Introducing the Current Affairs/IMHO forum

[Deleted User] · 12-09-2020 8:54am

The system is abused, especially in the politics forum.

circadian · 12-09-2020 1:19pm

So what's the deal with the obvious increase of sock-puppets/re-reg users and trolls? Seems to be ramping up even more these last few weeks.

Discodog · 12-09-2020 1:35pm

circadian wrote: »

So what's the deal with the obvious increase of sock-puppets/re-reg users and trolls? Seems to be ramping up even more these last few weeks.

US election ?

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts · 12-09-2020 2:41pm

Ads by Google wrote: »

Because they're meant to be expired.

My 50 moderator actions over the last decade mean I'm at a disadvantage compared to blatant trolls with clean accounts, as shown by my recent permanent ban from the Covid thread because I told one to "Fúck off" and deleted the post myself within minutes. Any newish account wouldn't even get a raised eyebrow for that, and people wonder why there are so many re-regs.

Either remove the entire idea of expired or actual expire them. I deleted that post instantly because I had learnt my lesson from previous infractions but I still got an outrageous punishment because of them. They're clearly not a warning or learning system if they're solely used by moderators to build a case against you to ban you. The fact my account is still poisoned by infractions I got in my early 20s is bizarre.

How do you know those “blatant trolls” have clean accounts?

AdrianBalboa · 12-09-2020 8:05pm

Admin: posting criteria not met. This and following discussion removed.

Tokyo · 13-09-2020 1:03am

Late to the party, but:

incompetent can be a noun.
Correcting spelling and grammar is uncivil, which is why we have site wide rules against it.
AdrianBalboa, you are being a dick in this thread, and have been across multiple posts.
Also, you must have 100 posts on the site and have been a registered member for at least 3 months to post in Feedback. This discussion shouldn't have taken place - please don't post in the thread again until you meet these criteria.

markodaly · 15-09-2020 2:36pm

Can we put in some rules or restrictions so Twitter dump type of posts?

They are usually a copy and paste job of a Tweet, usually, some randomer Tweeter that no one has heard of and perhaps followed up by a one-line comment on the Tweet (usually an insult or some banal name-calling thrown in there for good measure)

The threads in CA are just full of random tweets with insults added in between as if debating a Tweet is worthwhile.

If I wanted that, I would be on Twitter, not boards.ie

blanch152 · 15-09-2020 2:38pm

At one stage, from my recollection (and I could be wrong), there was a complete ban on the use of the word "scumbag" on boards.

I notice that it has creeped in a little again in the CA Forum. Before I go wasting mods time, is it acceptable to refer to a politicians as a "scumbag" or a "gimp"?

Beasty · 15-09-2020 2:39pm

We have deliberately kept the charter short and to the point. Anyone being a dick through such behaviour can be sanctioned under the charter

Beasty · 15-09-2020 2:41pm

blanch152 wrote: »

At one stage, from my recollection (and I could be wrong), there was a complete ban on the use of the word "scumbag" on boards.

There has never been such a sitewide ban during my time on the site and often it can be used in a very appropriate manner

markodaly · 15-09-2020 2:42pm

blanch152 wrote: »

At one stage, from my recollection (and I could be wrong), there was a complete ban on the use of the word "scumbag" on boards.

I notice that it has creeped in a little again in the CA Forum. Before I go wasting mods time, is it acceptable to refer to a politicians as a "scumbag" or a "gimp"?

Yes, I have noticed more explicit name-calling against politicians, recently.

Chips Lovell · 15-09-2020 2:44pm

blanch152 wrote: »

At one stage, from my recollection (and I could be wrong), there was a complete ban on the use of the word "scumbag" on boards.

I notice that it has creeped in a little again in the CA Forum. Before I go wasting mods time, is it acceptable to refer to a politicians as a "scumbag" or a "gimp"?

It's an item in the Politics charter. Not a sitewide rule.

markodaly · 15-09-2020 2:45pm

Beasty wrote: »

We have deliberately kept the charter short and to the point. Anyone being a dick through such behaviour can be sanctioned under the charter

Is this referring to the Twitter Bombs type of posts, I referred to?

I know video dumping is frowned upon and in many forms, the same is said of using Twitter as a form of debate.

It has definitely infected in the CA forum too where this type of drive-by posting style is ever-present.

At least one should be willing to work a little and explain their own position with some clarity rather than dumping a link and going away. It's not a rare thing either.

Tokyo · 15-09-2020 3:02pm

blanch152 wrote: »

Before I go wasting mods time, is it acceptable to refer to a politicians as a "scumbag" or a "gimp"?

markodaly wrote: »

I know video dumping is frowned upon and in many forms, the same is said of using Twitter as a form of debate.

For me it comes down to signal-to-noise. If someone is using a video, tweet or even nickname as part of a broader conversation, I don't particularly have an issue with it (unless of course it's a slur of some form). If a poster however, only posts these things, without any discussion behind it, and it's consistent, then I will, and have, call them out on it.

Being honest though, I have noticed an uptick in video and twitter bombs lately, (presumably to do with the upcoming US election) to the point where I'm strongly considering disabling them.

EmmetSpiceland · 15-09-2020 3:04pm

Have to say, I’ve noticed a a worrying “outbreak” of CA posters scuttling into AH, of late.

Sometimes it’s just the odd post in, an otherwise, normal thread. Mouth breathers, shinnerbots, cross-eyed conspiracy theorists et al “funking up the place”.

But that “Woke-ism” thread is just an excuse to spit bile, and hatred, with wanton abandon. Maybe the mods could ease up on checking the rat traps for a bit?

Tokyo · 15-09-2020 3:07pm

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

But that “Woke-ism” thread is just an excuse to spit bile, and hatred, with wanton abandon. Maybe the mods could ease up on checking the rat traps for a bit?

Respectfully Emmet, CA/IMHO isn't the catch-all for every vitriolic poster on the site. I know that you have alluded to the fact in the past on multiple occasions, or how much you feel it has 'cleaned up' AH, but it's pretty reductive and to a large degree insulting to the mod team (myself included) who work pretty hard on a daily basis to try and ensure that it isn't that.

If you have something more constructive to say, I'm happy to listen to it though.

blanch152 · 15-09-2020 3:08pm

Chips Lovell wrote: »

It's an item in the Politics charter. Not a sitewide rule.

I knew I had seen it somewhere. Thanks.

Ted_YNWA · 15-09-2020 3:09pm

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

Have to say, I’ve noticed a a worrying “outbreak” of CA posters scuttling into AH, of late.

Sometimes it’s just the odd post in, an otherwise, normal thread. Mouth breathers, shinnerbots, cross-eyed conspiracy theorists et al “funking up the place”.

But that “Woke-ism” thread is just an excuse to spit bile, and hatred, with wanton abandon. Maybe the mods could ease up on checking the rat traps for a bit?

Posters are entitled to peruse & post in any forum they want. They can't be "locked" into any one particular forum.

If you have an issue with anything these interlopers are posting, use the report function.

Beasty · 15-09-2020 3:29pm

Ted_YNWA wrote: »

Posters are entitled to peruse & post in any forum they want. They can't be "locked" into any one particular forum.

There is one forum posters can be "locked" into :pac:

[Deleted User] · 15-09-2020 7:41pm

mike_ie wrote: »

For me it comes down to signal-to-noise. If someone is using a video, tweet or even nickname as part of a broader conversation, I don't particularly have an issue with it (unless of course it's a slur of some form). If a poster however, only posts these things, without any discussion behind it, and it's consistent, then I will, and have, call them out on it.

Being honest though, I have noticed an uptick in video and twitter bombs lately, (presumably to do with the upcoming US election) to the point where I'm strongly considering disabling them.

Certain people will be kicking and screaming if you do that and have to try and argue their corner.
Please do reading the reaction will be hilarious.

Overheal · 15-09-2020 7:47pm

Where would the forum be without all those Andy Ngo proxy posts?

Deebles McBeebles · 16-09-2020 4:41pm

mike_ie wrote: »

Respectfully Emmet, CA/IMHO isn't the catch-all for every vitriolic poster on the site. I know that you have alluded to the fact in the past on multiple occasions, or how much you feel it has 'cleaned up' AH, but it's pretty reductive and to a large degree insulting to the mod team (myself included) who work pretty hard on a daily basis to try and ensure that it isn't that.

If you have something more constructive to say, I'm happy to listen to it though.

Wasn't that part of the reasoning for creating CA/IMHO? To get some of the more extreme opinions out of AH and bring it back to a lighter style of conversation?

Beasty · 16-09-2020 9:16pm

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

Wasn't that part of the reasoning for creating CA/IMHO? To get some of the more extreme opinions out of AH and bring it back to a lighter style of conversation?

It was to get some of the more serious discussions, not extreme positions, away from AH, without the stricter posting conditions in somewhere like Politics

Bringing it back to a lighter style of conversation is certainly one of the aims

Deebles McBeebles · 16-09-2020 9:42pm

Beasty wrote: »

It was to get some of the more serious discussions, not extreme positions, away from AH, without the stricter posting conditions in somewhere like Politics

Bringing it back to a lighter style of conversation is certainly one of the aims

Giving some rope while hosting serious discussions is always going to bring out the more extreme opinions though, they go hand in hand. I think that's why Emmet refers to CA as he has.

You won't get many on AH who post in such a way that they've obviously fallen for the Trump delusion and get their news from Facebook because the "MSM" can't be trusted. Nor will you get many who post equally ridiculous far-left opinions; burning J.K. Rowling at the stake etc, etc. That's why I assumed it was part of the decision at the time.

I'm not denigrating the work mods do on CA, as Mike alluded to earlier. I admire them putting in the time it must take, if anything. Dividing AH in two, as it were, has actually helped IMO. Then, its tough to bring in your extremist views when you're posting about what you had for dinner.

Beasty · 16-09-2020 10:49pm

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

Giving some rope while hosting serious discussions is always going to bring out the more extreme opinions though, they go hand in hand.

I certainly don't deny that - and yes to some extent it attracts posters who post extreme positions. And sometimes it's not clear whether those views are genuinely held or being used to stir things. That's part of the reason we have Admins among the mods. It's a fine balancing act allowing genuine discussion without allowing commentary to be too extreme. However having an extreme view is not in itself going to attract sanction. It also depends on context as well as wider Boards rules prohibiting racist views or is in other ways discriminatory etc.

EmmetSpiceland · 17-09-2020 6:30pm

mike_ie wrote: »

Respectfully Emmet, CA/IMHO isn't the catch-all for every vitriolic poster on the site. I know that you have alluded to the fact in the past on multiple occasions, or how much you feel it has 'cleaned up' AH, but it's pretty reductive and to a large degree insulting to the mod team (myself included) who work pretty hard on a daily basis to try and ensure that it isn't that.

If you have something more constructive to say, I'm happy to listen to it though.

Apologies if what I said came across as insulting, that was not my intention. I’ve said it, on numerous, occasions that I think the CA are doing an excellent job. In very difficult “circumstances”, I might add.

Quantum Erasure · 17-09-2020 7:05pm

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

Have to say, I’ve noticed a a worrying “outbreak” of CA posters scuttling into AH, of late.

Sometimes it’s just the odd post in, an otherwise, normal thread. Mouth breathers, shinnerbots, cross-eyed conspiracy theorists et al “funking up the place”.

But that “Woke-ism” thread is just an excuse to spit bile, and hatred, with wanton abandon
....

I don't see much of that in it, tbh

[Deleted User] · 19-09-2020 12:21pm

It feels like the threads have had a drastic quality in the last few weeks.

gozunda · 23-09-2020 1:27pm

Mod question

What's the story in Current Affairs with individuals thread bombing discussions with abuse of the topic of and / or posters but otherwise not engaged in the discussion?

Seems a fair amount of it going on. Just ends up flaming / derailing threads.

[Deleted User] · 23-09-2020 3:06pm

gozunda wrote: »

Mod question

What's the story in Current Affairs with individuals thread bombing discussions with abuse of the topic of and / or posters but otherwise not engaged in the discussion?

Seems a fair amount of it going on. Just ends up flaming / derailing threads.

Yep seen a particular poster who has gone to threads and not engaged, it's more an effort to get a rise out of posters.

Unrelated but the Thiago Cortez thread literally descended into certain posters going on rants about Brazilian criminality... None of it was actioned and can't fathom why tbh.

Introducing the Current Affairs/IMHO forum

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