Originally Posted by Astro14
Originally Posted by AC1DD
Originally Posted by kschachn
There are trolls, yes. They got threads deleted and locked with their continual ranting about the virus.
Almost makes me wonder if they do it deliberately, to control the narrative? A thing I definitely noticed over the years on many forums is when there is a topic that
is "sensitive" all of a sudden the trolls appear like phantoms and break every rule possible, and of course the result is they get the thread closed, but also interesting is that
why don't those mods ban the trolls instead of locking the thread?
There is a lot that goes on without public comment. Your question presumes that, because you don't see the action, it isn't happening.
That's completely false. A lot of action takes place, but it's not public.
Posts that are unacceptable get edited, or deleted.
If a thread is riddled with unacceptable posts, it's often deleted as the editing isn't effective.
Members get warned via PM if they're not following rules.
Members who have a history of not following rules, or have egregiously violated rules, are banned. Some temporarily as a warning. Some permanently. There were several permanent bans in February. All carefully considered.
No one is going to publicly crow about banning a member. It's done seriously, and privately. It's not a spectacle for general consumption.
Mods frequently communicate, privately, about those decisions.
Think about it this way: if you were out of bounds in a post, would you want a mod to call you out in that thread? Publicly, openly, discuss your behavior? Or discreetly discuss it with you via PM? A public reprimand is generally a poor way to handle bad behavior. It invites further conflict by putting the person on the defensive. It creates a spectacle. An old adage from military leaders, "praise in public, reprimand in private" is particularly apt for handling issues in an Internet forum with over 75,000 members that is visible to millions.
Noted that just the other day.
As you say stuff, happens behind the scenes and one of the reasons I like to applaud mods and admin for the work they do. Lots we never see or know about.
A Moderator commented they shut down a thread for a bit to 'clean up' / delete ? some posts that ran off track (my words). There was a 2 hour window or less between the the last 'legit' post and the note by the Mod. Unless your post was deleted or you noted the post by the mod, you'd never know anything was going on.
I'm at times, active on VW, Mazda and more often, a mountain bike forum. The mtb forum is pretty on top of the detritus, rants or bullying and I see that more possibly because they have a bit more offenders or action of that sort.