Would clearer rules regarding “trollish” behavior on the Politics sub-forum be conducive to productive discourse?

[PizzaSnake]

The aim of new “rules” would be to allow the imposition of timeouts or bans. Self-policing and group shaming has not prevailed.

We have a Penalty Box and offenders frequent it. Some offenders frequent it frequently. First penalty is typically 1 minute (2 days). Each penalty there after is double the previous. e.g. For a third penalty, it's a 4 minute (8 day) penalty. The protocol is that a post-er alerts the Admin about a potential violation and Admin either throws a flag or does not.

And rules which were specific to “trolling” may lead to more cognizance of offense and reporting. Or not.

Just trying to advance some ideas and discussion as opposed to bitterness and further entrenchment in unrecoverable redoubts.

[Farfromgeneva]

The aim of new “rules” would be to allow the imposition of timeouts or bans. Self-policing and group shaming has not prevailed.

I know my hands have not been perfectly clean and that I too have been guilty of offensive reactive and incendiary posts. I can own my transgressions.

However, I do value this an a venue to discuss events and ideas. I appreciate the differing viewpoints: who wants to live in Lake Woebegone? I do not appreciate the rude and dismissive posts that continue regardless of efforts to engage the poster in a meaningful dialogue.

Perhaps this is the wrong venue.

Like our government we don’t often get what we want but we usually get what we deserve...

[Farfromgeneva]

I think JHU72 and numerous others (on this tread and others) are spot on. The four plus years of Trump played no small role in the change in tone of the political discussions. We all see it in the world, in our lives. Why would this forum be any different? With this said, we're also living in a post-Trump America. Hope springs eternal. Personally, I'm optimistic. From Day One, FanLax has been a party that was broken up over there so we moved it here. Same Party, Different House. And, while the house means something, the people make the party. Some people simply didn't come over, some people chose and are choosing to leave. And I'm still optimistic because... If the unhappy people (who obviously don't help a party) leave and the obnoxious people are in the Penalty Box (which they will be), then that sounds like a good party to me. A party doesn't need to be big to be good. A party needs to have good people. And I'm optimistic about this.

If we’re really going to have a good party somebody needs to silly beer,chips and girls!

[Farfromgeneva]

The aim of new “rules” would be to allow the imposition of timeouts or bans. Self-policing and group shaming has not prevailed.

We have a Penalty Box and offenders frequent it. Some offenders frequent it frequently. First penalty is typically 1 minute (2 days). Each penalty there after is double the previous. e.g. For a third penalty, it's a 4 minute (8 day) penalty. The protocol is that a post-er alerts the Admin about a potential violation and Admin either throws a flag or does not.

Think fatty lax is in there until my kids will be in college at this point

[Matnum PI]

And rules which were specific to “trolling” may lead to more cognizance of offense and reporting. Or not.

Just trying to advance some ideas and discussion as opposed to bitterness and further entrenchment in unrecoverable redoubts.

Bottomline, trolling is a passive aggressive behavior. i.e. After trolling another post-er, you can say, "What?! All I said was..." if we were the supreme court, we'd need to be very clear because our decisions will have implications for future generations. We're not that important. I feel comfortable saying that, going forward, we'll be more forthright in flagging trolls. As long as post-ers alert Admin to the trolling. And, with that said, pizza, you're a good man. Your intent is clearly good.

[Brooklyn]

The aim of new “rules” would be to allow the imposition of timeouts or bans. Self-policing and group shaming has not prevailed.

We have a Penalty Box and offenders frequent it. Some offenders frequent it frequently. First penalty is typically 1 minute (2 days). Each penalty there after is double the previous. e.g. For a third penalty, it's a 4 minute (8 day) penalty. The protocol is that a post-er alerts the Admin about a potential violation and Admin either throws a flag or does not.

There is nothing wrong with forum. It is fine just the way it is even if certain malcontents cry about losing the license they had to engage in personal attacks like they had in the old forum.

Please do us all a favor and don't change a d@mn thing.

[JoeMauer89]

The aim of new “rules” would be to allow the imposition of timeouts or bans. Self-policing and group shaming has not prevailed.

We have a Penalty Box and offenders frequent it. Some offenders frequent it frequently. First penalty is typically 1 minute (2 days). Each penalty there after is double the previous. e.g. For a third penalty, it's a 4 minute (8 day) penalty. The protocol is that a post-er alerts the Admin about a potential violation and Admin either throws a flag or does not.

There is nothing wrong with forum. It is fine just the way it is even if certain malcontents cry about losing the license they had to engage in personal attacks like they had in the old forum.

Please do us all a favor and don't change a d@mn thing.

Quite odd coming from one of the posters who absolutely can be the most intentionally divisive with his Political Cartoons and other hilariously narrowminded takes!

JoeMauer89!

[dislaxxic]

Quite odd coming from one of the posters who absolutely can be the most intentionally divisive with his Political Cartoons and other hilariously narrowminded takes! JoeMauer89!

Now THAT's funny

Who was it that decried the situation with "people just don't want to hear [or see?] stuff they disagree with"??

You get riled up over political cartoons? Seriously?

Policing speech is as difficult here as it is in the real political world. Aliens and Seditions Act for FL?? What would THAT look like?

The issue for me is the people who believe, create and perpetuate outright lies. Like the last president. He made it OK...for him and his followers...to create an alternate reality and attempt to force it on the rest of us. The alternate reality being foisted on us sure APPEARS to be aimed almost solely at keeping adherents of the AR in office...in power.

I came here years ago to push back on what i saw as outright falsehoods being pushed by an old poster named Sore and Old. Thus began a long run of interesting and enlightening back-n-forth.

Plan on continuing to engage...

..

[DMac]

S&O, the bleeding head with a lure in it.
That story was hilarious. Sore wouldn't be
happy with all the pot legalization going
around these days.

[ardilla secreta]

This just pretty much goes back to day one with all the celebrating of looser rules and the criticism by many of the unfair treatment when put on vacation or having posts deleted at the old house. Was going to be all about self policing. How's that all working out now as the numbers continue to dwindle and the stench of the cesspool gets stronger and stronger?

We're coming up on 3,000 registered members and have substantially more un-registered members than that just follow the posts. During the season, we have 5-10 new registered members daily. That's not dwindling. Along the same lines, if this website and forum is a cesspool whose stench continually gets stronger for you, my suggestion is to find a different pool. You shouldn't have to suffer through such a horrible experience.

Get some thick skin Matnum. DMac's criticism stands true, and it doesn't mean he should find another site. If anything, one could say that if you can't take criticism regarding the sites limitations, that maybe YOU should find another pool to wade in. Works both ways

JoeMauer89!

Another fine example of the troll jr whose almost every post is an insult. Well done.

[Brooklyn]

The aim of new “rules” would be to allow the imposition of timeouts or bans. Self-policing and group shaming has not prevailed.

We have a Penalty Box and offenders frequent it. Some offenders frequent it frequently. First penalty is typically 1 minute (2 days). Each penalty there after is double the previous. e.g. For a third penalty, it's a 4 minute (8 day) penalty. The protocol is that a post-er alerts the Admin about a potential violation and Admin either throws a flag or does not.

There is nothing wrong with forum. It is fine just the way it is even if certain malcontents cry about losing the license they had to engage in personal attacks like they had in the old forum.

Please do us all a favor and don't change a d@mn thing.

Quite odd coming from one of the posters who absolutely can be the most intentionally divisive with his Political Cartoons and other hilariously narrowminded takes!

JoeMauer89!

"divisive"

"narrow minded takes"





You may not like the toons but what you fail to understand is that they deal with ISSUES. Not with personal attacks which is what the Admin wants to prevent on this forum.

If you don't like an opinion, ignore it.

If you feel an opinion is wrong, present your "proof" that it is in 'error'.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Express your own. But don't engage in the endless personal attacks your right wingers always make on this forum. That is what the Admin has said exhaustively. If you right wingers only learn to adhere to his rule we would not have all these right wing tears that we see today.

[Matnum PI]

There is nothing wrong with forum. It is fine just the way it is even if certain malcontents cry about losing the license they had to engage in personal attacks like they had in the old forum.

Please do us all a favor and don't change a d@mn thing.

We've been slow to penalize trolls. Mostly because we wanted to err on the side of caution. as mentioned above, trolling is a passive aggressive behavior. there's always plausible deniability for the troll. Going forward, we need to move the dial a little more towards penalizing obnoxiousness. This doesn't mean that Admin will agree. But... People whose posts are consistently attacks, insults, and other forms of negative obnoxiousness, they need to be slowly removed from circulation.

[wgdsr]

The aim of new “rules” would be to allow the imposition of timeouts or bans. Self-policing and group shaming has not prevailed.

We have a Penalty Box and offenders frequent it. Some offenders frequent it frequently. First penalty is typically 1 minute (2 days). Each penalty there after is double the previous. e.g. For a third penalty, it's a 4 minute (8 day) penalty. The protocol is that a post-er alerts the Admin about a potential violation and Admin either throws a flag or does not.

There is nothing wrong with forum. It is fine just the way it is even if certain malcontents cry about losing the license they had to engage in personal attacks like they had in the old forum.

Please do us all a favor and don't change a d@mn thing.

well, i don't agree with brookie on much, but on this we can surely agree.

what are we even talking about here? aren't people that attack others put in a box? now we want clear rules on passive aggressive takes? not only is that impossible without a huge dose of subjectivity, but you're on an anonymous politics site for gawd sakes.

not to mention, but some huge percentage of the posts on here could qualify. doesn't admin have a day job?

[jhu72]

The aim of new “rules” would be to allow the imposition of timeouts or bans. Self-policing and group shaming has not prevailed.

We have a Penalty Box and offenders frequent it. Some offenders frequent it frequently. First penalty is typically 1 minute (2 days). Each penalty there after is double the previous. e.g. For a third penalty, it's a 4 minute (8 day) penalty. The protocol is that a post-er alerts the Admin about a potential violation and Admin either throws a flag or does not.

There is nothing wrong with forum. It is fine just the way it is even if certain malcontents cry about losing the license they had to engage in personal attacks like they had in the old forum.

Please do us all a favor and don't change a d@mn thing.

well, i don't agree with brookie on much, but on this we can surely agree.

what are we even talking about here? aren't people that attack others put in a box? now we want clear rules on passive aggressive takes? not only is that impossible without a huge dose of subjectivity, but you're on an anonymous politics site for gawd sakes.

not to mention, but some huge percentage of the posts on here could qualify. doesn't admin have a day job?

[wgdsr]

There is nothing wrong with forum. It is fine just the way it is even if certain malcontents cry about losing the license they had to engage in personal attacks like they had in the old forum.

Please do us all a favor and don't change a d@mn thing.

We've been slow to penalize trolls. Mostly because we wanted to err on the side of caution. as mentioned above, trolling is a passive aggressive behavior. there's always plausible deniability for the troll. Going forward, we need to move the dial a little more towards penalizing obnoxiousness. This doesn't mean that Admin will agree. But... People whose posts are consistently attacks, insults, and other forms of negative obnoxiousness, they need to be slowly removed from circulation.

sounds more than a little protectionist, matnum. that doesn't always work out too well.

[Matnum PI]

sounds more than a little protectionist, matnum. that doesn't always work out too well.

maybe. but if this is what we need to do to get the, to be kind, jerks out of the house, so be it.

[wgdsr]

sounds more than a little protectionist, matnum. that doesn't always work out too well.

maybe. but if this is what we need to do to get the, to be kind, jerks out of the house, so be it.

huh. so pizzasnake starts a thread, and in a flash that's the plan? and the follow on 3000 registered members with 5-10 daily...

what i said earlier. and you have rules regarding personal attacks. this'd be real interesting to see what and who lines up as too passive-aggressive.

[Peter Brown]

If you really want to save time, you could condense this thread to: liberals with really thin skin aren’t intelligent enough to have honest debates.

The most valuable posters here at Fanlax are three non libs, Joe Mauer/Old Salt/Cradle, and one lib, Brook. Most of the rest are unoriginal mean-girl cliquish lefties, desperately trying to defend indefensible policies, so instead of ever debating policies, they resort to personal attacks. You saw that recently with the gang attack on Old Salt.

In the last 24 hours, two fake accounts appeared, both with death penalty language (not worthy of suspension but DP). We know what their purpose was; not too hard to discern. Did one lib mention anything about that (the gutter language or the fake accounts)? No. What did Matnum do? Engaged with them as if they were perfectly normal humans, then doubled down by begging others to ‘write Pete up’. Revealing to say the least.

Most leftist ideology is frankly idiotic. If you had an honest bone, you’d admit it. Instead what you do is circle the wagons and attempt to crush dialogue. It’s the same here as what’s happening elsewhere. You use a bs excuse (say this in the whiniest possible voice please: ‘he’s trolling’....Jfc, drink some more white claw) to mob up BECAUSE YOUR PHILOSOPHY IS SO RANK.

Maybe try defending your ideas. You wouldn’t need to invent fake accounts and have unimpressive debates like this thread.

Please flag me, Matnum.

[admin]

Tweet! Unsportsman-like conduct. Peter, your last penalty was a 2 Minute (4 day) Penalty. This one is a 4 minute (8 day) penalty. Penalty will be up on Thursday at 9:24 PM EST. Tweet! Play on.

[MDlaxfan76]

sounds more than a little protectionist, matnum. that doesn't always work out too well.

maybe. but if this is what we need to do to get the, to be kind, jerks out of the house, so be it.

huh. so pizzasnake starts a thread, and in a flash that's the plan? and the follow on 3000 registered members with 5-10 daily...

what i said earlier. and you have rules regarding personal attacks. this'd be real interesting to see what and who lines up as too passive-aggressive.

you and me?

Seriously, my objection is not to the occasional hyperbole, or jabs back and forth, and certainly not the obvious political satire, but rather the intentional obfuscations, misrepresentations, and outright lying some "trolls" employ with the clear intent to inflame, not discuss topics. They are unwilling to engage in respectful discourse on the merits of their arguments.

wgdsr, I often have trouble following you, and you sometimes go hot at me a bit, but I never doubt whether you're trying to actually discuss topics rather than to inflame arguments just for drill. Nor do you engage in the kind of dishonest rhetoric some employ. Moreover, you bring a heck of a lot to the table in actual facts and logic, and experience, offered. I hope that can be said for me too, at least most of the time.

And indeed, I think it can be said for nearly all posters on here. Unfortunately, some bring a very different tone.

I'm ok with the Admin making some incremental calls, with fair warning, on egregious trolling.

And arguing with the ref is surely going to get flagged in any sport...