A way to keep out banned members (aka trolls)

Quasar

fantasia322 wrote: »

Sounds like a good idea, but would'nt a better idea be just to ignore the trolls. If you don't feed 'em they starve, well thats my theory.
Or are the trolls long term trolls who just won't go away?

Trolls keep posting because they get the attention - ie. replies to their posts, even when the respondents know these are trolls. Hence, we won't be rid of them anytime soon simply because people can't resist taking the bait.

I think that's the long and short of it, really.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

mostlycheerful wrote: »

Yes, the people with an attention span wider than a nanometre and who have finished ogling page 3 of their Super Sizzling Soaraway Scum, like me, and now want some more superficial inanity to fill up their pea size brains with and to pad out the air and dust and void.

Blah, blah, bleurgh. Nah, just skip to the end, or to the next post, as you did. I put all the rest in just as camouflage. And it was the dried crusty dribble all stuck round my mouth and down my front so as I was picking and wiping it off I chucked most of it in the bin but there was so much of it still left over that I thought it was a shame to waste it and I'm big on recycling so I thought I might as well share the loveliness with y'all. Probably a few hungry carrion vultures around who'll eat anything they can get, even the crunchy pickings from round my gob. So y'all have yerselves a nice day now.

Just as I thought. You didn't expect people to read it.

free4440273

Notification of their (troll's ) ISP/ a possibility perhaps/ as laid out in the T&C's / but wonder if it's actually been carried out -- to any kind of degree.

WISHIWASRICH_2

Wouldn't it be really ironic if the op was also someone who had been banned in the past.

Indie_Kid

joolsybools wrote: »

It should be at least 250 posts before people can post in DT and Debate HPE.

People would just post to get their post count up.

RenovationMan

Some good remarks on here and in the posts I made in the Economy board and the Arms - BTW, I never realised that the Arms was visible to non-members, I just assumed that it was the same as DT & Economy.

The idea is not to stop genuine newbies from joining the discussion, its really just an extension of what is there already to stop spammers - i.e. the inablility to post links until a set number of posts have been made. I remember when I first joined, I wanted to post links to photobucket to show pics of my house renovations and couldnt until I had made a minimum number of posts. It was a bit irritating, but I totally understood why the restriction was there. Once I had made the pre-requisite number of posts, I was allowed to add links to my text.

With the extension to restict posting on the 'hidden' boards, all that would happen is that newbies would be able to read the discussion boards but not be able to post remarks until they had made enough posts elsewhere. I know that this is not a complete solution, but it does work to a certain extent to stop spammers from posting links and I do believe that it will be a pain in the backside to trolls.

As an example, the person on the Economy board who uses the GHOULS and GIRLS LOVE PROPERTY OWNERS, etc. etc. username. When he gets banned, his username is deleted and his posts vanish. However, all this person then does is create a new hotmail/gmail account and re-register with a new username and re-joins where s/he left off. It's a minor inconveniece to create the hotmail account and to re-register, imagine the pain in the backside it would be for them to then have to log 25 or 50 (or whatever the restriction currently is on newbies posting html links) posts on other boards before they can make another troll post on a discussion forum. Finally imagine that after all that effort of creating a new hotmail account, creating a new MSE user, creating 50 posts on the site you then get banned (again) after a couple of troll posts and have to do the whole lot all over again!!

As far as genuine newbies are concerned, they are unaware of the discussion sites before they become MSE members, and once they make the required number of posts, they can then join discussions to their heart's content. Most people (myself included) joined MSE not to argue over government policy on houses, interest rates or whatever, but for assistance with debt, savings account, credit card stoozing, investments, pensions, etc. and they will still have access to post on these boards. If some of them stay on (again as I did), then they will soon have made the the required posts to allow them to post HTML links and post onto the discussion boards.

As I said, its not a perfect solution, but it is a tool that is already being used to stop spammers posting links. If it works for that, then why not for trolls? I also think that it would be a very, very minor inconvenience to genuine newbies and certainly no more inconvenient than being denied the ability to post html links at first.

Really, if someone gets banned and then has to spend all that time to recreate a new user they may think twice about getting banned again so quickly and having to go through all that rigmorole again! If nothing else it will give us on the Economy board a bit of respite while the idiots submit a load of "Oh, I use bonemeal on my veggies" type posts on the greenfingered board while trying to increase their post count sufficiently before they rejoin us.

Edinburghlass_2

How about you just follow the Forum Rules...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/forum-faqs#troll

and report the users.

RenovationMan

Edinburghlass wrote: »

How about you just follow the Forum Rules...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/forum-faqs#troll

and report the users.

What happens when the users are reported?

Aesop

Abuse and MSE review the reported id's posts, and if they have a consistent level of reports against them, and their posts can be taken as trouble making, etc. they get PPR, posting privileges removed.

I think also to come back again as a troll, people are changing their ISP addresses, I don't think just using a new e-mail and user id are sufficient to let you back in when you are PPR.

RenovationMan

Aesop wrote: »

Abuse and MSE review the reported id's posts, and if they have a consistent level of reports against them, and their posts can be taken as trouble making, etc. they get PPR, posting privileges removed.

I think also to come back again as a troll, people are changing their ISP addresses, I don't think just using a new e-mail and user id are sufficient to let you back in when you are PPR.

I've no idea what MSE do but I have seen one person who gets banned on a daily basis (this GHOULS person) and doesnt seem to have any problem creating a new username. Often people post bets with each other on how long it will take for _GHOULS_ to get banned with his/her latest user.

Anything that makes life hard for people who abuse the forum is a good thing, as long as it doesnt adversely impact the majority of regular users. I just thought that this idea would have zero impact on established forum members, very little impact on newbies and a big impact on the serially banned.