Offensive Posting

[FM]

I'd like the Admins to take a look at the Thread called "Gold Thread", by the user Gate Troll, at the Council of Cobra. I do not like what's going on, and I'm starting to lose my patience with him.

[SomeRandomDude]

I agree. I think we begin informing GT that he is on a very tightly moderated leash. F_M mentioned strike 1. We should let him know that any repeat offenses WILL result in temporary bans. I don't think that a week-long ban would be a bad idea.

[Elf_Lvr]

I don't know about banning right now. I don't think he MEANT an insult to Connor. So his latest topic isn't such a big deal to me.

However, he did kinda blatantly challenge Felipe's authority. I think he's feeling a bit rebellious, and I could see him being a little fired up if we decided to do a temp. ban right now. Certain former members *cough*peterpot*cough* spring to mind. I would hate for him to feel like running around the world with a burning hate for TLHH.

[FM]

Which is why I asked the Admins to personally look into it, and decide if they think that should be his "strike 1" or not. My problem is not that he insulted Conor (he's not a member of TLHH after all), is the way he expresses himself. I gave HIM the chance to edit his own insult instead of editing it myself, so as to preserve his right to express himself, and got burned for it. I'll say, I'm a REALLY patient guy, but he's starting to push the wrong buttons, if you ask me.

[Kralik]

I missed it -- fill me in on the details? The current thread does not seem offensive, but this is of course post-edit.

[FM]

Nothing big. He just said that "Old CC had this retarded feature that made you lose gp if you sold an add on later". I told him to remove the expression retarded, because not only it's offensive on its own, it's also offensive due to the fact that this politic was endorsed by a lot of members who are still active, here on TLHH. He gave me the reply you can see there, which I quoted, in case he edited it later. I'm more ticked about his retort than the main post itself.

[lem0nhead]

Clearly the guy is a muppet, he is the only member to be involved in every "hot" topic of late. Someone should do something cos i for one have RUN out of patience with him.

[AgentDrake]

Holy freaking smokes.

I mean, seriously.

Why do I constantly get the image of a keg of nitroglycerin stuck in my head every time I log in?

Alright, yeah. If it's all right with everyone, I'm gonna try PM'ing back and forth for a little while to see if I can take the fuse out of the nitroglycerin that is GT. If so, I'll give everyone reports as I go, so you all know what's going on.

[TheJord]

I agree that Gate Troll does have a certain rebellious streak.

HOWEVER, I think he specifically riles up mods and then gets a kick out of them moderating him.

Mod the offensive posts, and leave it at that. F_M, I think you may be starting to take this personally maybe you can take the lead in gently moderating him, but try to avoid confrontation.

Just my 

[SomeRandomDude]

Okay. So my theory is this.

Almost all of his posts tend to be calculated to make people mad. That being said, I don't think we should be afraid of using a temporary ban. Chances are, he's going to come back after the week, and reform. Also, other people will get the point and realize that we do indeed mean business.

So, my proposal. Tell him he has three strikes. Note him every time he makes an error, and at the end of the third strike, week ban. After that, if it continues, we can discuss more lengthy or even permanent options.

He's not just being a pain being himself. He's also letting other people know they can openly flame other members and refuse to abide by the forum rules without punishment. So, yeah. I think that it'd be best for him and the other members of the forum if he gets a temporary ban. But I still think he should have a chance, hence the 3-strike proposal.

That's the way to keep him in check, prevent more Gate Trolls and get members like hawkeyespf back.

[FM]

As for me taking it personally, I'm not. I AM ticked, though, that he retorts the way he does when moderated. Heck, m64 created a Topic to get his 1000th post and I moved it, since it didn't belong where it was (thus knocking him back to 999 posts, unfortunately), and he didn't use his mod features to move it back, nor got mad at me, since I was pretty much doing what I'm supposed to do. I've also moderated a post by King89 (or something along these lines) and he got mad at first, but I set him straight and he's been nice ever since, as far as I'm concerned. GT is the only member that retorts, refuses to try and be better, openly tries to swing the users over to his side, AGAINST the staff, by preaching how mods are abusing their powers, censoring his god-given rights and trying to become a martyr or whatever. That's why I believe we should start enforcing the Forum rules, OPENLY (PMs are out of the question, due to his behavior of posting open topics, so everyone can see), and yes, I have to agree with NBarden, he's long overdue for a week-ban, although I'm all for giving him a 3-strike policy from here on.

[menace64]

Are you kidding me, Felipe? I was furious with you! You stole my thunder...

Kidding, of course.

To add something to this debacle, I honestly think banning should be the absolute last form of punishment. There's simply no need for that, and our group here is so small that the loss of one could hurt all of us. In my opinion, these are the only times when banishment (for any length of time) should be used:

-> Posting porn or anything directly intolerable. Small quips or flames can be moderated without worsening the problem.
-> A member purposefully and consistently ignoring or otherwise acting out against the forum rules, but only after the moderators have informed the member of his or her wrongdoings.
-> Real spam. And by spam I refer to filling entire boards up with meaningless waste, not the "I agree with so-and-so" and "haha that was pretty funny" type of threads that typically get labeled as spam.
-> Any member found not donating $3.62 daily to the menace64 Pizza Fund.

I tend to look on our forum here as something akin to the Shire. We're out of the way, 'moderated' by individuals who have the power to enforce laws but generally without the need to do so because nobody ever really breaks them. Jails are unheard of in the Shire simply because any wrongdoing can be talked out and corrected without the need of further punishment.

We have the power to ban people. That doesn't mean we must.

[FM]

-> A member purposefully and consistently ignoring or otherwise acting out against the forum rules, but only after the moderators have informed the member of his or her wrongdoings.

Which is basically what GT has been doing for the last month or so. Although I'm still all for a warning shot first, anyway.

[SomeRandomDude]

^^F_M stole my thunder. Yeah, he's already ignored multiple PMs from me, I know that for sure.

[Kralik]

I'm all for the three strikes idea, though it should be addressed gently. If it's clear that GT is getting on everyone's nerves, there shouldn't be a problem with the general TLHH populace understanding why he's getting each strike. Personally, I wouldn't take any offense at the latest remark -- calling a forum feature retarded is not the same as slandering the forum's founder IMO. It may just be a representation of the language he is used to using (didn't he say somewhere that he was 14? Gotta take maturity into account...). That being said, his outlash against the mods deserves to be dealt with. That particular thread should have continued on as a discussion instead of becoming several posts of arguing. And there have been plenty of other cases where he has been over-the-top.

Oh, and for future reference -- you've probably noticed that Dain and I have been less-than-active the past couple of weeks. Know that we trust you as the mod team to collectively make the right decision, so you don't have to wait for any stamp-of-approval to act. I am on often to at least check PM's, so if something really needs to be dealt with by an admin, don't hesitate to PM both of us (use the CC feature for a two-in-one).