Online vs. Real World Personalities

[northernladuk]

I don't see it as people leaving the board due solely to the modding in here but the main factor being the whinging and trolling that has kicked off of late. Having only come back in the last couple of weeks I don't really see why people leaving this place would make you glum. I suggest you stop playing games on here, contribute constructively or find a local forum to troll on.



Thanks d000hg - personally I can't fathom a lot of the stropping. I am starting to think more and more that a couple of trolls on here have managed to stir things up to this level and that a couple of bannings a week or two ago would have saved a lot of strife. I think the appointing of new mods just landed in the middle of this all...

I couldn't agree more. I don't see it as a moderation issue either. The mods have had to step in because of the problems caused by these few. I personally don't think it is too late to go back to that plan. There will be a bit of upset as sides are found but that will die down to a happy medium much quicker than it will continuing to put up with this.

Nicely put thank you

[tay]

So OS, Bagpuss,Faqqer and ATW leaving is my fault?

Did you read the recent posts from them???

Having only come back in the last couple of weeks I don't really see why people leaving this place would make you glum.

Because I knew them on here before I took a break? And because they were voices of reason in this issue? Do I really have to explain why I find it saddening when good posters leave?

3 of them made special efforts to welcome me back, and when they leave I am not allowed to be slightly saddened by it without you questioning it?

This is a discussion I cant win, and if I was the troll that you like to describe me as I would be not replying like this, I would just slink away to troll another day. So either I am the worst troll in the world or I genuinely think things have got out of hand around here because of people playing favourites.

[northernladuk]

Oddly enough Tay no I didn't mean you although you did time it badly as I didn't know you before and you do seem to have joined in baiting and 'have a go posts'. I know the guys you mentioned had a pop as well but thats all I have seen of you sorry. Everytime I see your avatar I expect it to be bad news. Nothing personal, thats just what I see.

The guys you mentioned had already been pretty p'ed off with how badly things had turned out just before you arrived I think.

[tay]

Oddly enough Tay no I didn't mean you although you did time it badly as I didn't know you before and you do seem to have joined in baiting and 'have a go posts'. I know the guys you mentioned had a pop as well but thats all I have seen of you sorry. Everytime I see your avatar I expect it to be bad news. Nothing personal, thats just what I see.

The guys you mentioned had already been pretty p'ed off with how badly things had turned out just before you arrived I think.

oops the perils of not quoting, I was talking to admin not you.

It is disappointing that you see my posts like that. No hard feelings though.

The guys you mentioned had already been pretty p'ed off with how badly things had turned out just before you arrived I think

Thats what I was told by them as well. Which is why I took offence at admin publically laying such large portions of blame at my door... and trying to rewrite history as to why they left.

[Cliphead]

Thats what I was told by them as well. Which is why I took offence at admin publically laying such large portions of blame at my door.

<snigger>

[Gonzo]

Can this current exodus be traced back to one specific incident or event, or is it just something that has been brewing for a while?

It is a bit difficult to tell from where I am sitting but I suspect the economic gloom that you are all engulfed by is taking a heavy toll.

Believe it or not it used to be all threads about fancy restaurants, smart motors, exotic holidays and champagne around here.

There are more threads about claiming benefits these days.

[EternalOptimist]

It is disappointing that you see my posts like that. No hard feelings though.



Thats what I was told by them as well. Which is why I took offence at admin publically laying such large portions of blame at my door... and trying to rewrite history as to why they left.

my snide detector is going off the scale here

[NickFitz]

tay is an aggressive-passive poster.

He posts abusive comments, then waits for people to respond in kind. Then he attacks those who responded to his initial aggravation, and suggests that they themselves are the cause of the ill-feeling on the forum and that he is the one under attack.

Given that the introduction of the new mods has led to people being concerned over whether said mods have been over- or under-reacting to activity on the forum, he has then sought to muddy the waters further by suggesting that said new mods are biased in favour of certain members by dint of happening to have met them in real life.

He then uses this as further grounds for claiming that he is unjustly vilified. When the consequences of his actions lead to valuable members of the community leaving, he pretends to be saddened by it, as this gives him something to point to in the future, claiming "No, look, I wish this hadn't happened" when he seeks to do even more damage with his abusive trolling.

This is a full-scale trolling attack, and it's of great interest that tay and MF rocked up at the same time. Whether or not they are the same person, they have clearly been in cahoots. Now they are working together to disrupt the forum, and they are using every trick in the book:

• Make aggressive posts against others;
• When responded to in kind, claim to have been attacked for no good reason (they think they can get away with this because nobody will dig back into their previous posts that provoked the attack);
• A new moderation régime with new mods is brought in to control the mayhem;
• They provoke members into attacks on them that are unwisely phrased, in the hope that said members will be penalised by new mods just finding their way, at the same time as themselves reverting to tones of injured innocence;
• People get sick of it all and start to leave;
• They stir things up a bit more, provoking responses that are followed by more claims that they are being put upon by a clique;
• They keep on in this way until the forum is destroyed.

This really is standard troll tactics to destroy a forum. As to why: they don't need a why. They do it to prove (to their own deluded selves) that they are cleverer than all the other members, all the mods, and admin. They will not be satisfied until they have succeeded.

The response to this post from the trolls will be to accuse me of being a member of a clique, a friend of the mods, a sad old tosser (but only if they can claim that I insulted them first, as that's personal) and anything else they can think of (but only if they can claim that I insulted them first and make themselves out to be the injured party).

The thing about these lowlifes (they'll call me on that) is that they don't play this game over a day or so of posts in General; they're happy to spend weeks on it, and even suck up to posters they normally insult when posting in other areas of the forum - it's good camouflage. They also use the strategy of laying off somebody for a while, and maybe even agreeing with them on something, before attacking them again at a later stage.

If it takes them six months, they'll bring the forum down, unless they're dealt with.

This doesn't mean they have to be banned.

If they were just forced to behave themselves - say, by requiring all of their posts to be moderated before being allowed to appear, just like a newby - they'd soon get bored and go and find somewhere else to destroy.

But as long as they're allowed to get away with playing the long game, that's what they'll do, and they'll get there in the end.

Pull them up now.

[snaw]

Tay's got plenty of previous, and generally is better ignored. Especially all this passive aggressive bollocks. Just confirms what I always though about him.

I'm not really getting why MF has flipped all of a sudden. Almost maniacal how he's kicked into life and started being unpleasant fairly often, like someone else has got his I.D. now.

[MaryPoppins]

tay is an aggressive-passive poster.

< other stuff >

I'm not sure certain posters tactics are so deliberate. I think a general desire to stir a bit of trouble is the main driving force, followed up by childish and persistent claims that those who are sucked in, are in fact at fault.

There is probably little that mods can do in this instance, surely.

The only way to see this issue go away, is to ignore them. Completely.