Trolling and bullying

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Zurai
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Trolling and bullying

Post by Zurai »

As ImLawBoy suggested, I'm opening this thread in Meta. It's been claimed that there's no rules against trolling because it can't be defined, but that's not really the point. There is a poster who explicitly and openly states he makes posts to rile and upset other forum members, which falls under the following rules:
ImLawBoy wrote:After reviewing the events of recent weeks and months, staff has decided to make some modifications to the Code of Conduct. Our goal here is to try to make the forum community a place where everyone feels welcome, and that is an enjoyable place to pull up a chair and post a while. At the same time, we are aware there are certain types of disruptions that are causing the community harm, and we want to be able to address those on the rare occasions when they occur.

The first change is the following addition to the "About the Octopus Overlords forums" section:
In extraordinary circumstances, if staff feels that a poster is causing significant harm and disruption for the sole purpose of causing that harm, then staff may choose to remove that poster from the community. This will not occur in response to unpopular opinions or philosophies, or to the reasonable defense of those ideas. This is at the sole discretion of staff.
The second change is the following addition to the "Self Moderation" guideline:
Sometimes, two people - two otherwise normal, intelligent, decent, rational people - just will not like each other. That's life. Please just ignore those posters and pursue your own discussions. Leave any disagreements you have in the threads they take place in. If you can't come to terms with each other, it is not acceptable to disrupt the forums, derail threads, or harass the other person in order to continue your private war.
The underlined portion is the new portion of this section.
How is it an enjoyable place to pull up a chair when there is an officially endorsed poster who goes around specifically trying to incite and upset other people?
Rip wrote:No effective in getting peoples panties in a wad so they can rant as they are prone to do.

Your welcome.
That is not welcoming. That is being a bully because no one can/will stop him.

EDIT: To be clear, I don't give a damn about his political or moral views. I'm talking about the explicit desire to upset other people. He could be using stupid liberal bullshit to upset conservatives and it would be just as wrong and just as unwelcoming.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Zarathud »

In Rip's mind, he's rabble rousing for the conservative viewpoint somewhat in the same way I find myself the sole communitarian in the libertarian threads. The biggest difference is that Rip spews everywhere, all the time, even when (and after) his bomb dropping is easily proven false. And I hope to retain at least some credibility, except with LordMortis. ;)

But IMO the issue would be addressed if Rip would just keep his bullshit on topic and in the right threads.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Rip »

You mean trolling like this.

http://octopusoverlords.com/forum/viewt ... 1#p2264391

Of course some people spend too much time accusing people of trolling and suggesting they not post.

http://octopusoverlords.com/forum/viewt ... 79#p794579

and have a history of accusing staff of trolling with one of the only two posts they made in a thread.

http://octopusoverlords.com/forum/viewt ... 0#p1485665
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Zurai
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Zurai »

You have explicitly stated more than once that you make posts with the sole intent of causing trouble. Period. I'm not taking anything out of context. I'm not stalking your post history. This is something more than one person has noted and commented on. You have a history of posting with the sole intent to stir up hard feelings, by your own admission.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Rip »

Zurai wrote:You have explicitly stated more than once that you make posts with the sole intent of causing trouble. Period. I'm not taking anything out of context. I'm not stalking your post history. This is something more than one person has noted and commented on. You have a history of posting with the sole intent to stir up hard feelings, by your own admission.
Wrong. I have stated that I enjoy when my opinion gets peoples panties in a wad not that I form my opinions only to get them so. BIG difference.

Of course more than one person has commented on it, this a a board with 90%+ liberals who get stirred up anytime someone doesn't conform to the liberal circle jerk they prefer.

Do I intend to stir things up, absolutely. Is that my SOLE intent? Not by a long shot. I just don't care that a bunch of Obama/Clinton fanbios get upset by my conservative libertarian viewpoints.

Strange thing is, why do you care? You've had what 20(2 per/yr) posts (5 this year counting the one accusing me of trolling) in R&P? Perhaps the activity of the gamingtrend R&P forums is more to you liking. I think they are up to almost 20 posts this month which is abnormally high.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Zarathud »

You don't have to post all the time to try and enjoy R&P, Rip. I think that's kind of the whole point.

Quality, not quantity. ;)
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by raydude »

You know how people are always saying that Trump is like that crazy Uncle that everyone kind of ignores at family reunions? Rip is like that crazy uncle. Like Trump, Rip constantly obfuscates, moves the goal posts, and generally fits his memory of history to align with his worldview. Only, unlike Trump, we do not have to worry about Rip influencing malleable minds and spreading his message any further than the OO universe.

So do like I did once I read this quote:
[quote=Rip]No effective in getting peoples panties in a wad so they can rant as they are prone to do.[/quote]

And picture Rip wearing his Trump tupee as he types responses on his computer. Then just ignore him.
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Zurai
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Zurai »

Ignoring a bully is the selfish answer. You more or less solve the problem for yourself but the bullying continues.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Smoove_B »

Rip wrote: Of course more than one person has commented on it, this a a board with 90%+ liberals who get stirred up anytime someone doesn't conform to the liberal circle jerk they prefer.

Do I intend to stir things up, absolutely. Is that my SOLE intent? Not by a long shot. I just don't care that a bunch of Obama/Clinton fanbios get upset by my conservative libertarian viewpoints.
You have a very strange perception of the group of people that frequent this board and comment on various things.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Carpet_pissr »

Jesus. Bullying?! :roll:

While his stated 90% is probably a little high, JUST on the basis of political and social differences with the majority of the board, he constantly gets virtually smacked down on a regular basis when he misbehaves. I personally don't see him going after any one poster in particular either, unless you consider Hillary Clinton a poster (I almost feel like she is, given the quantity of "Old Hillary" pics posted recently).

Now THAT is bullying. And merciless, too. Poor, old Hillary.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by RunningMn9 »

Zurai wrote:Ignoring a bully is the selfish answer. You more or less solve the problem for yourself but the bullying continues.
Lacking the ability to remove his childish posts from your screen, what else can you do? It's been made clear that his behavior (however you want to classify it) is *legal* (in forum terms). Is it generally a waste of most people's times? Of course. But what can you do?

Ignoring him is the only viable option.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by ImLawBoy »

I'll start off by noting that, as usual, Rip does himself no favors when responding to this kind of topic. Instead of addressing what he's doing, he first attacks the person who started the discussion. He later tries to minimize the OP's concern by raising an irrelevant post count issue. None of this is particularly surprising, even if it can be annoying. I like Rip on a personal level, but he's not a very good debater. Even when I agree with his views, I rarely agree with how he presents them, and I cringe when I see a viewpoint I agree with presented in a shoddy manner with so many logical lapses. All that said, what Rip posts is (for the most part) not something that violates any of our rules. (Technical matter, but we don't have a CoC anymore. We lost it at some point and never bothered replacing it. We do still try to run the place by the old principles, though.)

There is a good point hidden in Rip's posts in this thread, however. The difference between postings that would require official action and postings like Rip's do lie with intent. Rip is not posting just to get a reaction from people, although he loves getting the reaction. He is posting to express his sincerely held views. He posts in a manner that riles people up, but that's not enough to ban someone. He's also not the only one who does this. Others pepper their postings with phrases that are designed to get folks upset, or take digs at other posters and their beliefs without crossing the line into personal attacks. Rip may be the leader in these efforts, but he's hardly alone, and it comes from all political viewpoints.

When the originally posted comments regarding the late CoC were written, we were dealing with situations where certain posters were posting topics and comments that only served to derail otherwise good conversations. That was followed by a group of vigilante posters then making sure that nothing could get back on track by taking things even further off track. We felt we needed a way to control that, because it was tearing the forum apart. I don't see that happening here with Rip's posting record or with folks upset with Rip's posting record. I honestly wish Rip would change his posting style and tone it down a bit, but I wish a lot of people would do things I say or think. I'm not going to force it absent extraordinary circumstances (or until I gain the power of mind control).

Thank you for starting this thread here instead of continuing the discussion in R&P. I'm happy to continue to engage on the topic, but at this point I don't see anything that would require official action, and that's the case regardless of whether Rip were on staff or not.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by RunningMn9 »

ImLawBoy wrote:Rip is not posting just to get a reaction from people, although he loves getting the reaction. He is posting to express his sincerely held views.
I'm calling bullshit on that. Most of the time, Rip is posting to get attention from people, and it's *obvious*.

Edit to add: as an example - msduncan is posting (generally) to express his sincerely held views. There is nothing sincere about Rip's posting.
And in banks across the world
Christians, Moslems, Hindus, Jews
And every other race, creed, colour, tint or hue
Get down on their knees and pray
The raccoon and the groundhog neatly
Make up bags of change
But the monkey in the corner
Well he's slowly drifting out of range
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Smoove_B »

Until we develop a Voight-Kampff widget for phpBB, I doubt highly intent and sincerity will ever be proven. I'm all for having a discussion, but clown shoes are clown shoes.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by ImLawBoy »

RunningMn9 wrote:
ImLawBoy wrote:Rip is not posting just to get a reaction from people, although he loves getting the reaction. He is posting to express his sincerely held views.
I'm calling bullshit on that. Most of the time, Rip is posting to get attention from people, and it's *obvious*.

Edit to add: as an example - msduncan is posting (generally) to express his sincerely held views. There is nothing sincere about Rip's posting.
I suppose I could agree that getting attention is reason 1B for Rip's posting, but I also think he sincerely believes what he's posting and is advocating his view. As Smoove notes, though, we don't really have a reliable test for this, so until that time, I'm going to err on the side of caution.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by RunningMn9 »

ImLawBoy wrote:I'm going to err on the side of caution.
And thus our only option is to simply ignore his goonishness.
And in banks across the world
Christians, Moslems, Hindus, Jews
And every other race, creed, colour, tint or hue
Get down on their knees and pray
The raccoon and the groundhog neatly
Make up bags of change
But the monkey in the corner
Well he's slowly drifting out of range
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Anonymous Bosch »

Carpet_pissr wrote:Jesus. Bullying?! :roll:

While his stated 90% is probably a little high, JUST on the basis of political and social differences with the majority of the board, he constantly gets virtually smacked down on a regular basis when he misbehaves. I personally don't see him going after any one poster in particular either, unless you consider Hillary Clinton a poster (I almost feel like she is, given the quantity of "Old Hillary" pics posted recently).

Now THAT is bullying. And merciless, too. Poor, old Hillary.
Amen.

Regardless of how anyone may feel about Rip's particular posting style, the notion that his posts even remotely constitute "bullying" is patently absurd.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by GreenGoo »

Rip got under my skin once, I got upset, it went back and forth until Rip basically said he was playing devil's advocate (I'd say trolling, but in the context of this thread that is not where I'm going with this). Even since then when I find myself letting Rip get under my skin I remember that conversation and realize that he's playing a role (even if he believes some or all of what he's saying, that's again not the point) and therefore I was arguing with someone who wasn't taking things as seriously as I was. It has made it very easy to pick and choose when I want to engage him or not.

So a couple of points, in no particular order:

a) We are too like minded here, and voices of dissent are necessary so we don't all congratulate ourselves on our "right thinking". Conversations are boring when everyone agrees and posts +1. This has influenced my own posting habits significantly, for the record.

b) Rip is a good guy even when I disagree with some of his non-political opinions (disagreeing with his politics is pretty much a given). And can also handle abuse like no one else here can. For all the shit he gives out, he has taken some serious drubbings here and come back for more. He's a trooper.

c) He owns the hardware which he hosts for our pleasure. We are here (we could move, but that's not the point) due to his hospitality. He does this even though b). He gets a LOT of slack from me for that alone.

d) I generally feel people are too soft skinned (including myself). Rip is a good example of being thick skinned and can teach by example. I hate getting on the wrong side of Rmn9 because he is brutal, even when he's wrong. :wink: Getting Rmn9 pointed at you is a good lesson in being thick skinned (not for personal attacks, but for taking criticism of your opinion).

I guess that's it. I think Rip says some crazy shit and I disagree with it. But if he didn't say crazy shit, I wouldn't have anything to get upset about, and what fun is that?
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by GreenGoo »

Anonymous Bosch wrote:Regardless of how anyone may feel about Rip's particular posting style, the notion that his posts even remotely constitute "bullying" is patently absurd.
+1. And while I can understand how certain perspectives might think it appropriate, It's a misuse of the term.

Popehat does a bit about this that Zurai (who I like, particularly for his gaming insights) might find enlightening.

Oh, I forgot another point.

f) Even though this is a private server and forum, I like to support the concept of free speech, even speech that sucks. I have never blocked anyone on the forums and get annoyed when someone suggests that someone stop posting (whether the target is me or someone else). We're thin enough as it is. If people were to stop posting we'd be screwed.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by stessier »

GreenGoo wrote:c) He owns the hardware which he hosts for our pleasure. We are here (we could move, but that's not the point) due to his hospitality. He does this even though b). He gets a LOT of slack from me for that alone.
I don't believe this is true anymore. I believe Fishpants pays for our hosting elsewhere - hence the links for support.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by GreenGoo »

stessier wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:c) He owns the hardware which he hosts for our pleasure. We are here (we could move, but that's not the point) due to his hospitality. He does this even though b). He gets a LOT of slack from me for that alone.
I don't believe this is true anymore. I believe Fishpants pays for our hosting elsewhere - hence the links for support.
That could be. I know Fishpants volunteers to administer the site. If Rip no longer hosts the hardware, well then just change my point to "he hosted the hardware for years for our benefit and thus gets a LOT of slack from me". :D
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by stessier »

GreenGoo wrote:
stessier wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:c) He owns the hardware which he hosts for our pleasure. We are here (we could move, but that's not the point) due to his hospitality. He does this even though b). He gets a LOT of slack from me for that alone.
I don't believe this is true anymore. I believe Fishpants pays for our hosting elsewhere - hence the links for support.
That could be. I know Fishpants volunteers to administer the site. If Rip no longer hosts the hardware, well then just change my point to "he hosted the hardware for years for our benefit and thus gets a LOT of slack from me". :D
I wasn't trying to change your mind - just trying to correct the record. :)
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by LawBeefaroni »

I'll let FP or Rip or ILB confirm or deny but I think FP does most of the technical admin and the site is hosted by a paid-for 3rd party. Paid for, hopefully, by the Amazon referral link at the top of your browser there.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by GreenGoo »

But if that's true then Rip's special status as an administrator might be only honorary now. Stripping him of that authorization might be something to look at, if we are looking for solutions.

Me personally, I think nothing needs to be done. He goes through phases of loudmouth obnoxitude and then quiet participation. Shrug. It's all good.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by GreenGoo »

LawBeefaroni wrote:I'll let FP or Rip or ILB confirm or deny but I think FP does most of the technical admin and the site is hosted by a paid-for 3rd party. Paid for, hopefully, by the Amazon referral link at the top of your browser there.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by LawBeefaroni »

GreenGoo wrote:But if that's true then Rip's special status as an administrator might be only honorary now. Stripping him of that authorization might be something to look at, if we are looking for solutions.
Technical admins go on vacation. :wink:
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by GreenGoo »

LawBeefaroni wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:But if that's true then Rip's special status as an administrator might be only honorary now. Stripping him of that authorization might be something to look at, if we are looking for solutions.
Technical admins go on vacation. :wink:
Well clearly we need to put a stop to that then.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by LawBeefaroni »

GreenGoo wrote:
LawBeefaroni wrote:I'll let FP or Rip or ILB confirm or deny but I think FP does most of the technical admin and the site is hosted by a paid-for 3rd party. Paid for, hopefully, by the Amazon referral link at the top of your browser there.
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That's certainly appreciated. As long as the Amazon link covers the costs it's not a huge issue, mostly because with Amazon no one pays directly out of pocket, they just use a different link for stuff they would have bought anyway. "Your browser" was the of the generic you variety as a reminder to everyone.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by RunningMn9 »

GreenGoo wrote:I hate getting on the wrong side of Rmn9 because he is brutal, even when he's wrong. :wink: Getting Rmn9 pointed at you is a good lesson in being thick skinned (not for personal attacks, but for taking criticism of your opinion).
Whoa, how did this get on me?!?
And in banks across the world
Christians, Moslems, Hindus, Jews
And every other race, creed, colour, tint or hue
Get down on their knees and pray
The raccoon and the groundhog neatly
Make up bags of change
But the monkey in the corner
Well he's slowly drifting out of range
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by GreenGoo »

LawBeefaroni wrote: That's certainly appreciated. As long as the Amazon link covers the costs it's not a huge issue, mostly because with Amazon no one pays directly out of pocket, they just use a different link for stuff they would have bought anyway. "Your browser" was the of the generic you variety as a reminder to everyone.
Absolutely. It is my understanding that the link can generate a decent amount if it is used regularly.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Zurai »

First, let me be clear, I in no way want Rip banned or silenced. I actually enjoy most of his non-politically-charged posts, such as when he talks about his time in the Navy.

Second, re: bullying: Maybe there's a better term for it. From my perspective, when a person who appears to hold more power than an average user* intentionally causes trouble for personal enjoyment, that's bullying. If someone can find a better term for it, I don't mind using that instead. I just couldn't think of a better way to put it. I never claimed to be especially eloquent.

Third, there may be a bandaid solution available. I understand Rip needs access to admin functions in order to help with the site (and thank you Rip for spending your time doing so!), but is there a particular reason it has to be his personal account which he posts from? Would it be possible to create a technical admin account for Rip to use in his official capacity, leaving his personal account to continue posting with? That's very much a bandaid and not a solution, and it isn't even a very good bandaid because while it would let people put him on the ignore list, like I said I do actually find a lot of his posts interesting and thus I don't actually want to blanket ignore him. The ideal solution would be for everyone, and I mean liberal, conservative, libertarian, communist, what the heck ever, to stop making aggressively inflammatory posts (EDIT: And yes I've made some bad posts in the past too, and I would expect to get a talking to just as much for those). I've singled out Rip in this thread because he's the only poster I've seen admit to making posts expressly to upset other people, but I know other people do it too. That shouldn't be tolerated, IMO.



*I didn't know until I made my post in the other thread and then saw Fireball's thread here that Rip was an admin in name only. I'm sure others are just as unaware.
Last edited by Zurai on Tue Sep 15, 2015 3:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by GreenGoo »

RunningMn9 wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:I hate getting on the wrong side of Rmn9 because he is brutal, even when he's wrong. :wink: Getting Rmn9 pointed at you is a good lesson in being thick skinned (not for personal attacks, but for taking criticism of your opinion).
Whoa, how did this get on me?!?
It's not on you. My point was that being thick skinned is an important attribute, whether you're dealing with rip or, say, some other random person that I just picked out of the air and by total random chance. :P
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by LordMortis »

LawBeefaroni wrote:Technical admins go on vacation. :wink:
Not where I work <harumph>

Also, I rarely use the Amazon link... or at least I think I rarely use it... Its' not for lack of trying. Either the link gives terrible feedback or I can't figure out how to use the Intrawebs. Maybe that's by Amazon design. To feel like they are supporting hosts, but to not actually give them money...

To the point, that fricken RM9...

No, wait. I can certainly understand that having an admin that seems to like to stir the pot (troll?) and by definition, will not be ignored, is troublesome. I suppose like, gg, I cut rip slack when it comes fatigue (I've never wished I could <plonk> him like others have openly asked to be able to do) because Rip, in no small part, is part of how we got to be here. Even if the FP does most of the heavy lifting and ILB does most of the steering, it hasn't always been that way. And Rip was definitely there monitoring the situation when our last host packed up and shut everyone down. Yet having a man in red, part of the leadership, who seems to enjoy raising the dander of even a few of the people here isn't a good reflection for the board IMO, unless we want to be a site where raising the dander of each other is something the site does. So, yeah, I got nothing.
Last edited by LordMortis on Tue Sep 15, 2015 4:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Rip
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Rip »

stessier wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:c) He owns the hardware which he hosts for our pleasure. We are here (we could move, but that's not the point) due to his hospitality. He does this even though b). He gets a LOT of slack from me for that alone.
I don't believe this is true anymore. I believe Fishpants pays for our hosting elsewhere - hence the links for support.

Yep, I no longer host anything related to OO.

Fistbump to FP.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Rip »

GreenGoo wrote:But if that's true then Rip's special status as an administrator might be only honorary now. Stripping him of that authorization might be something to look at, if we are looking for solutions.

Me personally, I think nothing needs to be done. He goes through phases of loudmouth obnoxitude and then quiet participation. Shrug. It's all good.
We wanted to have more than one technical person involved in the site, but if that was what people wanted I could care less. I don't wield any actual power anyway.
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by stessier »

Zurai wrote: The ideal solution would be for everyone, and I mean liberal, conservative, libertarian, communist, what the heck ever, to stop making aggressively inflammatory posts
One person's "aggressively inflammatory" is another person's "mild mannered".
I require a reminder as to why raining arcane destruction is not an appropriate response to all of life's indignities. - Vaarsuvius
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Anonymous Bosch »

Zurai wrote:First, let me be clear, I in no way want Rip banned or silenced. I actually enjoy most of his non-politically-charged posts, such as when he talks about his time in the Navy.

Second, re: bullying: Maybe there's a better term for it. From my perspective, when a person who appears to hold more power than an average user* intentionally causes trouble for personal enjoyment, that's bullying. If someone can find a better term for it, I don't mind using that instead. I just couldn't think of a better way to put it. I never claimed to be especially eloquent.
Insolence?
Dictionary.com wrote:insolence
[in-suh-luh ns]
noun

1. contemptuously rude or impertinent behavior or speech.
2. the quality or condition of being insolent.
But unless administrative powers -- be they nominal or not -- were actually used as part of what you deem to be insolent behaviour, the fact that it may appear Rip holds more power than an average user seems irrelevant.

Rip stepped up in a major way in terms of providing a lifeline for our forum in the past. And even since hosting duties were moved to a paid-for third party, Rip has been nothing but helpful in terms of restoring site functionality at times when Fishpants was understandably absent. From my limited perspective, I've never seen Rip use his administrative powers for anything nefarious. So I see no reason to call his administrative powers and position into question simply because of posting-style peccadillos.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." — P. J. O'Rourke
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by RunningMn9 »

stessier wrote:One person's "aggressively inflammatory" is another person's "mild mannered".
Agreed - but to the point where a person is *intentionally* inflammatory because that's how he gets people to notice him, that's where it becomes an issue. Which isn't to say that I suggest any action on this. But I wouldn't ignore the consequences.

Over the years, it feels like we've lost a ton of members, and as each of those voices drops out, the individual volume of the remaining folks becomes more noticeable. To get this off of Rip's back for a second - if I'm not your particular cup of tea, I assume that I'm easier to tolerate when there are 700 other people creating sufficient white noise. When that number drops to 70, it's harder to tune me out. And at some point, me being me is going to result in you leaving.

If I wasn't your particular cup of tea, of course. In this case, Rip isn't my particular cup of tea. I don't give a crap about what he believes, the problem is how he has chosen to evangelize it. And that may be more my problem than his. Either way, some day that will result in me not opening OO anymore. Or you not opening OO anymore because of me.
And in banks across the world
Christians, Moslems, Hindus, Jews
And every other race, creed, colour, tint or hue
Get down on their knees and pray
The raccoon and the groundhog neatly
Make up bags of change
But the monkey in the corner
Well he's slowly drifting out of range
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by stessier »

RunningMn9 wrote:
stessier wrote:One person's "aggressively inflammatory" is another person's "mild mannered".
Agreed - but to the point where a person is *intentionally* inflammatory because that's how he gets people to notice him, that's where it becomes an issue. Which isn't to say that I suggest any action on this. But I wouldn't ignore the consequences.

Over the years, it feels like we've lost a ton of members, and as each of those voices drops out, the individual volume of the remaining folks becomes more noticeable. To get this off of Rip's back for a second - if I'm not your particular cup of tea, I assume that I'm easier to tolerate when there are 700 other people creating sufficient white noise. When that number drops to 70, it's harder to tune me out. And at some point, me being me is going to result in you leaving.

If I wasn't your particular cup of tea, of course. In this case, Rip isn't my particular cup of tea. I don't give a crap about what he believes, the problem is how he has chosen to evangelize it. And that may be more my problem than his. Either way, some day that will result in me not opening OO anymore. Or you not opening OO anymore because of me.
Naw, you're not an admin, I can make you a foe and go on my merry way. ;)
I require a reminder as to why raining arcane destruction is not an appropriate response to all of life's indignities. - Vaarsuvius
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Re: Trolling and bullying

Post by Carpet_pissr »

GreenGoo wrote:a) We are too like minded here, and voices of dissent are necessary so we don't all congratulate ourselves on our "right thinking". Conversations are boring when everyone agrees and posts +1. This has influenced my own posting habits significantly, for the record.
So you're saying you introduce artificial conflict into threads. Man, we need to start a list in the wiki or something.

List of allegedly self-admitted OO Trolls:
1. Rip
2. GG
3. U2K (not really sure if he admitted it or not, or was an alt)
4. ??
5. ??

Surely there are others?
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