FaaipDeOiad
Hall of Fame Member
This is an issue that's been bugging me for a while, and presumably some other people, and I figured a site discussion thread is the best way to air it.
A month or two back we went through a period in which a number of posters copped bans and warning and so on in what was apparently a major crackdown on certain kinds of behaviour on the forum. When people complained about the harshness of this and the regular contributors who copped it, we were told that it was part of a new direction the site was taking and that we should accept it.
For a few weeks now, there's been an aggressive and annoying troll in the Ashes subforum, called BingLeeElectric. The guy is obviously anti-England, but I'd say he annoys Australian posters just as much. He's also obviously a duplicate account of another troll who was banned 18 months ago during the last Ashes, and despite several hundred posts nothing has been done about him. I've tried reporting posts, I'm sure other people have too, and there's nobody on the site who would shed a tear at him going, and yet I haven't even seen him warned yet. If we're to deal with bannings and warnings any time anyone posts a line of asterisks, is it also possible that people who actually deserve to be banned and make the forum a less enjoyable place to visit get banned as well?
Posters who do nothing but post flame bait and abuse other people add nothing to the forum and there's no harm at all in removing them, or at least warning them to behave in a more reasonable manner. As far as I'm concerned, genuine trolls like the one in question damage the atmosphere of the community far more than a few swear words ever could.
A month or two back we went through a period in which a number of posters copped bans and warning and so on in what was apparently a major crackdown on certain kinds of behaviour on the forum. When people complained about the harshness of this and the regular contributors who copped it, we were told that it was part of a new direction the site was taking and that we should accept it.
For a few weeks now, there's been an aggressive and annoying troll in the Ashes subforum, called BingLeeElectric. The guy is obviously anti-England, but I'd say he annoys Australian posters just as much. He's also obviously a duplicate account of another troll who was banned 18 months ago during the last Ashes, and despite several hundred posts nothing has been done about him. I've tried reporting posts, I'm sure other people have too, and there's nobody on the site who would shed a tear at him going, and yet I haven't even seen him warned yet. If we're to deal with bannings and warnings any time anyone posts a line of asterisks, is it also possible that people who actually deserve to be banned and make the forum a less enjoyable place to visit get banned as well?
Posters who do nothing but post flame bait and abuse other people add nothing to the forum and there's no harm at all in removing them, or at least warning them to behave in a more reasonable manner. As far as I'm concerned, genuine trolls like the one in question damage the atmosphere of the community far more than a few swear words ever could.