Personal Attacks
Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 10:46 am
ANG, I wanted to answer your post but didn't want to clutter that thread any further:
So, how do we handle personal attacks? First, on the upper boards, just try not to make them. I understand that things get heated and we're not always going to agree or like each other, but you can make your point without calling names or insinuating that a poster is the product of an unholy union between their mother and a donkey.
For the most part any personal attacks so far have been either ignored, responded to briefly and then dropped, or immediately got walked back. In other words, we've been playing well together in the sandbox so far. The Rey/dmj spat is the first one that I've seen that has gone on for more than a few posts and seemed to be escalating, so I thought I would step in. And I probably wouldn't have said anything if it happened in the General Discussion or Politics boards. But the main sports boards should be as civil as possible in my estimation.
We're all adults (or nearly adults) here, and I think we can act like adults. We've got a big boy website where we can curse and show boobies and really we shouldn't need any heavy-handed moderation. I think your three-step process is a good one, but I'm not the one to make those decisions. I'm just a mod now because we needed a few people to take care of spam attacks. I really have no interest in being a Moderator (capital 'M') when this thing really gets up and running. I have much more fun bending the rules than enforcing them.
So that's my two-cents, for what they are worth (probably less). My only wish is that when we do go over to the new domain and this place is discoverable to the public that we don't have a situation where an Arizona fan finds the board, clicks on the first thread, and is treated to two people calling each other some version of "brainless asshole" and thinking that it's not someplace they want to really hang out and talk football or basketball.
Now let's all join virtual hands and sing "kumbaya". Do it you fucking douchenozzle fuckfaces!!!
Personally, I'm not interested in locking threads or editing posts. Sometimes things do get out of hand and steps must be taken. Mods have the ability to warn users and flag posts, but in my opinion if you don't know that what you said crossed a line, then you probably will never get it and a mod flagging your post is not going to get you to stop being a douchebag.ANGCatFan wrote:Chicat,Chicat wrote:Guys, if we can't keep it civil then posts are going to need to start getting edited. And since I really don't have the time or energy to edit all the childish stuff out of these posts, I may just start deleting them. So all the time you spent coming up with different ways to call each other a brainless asshat will be for nought.
I'm interested in what the board standard is for civility and where we as a group want to draw the line? I personally enjoy Rey's creative ways for pointing out brainless asshats, but more importantly his arguments have all been primarily supported with football information and not just personal attacks only responses to attacks thrown at him.
In my opinion, as long as a discussion is primarily about football and the responses are reasonably substantive on the football issues it is healthy for the board. When it degenerates into just personal attacks the discussion becomes destructive for the board. The tricky part is identifying when a poster has crossed that line. I call it the Kyle Collins Conundrum.
For me Rey is way on the football side of the line and although dmjcat has tried to drag the discussion down to just personal attacks the other posters have made sure it has remained football centered. Although I am personally tired of the "we can't win because we can't recruit" discussions, I am glad people have to support their theories in the face of strong criticism because it helps to draw out the difference between reality and pure personal opinion.
I am also a little concerned that we will lock active, popular threads because one poster decides to stop talking football and wallow in personal insults. Historically on local message boards moderators have locked threads that have gotten out of hand punishing everyone equally and then the same discussion with the same participants pops up on another thread when the same subject is raised again. We need to identify and punish the bad actors not just lock the discussion to everyone.
I'm also not a big fan of editing because we lose the historical evidence of where someone crossed the line. Have there been previous football threads that have been edited? If a post is edited by the mods will I be able to tell?
I'd love to see a three step process for posters that have crossed the line. First, a direct message from a mod to try and resolve the problem in private that you have crossed a civility line and need to avoid personal attack. Second, only if the problem persists, a public message in the thread stating that this specific poster(s) has been warned in private and now is being warned publicly to avoid personal attacks. Finally, if nothing improves, an appropriate ban from the site. Small for first time offenders, longer for repeat or serious offenders, and banishment for serial, unrepentant asshats.
For this thread as an example, you certainly could make a case that dmj could have received a private warning, but in my opinion we have had far worse threads with far less football discussion. This is not the type of thread I would like to see locked or edited. If for no other reason, in 2 years when we have a full picture of Coach Rod's history of recruiting at Arizona I would like one side of the argument be able to pull this thread back up and to show they were correct.
So, how do we handle personal attacks? First, on the upper boards, just try not to make them. I understand that things get heated and we're not always going to agree or like each other, but you can make your point without calling names or insinuating that a poster is the product of an unholy union between their mother and a donkey.
For the most part any personal attacks so far have been either ignored, responded to briefly and then dropped, or immediately got walked back. In other words, we've been playing well together in the sandbox so far. The Rey/dmj spat is the first one that I've seen that has gone on for more than a few posts and seemed to be escalating, so I thought I would step in. And I probably wouldn't have said anything if it happened in the General Discussion or Politics boards. But the main sports boards should be as civil as possible in my estimation.
We're all adults (or nearly adults) here, and I think we can act like adults. We've got a big boy website where we can curse and show boobies and really we shouldn't need any heavy-handed moderation. I think your three-step process is a good one, but I'm not the one to make those decisions. I'm just a mod now because we needed a few people to take care of spam attacks. I really have no interest in being a Moderator (capital 'M') when this thing really gets up and running. I have much more fun bending the rules than enforcing them.
So that's my two-cents, for what they are worth (probably less). My only wish is that when we do go over to the new domain and this place is discoverable to the public that we don't have a situation where an Arizona fan finds the board, clicks on the first thread, and is treated to two people calling each other some version of "brainless asshole" and thinking that it's not someplace they want to really hang out and talk football or basketball.
Now let's all join virtual hands and sing "kumbaya". Do it you fucking douchenozzle fuckfaces!!!
