The Big Secret Thread!

[sodascouts]

Well, not really that big a secret...

This has to do with events surrounding the recent banning of a former member, who we will refer to as "Person A."

Those of you who are familiar with message board administration know that it is commonplace to have forums for moderators to privately discuss board issues. We have one on The Border.

Not everything we discuss in there is about disciplinary issues. Sometimes we even talk about good things that members are doing, good ideas that members are coming up with, and things we want to encourage.

Recently, "Person A" got a glimpse of one thread from the moderator's forum when I was in the process of banning "Person A"'s first two fake profiles (as far as I know). Apparently, "Person A" believes that if "Person A" posts the contents of the thread, we will all be mortified.

Accordingly, today, "Person A" used yet another fake ID in order to post the exchange that "Person A" saw in the moderator's forum. I sighed heavily and deleted it.

However, the moderators and I feel there is nothing to be embarrassed about as far as we're concerned. We were doing what administrators and moderators do.

So, the mods and I talked it over, and we decided to go ahead and show you guys exactly what "Person A" saw. You can then decide for yourself whether or not what we wrote is worthy of outrage.

Normally, we wouldn't publicize our nuts and bolts discussions about the board, but in this case, since "Person A" is determined to reveal "the big secret thread" we figured, why not? We have nothing to hide, and all this melodrama over nothing is just plain silly.

I am duplicating here what "Person A" saw verbatim, with the caveat that all the names, except for mine, have been removed in accordance with the board's privacy policy regarding all private communications.

It's formatted as a string of posts divided by lines. The poster's name is in a larger font.

Whew! Are you confused yet? lol! But here we go anyway!

(Note: I closed the thread because this post is purely for informational purposes. If you have any comments, feel free to PM me or one of the moderators.)

The thread was created in the moderator's forum when someone joined with a rather odd introduction on Feb. 4, 2011....


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BELOW IS THE THREAD FROM THE MODERATOR'S FORUM
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TITLE: [NEW MEMBER]
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sodascouts
Feb. 4, 2011
12:29 pm

Anyone else find [new member's] introduction rather unusual?

It occurred to me [new member] was making the kind of insulting generalities [Person A] did, and which [Person A] accused us of unfairly prosecuting [Person A] for. [New member]'s generalities even included weight and women from the Pacific Northwest.

Perhaps I'm paranoid, but the timing is certainly suspect - [new member] joined shortly after I sent [Person A] the PM. [New member] also has replied to [Person A] several times in [Person A's] favorite threads.

[New Member's] IP is from [y]... so was [Person B]'s.... not exactly the same, but close.

I'm not sure how to welcome this one, and I've got to run to work... but I have a bad feeling about [new member].

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Moderator #1
Feb. 4, 2011
2:32 pm

It was very strange. I went along with the game like some of the others did.

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Moderator #2
Feb. 4, 2011
2:59 pm

Yeah I have to agree [new member] seems to be another one who could just be here to cause trouble.

Any thoughts on all these troublemakers recently? Could they be related? Or is it just a part of having a large board?

It just seems to be that the ratio of members joining to cause trouble as opposed to people here to enjoy the Eagles is waaaay out of wack right now!

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Moderator #3
Feb. 4, 2011
9:49 pm

Yep - normally I would never ignore a new member, but this is so blatantly obvious that I am not going to even post in the thread. Just one more way for them to give us the finger. I'm going to predict that we haven't heard the last of [new member].

I know it may sound far-fetched, but I used to think that these folks were [x] because of the intense animousity they seem to have toward us. Honestly if someone were discover [Person A] was really [Person C], I wouldn't be totally shocked. Now, I really don't think that's the case, but I have no idea what we ever did to make them dislike us the way they do. It just doesn't make sense to me.

But, I will say that one of the main reasons that I thought we should have dealt with them so quickly to begin with is to try to keep things from getting out of hand. The longer they remain on the board, the more opportunity they have to "court" and befriend newer members and continue their antics.

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sodascouts
Feb. 4, 2011
10:41 PM

Any thoughts on all these troublemakers recently? Could they be related? Or is it just a part of having a large board?

Who are we talking about?

At any rate, I know this may surprise folks who are not members of several boards, but percentile wise we actually don't have very many troublemakers on here compared to other places I've been a member of. However, the bigger we get, the more there will be.

I doubt they are [x] - every board is plagued with troublemakers. It's unavoidable. We have been lucky that we have had so little drama (comparatively) on here.

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Moderator #4

Feb. 5, 2011
4:51 pm

Yep - normally I would never ignore a new member, but this is so blatantly obvious that I am not going to even post in the thread. Just one more way for them to give us the finger. I'm going to predict that we haven't heard the last of him.

I know it may sound far-fetched, but I used to think that these folks were [x] because of the intense animousity they seem to have toward us. Honestly if someone were discover [Person A] was really [Person C], I wouldn't be totally shocked. Now, I really don't think that's the case, but I have no idea what we ever did to make them dislike us the way they do. It just doesn't make sense to me.

But, I will say that one of the main reasons that I thought we should have dealt with them so quickly to begin with is to try to keep things from getting out of hand. The longer they remain on the board, the more opportunity they have to "court" and befriend newer members and continue their antics.

[Person A] doesn't remind me of [Person C] - in fact I hadn't thought of [Person C] until you mentioned her, [Moderator 3]! [Person A] reminds me of someone else from [x] who was forced out of there partly because she thought she was so much better than everybody else & delighted in putting everybody else down. See if you can guess who I mean.

I think [Moderator #2] meant the troll in the New York Dolls thread in terms of being a troublemaker.

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Moderator #3
Feb. 5, 2011

10:25 PM

Who are we talking about?

At any rate, I know this may surprise folks who are not members of several boards, but percentile wise we actually don't have very many troublemakers on here compared to other places I've been a member of. However, the bigger we get, the more there will be.

I doubt they are [x] - every board is plagued with troublemakers. It's unavoidable. We have been lucky that we have had so little drama (comparatively) on here.

Nancy – I have to say when I read this post, I was a bit dismayed. You know how much you and this board mean to me, but you also know that I always say what I honestly think. So … if it is true that is it is unavoidable that every message board is plagued with troublemakers, then maybe we should just throw in the towel now and quit wasting our time.

I agree that there will always be troublemakers that join message boards, but I don’t agree that we have to or should tolerate them. You may not be able to control whether or not they join, but you can control whether or not they stay. No matter what the size, if a board is being overtaken with troublemakers, I believe it is because the moderators aren’t managing them effectively. It’s easy to determine if someone is unknowingly or intentionally displaying unacceptable behavior. All it usually takes are a few subtle hints to bring it to their attention to get an unknowing person to modify their behavior. But, when people have ulterior motives that are not in the best interest of the community, why continue to give them repeated opportunities to disrupt things? In the end, you aren’t going to change them and they aren’t going to believe they are treated fairly no matter how many chances they get. IMO, these troublemakers have to be dealt with fairly, but also swiftly, consistently, and assertively.

Members in good standing “get it” and will not perceive moderators as being unfair for enforcing reasonable rules. I think moderators send a message to the community depending on how they choose to enforce or not enforce the rules. The more lax the rules, the more attractive and inviting the board will be to trolls.

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sodascouts
Feb. 5, 2011
11:41 pm

if it is true that is it is unavoidable that every message board is plagued with troublemakers..

It is. I'm sorry if it dismays you, but it's reality.

...then maybe we should just throw in the towel now and quit wasting our time.

Or we can do our best to deal with them as effectively as possible and keep as many people having a good time as we can.

I know I'm only trying to do my best, at least. I realize not everyone will find that to be good enough. I appreciate any help I can get from you guys.

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END OF THREAD SEEN BY PERSON A
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