Reminder: We're a friendly Forum. Calling other people trolls isn't friendly

NeilCr

Pollycat wrote: »

I think the point MSE Andrea is making is to report anyone you believe to be a troll rather than stating on the open forum that they are trolling.

I guess if they get inundated with reports that a particular poster is a troll, they may do something about banning them.
(and if they're not going to do that, I really don't see the point of MSE Andrea's thread).

.

Yes.

But, it appears, that they don't do anything (quickly anyway). There has been a really dangerous troll who, mainly, posted on the benefits board. It's a returner who has caused problems in the past.

I know a number of people reported them but it was ages before he was PPR'd. Posts by members refuting some of his (incorrect) posts were deleted and yet he was allowed to go on his merry way.

I think one of the problems is that the forum team don't have the requisite knowledge. I have no idea how they can adjudicate about who is right or wrong on a relatively complicated benefits issue. Yet those of us who know a bit about benefits were completely aware that he was giving wrong and misleading information.

pollypenny

I am obviously very naive. The only troll I recognise, with the many AES, is the twit who starts the school uniform threads.

Pollycat

pollypenny wrote: »

I am obviously very naive. The only troll I recognise, with the many AES, is the twit who starts the school uniform threads.

And the 'child wanting to use the toilet in class time' threads - clearly the same person.

I very rarely 'call out' trolls.
And very rarely report threads or posts.
I very rarely PM posters either.

I zap :spam: posts that are clearly advertising or gearing up to get a high enough post count to start posting links..
And necroposting irritates me if it's someone answering a question that was asked 20 years ago.

POPPYOSCAR

And also 'I think my husband is cheating'.

suki1964

Pollycat wrote: »

I think if someone is sending private messages that are not friendly, they should be reported to MSE and MSE should take action and PPR the sender (if the content is so bad).

If MSE doesn't act, it should be OK to post those PMs on the open forum (I know it says it's against the rules to do it) so everybody can see what sort of person and who is doing this.

TBH, I can't recall any nasty PMs I've been sent.

It would be really helpful if MSE Andrea could return to this thread and comment on the issues that have been raised.

Polly, I think you have missed the point

The person Im referring to, uses PM to befriend and build a clique of posters to do the reporting. You know it happens as you too were targeted a couple of years ago

I cant say any more on the open forum but believe me, its happening

hazyjo

I've reported lots and not been yellow carded, PPRd or anything (to the best of my knowledge). I sometimes do it to say I suspect and they should keep an eye on it.


Been a moderator myself and been on forums since 2000. I've seen it all over the years lol. Sometimes I give users the benefit of the doubt even though I'm 75% sure they're trolling as they're fairly harmless and may help someone else, but there are some I just can't sit back and watch.

Pollycat

NeilCr wrote: »

Yes.

But, it appears, that they don't do anything (quickly anyway). There has been a really dangerous troll who, mainly, posted on the benefits board. It's a returner who has caused problems in the past.

I know a number of people reported them but it was ages before he was PPR'd. Posts by members refuting some of his (incorrect) posts were deleted and yet he was allowed to go on his merry way.

I think one of the problems is that the forum team don't have the requisite knowledge. I have no idea how they can adjudicate about who is right or wrong on a relatively complicated benefits issue. Yet those of us who know a bit about benefits were completely aware that he was giving wrong and misleading information.

I read part of a thread that mentioned that poster.

I'm not sure how MSE can effectively deal with general trolling either.

In the circumstances you mention, if enough members had reported the incorrect posts with links to the correct information, I'd have thought MSE would have deleted them.
And given the poster a warning or even straight PPR if it was malicious rather than simply posting wrong information (we've all seen this happen).

Maybe the best way to deal with a poster like that is to simply state that they are giving erroneous information, post the correct information (obviously from a reliable source) and post the link too.

NeilCr

Pollycat wrote: »

Maybe the best way to deal with a poster like that is to simply state that they are giving erroneous information, post the correct information (obviously from a reliable source) and post the link too.

Pretty much what we did. I always try and post sources on anything I say on the benefits forum. And we had a sort of general warning post that we used when that troll was around.

Trouble is it's quite time consuming and, as we all know, trolls are persistent, post late at night etc. We are doing MSE's work for them. I tend to agree with the suggestion about MSE lobbing a few more resources at moderating the forum. They're quite happy to boast about how successful it is.

And I agree with your earlier comment about MSE Andrea actually returning to this thread - and, indeed, the one on site feedback. You don't get any sense of anyone being interested - and that is sort of what site feedback is about, surely.

Former_MSE_Andrea

Ames wrote: »

We've been asking for clarification on this since the middle of last month. There's a thread in site feedback with several in depth questions on how to deal with regular AEs and, yes, trolls.

With all due respect, I think answering those questions would be more productive than repeating vague advice and 'telling off' the regular posters who make this forum so useful to everyone.

Hi Ames

This isn't a thread I'm aware of. Could you give me the link please?

Thanks

Lambyr

hazyjo wrote: »

Don't know why we can't have part of the IP address of users on show. Is there a way of doing that without giving away too much info?

It wouldn't really solve anything. You'll find that there are people whose first 5/6 digits match and people whose last 5/6 digits match. Depending on which characters you're masking you'll get various users who have the same numbers displayed but are different people. That's likely to only cause people to argue even more.

Similarly, with the ease at which someone can use a VPN, you could get umpteen users with different IP addresses who are the same person. Some people also still have dynamic IP addresses and not static ones. An IP address doesn't identify a person - it only identifies a connection at a specific moment in time.

It's probably also worth mentioning that the GDPR considers an IP address to be personal data. It might be a bit risky of MSE to make even part of an IP address publicly available.