Preserved Topic: Help... Trying to maintain a forum with obnoxious users.

Ok - not everyone out there likes what I have to say sometimes, but this forum is pretty insane to begin with, so I suppose I am generally tolerated. Now, I imagine you've had your experiences with really BAD, mean, attacking, whatever posters that just completely taint the entire point of things. And you deal with them.

So I am running a forum out there about local (tri-cities tn/va) music in general. http://www.createch.net/electronica. I've always been the provider of content and not the maintainer - so this is a new perspective for me - especially since I have one or two COMPLETE ASSES that are screwing up the forum. I am considering making it "registered users only" soon, since these posters appear to be using a modem, so banning their IP would accomplish nothing. Besides, they could create an account and start up their crap again anyway.

Help? Advice? I haven't taken any action yet, but the forum is starting to take off and I really want it to grow - and it might die altogether if I can't get rid of these twerps.

The first thing that comes to my mind is ..... ONLY allow the true ISP email...block all hotmail etc emails from sign up. When they are no longer welcome ... ban that email from opening a account. It worked on a few boards I was a part of. They soon get tired of changing ISP emails or won't bother at all.

Hope that helps


Todays quote:

~Did you ever stop to think that your way of thinking is a lot like pissing down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else~

Yep, thats what I had to do with a board that I run. Make them obtain their passwords through email. I don't make them use a true ISP email but they become tired of registering free accounts after you've banned 4 or 5.

Another suggestion is to make them email you for a password. I don't know how feasible this would be for you, especially if you're dealing with large numbers of people but if you have to send them the email with the password that would totally take care of it.

Other then that I would just assign a few trusted people as mods like here to delete or close trouble topics. If you have enough there should always be one or two lingering around to take care of the asses.

Good luck!

What do you mean by "screwing up" the forum? If they're just messing around with, like, HTML or something and being annoying like that, then you can find ways to fix that.

I just did some quick scanning and I didn't see anything malicious. You deleted the posts?

Maybe I'll poke in from time to time.

I didn't have time to scan the forum but in my experience there are some people that *must* be banned from forums. It is unfortunate but necessary in some cases. It sounds like linking registration to an email is a good idea. The cases where my associates have had to ban people did not use this method and they would get back into the forum with different accounts.

Good suggestions... I'm not sure how poweful this phpBB is or if it can implement these higher security id registration tactics.

What I mean about screwing up the forum is not providing any useful or constructive content for the site. I've deleted the worst topics, but abc123kid (and several anonymous posters) have been posting just really agressive, attacking comments that are pissing off my new clientele.

The music scene in my area is really pleased with the site and are getting excited about the forum - and I really want to have a positive, interesting place for people to come and talk about the scene. I want to avoid immature, irresponsible commentary as much as possible as most of my audience (especially the dedicated ones) are older serious musicians.

Anyway, I've got two sponsors eyeing the site and the forum is one of the most interesting things to them. So besides creating some cool local content, I'm also trying hard to maintain profitability.

Thanks for your suggestions.

threep laughs, wondering if wj intends on increasing the ASS-count to three...

hmm.

'maintain profitablility'

isn't that for sell outs?

wouldn't a true provider just do it for the sake of the masses?

You just never know...

A sense of honesty, rationality, objectivity, and responsibility is all it takes. Well, knowledge of out-of-context, mirror, and non-sequitors attacks helps. I can deal with pips while mantaining decorum.

Johnny Storm said it best.

But not without Meta's blessing.

DL?

Did I ever say I *wasn't* a sellout? And I'm glad that my topic got your panties all in a wad. It's been a while since I've gotten attention from you - and boy did I miss it!

Love,

Meta!

So, meta, you want the people posting to your board to adhere to a few simple rules, right? But you're letting just anybody sign up? Well, there's your problem right there.

The answer is simple. Just require a complete credit and background check to people using your board. As well as having them sign a "Proper Behaviour" form after inputting credit card #, social security #, birth date, dog's/cat's name, full name including embarrasing middle or surname, and their soul.

I'm pretty sure that will get the results you're looking for.

Hope this helped.

in a wad? hehe

I like my panties in a wad...it feels nice

just trying to point out your constant inconsistencies........for your sake. hope it helps

Arbitrarily deleting posts because you don't like their content seems to me to leave you vulnerable to complaints of free speech violation. Bozos will be bozos. Could you as moderator create a new forum called "Rants an' flamz", and move the posts you find offensive there? That way you haven't denied anyone their right to speak - you simply claim the posts were moved to a more appropriate forum. (That happens here sometimes when a new member posts a Javascript question in the Photoshop forum for instance.) And the rest of your readers are untroubled so long as they avoid that forum.

~just a thought~

Ohhhhh! I get it!

From the subject line of this thread, I wondered why in the world would you want to 'maintain a forum with obnoxious users.' Don't we already have a nice one set up here...obnoxious users and everything....

mobrul

What other kind of users is there?

Ahhh... I like living in Australia... We don't actualy have free speach here, although most Australians think we do. Which means I can tell someone to shut up if I don't like what their saying hehe...

But I'm a nice and kind person ~splurk~ so I usualy don't...

OK, restricting usrs, banning etc... Do you know I have never had to resort to this here, ever? I'll say that again, NEVER. I like the idea of the "rants and ravings" forum, though if you really want to make the point label it "Obnoxious Assholes". Then discuss this in the general forum, let people know so they can go and poke fun at these bozos. A caution to you here, some of these "Obnoxious Assholes" could be valuable memebers of your growing community, if brought along properly. Educate them, and recruit other members of your community to help you educate them, and you could gain good assets. Banish them to the ridicule forum if not.

Note: Playing the censor leaves you open to all sorts of content disputes. For example, if you start censoring bad language you're liable if someone is mortally offended by the use of bad language that you *didn't* catch! Trust in your users, recruit good people who care about this thing like you do, and rely on them (and you!) to put these kids in their place. It's all part of being a public community, welcome, what fun! You'll learn to enjoy it.

Your pal, -doc-

Well, Doc, you've just stated the #1 reason I come here

Well put, Doc. And, regarding your comments regarding "censoring bad language" - I sure would be c*****n pissed off if you ever tried that here



[This message has been edited by Steve (edited 06-17-2001).]

Thanks doc for you detailed reply. I have decided that I have to ban foul language as I do have young visitors and my php board at least replaces the foul word with a synonym.

That's a great idea, the "rants" forum. However, I am quite certain that several users will just rant wherever they feel like - and since I don't have the abiliy to move specific posts (only topics) now, it's not really helpful (though still a great idea).

Also, it is indeed true that the people that are flaming the forum are valuable members and it would be wise to recruit them. I have tried hard to communicate to them that they can't just flame (repeatedly) whenever they want, but that I can respect their desire for anonymous posting and the occasional outburst. I really won't censor anyone unless they just KEEP AT IT on the same annoying subject. "make your point and move on" is my new mantra for GoElectronica.com

Thanks again, all!