Forum "Rebels" - admins, you are invited to interact in this topic

[EvilLS1]

I created a forum called "The Pit" for the sole purpose of flame wars. Flamming isn't allowed in any of the others, but in this one its anything goes. Those who don't approve of such behavior know to stay out, while the others can give eachother hell. The idea was that this forum would keep the BS out of all the others.. Know whats funny though? It turned out to be the most popular forum. :ermm:

[Dean C]

Hehe we have one of those flaming forums where we disabled posting and allowed members to post utter BS to each other. Saying that we still get it everywhere else too

[Tigga]

Sounds like about 5% - 10% of the active users on one of my sites. For a while, I let quite a few things slide. A couple of months ago though we basically quit putting up with any bs and banned anyone that broke a rule. A few members were upset and made snide remarks like calling myself and other moderators nazis, said we were unfair, and etc, but all of those memebrs are still there, and most are more well behaved now. We put up a thread explaining the very simple rules (though one of my moderators wrote most of it out, while I added a couple of things):

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This is a privately owned and operated forum and community....that has rules and regulations. At any given time, the owners and moderators of this forum hold the right to ban an individual or a group of people for actions that they see as unfit, or harmful to the overall community.

Complaining about the loss of your friend, loved one, crew member etc. or starting a "please bring back so and so" thread will not bring anyone back from the world of banned users for a violation of the rules below. They are gone. End of story.

The policies below have been in effect since the sites inception and will be enforced when a violation has been discovered. Over the years according to Tigga hundreds of people have been banned for breaking these simple rules. (some new users..and some higher profile users such as Drewbie)

Here is a general recap of some the most abused policies that will get you immediate and we mean instantaneous banning when discovered.

Talk of illicit drugs, drug usage, or any other illegal activities.

Threatening violence against another community member.

Forum Flooding (ie. Bumping of several old threads, Posting of multiple threads of the same topic or subject with intention to flood the server)

Continuance of locked threads (when a thread is locked...it is locked for a reason..reopening or continuing a locked thread's topic on a new thread is prohibited)

Trolling (multiple logons with the intent to harm or foul anothers character or to re-enforce the point of the user disguising themselves as a different and separate person)

We reserve the right to deny access to any member, at any time, for any reason we see fit.

A lot of you think...this is a web forum..who takes this seriously? There is a very thin line between having fun and implying harm toward another. As in any real life situation there are consequences and ramifications for one's actions and words...when it comes to these rules, this site is no different. Follow them..and you will have no issues.

[TECK]

Originally Posted by Reeve of shinra

Teh problem members are typically the most interesting and it would be detrimental for some forums to simply ban them.

Most of the time a comment or a PM asking them to tone it down becuase there driving new members away is enough. For the persistent idiots, we'll flame the hell out of them. It earns respect believe it or not and so long as the trouble makers know that your better, they will respect you and the board.

Hi Reeve,
What do you do if they are stronger then the good/simple guys? Or a PM is not something they care about?
I know people who left the forums because of the "rebels"... Let us know please.

BTW, good job guys with the advices, keep them comming please.

[Link14716]

If I had my own site, I'd go on a banning spree. Then again, that's mostly because my site has never been active enough not to be sent to hell when someone gets a little pissy.

[rebelsrock06]

Originally Posted by Link14716

If I had my own site, I'd go on a banning spree. Then again, that's mostly because my site has never been active enough not to be sent to hell when someone gets a little pissy.

We have a sytem that we use at a certain level of discretion.

First we MUTE a member for 10 days if the offence is something like first time flaming and if its not to extreme.

Or we might do a temp ban.

If we have to resprt to it we BAN and lets just say, in the entire history of the boards ( 2 yrz ) only 3 ppl have been banned

[Link14716]

Well, when one person cause your site to fall from 600 posts a day to 2 posts a day, you learn to ban first, and then ask WTF they were on.

[Natch]

One major hazard I have come across is the "rogue Moderator" - a member who shows promise, is promoted on merit, and then brings up with him/her their antagonisms of other members that cause friction and division ...

Initially you feel the need to stand by your moderation team in any disagreements, but in the end the Mod gets told off for abusing their powers - they begin a campaign of undermining the Admin team/site owner and get themselves banned - they then start trolling the forums with different usernames, and end up initiating attacks on the server, or attempting to extort money/property etc ...

Extreme? Nope - true story ...

Moral: choose your promotions wisely... don't assume your moderators are in the right in all situations!

Question: Zachary - can I liberally plagarise your forum rules ? Major props to the original author! :up:

[Tony G]

It depends on what your definition of 'rebel' is. If a rebel is some mass-spammer and doesn't add anything but absolute trash to the community, then they should be banned.

Then there are other rebels. As you said TECK, ones that just critisize others and critisize administrative activities and such, and are just a general pain, but don't do really bad things like mass-spamming and such. For example, you may have a rule of no flaming other members, but they make call a specific member 'stupid' or 'idiot' or something like that. Well with these rebels, I wouldn't get rid of them. They actually add something to your community, make it more enjoyable, let's say. Sometimes it's good in a community to have threads with arguments started by the rebeller as it does add that special something in your community, but not let them get TOO out of hand.

Sometimes, people don't find a community of just nice people jumping rope on a sunny day exciting. Hell, the rebeller might even attract more people to post and even make members join. You can use them to your advantage to add some good material to your forum.

[TECK]

Originally Posted by rebelsrock06

First we MUTE a member for 10 days if the offence is something like first time flaming and if its not to extreme.

MUTE? Is that a hack? Thanks.