Tolling Threads.

[||§§||Dr.H]

This thread has been discussed by many of the ||§§|| High Council and while this forum section is closed to member discussion, HC members may add to it over time.

We are using the word "Troll" because it a commonly known term and covers a wide range of negative posting we will discuss here. This term has also been added to our list of rules in the forum FAQ.

First off lets cover what a "Troll" is. I will use Wikipedia definition of an Internet Troll :

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room or collaborative content community with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional or disciplinary response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

The main reason for this thread and the new rule change is our clan's forum
has had a lot of negativity in the air lately. This has been the result of many member and I don't believe anyone did any on purpose but all it takes is a couple people misunderstanding each other with a few wrongly worded or place comments and people will become defensive and will in turn incite more comments in other threads to disrupt that persons conversations.

So on and so on people start feeding off of this negativity and we start seeing comments and conversations we would never have had to deal with in the past.

While some threads are obviously controversial topics and created to be such, these are rarer.

We have tried to give the members freedom to talk about anything they wished and comment as they liked as long as they weren't personally attacking someone but this isn't working out as friendly as we had hoped.



This is what we are going to start doing about it. The Admin are going to pay more attention to each post and how that post fits into the thread.

1) Off Topic Posts
If the post is completely off topic it will be deleted. We know some thread topics grow and change as they go so that their current topic is not the original topic. Those topic changes will not be affected, we are talking about completed and sudden topic changes that make no sense.

2) Disruptive or Provoking Posts
If a post is a negative comment that will do nothing but provoke other members it will be deleted. Even if the post is on topic there is no need to incite other members because you disagree with them or are upset with them. If you disagree with the current topic, make your post mature and well thought out. Spiting out a few negative words will not be allowed.
If you have a strong problem with a current thread please contact one of the Admin, do not take it upon yourself to set the other members right.

3) Controversial Thread Topics
There are many controversial topics out there and sometimes we have threads to discuss them. Some topics are plainly not allowed while others are fine as long as they are handled in a mature way. The main problem with these topics is how strongly people feel about their point of view. It is easy to get carried away and get overly aggressive or defensive, we all are at fault of this from time to time.
If a thread is to controversial from the beginning or if it gets out of control it will be deleted. While we could just lock the thread chances are comments will already have been made by that time that will do no good in having on the forum for others to read.

4) Repeat Offenders
You may notice a post you made was deleted. It may just be gone or we may have left a short reason in it why it was deleted. If you made the post you surely know why it was deleted. If you continue to make similar troll style posts we will contact you. Full members will get more rights than plain registered members who may just be deleted and banned.
If you make frequent thread topics that have no other purpose that to incite other members you will be contacted or removed from the forum.

You may just be a person who likes to strongly discuss and debate topics or you may have a personality that feeds off of discontent but you have understand that we need to have a friendly and polite society here, even if that is not how it is in the real world.

While you may feel you have the right to say what you want, where you want, when you want... I want to repeat that the freedom of speech does not legally apply to something privately owned like online forums. We do not care if you feel it's wrong of us to censor our members. It's our clan and we have to live with the results of peoples inability to control their emotional outbursts.

As something our founding HC members who have been here since the late 90's would probably like me to add "if you don't like it you are welcome to leave"

Thank you.