njbill wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 10:53 am
admin wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 9:49 am
@inthe8m wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 8:53 am
I will continue to keep my eye out. Gentle meme reminders to fellow posters not to feed msg board trolls is just good etiquette. Maybe the admins need to address the issue of a person(s) reporting generic posts that neither name call or trash posters.
The msg board block feature is great.
1- If a post-er is trolling, report it. Do not attack them personally. Report it.
2- This Forum is like a party. And, at this party, we don't allow personal attacks and especially personal attacks by many against one individual post-er. If that post-er is a troll, see #1 above. If that post-er is unpopular, so be it. But... No personal attacks.
3- Inthe8m, remove your current signature.
I’m going to stick my nose in here because I think these are some things that need to be said.
I stopped posting about 11 months ago. When ONW and another poster continued to take shots at me, I decided to return because I had had enough of their repeated attacks. I told them I would address their behavior in the no-holds-barred Hamsterdam, but neither took me up on that.
I don’t keep track of all of his inappropriate posts directed at me, but ONW has personally attacked me many times over the past couple of years, including comparing me to Hitler and the Nazis last June (later deleted but up long enough for me to see it). I reported that to admin in a public post, but nothing was done. Many of his posts have been reported by other posters, both on the public forum and privately to admin, yet he was only suspended once.
When a fairly large number of people from a wide geographic area who don’t know each other reach the same general conclusion about one poster, that’s pretty compelling evidence as to who is right and who is wrong here.
Admin, you say Fanlax is like a party. Well, when one party guest engages in inappropriate behavior, you first ask them to stop. Maybe you ask a second time. But at some point – when the behavior continues despite the requests – you ask the guest to leave. If he won’t leave, you call the cops. And this poster is not just “unpopular” to use your word. He is well beyond that. He is disrupting the party on a regular basis and spoiling the party for the rest of the guests.
While not all of his posts are objectionable, he posts so much that the raw number and regularity of his offensive posts really takes its toll on the Women's board. ONW has been engaging in the type of behavior many (the majority?) of posters on the Women’s board object to for a long time (definitely more than a year). I called out his behavior in strong terms in my “departure” post last June. And I wasn’t the first to do so by any means. He has been asked by a number of different posters a number of times to cool it, to stop with the incendiary posts, to stop the trolling. Basically to stop being a boorish party guest. His response invariably is that he can post whatever he wants. If you don’t like it, don’t read his posts, put him on ignore, report him to admin. Blah, blah, blah.
Of late ONW has been reporting posts he doesn’t like to admin. My belief is admin only reads the reported posts and does not read the surrounding posts to get a complete understanding of the relevant discussion. Also, I imagine admin reads posts when one of his is tagged, which is why I'm tagging his most recent post here. Admin, if that is not correct, please so advise.
By not regularly reading the posts on the Women’s board, there is no way for admin to have a sense for what prompted the reported post or how many other posters feel about some of OWN’s posts.
Some of the posts ONW recently reported to admin had called him out for his regular trolling. Admin issued warnings in a couple of those instances. Yet at least twice in the last year or two,
ONW has acknowledged that he trolls.
I believe it was some time last spring (no, I’m not going to search his thousands of posts to find the specific one) in which he acknowledged (I’m paraphrasing) that he at times intentionally posts things to provoke, aggravate, and annoy other posters. To me, that is the definition of trolling and an admission that he trolls.
On July 20, 2021 at 3:37 p.m. in his own thread on the Penalty Box board, ONW said:
OuttaNowhereWregget wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 3:37 pm
Right off the top—I would like to say that I deserve to be in the penalty box for all the
trolling I’ve done over the years, and in particular the one I pulled today.
First, I want to apologize to admin and Matnum PI. They have better things to do than to police
my childish behavior.
DMac, seacoaster, 8meterPA, Bart, TL, MDlaxfan76 and anyone else I have ticked off with my
self-indulgent trolling and for being a general all-around capital A A-hole.
I condensed his post for brevity and bolded certain language. If you want to read the whole thing, you can find it in the Penalty Box.
So there you have it. ONW admits he trolls.
BTW, his above post is one example of his several “contrition” posts in which he promises to do better, to stop trolling, etc. But as surely as the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano every spring, he reverts to his old ways. Time and time again.
Some of admin’s recent warnings not to engage in personal attacks or not to trash posters have been precipitated by ONW’s reporting of posts calling him out for trolling (using that word).
Here is the key point I wish to make: I don’t think it is
attacking or
trashing someone to call them a troll when that poster, himself, says he is a troll. If I tell someone I’m a big fat slob, that person isn’t attacking or trashing me if they call me a big fat slob. That’s just common sense. Basic logic. Basic human psychology. Or at a minimum, that person has waived the right to object to a characterization he, himself, acknowledges is accurate.
What is the solution? A few possibilities occur to me. First and most preferable would be for ONW to stop his intentionally inflammatory posts. Unfortunately, that appears unlikely. Second, put him in the penalty box for an extended period so that perhaps he’ll learn his lesson. Third, and perhaps least attractive, stop warning and suspending posters who very rightly call out ONW’s trolling posts given that ONW
admits he’s a troll.
One last point. ONW has multiple screen names on FanLax. In addition to the one he is currently using, he also has Cletus, wlaxnut, and angus. Maybe others I’m not aware of. His MO is to use one for a year or so and then start with a new one. Regular posters on the Women’s board usually notice pretty quickly when he starts using a new screen name. While he usually cutely dodges when posters confront him about the new name, I’m not aware that he has ever flat out denied that he has changed his name.
Why does FanLax permit people to have multiple screen names? I’m sure you have IP addresses and can easily dope this problem out. My two cents is it should be one person, one screen name.