Passivity does not work, and education often does not work either. someone will always feed the troll. Try posting some of the stuff we have been discussing on the 'That's Shanghai' family of websites, and you will soon get banned, they also use ISP bans a lot. In fact if you re-post deleted topics, you get banned.
Most commercial sites need to be civilized, to attract/maintain revenues from bigger companies. As such they have zero tolerance on any uncivilized behavior.
Some people cannot control themselves online, because it is anonymous. If their lack of control is leading to a toxic environment for others, I see no reason not to shut them down. In know lots of expats who don't use Gokunming because it can be a toxic environment.
I feel the subject title is offensive, before even reading the content. Should I be able to come on here and not be offended, before I even choose not to read?
@gokunming. do you want someones kids coming on here and reading some of this. can here the conversation now.
mummy what is pornography rapist etc?
why do you ask kiddy?
i saw it on gokunming
Actually, I find it interesting and informative
to try to figure out what MM's problem is, seeing that he & some similar people are in fact part of the environment we all have to deal with. Writing him off as 'Don't bother, he's nuts' is a good idea in some contexts, but that doesn't make any phenomenon disappear, nor does it help one to figure out how the environment within which it appears actually works.
we don need to understand who poisons work to leave em alone. and this is stuff we don't have to deal with.
I'm sure everyone here has good intentions but there are no solutions short of shutting down the forum or requiring real, verified biographical information when registering an account. As it stands, deleting/locking threads will not prohibit the spawning of new threads and deleted accounts will only spawn more fake accounts. Anonymity is the root cause of the trolling, however, it is also the safeguard that allows candid airing of opinions. Without it, 99.9% of the trolling behavior would stop but so would the frank discussions that is the basis for "incredibly active user-generated classified and forum sections."
At this point there is nothing the moderators can do to salvage the forums, it will go through periods of minimal activity then breakout in a flurry of pissing contests before going back to inactivity waiting for the next out break. The days of the forums being useful and informative are over. Sad as it is, that's the reality.
There was a time when the moderators could've address the problem but that would've required active moderation and making correct judgement calls that doesn't alienate members, or at least keep it to a minimum. Unfortunately, the moderators didn't have the time for that and this is the inevitable result of the heavy handedness.
There are many former members with a grudge that when having a bad day or simply bored, decides to stir things up for their own personal entertainment.
@ASatiricalBloke
What you say is that we have to give in to trolls because this is the only way we can have frank discussions?
I disagree. A mature institution, being a website like this or a political party or commercial company (or anything else) can only flourish is it can clean up its act and get out the rotten apple(s) because they bring the whole basket of apples down.
MM’s case is not about free speech or a frank discussion. It’s about trolling, planting click-bate and giving him a place for his written diarrhea.
Agree with Satirical.
Dazzer, I'm not poisoned or worried about being poisoned - information, analyzed correctly through back-and-forth attempts and criticism, is, finally, the only antidote. If we can't deal with the likes of MM rationally then we're all in very, very deep trouble. And if you don't want to bother with it, then don't.
Lemon lover, you don't have to participate, neither does anybody. Problem is the number of posters who just feel they MUST throw in a personal insult of trolls or other posters rather than speak intelligently, not the 'troll' himself. Self-discipline doesn't have to hurt, your ego isn't in any danger.
@lemon lover, I have no idea how you came up with the conclusion, that was not what I was saying, AT ALL.
I am simply stating a fact, any suggestion for action I have seen so far WILL NOT have an effect on problem and may actually incite more of it.
Since you seem so sure of the proper course of action, can you please share what policies or actions the moderator should enact in order to "clean up its act"? I am very interested in knowing.
