Forum Moderation

[magic]

Option #2.
Let them spill their guts. They won't be posting on other threads

Wishful thinking.

before entering the thread, they'll click on the rules

Cool, you go hire somebody to write this SMF mod.

no harm comes to those who want it.

Except EDS masochists going there to feel harmed and then bitching about it all over the forum (or elsewhere) and rage quitting because the thread isn't shut down.

[TUMEMBER]

[...] It's a cage [...]

Cage as in "cage fight", you mean? I dunno whether we want that here, disclaimers or not.

If some people miss dystopia so much, let them taste it, since they want to prove their superiority and the validity of THEIR views so much.
I wouldn't have time to review all the posts that clearly show him churning inside... the moderator can send such culprits to the "cage." Once they've beaten each other, they'll either get over it or they'll mutually "ignore" each other and stop bothering each other with "their own sight." The alternative is a ban, which, as you can see from previous posts, isn't the solution either.Controversial? Yes.

[TUMEMBER]

Except EDS masochists going there to feel harmed and then bitching about it all over the forum (or elsewhere) and rage quitting because the thread isn't shut down.

I don't know, I don't frequent forums like this.
And I'm not a fan of "butt-kicking."
Sorry, it's not a dig, I can't think of anything else.
For me, that's the end of the story because my bigos is burning.

[PlainName]

Yeah, you could use the thread as a honeypit, and anyone that posts there can only see that thread next time they visit the forum.

No! Let them see the rest of the forum so they can appreciate what they're missing, but don't allow them to post. 

[McCarthy]

I don't even know why Musk is such an ongoing topic. The guy is rich, he runs Tesla / SpaceX / Ai, we know his political leanings, he changes his mind like we all do. 

End of story.

I repair GPUs and retro electronics as a hobby. There's zero relevance to Musk.

[PlainName]

I don't even know why Musk is such an ongoing topic

Dave has a thing about thunderf00t who has redefined himself as the anti-Musk-in-chief, so whenever the f00tling throws a new and better wobbly, Dave lets us know. It's kind of hard to miss Musk since he is the driver of thunderf00ts, ah, popularity.

[wilfred]

[...] It's a cage [...]

Cage as in "cage fight", you mean? I dunno whether we want that here, disclaimers or not.

With the inclusion of Hyde Park I interpreted cage as a partitioned off place expressly for the purpose of robust comment. I read it as Hyde Park speakers corner where historically people can publicly speak (lawfully) on any topic. I suppose it was a way of facilitating free speech without having civil disturbance of gatherings in the streets interfering with uninterested citizens free movement.

Which is exactly the sort of context I felt a reserved thread for talk of Elon Musk had any value.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speakers%27_Corner

[wilfred]

I don't even know why Musk is such an ongoing topic

Dave has a thing about thunderf00t who has redefined himself as the anti-Musk-in-chief, so whenever the f00tling throws a new and better wobbly, Dave lets us know. It's kind of hard to miss Musk since he is the driver of thunderf00ts, ah, popularity.

I don't understand why Dave does that. He's always done it on some topic or other. It just sends a mixed message as far as I can see. I think it is a Utopian folly to expect everyone to talk about some contentious topic and not have the discussion shoot off into the weeds at some point.

[PlainName]

Maybe he's trying out a "EEVBlog algorithm". If it works for Youtube and Twitter...

[thm_w]

Another long term poster off the rails for who knows what reason: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/kidoom-doom-in-kicad-plus-scopedoom-on-a-scope/msg6114717/#msg6114717

All those things were standard practice that occurred every single day on usenet. People dealt with it and moved on.

It didn't start with Canter and Siegel, but their actions were the reason Hormel Foods' product name was indelibly tarnished - and was tarnished in your post

People dealt with the spam and trash until better alternatives were available, then they switched to moderated forums.

[tggzzz]

Another long term poster off the rails for who knows what reason: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/kidoom-doom-in-kicad-plus-scopedoom-on-a-scope/msg6114717/#msg6114717

All those things were standard practice that occurred every single day on usenet. People dealt with it and moved on.

It didn't start with Canter and Siegel, but their actions were the reason Hormel Foods' product name was indelibly tarnished - and was tarnished in your post

People dealt with the spam and trash until better alternatives were available, then they switched to moderated forums.

The (current) alternatives aren't better; they are worse:

• I want to define what I regard as spam and rubbish, not some moderator. Same applies to suboptimal email spam filters ("remember to check your spam folder", ugh)
• the tools developed completely removed that spam and rubbish; the tools on this forum do not

If the forum tools did that, i would be content.

[thm_w]

The (current) alternatives aren't better; they are worse:

• I want to define what I regard as spam and rubbish, not some moderator. Same applies to suboptimal email spam filters ("remember to check your spam folder", ugh)
• the tools developed completely removed that spam and rubbish; the tools on this forum do not

If the forum tools did that, i would be content.

Most of us disagree.
You were given a ublock filter above that you can tweak, I'm sure there is some way to hide the entire "post_wrapper" block, if the person is quoted in a post.

https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/1p4vwzs/filter_to_block_user_posts_on_a_message_board/

[Ian.M]

That presupposes whoever quotes the user you are trying to block *always* quotes them properly preserving the attribution, rather than being lazy by copy/pasting bits into new BBCODE quote tags.  Usenet had proper tree structure threading and its filtering was both more powerful and more user friendly, if you grocked regexes.

[McCarthy]

Man, some of you guys are waaaaaay too deep into the online bubble, and for way too long.

Besides Twitch I blocked all social media platforms on my home network. Way too much toxic garbage these days. I kept forums untouched but just reading posts around here for the past few weeks makes me question that too.

I'll go back into hiding and spend even more time in real life, such as going for my 3 hour swim every other day.

Not Ai, my backyard.

Touch some grass.

[JonMorton]

Man, some of you guys are waaaaaay too deep into the online bubble, and for way too long.

Besides Twitch I blocked all social media platforms on my home network. Way too much toxic garbage these days. I kept forums untouched but just reading posts around here for the past few weeks makes me question that too.

I'll go back into hiding and spend even more time in real life, such as going for my 3 hour swim every other day.

Not Ai, my backyard.

Touch some grass.

Fully agree!

It's too many malcontents in this forum...

[tggzzz]

Most of us disagree.

Shrug.

Most people are ignorant of the past, and are wrong.

You were given a ublock filter above that you can tweak,

Where?

This is the first occurrence of "ublock" in this thread.

I'm not going to try to learn yet another scrotty little DSL, and the chances of me getting everything exactly right are low.

[tggzzz]

That presupposes whoever quotes the user you are trying to block *always* quotes them properly preserving the attribution, rather than being lazy by copy/pasting bits into new BBCODE quote tags.  Usenet had proper tree structure threading and its filtering was both more powerful and more user friendly, if you grocked regexes.

Precisely. Too many people don't know the history, so they re-make avoidable mistakes again and again.

Newbies don't seem to realise how important proper representation of a complex thread's structure is to understanding and continuing exchange of subtle concepts.

That's also true for email lists and email reflectors.

[EEVblog]

I'm done, I'm spending too much time on this shit, the Elon thread is locked.

I can't say I blame you, but with this response you gave "So you'd rather all the Elon Musk stuff to infest dozens of other threads instead?" where does that leave things?

Exactly that, back at square one. Meh.

I didn't think a thread about Elon Musk would end any other way but I at least hoped it would go some way to sand-boxing those who just cannot grasp that the forum is made a less interesting place by highly opinionated and ill-considered posts. 

People just can't control themselves.

What options are there? Can you control the frequency people can post?

Nope.

If you had statistics of the number of members who are active, say posting at least once per week, and the number of highly active users who post most frequently you might be able to discern a threshold to separate those who can flood the forum with posts that show little regard or respect for others from the vast majority of members who just don't. Or at least if they did it wouldn't have the weight of numbers. The assumption being most members wouldn't ever get told to wait and those who do find themselves running on with combative posts would at least find themselves forced to sit and have a think about it. If it was on a per day basis they'd have to come back tomorrow. If it was per hour then they could still be told to come back tomorrow. At least they'd have a chance to question just how much they want to rattle off a stream of posts just to try to win an argument.

That's actually a really interesting idea. As a moderator I'd like the ability to both ban people from individual threads, and "rate limit" then as a first step if they are causing trouble.
I don't think such a plugin exists though.

[EEVblog]

Maybe this forum is devolving into a "toxic marriage" setting, where some people have seen too much of each other and have been irritated about the other guy squeezing-the-toothpaste-the-wrong-way for too long? Or do we just have too many grumpy old men struggling with the fact that they are no longer important on the job, who feel the need to "make a point" here on every topic they come across?

I'm always amazed at the ability for members to remember some intricate detail about user X. Maybe I've just got a shit memory for such things, but I'd struggle to remember people I've banned, let alone what I banned them for. People do spend a lot of time here...

[BradC]

I'm always amazed at the ability for members to remember some intricate detail about user X. Maybe I've just got a shit memory for such things, but I'd struggle to remember people I've banned, let alone what I banned them for. People do spend a lot of time here...

This is much like how I remember my notable school peers and all the teachers. I have a limited number of notable people I need to remember. The teachers dealt with 800 kids a year, and in 10 years when I meet them in the supermarket I remember them and they have no idea who I am because I'm one face in 8000 who never shot their dog and therefore created a memory.

Forums are interesting because pissy people draw attention to themselves and people remember them. We're also not going back 10 years with a grudge.

[brucehoult]

This is much like how I remember my notable school peers and all the teachers. I have a limited number of notable people I need to remember. The teachers dealt with 800 kids a year, and in 10 years when I meet them in the supermarket I remember them and they have no idea who I am because I'm one face in 8000 who never shot their dog and therefore created a memory.

Two years ago I went to the funeral of my high school maths teacher who had just died aged 99 1/2. We'd always kept in touch and I visited when I (not very often) went to my home town. A lot of my other high school (1976-1980) teachers where there. Most recognised me, 45ish years later. Same with university lecturers (81-84) who I ran into three years ago when SPLASH (SIGPLAN/OOPSLA) was held here in NZ and I went to an academic conference for the first time ever.

God, I must have been awful lol.

[EEVblog]

Looks like the current feud is spreading to other threads. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/dodgy-technology/chatgpt-suicide-coach-lawsuit/msg6114919/#msg6114919
If nothing else that reiterates a lesson from usenet: starting a cesspit thread to entice all the flies away from other threads doesn't work and does create a breeding place.
Oh well, it was worth trying.

Yet there are many that passionately advocate for the entire forum to be a free-for-all, or have one big dedicated thread with no rules,

[EEVblog]

Dave has a thing about thunderf00t who has redefined himself as the anti-Musk-in-chief, so whenever the f00tling throws a new and better wobbly, Dave lets us know. It's kind of hard to miss Musk since he is the driver of thunderf00ts, ah, popularity.

 
I'd consider Phil a friend of mine.

[EEVblog]

Besides Twitch I blocked all social media platforms on my home network. Way too much toxic garbage these days. I kept forums untouched but just reading posts around here for the past few weeks makes me question that too.

It's basically a skill issue. It's possible to use social media (and this forum) to only follow those people and topics you want to follow, and see practically nothing else, if that's what you actually desire.

[tggzzz]

Looks like the current feud is spreading to other threads. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/dodgy-technology/chatgpt-suicide-coach-lawsuit/msg6114919/#msg6114919
If nothing else that reiterates a lesson from usenet: starting a cesspit thread to entice all the flies away from other threads doesn't work and does create a breeding place.
Oh well, it was worth trying.

Yet there are many that passionately advocate for the entire forum to be a free-for-all, or have one big dedicated thread with no rules,

"Those that do not know history are condemned to repeat it".

Libertarianism and anarchy sound appealing, but come with big downsides. I realised that c1973, after reading "Cloak of Anarchy" by Larry Niven. It is still worth speedreading, at https://chrisabraham.com/blog/cloak-of-anarchy-by-larry-niven

Sample:

"After all, anarchy is only the last word in free enterprise. What can a government do for people that people can't do for themselves? Protection from other countries? If all the other countries are anarchies too, you don't need armies. Police, maybe: but what's wrong with privately owned police?"

"Fire departments used to work that way," Jill remembered. "They were hired by the insurance companies. They only protected houses that belonged to their own clients."

"Right! So you buy theft and murder insurance, and the insurance companies hire a police force. The client carries a credit card -"