An idea to stop haters and trolls on ATS!

Just an idea to stop the numerous trolls that come onto ATS just to send abusive posts for fun. People who use foul language for no reason at all and who purposly derail a topic to gain attention for themselves!

My idea is for the ATS supermoderators to ban the person from making any thread or post for at least 24 hours, kind of like putting their account on hold for 24 hours, and also a big warning sign underneath their avatar! bigger then the one that exits now...then after that 24 hours they get full use of their account, and the warning sign gets removed....then if this person reoffends then to instantly ban them and delete them from this site.

I think the 3 warning system is not enough, a lot of threads on here get ruined because of these people coming in to attack a person or everyone and im sure it makes some people wary and scared of making posts and new threads. I am annoyed that one of my newest threads got attacked by a troll and a new troll at that!

If this has been posted before or something like this then im sorry please move or deleted it....

would also like to hear others ideas on getting a hold over these trolls and thread derailers!!

oh and just thought, that maybe in that 24 hours the purpetrators account is on hold, maybe their avatar and profile could be disabled with only a warning poster being visible... and once the 24 hours is up everything gets restored to normal....

not sure if all this is possible?? might be too time consuming?? id even offer to help haha! if its just a bad idea then i apologise.

It's a fine idea justjoe but the problem is what constitutes a troll to one person is not the same as what another would consider a troll (especially here).

For example if a post went up onto the boards that went something like:

Do fairies attack you when you sleep?

hi every1

I wunt to no if when I sleep fairies attack me. I know many people dont beleif in dem but I feel they are reel and wunt other people who know this too share their thoughts wif me.

I get bruises that I dont know huw i got and sometimes heer fluttering outside my bedroom window.

The idea of the toofairy didnt come from nowhere did it?

----------------------------

Now this could be an honest person wanting to know more about fairies.

It could also be someone who is trolling.

It could be a whole bunch of things in between.

Now were I to come along and state that there is no empirical evidence to support the existence of fairies and that other options may exist which have resulted in both the bruises and the fluttering noise I could be perceived as a sceptical troll for not 'taking part' in what I consider to be a delusion.

Someone else could come along and state that they are obviously being visited by 'Grey' aliens and that the fairy concept has been around for millennia (Something which I would contribute to trolling).

Now are either of these replies wrong?

Is the thread question in the first place wrong?

It's a hard battle to decide which team you will stand alongside with.

In theory both replies should be ok and everyone lives in peace - but from my point of view someone will come along and recommend a book, a lotion or something else which costs money and I find this to be a step too far regarding taking advantage of (in my opinion) someone who is either not in full control of their facilities or promoting knowledge which may affect a non posting reader who is not in full control of their facilities.

There is wonder out there and that's why I am here.

I cannot say beyond a doubt that fairies don't exist or that this book, lotion
or other monetary output won't be beneficial. But I can say that there is very little evidence to suggest that it is nothing more than complete fantasy and that trends within people who buy into these concepts generally show a high degree of criminality given enough time.

I do agree that it can be very frustrating - but that's what ATS is. Differing ideas and outlooks trying to work it's way towards universal truths.

As for the swearing ones - they generally go away after Summer ends. School being out does bring in many new members.

I hope this was of use to you Joe.

-m0r

Sounds harsh my man, just try becoming a better debater. It's what us cats do ya know. We debate, and we get some animosity built up but it's all in the name of knowledge.

restrictions, restrictions, restrictions.

Did you vote for Obama?

Oh Im sorry, that question can be thought of as me being a "troll", but to others, it has some truth to it(seeing as the obama administration LOVES to restrict peoples perspectives). So you really cant punish me for asking a simple question because of how I see things compared to how you see them. You may think Im being a troll by asking you that, but in all reality, Im being serious because of the mindset people are in these days.

Sometimes too many peoples feelings get hurt, or they feel that they are being pinned into a corner because they have no way to respond to theposter, so the first thing they do is scream TROLL!.
Now I am not saying that is ALWAYS the case, cause there are indeed some people on here who do just come on here and say things that are so off topic, it is apparant that what they are doing is just deflecting the entire message of the thread so people get fed up with that thread and move on(it is indeed a very dirty tactic). Although, mods are usually quick on that, sometimes not, but a lot of the times they are.

In the end, I think that everyone here should have a voice, as long as it stays on the topic at hand.Some people have a problem with keeping things civil especially if the topic at hand goes against everything they believe/dontbelieve, so they start saying stupid crap just so they are not proven wrong.

Personally, I think the way ATS is handling it now, works just fine. Some people just need to grow thicker skin or just avoid those who they think are 'trolling' insteadof feeding the fire. Once these peolpe see that they are being ignored, they usually stop, or until a mod comes in and slaps that big old "political trolling" label on their post.

When I first started on this site, I was getting warned all of the time, because like most people on here, I didnt really read the T&C before running my fingers.After a while though, I learned through constant bans and warnings that what I was doing was not acceptable. So now, I hardly ever get warned, because I know how this site operates. Most of the people that get banned on this site, are usually new members that dont know any better, and continue on doing what they have been doing without care. In other words, they just dont learn.

But, thats how I see it. Im not really concerned with these people, its not hard to tell who they are, and if I do find myself in a position of engaging with these people(wasting my time), then I usually just stop posting back to them, more often than not, they get the message.

Agreeably said. we don't want the HATE coming in bashing another good thing like it did to the rest of the world. right?

No your gettting me all wrong here.... I dont mean restricting people who can offer a good debate, and I dont mean restrict someone because they dont believe something is true in a thread or vice versa... im actually talking about the people who come on here purely just to write harrasing and abusive posts that contain foul langauge and offer nothing to the thread....

where they take the topic of course and turn the topic round to talk about them and the person they are attacking and making it personal... it not only ruins a thread but also makes people annoyed.

Im not talking about someone who comes on here to make a thread about fairies and they believe them to be true and then someone who believes fairies are not true are trolls.... im not talking about that because that scenerio could make a good debate.... iv nothing against a debate with believers and skeptics... my problem is the trolls or people who come on here purely to derail a thread and delibratley attack someone for no reason, iv seen it many times when there is just no need for it....

Im talking about people who post one liners with just foul language and hate in it and nothing to offer against or for the topic and thread in general... can you see what im trying to say?

reply to post by justjoemusic


The world is censored enough, no need to prevent people from having a by partisan debate. We don't want to turn this place into Auschwitz Top Secret

Or we could all just ignore what we find objectionable and respect each others' right to post what we find interesting and/or pertinent. Either way.


TheAssoc.

hi
i think i know what you mean.
when i have been reading a thread i find interesting i have often lost interest in following it any further due to having to scroll through pages of posts where two posters are having a lengthy bickering session. it's usually about some particular sentence one posted and how it was construed or misconstrued by the other, and not about the thread's topic.
i agree, very annoying.

Reply to post by m0r1arty

See the way i see it is that a troll doesn't have to use foul language, so if a troll doesn't use foul language how do you go from there?

Also you mention derrailling, but what about when the OP is too broad? There are so many things that got to be fixed but cannot be symplified to what you just said.

just my 2 cents...

sorry for the wrong spelling of words, cellphone text over mobile ATS...


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Reply to post by Arsenis

Sorry to mor1arty didn't mean to reply to you but the topic...



Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

reply to post by Arsenis


No need to apologise, I'm just overjoyed that you read and write to here whilst mobile

-m0r

OP sounds like he said something really dumb and got rebuked by a "trolling hater" and expected to find a shoulder to cry on here.

Fortunately for most of us, the mods have been fairly lenient on those of us that "troll" and in many cases it has given us the freedom to call out morons, troll threads, and just plain crap.

If we all had to fear a permaban for ripping some idiot a new one here, we would just find somewhere else to go where we could have more freedom to tell people that they are wrong.

If ATS adopted OPs rule, the site would become a bigger circlejerk than it is now and would become nothing more than a bunch of hippies patting each other's back.

People need to grow a pair and have thicker skin, either produce results or shut their pieholes.

reply to post by justjoemusic

My idea is for the ATS supermoderators to ban the person from making any thread or post for at least 24 hours, kind of like putting their account on hold for 24 hours, and also a big warning sign underneath their avatar! bigger then the one that exits now...then after that 24 hours they get full use of their account, and the warning sign gets removed....then if this person reoffends then to instantly ban them and delete them from this site.

ATS once had something similar - it was called a Post Ban. Don't know if they still have it..

Much like one man's trash is another man's treasure, one man's troll is another man's truth.

reply to post by justjoemusic


YES YES YES! I am tired of it too. I am actually dealing with one right now...no warnings....give them a scarlett letter, and watch how fast they stop posting!

Originally posted by EnlightenUp
Much like one man's trash is another man's treasure, one man's troll is another man's truth.

For whom the bell trolls?

Originally posted by signoregregorio
Sounds harsh my man, just try becoming a better debater. It's what us cats do ya know. We debate, and we get some animosity built up but it's all in the name of knowledge.

I think he is talking about personal attacks. It just happened to me. I made a simple post, nothing controversial, and this dude comes on saying a lot of BS which I won't go into. Those are the people I would like to see banned. Personal attacks should not be tolerated at all.