Message boards always have divisive opinions, people who don't like each other, and so on. However, as we all know, there are a few posters on ET who go way beyond being a bit irritating, divisive, or not your cup of tea. I propose that it would be useful to have a thread where the worst of the worst are named, so that anyone wanting a more relaxing, pleasant ET experience can quickly add everyone on the Group Ignore List to their own ignore list. Also, by grouping up to agree to ignore the same lunatics, assholes, or gratuitous trolls, we would discourage lunatic, assholish, or gratuitous trolling behaviour. These people thrive on attention, so knowing that they are publicly being ignored by half of ET would prove a strong incentive for them to get in line. The question then is how to decide the criteria for Ignore List membership. I would suggest we reserve this dishonour only for those who are truly beyond the pale. So, it would be people who almost always post worthless, objectionable, or incredibly annoying garbage. People should not get on the list just because you dislike, or even loathe them or their posts - it needs to be more objective than that. Here are a few of the factors I'd propose taking into account: 1) Posts virtually nothing trading related 2) Repeated gratuitous trolling 3) Repeated rudeness, obnoxious manners, continual unnecessary personal insults etc. 4) Known serial-liar, deceiver (one offence insufficient - must be a repeated behaviour) 5) Snake oil salesmen 6) Close-minded dogmatists (i.e. people who refuse to engage in any kind of debate with people who have different views, who ignore any evidence that contradicts them no matter how compelling) 7) Permabulls/permabears (people whose views are immune to any facts, logic, reasoning, or gigantic multi-year price moves against their supposed positions) The idea would be to discourage this behaviour - actually putting someone on the ET group Ignore List should be a last resort, and only used when someone repeatedly indulges in the bad behaviours listed above. It should be used only against the most excessive, sociopathic, unreformable scum of ET. So, I thought I would put this to a vote - who thinks a group ignore list would be a good idea? Just vote on the principle - if it's popular we can decide the details later.
I propose several times here in feedback a Universal Ignore List and a few times in pm with moderators over the years. Usual reply is that it ain't going to happen. However, I have a slight little twist to it... We don't decide whom to take from the universal ignore list for adding to our own ignore list. The main problem is that many ET members have this need to respond to mudslinging which often results in more mudslinging. Also, some will go as far to announce publicly they have someone on their ignore list or will ignore the troll to only see them later responding to the troll to get the last word in sort'uv speak... Encouraging the trolling to remain and continue. Solution is that any ET member that is identified for trolling or identified for violating TOU policy... Identified by either Baron, moderator or via a particular number of votes by active members from Baron's list of good members of the ET community... The universal trolling list becomes the default ignore list for ALL members along with every message posted by the troll or problematic poster being deleted. Thus, even if we ourselves don't add a member to our own personal ignore list via our profile...the universal ignore list as default (we can't edit it) will be active as long as we continue using ET. Anyways, several moderators have already informed me in the past that a universal ignored list won't work. I told them I'm a moderator elsewhere and it does work...works very nicely. Keep in mind that Baron plans to release a new forum... We may get lucky in that he has decided to listen to a few solutions. However, if the problems hasn't hurt his pocket book (doesn't scare away advertising dollars)... He won't make any changes and will just stick with the current situation of censoring problematic posters that spam many threads with their same mudslinging messages. Mark
The most irritating type of "troll" IMO, is the stalking troll. I'm surprised you forgot to mention this type of "troll" as it is exactly the type of behavior that you have engaged in over the years on ET. It seems as though every time I start a thread, there you are stalking me with total BS. It's always the worst offendors, as you are and steve46, that seem to start threads in feedback offering ideas on how we can protect ourselves from you.
Agreed, steve46 has been playing moral sheriff here until he was recently challenged to a trading contest and hiked up his skirt and ran
How about a Reverse Ignore List ? Here is how it works... Whoever is on my list do not get to see my posts. LOL. This will be a sure way to kill the Trolls.
A reverse ignore still would need to include the ignore of the offender content. The worst trolls will probably have several identities like we are seeing is so popular here on ET. The whole issue is a bit more complex, but basically a scoring system with whitelisting is the only "safe one". It would risk not being able to see new users, which then would need a screening time where you see if they are "worthy" of your whitelisting. Another way to do this is a ring of trust, with ignores and user-scoring, but that is complex as well. The most effective way is instant delete of all user history, where the troll is obliterated with one single click. They need to lose their incentive to trolling, and normal users need to rest assure the trolls get removed. Still, they can stealth their way around the forums before activating their troll behaviour. In the end, all insider attacks are difficult to block, without extremely rigorous security systems. To get to the real problem - one need to understand that the problem is not the user account or the forum system - but the user himself. If the consequences of trolling are made abundantly clear the cost of their behaviour need to be laid on them personally. In the case of Trader28/blubolt/Hack/whatever ... if his identity was truly known, anyone could take matters in their own hands so to speak. I'm not talking about physical payback, but actually having his identity suffer somewhat - knowing his telephone, address, family etc. That's the only way to stop them, unless being able to complain to their ISP etc. like explained in earlier posts. Without consequences, there is no way to stop insider attacks. They need to know that the price to pay is much higher than what it's worth for them behaving that way. If they start out with no identity, it's very difficult to get to them. In some places it's required to receive a SMS message on your mobile phone which you need to verify. That's a pretty cumbersome system if you want to keep trolling, as it will cost money to keep changing mobile phone-numbers, as well as it being possible to trace their identity and complain about their behaviour. So, in the end it boils down to knowing their true identity, and letting them know that sociopath behaviour will lead to consequences. That's how you gain trust and respect from someone from the get go.
Would it be hard for Admins to code a program so whenever you add a user to your ignore list, your username is also added to there list. I personally think it would be very easy and would solve a lot of the stalking problems. I have some idiot named Bogan who insist on trolling on every thread I'm in. I've placed him on ignore, yet he's still on my dick. BTW Bogan if you're reading this. Just fucking place me on ignore already and get on with your sad life. It would be of great help to William Rennick as riskfreetrading and rubberbird won't be able to access his thread.