So then.... the forum 'problems' we're having with posting/arguing/bickering.

[weeksy]

Right then kids...

As we've seen in the past few months, the sniping, bickering and bitching between various members is getting worse.

In simple terms we have various ways of dealing with this.

1. Do nothing
2. Do a bit in terms of warning/banning
3. Do a LOT in terms of banning
4. Close the forum forever

If you look at the posts in the past 6 months we've lost some members, quite a few actually, who used to post regularly now don't... Is that a coincidence, i honestly doubt it. The forum is turning into a bit of a quagmire of garbage and i'm not prepared to accept that.

The rules are not always being broken, hence the lack of banning... but they're certainly being flexed a bit here by some.

I've warned various members, i've banned for a day or 3 here and there some but overall, people are not listening. Not even slightly. The instant they're back, both sides are back on the case.

Just to clarify here... I'm only on one side, i only have 1 favourite in this game which is THE FORUM. I don't care who posts which or what from what side, i don't have any political leanings either way and i simply don't do favourites. If it's dragging down the forum, i'm going to get the ban-hammer out. It's that simple from now on. If you can't play nicely, you won't play at all.

As a final point, i'm not a shrink, i'm not your nanny, i'm not your headmaster and i certainly don't own ANYONE anything on here. I'm just an IT bloke who built a forum as a needed entity, no more, no less. People seem to think "well it's your forum it's up to you to ...." fuck no... If you have a problem with a particular person, PM them, ask me for their Email and discuss it like grown ups with them directly. I'm not your intermediary, i'm not the go-between of "he said this " and "tell him then".... That's not the world, you're supposed to be adults... Act like it.

There's plenty of other places on the internet... If you don't like this one, how it's run or how any of that sounds, then just let me know and i'll close your account or delete if preferred.

Enjoy your day

[porter_jamie]

Life is too short, people being a dick just ban them, they won't me missed!

[Taipan]

Wouldn't it be better to give the protagonists a 24hr ban or suchlike, rather than close the forum and deprive the rest of us of it?

[Rockburner]

Wouldn't it be better to give the protagonists a 24hr ban or suchlike, rather than close the forum and deprive the rest of us of it?

I've no idea what's possible, but maybe a week ban on posting? I'm not sure 24 hours is really long enough to be on the naughty step.

Maybe also there needs to be a 'public' outing of the offenders, and why they've been banned - would make it obvious 'why' the ban happened, and would also let the rest of us know where the line is being drawn?

[Taipan]

Wouldn't it be better to give the protagonists a 24hr ban or suchlike, rather than close the forum and deprive the rest of us of it?

I've no idea what's possible, but maybe a week ban on posting? I'm not sure 24 hours is really long enough to be on the naughty step.

Maybe also there needs to be a 'public' outing of the offenders, and why they've been banned - would make it obvious 'why' the ban happened, and would also let the rest of us know where the line is being drawn?

I'd like to think we're all virtual mates and its just a heated moment and a 12/24 hour reminder would suffice. Seems a better approach than the innocent also paying for the crimes of the guilty?

[Rockburner]

Wouldn't it be better to give the protagonists a 24hr ban or suchlike, rather than close the forum and deprive the rest of us of it?

I've no idea what's possible, but maybe a week ban on posting? I'm not sure 24 hours is really long enough to be on the naughty step.

Maybe also there needs to be a 'public' outing of the offenders, and why they've been banned - would make it obvious 'why' the ban happened, and would also let the rest of us know where the line is being drawn?

I'd like to think we're all virtual mates and its just a heated moment and a 12/24 hour reminder would suffice. Seems a better approach than the innocent also paying for the crimes of the guilty?

That would be nice.

[weeksy]

Wouldn't it be better to give the protagonists a 24hr ban or suchlike, rather than close the forum and deprive the rest of us of it?

Sure... If that worked fella.. I don't think you/people realise the levels of shit i/mods have to view, read and put up with. I had 15 PMs yesterday relating to all of this and ended up ignoring the last few in the hope it would all go away. To be quite honest i'm getting sick of being a babysitter for people. It wasn't what i signed up for at all.

I don't see me closing the forum though, no. However, i wouldn't be shocked if over the next year the forum closes itself so to speak. There's a LOT less content, a lot less people posting, the newbies are not coming in and the locals are getting more and more disillusioned with it all.

[weeksy]

Wouldn't it be better to give the protagonists a 24hr ban or suchlike, rather than close the forum and deprive the rest of us of it?

I've no idea what's possible, but maybe a week ban on posting? I'm not sure 24 hours is really long enough to be on the naughty step.

Maybe also there needs to be a 'public' outing of the offenders, and why they've been banned - would make it obvious 'why' the ban happened, and would also let the rest of us know where the line is being drawn?

I don't think for a single second anyone hasn't seen what's going on between Yorick and Screwdriver lately... One has a pop, the other has a pop back, then it just escalates. I have no doubt that both of them think they're the hard-done-to party in all of this. But some of the messages yesterday i quit simply despaired over.

The 'line' is simple common decency.... It's that easy. We all know when someone is crossing it. I've called people names on here, they've called me names, but it's like i call a mate out riding an absolute dick when he falls off... You know when it's meant in a friendly way and when it's not.

Some of the people who are feeling hard done to seem to accept it without issue, some rant at me and pretty much blame me for it all... Which quite frankly i don't really want or need. As i said in the first post... I'm just a bloke who built a forum, that's it, that's me. I'm trying to give us all a place to be nice.... but i'm not convinced i'm winning that battle.

[Rockburner]

Wouldn't it be better to give the protagonists a 24hr ban or suchlike, rather than close the forum and deprive the rest of us of it?

Sure... If that worked fella.. I don't think you/people realise the levels of shit i/mods have to view, read and put up with. I had 15 PMs yesterday relating to all of this and ended up ignoring the last few in the hope it would all go away. To be quite honest i'm getting sick of being a babysitter for people. It wasn't what i signed up for at all.

I don't see me closing the forum though, no. However, i wouldn't be shocked if over the next year the forum closes itself so to speak. There's a LOT less content, a lot less people posting, the newbies are not coming in and the locals are getting more and more disillusioned with it all.

Not a good thing to see (again). It does seem to be the way forums go - the same happened to VD and TRC: you get a core of regulars, and that seems to create a non-welcoming atmosphere to some.

I seriously hope we can weather this - forums are soo much better as a medium for communcation than the alternatives (fb, twats, etc)

[Skub]

I assume this bickering is in the current affairs/politics section? I rarely look in there,so I've totally missed any escalation in 'debate'.

Perhaps there is a positive to be taken from this,in that it hasn't spilled over into other parts of the forum. I see very little of the sniping and bad feeling between members surfacing elsewhere,like we used to get on TRC,where posters followed others around trolling. I don't know how many others read a part of the forum when they have no intention to contribute,but if I can be blissfully unaware of any shitstorm/tree falling,then it didn't happen,did it? And why frequent those areas,if you have no valid input?

I know you try to be as hands off as possible,but ultimately it's your ball Weeksy and you can take it home any time you like. The above is only my experience of the forum and I'm sure others will offer their possible solutions.

[Taipan]

Wouldn't it be better to give the protagonists a 24hr ban or suchlike, rather than close the forum and deprive the rest of us of it?

Sure... If that worked fella.. I don't think you/people realise the levels of shit i/mods have to view, read and put up with. I had 15 PMs yesterday relating to all of this and ended up ignoring the last few in the hope it would all go away. To be quite honest i'm getting sick of being a babysitter for people. It wasn't what i signed up for at all.

I don't see me closing the forum though, no. However, i wouldn't be shocked if over the next year the forum closes itself so to speak. There's a LOT less content, a lot less people posting, the newbies are not coming in and the locals are getting more and more disillusioned with it all.

True. I probably had missed the arguments. I assumed it was down to a spat on the locked forum and i wouldn't have seen that as I rarely venture down there. Today I did and that's why I came in here to see why it was locked. Shame people cant keep conversations the same as they would in real life, but that's the anonymity of the internet I suppose...

[weeksy]

I assume this bickering is in the current affairs/politics section? I rarely look in there,so I've totally missed any escalation in 'debate'.

Perhaps there is a positive to be taken from this,in that it hasn't spilled over into other parts of the forum. I see very little of the sniping and bad feeling between members surfacing elsewhere,like we used to get on TRC,where posters followed others around trolling. I don't know how many others read a part of the forum when they have no intention to contribute,but if I can be blissfully unaware of any shitstorm/tree falling,then it didn't happen,did it? And why frequent those areas,if you have no valid input?

I know you try to be as hands off as possible,but ultimately it's your ball Weeksy and you can take it home any time you like. The above is only my experience of the forum and I'm sure others will offer their possible solutions.

I agree, if it wasn't for the fact i HAVE to, i wouldn't open that section either... But i then forget it for a while and do something, next time i come back i get 4 alerts on reported threads, 2 PMs and sit and think "WTF happened".... As you'll have gathered, mostly the same thing as last time happened.

[weeksy]

Wouldn't it be better to give the protagonists a 24hr ban or suchlike, rather than close the forum and deprive the rest of us of it?

Sure... If that worked fella.. I don't think you/people realise the levels of shit i/mods have to view, read and put up with. I had 15 PMs yesterday relating to all of this and ended up ignoring the last few in the hope it would all go away. To be quite honest i'm getting sick of being a babysitter for people. It wasn't what i signed up for at all.

I don't see me closing the forum though, no. However, i wouldn't be shocked if over the next year the forum closes itself so to speak. There's a LOT less content, a lot less people posting, the newbies are not coming in and the locals are getting more and more disillusioned with it all.

True. I probably had missed the arguments. I assumed it was down to a spat on the locked forum and i wouldn't have seen that as I rarely venture down there. Today I did and that's why I came in here to see why it was locked. Shame people cant keep conversations the same as they would in real life, but that's the anonymity of the internet I suppose...

I locked 1 post, not a forum mate.. I really really do try hard not to lock threads at all. But when they start making the forum less enjoyable, it sometimes happens. It's not even like it was an evocative subject.

Take that thread about the 2 kids on the Suron, over on another forum i read, that was closed quickly as it got completely out of hand relating to killing children.... But here, the thread you expect to spike debate and fights, didn't really come to much... It's slightly weird how some things flare up and some don't..

[Rockburner]

Wouldn't it be better to give the protagonists a 24hr ban or suchlike, rather than close the forum and deprive the rest of us of it?

I've no idea what's possible, but maybe a week ban on posting? I'm not sure 24 hours is really long enough to be on the naughty step.

Maybe also there needs to be a 'public' outing of the offenders, and why they've been banned - would make it obvious 'why' the ban happened, and would also let the rest of us know where the line is being drawn?

I don't think for a single second anyone hasn't seen what's going on between Yorick and Screwdriver lately... One has a pop, the other has a pop back, then it just escalates. I have no doubt that both of them think they're the hard-done-to party in all of this. But some of the messages yesterday i quit simply despaired over.

Tbh - that sort of stuff just washes over me now.

The 'line' is simple common decency.... It's that easy. We all know when someone is crossing it. I've called people names on here, they've called me names, but it's like i call a mate out riding an absolute dick when he falls off... You know when it's meant in a friendly way and when it's not.

Hmm - sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. If the two protaganists have met and spent some time together, understood each other somewhat, then yes - but if you're talking about 2 people who have never met, have never tried to chat, and who live in different parts of the country/world, then you're going to get 'culture-clash' issues where each person's lines are in different places. That's not something you should be policing though - that's something for the protagonists to reach a compromise on - but the way of modern life is that compromise is for pussies, especially on line.

Some of the people who are feeling hard done to seem to accept it without issue, some rant at me and pretty much blame me for it all... Which quite frankly i don't really want or need. As i said in the first post... I'm just a bloke who built a forum, that's it, that's me. I'm trying to give us all a place to be nice.... but i'm not convinced i'm winning that battle.

Why do you think I never started one up.

[Skub]

I agree, if it wasn't for the fact i HAVE to, i wouldn't open that section either... But i then forget it for a while and do something, next time i come back i get 4 alerts on reported threads, 2 PMs and sit and think "WTF happened".... As you'll have gathered, mostly the same thing as last time happened.

I get that. You are in the 'buck stops here' seat,I don't have to deal with that.

If anyone is reading the politics threads specifically looking for something to report,I don't know how to fix that,it's just odd behaviour.

[Gregor]

Just give us the smite button, we’ll sort them out

[Skub]

Just give us the smite button, we’ll sort them out

Every hour on the hour.

[KungFooBob]

Do people really pm you Weeksy when they fall out with each other?

It's like primary school kids running to teacher.

BTW, can you ban dodgy, his trip is making me jealous.

[Skub]

And don't ban Screwd yet either,because he's making me nice things.

[Count Steer]

Do people really pm you Weeksy when they fall out with each other?

It's like primary school kids running to teacher.

BTW, can you ban dodgy, his trip is making me jealous.

LOL. Even people who aren't involved do the PM thing, taking sides and telling us which one needs banning.