have the same views as I do. But we can have identical views and I'll dump you if you're rude and abrasive. |
| Posted by: Fred 2007-10-12 12:51 |
| #16 I'd prefer posts that are deemed unsuitable to be rendered with an unreadably small font, so people can still cut and paste if they desire. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2007-10-12 12:22 |
| #15 Hey Imposter, The freedom to assemble doesn't mean any ol ass can walk off the street into my dinner party, eat my food, piss in my bathroom, then drink my booze and yell at me because it isn't the brand s/he wants or should be. Sarcasm is the very lack of communication, whether written or verbal, that you call others guilty of. "Out of the unconscious lips of babes and sucklings are we satirized. " - Mark Twain I know he is talking about how children grow up to be mirrors of their parents, but it seems somehow appropriate. If your speech is truly being squashed I would not have had the opportunity to witness your behavior, at a gracious host's expense. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2007-10-12 12:14 |
| #14 I especially like the posts by that big hairy guy. Why can't y'all get him to post more? |
| Posted by: Abdominal Sockpuppet 2007-10-12 12:11 |
| #13 Pheager, just keep it civil, well reasoned and on topic and you'll be OK. I can't speak for Fred but I would personally welcome a liberal or a jihadi to this site if they could present a coherent point of view. I think it would be most interesting to exchange views with them. There have been a few who tried, I think most notably the Levant who cheered for Hezbollah when they were having their little dust up with the IDF. As far as I know he was never redacted, removed or sinktrapped even though his views on this blog were highly unpopular to say the least. But his kind are few and far between and mostly incoherent. Draw your own conclusions as to why. Maybe they would rather kill us than try to reason with us. Maybe they are just incoherent. Maybe their masters are afraid they might learn something here. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2007-10-12 11:42 |
| #12 So who's Pheager...Aris or Mike? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-10-12 11:37 |
| #11 Excellent, excellent, excellent category for this post, "War on Terror". Not being able to deal with dissent verbally is indeed terrifying to those who are not verbally effective and must moderate through banishment of free speech. |
| Posted by: Pheager the Imposter4942 2007-10-12 11:24 |
| #10 My only request is that when a troll post is deleted, it is replaced by a placeholder. That way, if someone refers to a request for a cleanup, or just to another post, by number, the numbers will still be valid. The best placeholder is the picture of the trooper asking the poster to leave the internet because they are too f*cking stupid. |
| Posted by: Rambler 2007-10-12 10:51 |
| #9 Apparently not, Rodney. "If your main goal in life is to antagonize others, go draw a cartoon of Mahommad. That should do it." Outstanding snark, Steve. :-D |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2007-10-12 10:49 |
| #8 Can't we all just get along? |
| Posted by: Rodney King 2007-10-12 10:46 |
| #7 [Boris the Wonder Troll has been pooplisted.] |
| Posted by: Boris the Wonder Troll 2007-10-12 10:21 |
| #6 Take, for example, Boris the Wonder Boy. Clean up on Aisle #5. |
| Posted by: treo 2007-10-12 10:17 |
| #5 Yes, it becomes apparent rather quickly that Rantburgers do not suffer fools. |
| Posted by: treo 2007-10-12 10:14 |
| #4 *smack* |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-10-12 09:57 |
| #3 Heh...heh...heh |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-10-12 09:54 |
| #2 I don't have the patience to play, Mike. |
| Posted by: Fred 2007-10-12 09:52 |
| #1 . OK. Can we go play some more now? |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2007-10-12 09:49 |