forum trolling

[Administrator]

.

Trolling is strongly discouraged.

Administration has the final opinion and decision on what constitutes trolling.

This topic will give an example of behavior that results in being banned:

Immigrationboards.com Forum Index -> General Discussions - non immigration related -> Hate Preachers
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=12959

Click on the persons profile and examine the history of their posts to understand it was not an isolated incident. We also examined his website and his behavior in other forums where he became increasingly more offensive and upsetting toward other members of those communities.

Don't try to be cute and push the limits for amusement. You have no rights to a warning here, although we will usually attempt tolerance in cases that are not egregiously clear-cut.

Civilized behavior, reasoned discussion (for the most part) and playing nicely are strongly encouraged. This forum exists as a tool and a community resource for world travelers to meet and get along.

Please play like adults and keep the flame wars both to minimum and of low intensity; do not troll the forums trying to begin flame wars.

Thank you for listening,

The Admin

[Administrator]

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I don't know how to emphasize or explain better the comments I made in the first post here.

But I'll try:


If your commentary:

• is dearly beloved

• is sexist

• is abusive, personally or generally

• is derogatory or denigrates

• is defamatory

• is intolerant (of beliefs, religion, culture, etc.)

•
•
•


Then:

• you might receive a warning, maybe two

• you might be banned without warning


The Moderators and the Administrators have full discretion. We are humans. On some days we may have more tolerance than others.

The seriousness of offensive commentary will also be taken into account.


PLEASE, people ....

We are an international community here. Try to remember that what two drunk men in a bar think is an interesting discussion could be (and likely is) deeply offensive to a very wide range of our membership here.

the Admin

[Administrator]

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OKay ... to enshrine this as current policy for reference of all, let me summarize:

This topic:
-> General Discussions - non immigration related -> Want to live in UK for better dating life
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=20212

especially around page 3:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... 2&start=40

pretty much got out of control. On page 3 I gave a fairly detailed explanation as to the actions & non-actions I decided on for this case.

I responded to one of our mods by PM as to why I did not ban the offender (yet), the key part(s) of that PM are as follows:

[another member, not one of the targets] also PM'd me with a similar point [suggesting that a ban should have taken place]. I responded that we were discussing options & that I really wanted to hear from the direct targets of such attacks.

That member, [the target of these PM's] , has contacted me and 1) specifically stated (s)he doesn't care regarding a ban and 2) is happy with the current resolution.

Therefore, I'm happy to be as liberal about our free speech around here as possible, at least for the time being. In the future we may not have that luxury, but I hope that we will.

As far as [the offender] goes, I suspect we won't hear from him again. But, if we do, there won't be any second chances after this particular display.

I'm hoping that our members are able to handle such situations themselves, although we as the admins/mods should always be vigilant to ensure it doesn't get completely out of control. This particular incident pushed the boundaries to the limit, as far as I'm concerned.

For future reference, I could just as easily ban the offender under the same circumstances if even one target of his tirades had stepped forward and complained.

Since none did this time, I'm willing to let this settle out and see how the community develops.

One thing to keep in mind ... we have several other members who push the limits a bit, usually in quite different ways. Since I have been so tolerant of them until now, I felt that [the offender] deserved the benefit of the doubt.

This one time.

As I've said before, this is an adult forum. I therefore expect and tolerate some fairly abrasive behavior on occasion.

It does not make me happy to see it, and I will always be in favor of guiding such behavior into more constructive community participation. In a case such as this one, I'd be just as happy with a ban as with suspension.

Since we currently have a pretty solid forum, and behavior such as this is quite rare, I'm feeling a bit tolerant this week and am taking a chance with only a suspension. If any mod had stepped in, or does in the future, and bans under similar circumstances, they have my blessing.


Let us all please reflect upon this part: constructive community participation

The reason this forum exists. We are here to help each other.

Let's try to remember that, folks.

Thank you.

the Admin