Troll Fest in Harry Potter Forum

Huggles

Hi Folks

Plenty of opportunity for cats in cloaks pics here but bare with me a sec.

Just wondering if there is a proper dedicated mod for the Harry Potter forum, I'm not sure there is. If possible could one of the mods keep a close eye on this forum for this week. Some people, myself included have been waiting two years for this and at present we have some trolling going on in the forum, posting spoilers without tags etc.

It could easily descend into a flame war with some of the less mature posters intent on ruining the book for others.

Thanks

PS Release the cats

Amz

Anyone who reads a Harry Potter forum/thread at the moment and isn't expecting to read a spoiler of some kind is pretty naive.

I would suggest that people who are taking this book release particularly seriously should avoid the internet altogether 'til they read the book.

There are assholes everywhere and at the moment a lot of them have a mission and it'll be difficult to control their activities.

Huggles

Amz wrote:

Anyone who reads a Harry Potter forum/thread at the moment and isn't expecting to read a spoiler of some kind is pretty naive.

I would suggest that people who are taking this book release particularly seriously should avoid the internet altogether 'til they read the book.

There are assholes everywhere and at the moment a lot of them have a mission and it'll be difficult to control their activities.

I agree Amz but I was doing perfectly fine till Elites posted the content of winters sig without spoiler tags. At teh very least this Asshole behaviour should not go unpunished. Can offenders be banned from forum for this week?

Amz

I what? I've never posted in that forum.

I don't think you can ban people for doing that. I might not read the book for another year, surely someone's going to discuss it in that time and spoil it for me. I'm not going to expect them to be banned. Same with sports forums, if someone posts the result of a game I'll be peeved if I haven't seen it, but it's just them being a twat or not thinking.

Huggles

Amz wrote:

I what?

I don't think you can ban people for doing that. I might not read the book for another year, surely someone's going to discuss it in that time and spoil it for me. I'm not going to expect them to be banned. Same with sports forums, if someone posts the result of a game I'll be peeved if I haven't seen it, but it's just them being a twat or not thinking.

Sorry Edited. I said it arseways

Thrill

It wasn't Amz...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=53605176#post53605176

Terry has also had to delete stuff on AH as well...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055122237

Huggles

Amz wrote:

I what? I've never posted in that forum.

I don't think you can ban people for doing that. I might not read the book for another year, surely someone's going to discuss it in that time and spoil it for me. I'm not going to expect them to be banned. Same with sports forums, if someone posts the result of a game I'll be peeved if I haven't seen it, but it's just them being a twat or not thinking.

This week tho, its just trolling. Normally trolling gets a ban.

Crumble Froo

i agree with gooner here, to be honest... im not a regular on the harry potter forum, but obviously this week, im gettin a lil more into it than usual, its fun to speculate, or discuss possibilities and stuff, but no fun to have blatant uncovered spoilers around the place.

although yes, i will be avoiding much on the internet until sunday, when ill probably be back on ready for avid discussion....

Huggles

thrill wrote:

It wasn't Amz...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=53605176#post53605176

Yes I know I edited my post and apologised. Elites not Amz

Amz

No worries, I figured you'd made a mistake.

I know it's a ****ty thing to do, but unfortunately given the high number of spanners on these forums a week ban isn't going to deter these people. The possiblity of spoiling it for even one person will probably be enough!

My advice is to avoid the Harry Potter forum and possibly After Hours altogether.

zAbbo

Elites almost ruined the book for me, by not spoilering 'Hermione Dies'

Huggles

Amz wrote:

No worries, I figured you'd made a mistake.

I know it's a ****ty thing to do, but unfortunately given the high number of spanners on these forums a week ban isn't going to deter these people. The possiblity of spoiling it for even one person will probably be enough!

My advice is to avoid the Harry Potter forum and possibly After Hours altogether.

I respect what your saying Amz but like narco posted, fans have a right to be in there discussing the book and possibilities...its part of the fun. So why should I avoid it? I know Faith is a big fan so maybe she can temp Mod the forum?

Please? I enjoy the craic and i dont want to avoid forum to accomodate idiots.

Marksie

zabbo wrote:

Elites almost ruined the book for me, by not spoilering 'Hermione Dies'

:eek:
*bursts into tears*...how could you?

Winters

zabbo wrote:

Elites almost ruined the book for me, by not spoilering 'Hermione Dies'

:O

I know thats not true though

I am not posting any spoilers on the harry potter forum, if I was going to I would have them in spoilers. I have been following this whole leak thing around the net and also shall be at the launches so do have a small interest in the book.

GuanYin

Can you not just cast a spell to get rid of trolls?

Sully

I agree with the OP on this one. Just because its a Harry Potter forum does not mean we shouldnt take it seriously. This kinda stuff wouldnt be permitted in other forums like "LOST".

Spoilers should be permitted, but only using the tag. Such topics should have a warning on the outside.

Thrill

psi wrote:

Can you not just cast a spell to get rid of trolls?

I thought mods were supposed to stop trolling or at least do their best to warn those they find doing it?

Huggles

Sully wrote:

I agree with the OP on this one. Just because its a Harry Potter forum does not mean we shouldnt take it seriously. This kinda stuff wouldnt be permitted in other forums like "LOST".

Spoilers should be permitted, but only using the tag. Such topics should have a warning on the outside.

And god forbid should I enter the Prison Break forum and start trolling.

I'm quite disappointed. There are a handful of posters in the HP forum this very minute causing trouble and the whole thing is just descending into chaos.

As far as I can see the reported posts have still not been removed.

feylya

It looks like Funky Penguin hasn't been on in a while. A smod will be needed.

GuanYin

thrill wrote:

I thought mods were supposed to stop trolling or at least do their best to warn those they find doing it?

I'm not a mod of the harry potter forum, I'm justa normal user there.

My powers only work in the forums I mod....

Winters

Mods cant always be around 24/7, they have to sleep too know know

Im sure one of the cat mods shall be poking their head into Feedback or see the reported posts soon enough to fix it all up anyway. Dont worry.

Thrill

psi wrote:

I'm not a mod of the harry potter forum, I'm justa normal user there.

My powers only work in the forums I mod....

Thats a pity.

I'm not a Harry Potter fan myself (Cant stand him actually) but I think it's unfair whats being done to fan's on that forum.

bounty_hunter

The point here was that the thread in question was started specifically to warn HP fan that genuine spoilers had been leaked (not just general discussion on theories, etc.), and people are coming into the thread and deliberately posting possibly genuine spoilers without tags just to try and ruin it for everyone else, or is the case of user robnubis, trying to trick people into reading spoilers that he has labelled as something else. Why should this be tolerated here when it wouldn't be tolerated on any other forum?

HP fans should not have to avoid boards for the next week just because these immature idiots are being allowed to get away with what they're doing, we want to be able to come online and discuss meeting up for the book launch, etc.

Amz, I get what you're saying about avoiding obvious spoilers, that's what the topics dedicated to discussing spoilers are for. Obviously these should be avoided. My problem is people trying to sneak them in to seemingly innocent topics such as this http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=53605176#post53605176 and this http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055089014 where fans are going to talk about their plans for the next few days.

robnubis

well its all in spoiler tags or in links, but spoiler is mentioned in all my posts.

Smellyirishman

robnubis wrote:

well its all in spoiler tags or in links, but spoiler is mentioned in all my posts.

Yeah, ever since you have edited all of your misleading posts.

Agree with OP, 'tards should be banned just like they would be from Lost etc...

bounty_hunter

robnubis wrote:

well its all in spoiler tags or in links, but spoiler is mentioned in all my posts.

Haha, yeah. You may have casually mentioned the word "spoiler" all right, concealed in the middle of a completely innocuous sentence. No point trying to cover your tracks now.

To quote your original post in this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055122315, before you so cunningly edited it:

Yeah this was broke on the news just there, they posted a list of places to not visit and also a press release from Bloomsbury saying that some of this is in fact all fake

News Article Here (link to spoiler removed)

Luckily it does prove that some of the spoilers are fakes(if you have been told some you'll be happy to hear they've said most arent real!)

2 moar days!!

Huggles

robnubis wrote:

Yeah, darn you were quick. Too quick. I think you win.

I'll probably be b& from HP, and i leave knowing full well bounty_hunter pwnt me.

In the end, it sucks that Snape

dies

(4 letter word, two vowels)

Hes blatantly trolling.

Mr Magnolia

Trolling isn't banned on all forums, charters differ.

I don't read HP. If I did read all previous (5/6/7?) books I would avoid the forum until I got hold of the book and had a read.

It's bad form for people to go into HP that aren't normally posters there and behave like this. A few posters spammed/trolled a forum a while back inducing temporary site-bans to teach them a lesson.

So report away, you never know...

nesf

Hanging around in Harry Potter forums before a book launch is like hanging a sign saying "Tell me the ending!" around your neck tbh.

bounty_hunter

That's completely beyond the point Nesf. This wouldn't be tolerated in any other forum, and the posters already mentioned are directly going against the HP forum charter by posting spoilers without warning. I have yet to see such a thing go unpunished anywhere else on the site, why should this be an exception?

Mr Magnolia

bounty_hunter wrote:

That's completely beyond the point Nesf. This wouldn't be tolerated in any other forum, and the posters already mentioned are directly going against the HP forum charter by posting spoilers without warning. I have yet to see such a thing go unpunished anywhere else on the site, why should this be an exception?

If the charter's been broken then I'm sure the offenders will be dealt with. Give the relevant mod(s) a chance.

nesf

bounty_hunter wrote:

That's completely beyond the point Nesf. This wouldn't be tolerated in any other forum, and the posters already mentioned are directly going against the HP forum charter by posting spoilers without warning. I have yet to see such a thing go unpunished anywhere else on the site, why should this be an exception?

Spoilers are a grey area. Winters for instance hasn't done anything wrong imho, he's using spoiler tags and some people like reading spoilers for some reason. People not using spoiler tags is not very nice etc and Films has a reasonable policy for dealing with it and should be used as a model for this.


However, as stated above, it was going to happen and it's impossible for mods to watch the place all the time, so really you shouldn't be surprised that this happened.

Huggles

nesf wrote:

However, as stated above, it was going to happen and it's impossible for mods to watch the place all the time, so really you shouldn't be surprised that this happened.

Yes but its onging and reported posts havent been removed.

Amz

The moderators aren't all online all the time, it's impossible to expect a volunteer mod to be able to respond to a reported post immediately.

You have to be patient, while most of us try to deal with reports promptly it's not always possible. Life sometimes gets in the way.

It's unfortunate that your reading and enjoyment of the boards is reduced at the moment, but it's a fact of life on the internet that the asssholes will try and make your life miserable in the lead up to an event like this book launch.

Like I said above, the type of punishment you're suggesting will not deter the type of person who wants to spoil this book for you. They're not fans they don't care, they'll likely never read the forum again after this Friday.

Mr Magnolia

nesf wrote:

Spoilers are a grey area.

boom boom

nesf

Mr Magnolia wrote:

boom boom

At least someone appreciates my efforts.

TheGooner wrote:

Yes but its onging and reported posts havent been removed.

They've been removed from AH by Terry at least.

*shrugs*

bounty_hunter

Where did I say I was surprised? Everybody just wants to see that these trolls don't get away with it, that's all we're asking.

Not only are the offenders not using spoiler tags, but they're actually inserting hidden spoilers into general conversation and labelling them as something else so as to try and trick people into reading them. Now obviously a lot of people aren't going to fall for that bull****, but there are plenty of others who will be coming along not having read all this and therefore not realised what is going on, and could very easily click into something misleading when the whole point of the thread I started was to make people aware that genuine spoilers were floating around and to be wary of them. Thus making the title of my thread misleading in itself, because regular readers of the HP forum may click into it expecting it to be helpful, and instead it's full of random spoilers some asshole has posted.

You may argue that people stupid enough to randomly click links without checking their source first deserve to have the book spoiled, but there is no denying that robnubis made his original (before he edited them) posts sound quite convincingly helpful, so one could be forgiven for lapsing into a false sense of security. I just feel that trolls shouldn't be allowed to get away with deliberately malicious and spiteful behaviour such as this. Obviously forums can't be monitored 24/7, but now this has already happened, regular posters on the HP forum would like to see something done about it whenever a mod gets the chance. Nobody is expecting it to be done immediately.

What we're suggesting is that perhaps somebody could just keep an eye on the HP forum for the next couple of days as its own mods appear to be absent at the moment. Would this be possible?

ecksor

Harry Potter

Greedy bitch writes 8th book.

Giblet

I don't understand why people get so upset about it, it's just a harry eats ron

Sully

After taking a gawk, I honestly think that robnubis is going around posting spoilers (and only started to add spoiler tags after complaints of him posting then in general) delibrately to piss people off.

ecksor: Feedback not taken seriously by yourself, no? Would of expected a tad bit better from an admin tbh.

ecksor

I haven't even followed the links yet so I can't be sure if I'll take it seriously, but at least now I know what's expected.

Sully

ecksor wrote:

I haven't even followed the links yet so I can't be sure if I'll take it seriously, but at least now I know what's expected.

Well I think the chaps over in the HP Forum would appreciate any time you could dedicate to looking at this issue. Its only the one or two topics and a few posts in there. Most rectified into spoiler tags since the OP complained (it seems) but there is still an issue with the users of that forum and the user robnubis.

Also, some one has registered a new account and posted spoilers without any warnings or tags. A direct breach of the guidelines and im sure you will find that the account is linked to another one on Boards - and I do believe two Boards.ie accounts are not permitted, unless certain circumstances are agreed.

Vokes

Sully wrote:

Also, some one has registered a new account and posted spoilers without any warnings or tags. A direct breach of the guidelines and im sure you will find that the account is linked to another one on Boards - and I do believe two Boards.ie accounts are not permitted, unless certain circumstances are agreed.

This person ?

Mr E

15 of the 20 most recent reported posts are HP related. Jesus... f**king assholes.

Thrill

TmB wrote:

15 of the 20 most recent reported posts are HP related. Jesus... f**king assholes.

Someone has created a thread saying that the Potter book will only cost 4.99 in easons but anyone clicking on the thread will be faced with details of the book without spoilers.

So expect more reports.

Sully

SofaKing wrote:

This person ?

Yup.

Sully

TmB wrote:

15 of the 20 most recent reported posts are HP related. Jesus... f**king assholes.

I really hope your not reffering to those who made the reports as "****ing assholes". Just because HP doesnt interest others, does NOT mean that those who feel pissed of at a troll who spoils it for genuine fans of the book (remember, the admins DID give permission for that forum to be created. There would have been the support for it) should be treated like rag dolls.

They have an interest in the topic, someone is spoling it for them, the matter should be dealt with. The idea of "Report" is to bring to the attention of a moderator that the post somehow breaks the guidelines in that users opinion.

Im not bothered about it, however, I agree with the OP. It really isnt fair on genuine fans of the book.

Mr E

I was one of the reporters, Sully.
I meant the assholes spoiling the book (Duh!)

I'm looking forward to the book this weekend, and I don't want it spoiled by some 2-post asshole donkey f**kers.

Sully

TmB wrote:

I was one of the reporters, Sully.

I'm looking forward to the book this weekend, and I don't want it spoiled by some 2-post asshole donkey f**kers.

Fair enough.

I had an enjoyable conversation with someone "bubbles" (bubbles@iol.ie) on MSN. Spammed me with the spoilers, and eventually called me an idiot and went onto say how he rapped my mother.

Very amusing conversation with a low life. Its clear that his intelligence is pretty slim. God help the uneducated wasters of this world.

GuanYin

Leave Bubbles alone, he's just a victim....

nesf

Sully wrote:

God help the uneducated wasters of this world.

Indeed. They've been scammed horribly by this shadowly Rowling figure. Some of them have even been brainwashed to the extent of thinking that she can write! :eek: