A change for MP and REI

i understand the need to limit certain users. i personally would feel much more comfortable if this determination was made on a post-by-post basis (such as a thumbs-down button that hides posts after a certain criteria is met - reddit style)
some good points are made above about how some users could end up with posts hidden when they really shouldn’t be.

will users have the opportunity to move up out of this quarantine? after say a time limit with no flagged posts?

another option would be removing the flagging entirely and perhaps less forum administration overall

personally, i also feel like i am an adult and can make my own decisions regarding what i read. i have personally used the flagging feature to report spam and dont have a proposed solution for that use case.

if none of those are possible i would be strongly in favor of being able to opt out of hiding the posts in my view.

thank you, for listening to us all spray our opinions while you work at what is likely a rather thankless job.

If we're going down this road, I think it would be better to have a thumbs-down feature that at some threshold hides posts unless we open them rather than targeting particular members. Just because someone is an ass in a particular post or thread doesn't mean every post that person makes is a shitpost.

This new change seems like a great way to turn the forum into a stagnant thing. Please don't repeat the mistakes that mods of once-lively forums made.

How’s my flagging today?

Colonel Mustardwrote: How’s my flagging today?

Well, that’s a letdown.

Tbh the thumbs up thumbs down feature of reddit that pushes more relevant and entertaining posts higher in the thread is the best part about reddit. 

Fail Fallingwrote: Tbh the thumbs up thumbs down feature of reddit that pushes more relevant and entertaining posts higher in the thread is the best part about reddit. 

Yeah I agree, but unless MP turns forum posts multithreaded, how's that gunna work here? We just have nonsensical out of order posts on subjects? Does nothing in 2020 have any rules?!

Or you can make people sign up with their real name. I suspect there would be far fewer issues if people were not anonymous. 

NickMartelwrote: Or you can make people sign up with their real name. I suspect there would be far fewer issues if people were not anonymous. 

How do you do this? Couldn't someone just still use a fake name?

Nick Rhodes wrote:

Will you be the one checking IDs?

I suspect that would end up being the other other Nick. 

NickMartelwrote: Or you can make people sign up with their real name. I suspect there would be far fewer issues if people were not anonymous. 

You are aware of social media?

Fail Fallingwrote: Tbh the thumbs up thumbs down feature of reddit that pushes more relevant and entertaining posts higher in the thread is the best part about reddit. 

In theory that is a good idea, but in practice it can be problematic. 

I've seen comments in Reddit threads containing  accurate information voted down into the negative because the answer was unpopular. While a low-effort regurgitated joke rises to the top. You can't let popular opinion choose weather or not facts are visible.

I've been on here five years now. It's much, much tamer than the first couple years. More boring, too. It's a hard thing, thankless (thank you Nick!), and a fine line.

Flagging has to stay. The most egregious are removed entirely, user and all, like the spam. Personally, I find those almost in English ones pretty entertaining, sometimes. But, I personally saw the case of a person signing up and coming on, to tell someone to put a gun barrel in their mouth and pull the trigger. I flagged it, commented, flagged my own comment trying to get Nick's attention before the ugly bit was seen. The new person replied to my comment, getting both bitch, cunt, and several insults all in the same sentence. Flagged that. Nick erased the whole works, in only a minute or two. All of this, in a totally innocuous thread, when the OP asked for a climbing partner by playfully suggesting we ditch family and come climb on Thanksgiving.

The people who say "use your real name!" have perhaps not considered the higher risks for some of us, to do so. Merely admitting to being female (or gay, or Mormon, or politically conservative) and speaking up for your viewpoint, can make things get lively. That's fine...up to a point. Harassing people entirely off the forum, is not. That's still just online. But when remarks on the forum make it clear someone was watching you? In person? And you have no idea who they are? Creepy. Besides, I like Old lady H to represent myself on here. I am me, Helen, and pretty much straight up on here. I'm proud to be a badass old lady climber, and it's a gentle "in your face" way to comment on aging in our culture, especially for women.

Voting up and down backfires also. Cruel remarks often get a bunch of anonymous thumbs ups on here. I'd like to know who those cowards are, personally. This is, after all, a place where we meet other climbers. How you behave here matters. I can attest to the fact that there are far more readers than active posters. I've been contacted by people who aren't up to wading into frays, if I happen to argue what they would...if they were here.

Last? We do meet real people on here. Every single one. Bad day, good day, whatever that moment is. Even "trolls".

Best, Helen

It's easy to overstep - just make a new user.

Do people love or hate trolls?

What if each account could have a troll scale linked to their profile?  I know it would increase troll competitions but also help new user assess the user's troll potential.

Erik Bwrote:

In theory that is a good idea, but in practice it can be problematic. 

I've seen comments in Reddit threads containing  accurate information voted down into the negative because the answer was unpopular. While a low-effort regurgitated joke rises to the top. You can't let popular opinion choose weather or not facts are visible.

True, I've seen both the positive and the negative side rear its head. In a sense, it's  a caveat emotor for the forums you choose to frequent based upon their usership. In general, a climbing forum with its specific demo and intent of those that log in (as opposed to the more general pull from the population that reddit has, subforums or not) is a place that people (minus the trolls) seek out for information leading to that sort of info being prioritized by the non-lifer usership (who are here to basically slander around the campfire let's be honest)

Gumby Kingwrote: Do people love or hate trolls?

What if each account could have a troll scale linked to their profile?  I know it would increase troll competitions but also help new user assess the user's troll potential.

I love trolls.  For real, I think well-executed trolling is hilarious and keeps people from taking themselves too seriously.  I think a silent majority of MP users also appreciates benevolent trolls.  

Regarding the troll scale, I think simply flagging a post (while keeping the content visible) as “Possible Troll” could be effective without overly incentivizing low-effort trolling.  

Rocrateswrote:

 I think a silent majority of MP users also appreciates benevolent trolls.  

Agreed. (silently) 

Edit: and here's a beautiful example of a benevolent troll. I'd hate for this sort of thing to go by the wayside.

Rocrateswrote:

I love trolls.  For real, I think well-executed trolling is hilarious and keeps people from taking themselves too seriously.  I think a silent majority of MP users also appreciates benevolent trolls.

Y'all are kinda abusing the term imho. A troll post is not someone simply disagreeing with you and it's not something merely tangential to the thread. There is an intent to inflame in a real troll post. There really isn't such a thing as a "benevolent troll ".

From Wiki:

In internet slang, a troll is a person who starts  flame wars or upsets people on the Internet by posting inflammatory and digressive,[1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses[2] and normalizing tangential discussion,[3] either for the troll's amusement or a specific gain.
Both the noun and the verb forms of "troll" are associated with Internet discourse. However, the word has also been used more widely. Media attention in recent years has equated trolling with online harassment. For example, the mass media have used "troll" to mean "a person who defaces Internet tribute sites with the aim of causing grief to families".[4][5] In addition, depictions of trolling have been included in popular fictional works, such as the HBO television program The Newsroom, in which a main character encounters harassing persons online and tries to infiltrate their circles by posting negative sexual comments.

Regardless of the circumstances, controversial posts may attract a particularly strong response from those unfamiliar with the robust dialogue found in some online, rather than physical, communities. Experienced participants in online forums know that the most effective way to discourage a troll is usually to ignore it, because responding tends to encourage trolls to continue disruptive posts – hence the often-seen warning: "Please do not feed the trolls". Some believe this to be bad or incomplete advice for effectively dealing with trolls.[13]

At times the word is incorrectly used to refer to anyone with controversial, or differing, opinions.[17] Such usage goes against the ordinary meaning of troll in multiple ways. While psychologists have determined that the dark triad traits are common among Internet trolls, some observers claim trolls don't actually believe the controversial views they claim. Farhad Manjoo criticises this view, noting that if the person really is trolling, they are more intelligent than their critics would believe.[17]

My last post was erased. Not even a Rule #1 put up in it's place.
Sad. I was only pointing out the obvious.

Parachute Adamswrote: My last post was erased. Not even a Rule #1 put up in it's place.
Sad. I was only pointing out the obvious.

I’ve had that happen. It merits a chuckle from me, I’m absolutely confident I could find comparable time-wasting opportunities if things imploded here.