Well done again OOT........

[MEbenhoe]

Congrats on another trainwreck on your watch. How many of these before you stop playing to the ignorant [censored] masses and actually do something about this stupidity?


OOT Mods, [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] to all of you for your overall contributions to this site, but this is one policy I think you guys are really screwed up on.

[Dynasty]

I just scanned the thread. So, who's responsible for actually going out and getting the personal information about madbeetz?

Was Vehn the first when he posted the picture of madbeetz' sister? How did he get it? There were references to his girlfriend's pictures but they weren't posted.

I guess madbeetz posted his girlfriend's AIM name on his own accidentally.

Kipin had a post deleted by daryn. What was that about? El Diablo's post suggested it was the AIM address being reposted.

It seems a bunch of people IM'd the girlfriend but didn't post about it.

Themp outright stated he wanted the trainwreck info and was going to IM harass the girlfriend.

[NT!]

i have stated many times how dumb i feel these threads are, but people bring them on themselves. we pretty much know what the savages of OOT will do at this point.

[JaredL]

[ QUOTE ]
i have stated many times how dumb i feel these threads are, but people bring them on themselves. we pretty much know what the savages of OOT will do at this point.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is exactly what I believe Matt was referring to when he wrote "How many of these before you stop playing to the ignorant [censored] masses and actually do something about this stupidity?"

It's total [censored] that you are basically saying "yeah, it sucks but with a lot of posters way out of line, what can you do?" Here's the problem as I see it:

- people often post in OOT looking for advice about a number of things

- a number of people, those posting and those reading, benefit from these posts

- such "trainwreck" [censored] punishes people for making these posts.

- that makes the forum worse off and increases the noise to signal ratio.

This thread was not the greatest, but dealt with a situation many deal with (partner cheating on them, breaking up with them). There was some quality discussion in it. Beyond this specific thread, there is a lot of good content that doesn't get posted for this reason.

The problem here is that there is no disincentive to do this crap, only to make valid posts. The solution to this problem is simple:

1. Edit any posts with personal information (this was done well in the thread, by Daryn I believe)
2. If anybody posts personal information about anyone involved in the thread that was gotten from outside (including AIM conversations etc.), this information is deleted as well. The person doing so should be banned for a minimum of two weeks, a month might be better. Anyone posting a request for such information is also banned (a shorter period perhaps but at least a week), and their post deleted.
3. If under 2 there are more than a couple people banned, the entire thread is deleted. By deleted I do not mean sent here to be edited to be brought back or deleted and brought back by an admin, but permanently deleted never to be seen again. Perhaps as an example, the thread is locked and every single post in it is deleted.

With this in place, and followed through, it would take about two times for the "savages of OOT" to change their behavior and the forum will drastically improve as a result.

[Mat Sklansky]

I'd like to this as official. I'll wait for objections.

[Ryan Beal]

I don't have a problem with this. We used to have clearer rules against trainwrecking threads, and they included much of what Jared mentions here. But those rules have been left out of the most recent stickies, and it's probably time to bring them back.

This is new, though:
[ QUOTE ]
The person doing so should be banned for a minimum of two weeks, a month might be better. Anyone posting a request for such information is also banned (a shorter period perhaps but at least a week), and their post deleted.

3. If under 2 there are more than a couple people banned, the entire thread is deleted. By deleted I do not mean sent here to be edited to be brought back or deleted and brought back by an admin, but permanently deleted never to be seen again. Perhaps as an example, the thread is locked and every single post in it is deleted.

[/ QUOTE ]

That lays out quite a few more specific consequences than we've put out there previously. Generally I'm not a fan of that, but in this case it's probably not a bad idea. It will help make the point.

[citanul]

i think that getting a few specific "mandatory minimum" type things will help limit the amount of complaint about subjectivity. also i think that clearly you have to have *s along with the banning, especially if banning from oot only is going to be feasable. does the public know about the banning from just oot possibility?

[Ryan Beal]

[ QUOTE ]
does the public know about the banning from just oot possibility?

[/ QUOTE ]

I would assume so. Several posters have been exiled for more than a few months. It's just that now we can enforce it with the software rather than saying, "If you post in OOT while exiled, you will be banned." Also, members who have read the new OOT sticky should be aware that we can now use the software for this.

[ QUOTE ]

i think that getting a few specific "mandatory minimum" type things will help limit the amount of complaint about subjectivity.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's always part of the argument for posting new specific consequences, but I've never really bought into it. I just think it's a good idea in this case because it would make it clear that we're seriously cracking down on this stuff.

[Sniper]

link to thread? (or was it deleted already)

[iron81]

[ QUOTE ]
link to thread? (or was it deleted already)

[/ QUOTE ]
Nope