Please stop the "Im leaving threads" they don't help anyone

aliasojo

Tigsteroonie wrote: »

I, too, cannot believe that people have actually PM'd MSE Martin about people leaving. As if the guy doesn't have enough to do!

It's not so much about how busy Martin is, it's about how important people think their issue is. :D

I do sometimes think people become very insular on this site (been guilty of that in the past myself).

Maybe they get so caught up in their own feelings they forget there's a bigger picture than just one or two favourite posters who might be leaving....and also that maybe no-one else cares all that much?

smoker99

MSE_Martin wrote: »

What we need is the responsible posters to calm down, press abuse@ report nasty posts and not react.

Unfortunately some people abuse the 'abuse' button.

kermitfrog

Westywoodpecker wrote: »

Err not a whole year yet :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Don't make assumptions!

DVardysShadow

Although I can see the general principle here, I think what has happened to niddy is distressing. He has made a fantastic contribution to DFW - and fortunately has left a lot of good resources behind which will hopefully cause people to be grateful for a long time to come.

It seems that some malicious person made an ID looking like niddy's and used it to PM and make trouble. Now the site is bigger than niddy and I guess Martin would agree that it is also bigger than him - just that he has the responsibility to look after it all. Having said that, I don't think that the admin here should be chasing after niddy to get him back and I would think that niddy himself would be the last person to expect that anyway.

But what happened to niddy was that the site was abused - to the disadvantage of everyone - and I feel that this issue should be acknowledged here by the site owner. If this thread is about the generality of I'm leaving threads and not particularly driven by niddy leaving, then I think the timing - coinciding with niddy leaving and the absence of even an acknowledgement of abuse - is poor and the overall response appears unduly callous.

kermitfrog

ElkyElky wrote: »

At the end of the day, it is only words on a computer screen. Nothing more, nothing less.

DVardysShadow, this is a message board - it's not real life! You sound as if you're talking about a girl being driven out of the family because she got pregnant.

DVardysShadow

kermitfrog wrote: »

DVardysShadow, this is a message board - it's not real life! You sound as if you're talking about a girl being driven out of the family because she got pregnant.

I have looked back at the forums you have posted in since the beginning of the year. You obviously prefer site feedback and a few of the softer forums. Unfortunately, DFW is real life for many.

aliasojo

I thought this was as a result of the almost continuous 'I'm leaving' threads that have appeared in the Arms lately. I don't even know who 'niddy' is/was.

MrsTinks

See I'm torn here... I did the "flounce off in a huff" many years ago before becoming a BG and in hindsight I acted like a spoilt child who'd had her toys nicked Thankfully Martin and the team didn't hold it against me (if they ever knew about it!) and I'm still here although my posts have grown more infrequent (mainly strict work policies causing that! grrrr) to what they used to be.
As Martin said - the forum has over 500,000 active posters... imagine just 1% having a huff like I did... that's a mere 5000 people they'd have to contact to say "please stay"... and whilst it may be that some believe that one poster was more valuable than the rest - MSE shouldn't be expected to have to take sides and if they do it for one they'd have to do it for all or be accused of favouritism... so they're damned if they do and damned if they don't really...
Banning people btw is not as easy is it may seem - firstly many if not most ISPs now don't use static IP addresses and rarely for home users (cost) so banning an IP address would be futile. Banning email addresses... non starter. You could contact the ISP in question if it was felt that something illigal had actually taken place, like stalking etc - but again it's not a 100% sure route - if it was the life of spammers would be very short lives before their internet access was removed. It's not impossible as the copyright laywers have proved on the subject of illigal file sharing. That process however isn't simple either (and ISPs dig their heels in a lot because the law isn't always clear - infact details are only handed over when the court orders it...)

So have the boards got worse? Well you know... I think this gets suggested about every 3-6 months Maybe they are, maybe they aren't - but MSE is what it is and it's free to use If a troll bothers you then do the thing that annoys it the most.... ignore it once you've pressed report Don't respond to it... that's exactly what it wants.

DVardysShadow

aliasojo wrote: »

I thought this was as a result of the almost continuous 'I'm leaving' threads that have appeared in the Arms lately. I don't even know who 'niddy' is/was.

niddy was a significant contributor on DebtFreeWannabe - it is actually a nickname. This may be as a result of threads in the Arms - in which case the timing is bad. In niddy's case, there seems to have been significant abuse of the PM system to destroy him.

ceridwen

DVardysShadow wrote: »

niddy was a significant contributor on DebtFreeWannabe - it is actually a nickname. This may be as a result of threads in the Arms - in which case the timing is bad. In niddy's case, there seems to have been significant abuse of the PM system to destroy him.

...and I've been looking for this posters' threads (not having heard of him before) in case of any useful points he has made....

Can anyone please send me a link to a post by niddy - as I couldnt find him? (I'd thought this thread was about a Board Guide who very publicly left and then came back again.......)

Thanks.