Member behavior and missing threads

[hammr7]

I realize that Ralph tries to keep the site as free as possible, and that there are some members who abuse this priveledge. However, given that a recent thread was completely removed, there is obviously some level of conduct that results in a form of editorial censorship.

The thread in question was from a member Clarrise. Not only is the thread gone, but unless my spelling is off, all references to Clarrise have also been deleted. I have no problem with the removal of spurious members and their attempts to link our site to crass commercial endeavors.

But I did have a major problem with one member's response to Clarrise's post. I found Gunslinga's post to be in extremely poor taste; at least as crass as Clarrise's post. The difference was that I could choose not to click on Clarrise's link.

I interpreted Gunslinga's post as an affront to me, and probably to many in our community. This is especially true if Clarrise simply wanted to link to our site for commercial self-interest. If so, he or she wouldn't bother to monitor responses, instead being too busy attempting to similarly infect other sites. That would leave only our community members exposed to the tirade.

While I am pleased that Clarrise's deceit (and I asume that it was a deceit) was uncovered and eliminated, I am not pleased that the emerging discussion related to member conduct was also eliminated. Two wrongs don't make a right, and Clarisse's post was not justification for Gunslinga's response.

[ende73]

I realize that Ralph tries to keep the site as free as possible, and that there are some members who abuse this priveledge. However, given that a recent thread was completely removed, there is obviously some level of conduct that results in a form of editorial censorship.

The thread in question was from a member Clarrise. Not only is the thread gone, but unless my spelling is off, all references to Clarrise have also been deleted. I have no problem with the removal of spurious members and their attempts to link our site to crass commercial endeavors.

But I did have a major problem with one member's response to Clarrise's post. I found Gunslinga's post to be in extremely poor taste; at least as crass as Clarrise's post. The difference was that I could choose not to click on Clarrise's link.

I interpreted Gunslinga's post as an affront to me, and probably to many in our community. This is especially true if Clarrise simply wanted to link to our site for commercial self-interest. If so, he or she wouldn't bother to monitor responses, instead being too busy attempting to similarly infect other sites. That would leave only our community members exposed to the tirade.

While I am pleased that Clarrise's deceit (and I asume that it was a deceit) was uncovered and eliminated, I am not pleased that the emerging discussion related to member conduct was also eliminated. Two wrongs don't make a right, and Clarisse's post was not justification for Gunslinga's response.

Hammr7, your post seems relevant enough to ask for some further details... since that thread is gone I have no clue about what happened. Could you please explain in a few words? I believe it might benefit all of us. What was Clarisse's original post (I imagine a link to some completely off-topic site, as occasionally happens ) and what was Gunslinga's response?

[bigfatkitty]

I'm not usually offended by things, but I did find the remarks concerning how the poster should burn in hell or soming like that in poor taste.

[dry cereal]

yeah, the gist:

clarisse said something about pepsi and gunslinga unleashed the most violent bloody hell on clarisse and his entire family you could imagine. I wish there was an emoticon with their jaw dropped open, but this is as close as I can get to my reaction. :shock:

In slinga's defense, after a while of reading it it became progressively less offensive and more something else I can't put into words.

[Ralph Herold]

As a quick summary from my point of view, ex-member Clarisse posted advertisement about 7Up drinks and member The_Gunslinga flamed her (?) in an obscene way. A few members then responded, and tension was rising. I deleted the member account and the whole thread soon afterwards. While I dislike censorship, I usually delete complete off-topic advertisement threads from people who register just to spam (which was heavily indicated as Clarisse just had this one post). Given that all the arguments I usually stand for to preserve posts for the sake of free speech do not apply in case of pure advertising, I see no problem in this procedure. In this case, the deletion of the whole thread seemed especially appropriate to circumvent needless retaliation posts about advertising or The_Gunslinga. Anyway, if somebody feels something is worth discussing, he is welcome to do so.

[Tha_Gunslinga]

It was spam. As I said, if you don't want people swearing, then use an auto-censor. I generally assume that cursing is allowed if it's not censored.

[random]

Tha_Gunslinga- While you presently maintain a sort of "Lord of the Flies" status on the traders site, perhaps you could use a little self control on this one. There's really no need for an auto-censor unless it's just for you

[flatmatt]

It was spam. As I said, if you don't want people swearing, then use an auto-censor. I generally assume that cursing is allowed if it's not censored.

Agreed. I don't mind swearing at all, and I think the community can handle it. Of course, that's not an invitation to use it for no reason, but I think it can fit perfectly fine into expressing oneself, and, though I myself wouldn't have said what you said in that thread, I didn't think there was anything wrong with what you said.

[agzz]

Nothing wrong with swearign ones in a while, if there is a point to it.
But this was imo uncalled for. We all know Clarrise was never coming back to read the replys so all it could ever do was maby offend real members of the forums. now, we dont want that, do we?

[hammr7]

I very much agree with the responses of agzz and random. What is allowable is not always appropriate. The beauty of our site (as opposed to sites like MOTL) is that we don't need a variety of technical controls to limit member behavior.

Maybe Tha_Gunslinga uses words like those directed towards Clarrise all the time. Maybe he has no problem speaking like that to his mother or grandmother, in his workplace, in public, or around children. If so he is in a distinct minority.

His tirade was, in effect, voiced in at least a few of these areas, since our forum is a public place. If he wanted to voice his views only to Clarrise he could have sent a PM. Or he could have PMed Ralph to remove the thread. But apparantly he wanted a much larger audience.

This site is not a crazed rant site .... rather it is a community of friendly members engaged in a common pursuit. It is open to all that have a love for oddball Magic items. Members show both their maturity and their respect for each other by how they control (or don't control) their postings. This is not to say that adult language or themes are never called for, just that such specifics are not the rule.

[TerraFrost]

I don't have much to say other than that I don't think the reason people were shocked by the post was because it had curse words but rather because it said such things as "i hope your family dies of cancer". And how are you going to censor something like that? Censoring individual words is hard enough, as people can do stuff like f.u.c.k to bypass censors, but sentances? There are so many ways a single sentance can be written (never-mind the varrious character cases).

i hope your family dies of cancer
i hope your family gets cancer and dies
i wish you and your family would just get cancer and die
may your family suffer intolerably so to cancer
i can only pray that god smotes you down by giving you cancer
...etc...

So, anyway, how do you censor against that? The answer: you don't.

[AXIOS]

i was too late to read gunslinga's responses to the 7up girl, but if the sentences above are sentences gunslinga used, then as of this moment i will completely ignore gunslinga! :evil:

[Agreement]

I am not one to post much of anything, and I am a small time player. It was a friend that initially introduced me to this site, but I would like to make a comment here at this time to this subject.

I found that the comments of the Slinga to be quite unreasonable, especially in light that his tirade was directed against a comment from someone that was probably just here the one time to create the spam. His tirade was of no effect and the wording of hoping to die is and was, beyond pure stupidity. However, I have noticed other of his comments, though not as derogatory as 'hoping to die' (or however exactly it was stated), are often beligerent, rude and offensive (but of course to remember, all people see offensive at different levels).

Another character that I have found to be of similiar distaste is the mintcollector. I must say I laughed when he was calling people ass leeches. How self-absorbed can one be? Calling people ass leeches because they would not commit tens, hundreds or thousands of dollars for a project. People like that, I enjoy baiting, just because they are so obviously full of themselves.

But in the few months that I have been reading posts, these are the only 2 individuals that I find are fairly damaging to this interesting community. Not everyone is 100% respectful to everyone else - but that is part of a community. Disparity, disagreements, sarcasm, even name calling are all part of a social community at one time or another. But the way the 2 individuals mentioned above are found to act on here, is definitely damaging to a community in many ways.

But, all in all, it is still quite interesting to read within this global community and see how international members are able to communicate so well with one another.

Thank you

[Tha_Gunslinga]

However, I have noticed other of his comments, though not as derogatory as 'hoping to die' (or however exactly it was stated), are often beligerent, rude and offensive

O rly.

Which ones?

i was too late to read gunslinga's responses to the 7up girl, but if the sentences above are sentences gunslinga used, then as of this moment i will completely ignore gunslinga! :evil:

Your loss.

[secretgiant]

However, I have noticed other of his comments, though not as derogatory as 'hoping to die' (or however exactly it was stated), are often beligerent, rude and offensive

O rly.

Which ones?

i was too late to read gunslinga's responses to the 7up girl, but if the sentences above are sentences gunslinga used, then as of this moment i will completely ignore gunslinga! :evil:

Your loss.

Don't be crazy. Most of us thought you were out of line, so please don't be defiant and just apologize!