21 replies to this topic

[Spencer]

I love him/her/it

[TWC]

I honestly don't get it. I think that being gone from these parts for the better part of the last week might have confused things even further for me.

Hasn't this "person" done this before though? I seem to remember some similar such nonsense about a year or more ago, no?

[Cubbie Blues]

It was funny the first couple of days. It is getting a bit old now. Or, is it one of those things that comes back around again.

[Brett]

It was annoying, then funny, then funnier, and now it's just mostly sad. And for people who don't know that it's a troll or satire, they just think the site has a bunch of dumbasses. I don't much want that...

[TWC]

It was funny the first couple of days. It is getting a bit old now. Or, is it one of those things that comes back around again.

Right. Pretty soon, this site will be full of Shelby Menge-quoting hipsters.

[Cubbie Blues]

Brett, I thought you said he could have a max of 2 per day. What's his count today?

[Brett]

Brett, I thought you said he could have a max of 2 per day. What's his count today?

Past it. But will I piss people off if I give menge the boot? Spencer?

[Cubbie Blues]

Brett, I thought you said he could have a max of 2 per day. What's his count today?

Past it. But will I piss people off if I give menge the boot? Spencer?

I wouldn't miss him in the least.

[Spencer]

Brett, I thought you said he could have a max of 2 per day. What's his count today?

Past it. But will I piss people off if I give menge the boot? Spencer?

I won't be pissed off, but it's not as if he's disparaging anyone directly. Your concern about bringing down the quality of the comments is legit, and not one that I had really thought about. I wouldn't really have a strong opinion either way, but it seems like a quick trigger. BetterNews was around way longer and was directly insulting to a lot of people. That may not be a fair comparison though. I think it'd be different if Shelby was doing it on every single post multiple times per day over and over and over again, but from all I've seen (and I may have missed some, admittedly) he's keeping it confined to an old post, and gets maybe a couple responses out of it. I dunno. I don't think he's doing that much harm, but I could see where it might turn into a bigger problem down the road. Tough call.

[MichiganGoat]

The whole main board has a new flavor to it right now, and yes it's directly related to the return of better news.

[Brett]

Yeah. I'm still not sure what to do. I'd like to say if he doesn't cut out the LOL type bullshit, he's gone, but I'd get hell for that from some people.

[MichiganGoat]

Yeah. I'm still not sure what to do. I'd like to say if he doesn't cut out the LOL type bullshit, he's gone, but I'd get hell for that from some people.

He has learned from his last go around and doesn't get to personal and when he gets called out with real facts he goes away for a few hours, but he is just so damn annoying.

[TWC]

Yeah. I'm still not sure what to do. I'd like to say if he doesn't cut out the LOL type bullshit, he's gone, but I'd get hell for that from some people.

Yeah, and -- as much as it pains me -- you'd probably deserve it.

I'm beginning to realize that BN has reached a level of popularity that there will always be assholes/agitators on this site. There will always be dozens (hundreds!) of comments on any given post that will serve little use to further general discussion, other than a lot of "me too!"-ing, "you're wrong!"-ing, or "have you heard anything about Solar?"-ing. That's the price of success. And, for what it's worth, I think this place will climb much, much higher, and be much, much more successful in the coming years. It's too good, with too dedicated of a fan base not to.

Active abuse, aggravated personal attacks, spamming, these things are worth the boot. We're fortunate they are really rare here. But banning people, people who are not actively abusive (and this time around, BetterNews hasn't been), or people who post dopey shit (shelby), isn't going to help anything. There are enough people reading and commenting every day that no matter how dumb, or dopey, or ignorant, a comment may be, there's someone who will agree with them. You ban the original commenter, you end up alienating their "friends". Or you rub people who witness these exchanges the wrong way for your heavy-handedness. Now, on a small site, with small readership, an appropriate response to that may be meh, fuck 'em, but at this place? With the ambitions you have? On the precipice of (or, really, at the depths of the nadir preceding) what I and I think you believe to be a sustained period of Chicago Cubs success? Is this the time to alienate people? Probably not.

So, the dude abides; the banhammer is holstered. For now.

[MichiganGoat]

I agree TWC, but when will Rizzo be called up and what's wrong with BJax? Oh and you're wrong.

[Luke]

The internet's history is littered with sites that have gone both ways. Some took a hands-off approach to moderation as the site grew, and the result was Slashdot... a once good site that descended into a pointless troll fest while the good audience that built up the site moved on to greener pastures. But there are other examples of that same approach that had the opposite effect. And I'm not sure I can spot the differences between the two.

But I don't think this is necessarily a case where things can only go all in one direction or all in the other.

For example, there are commenting systems that allow for posts to be up or down voted. A system like that is only as good as the community voting, but with a good community it can tend to depress the overt trolls without killing honest Q/A, the genuine confused fan, or casual non-abrasive conversation.

I've also seen some sites have success with heavier moderation to keep comments on topic, but that also provide one article a day that is basically unrestricted. For example, if someone tries to complain that Starlin Castro is the worst player in history based on fake stats that make no sense in the comments of an article about a Rizzo promotion, he can be modded out and perhaps (if tech allows) moved to whatever the daily article with an open comment section is. That plan requires more work on the part of the mod(s), but should in time isolate the non-contributing crowd in their own little arena where they don't disturb the rest of the site. It would also have a period of adjustment that could be rough on the community.