The Hopeful Bargain Hunter and The Broken Record

[Rapscallion]

Well, since we brought in this idea (Ree's idea, MadMike's implementation), there have been:

No need for reports of spam by members, since what we got was invisible to everyone but the admin team.

No need for anyone to see the cyber stalker who came around back in September.

No need for anyone to have seen the mini-invasion in December by a couple of neo-nazis.

Those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. It's awkward at times, but it does us far more good than harm.

Rapscallion

[Jester]

And that is why your mods are better than other mods.

And why we all worship all of you.

[Hobgoblin]

The first time I posted I was failry confused about why it didn't appear. Then I just clicked into the READ HERE BEFORE POSTING section of the site. Then I noticed that it would be moderated.

Now that I'm un-moderated, I can start the hell-raising.

[MadMike]

Kinda curious to see what happened in the old days if this is now in place :P

Well, if you really wanna know...

To be perfectly honest, 99% of the time, there were no problems. However, that other 1% of the time was a major headache for mods and members alike. Every so often, we'd get one of those "Customer is always right" types coming here to slam us, a troll who just wanted to stir up trouble, or an ex-member that we had previously banned because they couldn't follow our few reasonable rules. And of course, every board gets the occasional spammer.

One time, two summers ago, we had a whole army of people from another board who came over here just to troll us. I must have banned at least 30 different names during that mess. I don't know how many there actually were, because it was under the previous owner who didn't like to do IP bans, and I did see a lot of the same IPs resurface.

We had another smaller troll invasion, I believe shortly after we changed ownership, which was contained fairly quickly, but it's still a bit of an annoyance when these things happen.

While things were quiet, we mods and admins started kicking around the idea of moderating the posts of new users, and I did some research to see if it could be done and how, but we didn't really go anywhere with it. Kind of one of those "If we ever need to..." things.

Well, that day came when the people involved in the above-mentioned mini-invasion started returning. We had banned their IPs previously, but we had switched software and reset the board, so they were able to get back in. Since I had no idea how many more might come, I made the changes needed for the moderation we had been discussing. It was just going to be temporary, but it turned out that the little bit of extra work it caused us solved enough problems to make it worth our while. We've had a troll or two since then, but they always leave in frustration once they realize no one but the mod team is going to see their posts. Ditto for the spammers, apprarently, as I can't remember the last time I've seen one here.

As Raps said, we even had someone with a dispute against one of our members sign up for the sole purpose of harassing said member. I remember going thru the queue that morning looking for posts that needed approved, and doing a double-take. It wasn't the first time someone had tried to do that, but it never ceases to amaze me when someone apparently has so little to do that they sign up on a message board to harass someone, when they're just going to get banned before the get to say much anyway.

[protege]

One time, two summers ago, we had a whole army of people from another board who came over here just to troll us. I must have been at least 30 different names during that mess.

I remember that! No sooner we'd throw out one group of spammers, more kept coming. I think we had at least 3 of us dealing with it. Once the IP bans were put into place, the spamming attack stopped.

[Rapscallion]

I've just remembered another one. I can't remember if we informed the member who he signed up to harass over something about a friend of theirs. However, that crap didn't make it onto here where it could cause harm.

EDITNOE - yes, we did, it seems. That was another cyberstalker.

We may seem harsh at times, but we're looking to protect everyone on here.

Rapscallion

[draftermatt]

And we thank you for it. This site is honestly the best moderated forum I've ever been on.

And I've been a moderator for other sites before.

[Andara Bledin]

This is actually the second best-moderated forum I read. One of only three that I know of that have worthwhile moderation going on.

I love a well-moderated forum. No spam, no trolls, no flamers. Ahhhh... just posting goodness.

^-.-^

[CorDarei]

yah. With they way ppl behave now-a-days, it's surprising how childish adults can be. You guys appear to do a good job (only been here less than a week now) and i'll mostly lurk anyway

although i will add a pet peeve of mine (thought it was too small to start a new thread)

Customers who call you and only you for support when you help them setup their s/w. That chaps my hide.

[Ackee]

EDITNOE - yes, we did, it seems. That was another cyberstalker.

We may seem harsh at times, but we're looking to protect everyone on here.

Agree with draftermatt
We thank you for it!

[iradney]

I was on another forum that was completely unmoderated. Needless to say, I don't frequent said forum anymore. When logical and adult debates are allowed to degenerate into childish mudslinging and namecalling, then I don't particularly care about freedom of speech or expression. I care about civility, goshdarnit!

And yes, the mods here are VERY good at preventing cyberstalkings

[Rapscallion]

Actually, I do run an unmoderated forum, but there's only once been any hint of mudslinging there. That said, these are mostly the sort of people who attend Ren Faires and know how to handle real weapons. Depends on your audience, really.

Rapscallion