Important notice re: Troll posts

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MintyAndGarry (TEAS)

MintyAndGarry (TEAS)

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Message from Debbie:

She has received the messages sent regarding the troll activity on the forum. However, she is out of the house at the moment, but will be dealing with the issue within the next 30-60 minutes once she has returned home.

In the meantime please can forum members

NOT reply to posts from trolls
NOT quote trolls
AVOID posts from trolls if they will be upsetting
NOT allow themselves to get wound up by posts from trolls

In fact, just ignore them altogether as the more posts there are, the longer it will take to sort.

Please bear with Debbie and she will get the problem sorted. :)
 
Good news, they were a pain in the 'arris. I was just about to open a can of this. ;)

whoopass.jpe
 
Thanks Debbie we know it's the last thing you need after today x

BTW..... Can you see where a bouts they are in the country?
 
At least you now know that a number of us are willing to step up to the mark to ensure the harmonious running of the forum. ;)
 
Many thanks to Debbie, she has probably had an awful day after the loss of Archie & now this carp really isn't what she needs......


I wonder if it is worth considering appointing a few more Mods, including one from down under for example someone like Glynis would be good too, to patrol the early hours?

Are the ISP addresses checked for spammers & emails verified before people are let in on here? I co-own a Family History website & people are vetted before joining but we tend to always have at least one Admin/Mod on to prevent things like this happening. I am sure there are lots on here that would make great Mods :)
 
Maybe a way forward is to make the first 10 posts pre-modded. That coupled with a few more moderators to spread the work load. It would stop the trolls, as their posts wouldn't go on display immediately enabling mods to delete or vet accordingly. If they were serious about becoming valued members of our community, they would tolerate a small delay. ;)
 
The Highway Man said:
Maybe a way forward is to make the first 10 posts pre-modded. That coupled with a few more moderators to spread the work load. It would stop the trolls, as their posts wouldn't go on display immediately enabling mods to delete or vet accordingly. If they were serious about becoming valued members of our community, they would tolerate a small delay. ;)
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I know quite a few forums do this. It seems to filter out most of the dimwits. 6)
 
furryfriends (Excellent Adventure Sanctuary) said:
I've banned them both, but haven't been able to remove all the posts yet.
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just to let you know that there is a post on the thread 'i found a kitten today'. you more than likely already aware of it but thought it may be worth letting you know just in case. i would also like to say how sorry i am about the loss of archie. all this extra work at this sad time especially, just isn't fair - just because of some mindless idiots. you're doing a great job debbie
 
The Highway Man said:
Maybe a way forward is to make the first 10 posts pre-modded. That coupled with a few more moderators to spread the work load. It would stop the trolls, as their posts wouldn't go on display immediately enabling mods to delete or vet accordingly. If they were serious about becoming valued members of our community, they would tolerate a small delay. ;)
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The only problem with that is I have noticed a few members will read the forum and then only join up when they need help with something and it seems unfair on a piggy for their owner to have to wait for their post to be approved before getting advice.

As with the ISP's I have helped run a forces forum before, also vBulletin. We had quite a problem with Russian ISP's trying to join and access the site as well mallethead
 
Lady Kelly said:
The only problem with that is I have noticed a few members will read the forum and then only join up when they need help with something and it seems unfair on a piggy for their owner to have to wait for their post to be approved before getting advice.
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Which is why I said appoint a few more mods. That way there will be more mods around to approve posts. ;)
 
Thanks for taking care of those twits...although I must say I feel pretty daft at the moment...I replied to a thread before I realized that there was troll activity :red but in my defense I had just woken up rolleyes. Sorry for contributing to the stupidity! Also very sorry to hear about poor Archie :(
 
Can I please emphasise what Debbie has said about troll posts!

Replying to them is not helpful - it takes us far longer to remove spam posts when they have been replied to. Even replying with 'reported' and the like makes it more difficult.

Members also need to remember that we all have lives too outside the forum and even with an infinite number of mods there will be times when no one is online to deal with rubbish posts.

At the end of the day spam is just nonsense - yes it's annoying but if there is a situation like today when a bot is spamming the forum the best course of action is to totally ignore it. If you bypass the spam posts they can't cause any issues and we will always remove as soon as possible.
 
starshine said:
Can I please emphasise what Debbie has said about troll posts!

Replying to them is not helpful - it takes us far longer to remove spam posts when they have been replied to. Even replying with 'reported' and the like makes it more difficult.

Members also need to remember that we all have lives too outside the forum and even with an infinite number of mods there will be times when no one is online to deal with rubbish posts.

At the end of the day spam is just nonsense - yes it's annoying but if there is a situation like today when a bot is spamming the forum the best course of action is to totally ignore it. If you bypass the spam posts they can't cause any issues and we will always remove as soon as possible.
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Exactly what i was trying to explain in my two posts pleading with everyone to just step away from their keyboards lol (not that it made any difference)

Replying to, quoting and even starting new threads was giving these people exactly what they wanted 'a nice few hours publicity time' and highlighting every single one of their posts (most of which could be quite upsetting for younger members) i don't think people realized in the end this would make the admin/mod job harder because not only did you have to ban these spammers, delete their 200+ posts, but also go around and try and delete every single other post where people had quoted them!

A lesson learned - ignore spammers, use the report button, and wait patiently for an admin/mod to deal with it - do not bump it to the top for more people to see/read!
 
starshine said:
Members also need to remember that we all have lives too outside the forum and even with an infinite number of mods there will be times when no one is online to deal with rubbish posts.

At the end of the day spam is just nonsense - yes it's annoying but if there is a situation like today when a bot is spamming the forum the best course of action is to totally ignore it. If you bypass the spam posts they can't cause any issues and we will always remove as soon as possible.
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Todays problem was not spam it was harrasement, it was two people (not a spam bot) trying to wind up forum members for over four hours.

We are not complaining about our mods and respect that everybody has lives outside the forum but for precisly that reason there needs to be more moderators/forum buddies with power so they can deal with these situations as they arise.

Yes today was trolling but there was a child protection issue in the past that needed to be dealt with and it was lucky that Debbie came on line shortly after.

Yes the forum cannot be policed 24/7 but due to other commitments surely a bigger moderating team would be beneficial.
 
Today was made far worse by members continually replying to the spammers. If people had ignored them it would have stopped as people like that thrive on attention which our members gave in bucket loads today...

We work extremely hard to provide this free service and a massive amount of work goes on behind the scenes. More mods isn't always the answer but it is always the first thing people jump on. Mods and admins can only do so much. Members have a huge roll to play in acting appropriately at troubling times and also by abiding by the forum rules. We all have a roll to play on the forum and that is what makes it great.
 
starshine said:
Today was made far worse by members continually replying to the spammers. If people had ignored them it would have stopped as people like that thrive on attention which our members gave in bucket loads today...

We work extremely hard to provide this free service and a massive amount of work goes on behind the scenes. More mods isn't always the answer but it is always the first thing people jump on. Mods and admins can only do so much. Members have a huge roll to play in acting appropriately at troubling times and also by abiding by the forum rules. We all have a roll to play on the forum and that is what makes it great.
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I do not disagree with any of what you have said. People shouldn't reply to the threads, I am very happy to be a member of this forum and appreciate all the good work that Debbie and the rest of you do. More mods is not the only answer but would surely distribute the work load around a little more.
 
I did say just the one word to say they were idiots.
I get the ignoring them, they're after a reaction. I have teenagers and I know they can be silly, although my boys have more intelligence and respect for others than these trolls.
Yet I can't get a post showing up on another thread while these eejits have had all sorts popping up on other posts.
 
Sodapops said:
Exactly what i was trying to explain in my two posts pleading with everyone to just step away from their keyboards lol (not that it made any difference)

Replying to, quoting and even starting new threads was giving these people exactly what they wanted 'a nice few hours publicity time' and highlighting every single one of their posts (most of which could be quite upsetting for younger members) i don't think people realized in the end this would make the admin/mod job harder because not only did you have to ban these spammers, delete their 200+ posts, but also go around and try and delete every single other post where people had quoted them!

A lesson learned - ignore spammers, use the report button, and wait patiently for an admin/mod to deal with it - do not bump it to the top for more people to see/read!
Click to expand...

Yup I just hit the triangle under the username of the idiots rolleyes Don't feed the Trolls as that's exactly what they want. I don't understand the having to delete their individual posts though, on our forum once banned their posts disappear except those contained within quotes I think rolleyes

However I'm not seeing banned under their names & some posts are still showing?

With usernames like theirs I'm surprised they were even let in to be honest, usually applicants are kept waiting moderation before being approved in the Admin control panel. I'm not trying to criticize, it's just something that may need adjusting behind the scenes so to speak :)
 
It's the quote removal that is taking the time... They need to be done thread by thread and it's very time consuming. I've been on the case for over an hour now...

Both accounts and related IP's have been banned - I don't think that usernames show up as banned on this version of v bulletin but it has been done and they have no further forum access. They'll have moved on to somewhere else by now anyway no doubt...
 
They were trying their best to be offensive. They won't succeed if no one lets them get under their skin.

We all know how great guinea pigs are, anyone free of pigs don't realise what they are missing.....
 
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