First, let me make it clear that shutting down OTC altogether would not harm the wiki's mission in any way. It is being hosted solely out of courtesy toward the interests of tropers wanting to have a conversation.
Secondly, if OTC regulars don't start to report derails and stop falling for troll bait, in short, become more self moderating and participating more in bringing in moderation help when needed, I'll have no problem at all with shutting it down.
Thirdly, I'll underscore that falling for troll tactics is the fault of the fish. This forum is expected to be more savvy, not less. Stop being made fools of.
2024 update:
There is a list of banned OTC topics here
. Please read it. We take these rules seriously.
Edited by Mrph1 on Mar 29th 2024 at 11:08:22 AM
But your "people react differently to the same actions" is spot-on: people are special snowflakes, in fact they're much more unique and much more complex and special than any snowflake would ever hope to be, regardless of how "nerdy" they are. But, like snowflakes, there are regular patterns and laws most of them follow, which can make them predictable if you know what to look for and how to draw the right conclusions* . Also And being a nerd doesn't mean being an outcast: in my school we were kinda the stars, especially the show-choir team and the debate team.
Er... but what does that have to do with kids talking about their unusual (and possibly temporary or even made-up) sexual interests?
Does this look to you like I have changed the topic to a person here?
A case of true love has the same redeeming power as a case of genuine curiosity: they are the same.I just locked four threads created by the same troper in this forum which were utterly pointless. Nobody hollered them — I just saw one in passing and followed the bread crumbs. This is what we're talking about, folks. Don't swallow the dangly shiny things, report them.
Replied via PM.
edited 17th Oct '11 8:41:51 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"![]()
Is that user doing this on purpose? Though I think it was a newcomer to OTC being confused.
Action was taken. We identified a very strong trolling pattern across multiple accounts. It is possible to appeal, of course, in the event it's a mistake, but that's up to the troper in question.
In the meantime, the threads very clearly violated the "one sentence topic, discuss" guideline we've been talking about.
edited 17th Oct '11 9:22:04 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Personally, if I can manage to do so, I like to respond kindly rather than assuming that the poster is a troll and holler, on the premise that they're just naive.
If proved to be a troll, then by all means, holler/ignore/whatever.
Also, why outright nuke those threads, as opposed to locking?
Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.When a post is thumped, the thumpee gets a message. Could there be a similar mechanism for getting hollered? (Whenever someone hollers one of your posts, you get a message, not of who or what, only that that specific post was hollered).
A case of true love has the same redeeming power as a case of genuine curiosity: they are the same.You're in trouble if you piss people off, and you're in trouble if you attract mod attention. By that point, it may be too late, and bans have always been hard to reverse, here or elsewhere.
A "Your Post Has Been Hollered" message can be understood as a Strongly Worded Letter by your fellow tropers suggesting you edit that damned post or face the consequences. If, knowing this, you decide your post is fine and you ain't afraid of no mod lookin' at it, hey, it's your funeral.
A case of true love has the same redeeming power as a case of genuine curiosity: they are the same.In such a case though, I would just PM the user instead of reporting the post.
Now using Trivialis handle.Note that you're not automatically in trouble because you piss people off. We have had several cases where it was the people who got pissed off who needed to be disciplined, but the person who made the original post had done nothing wrong.
In any case, we don't want Hollers to be "quick, the mods are coming—edit out anything that might be inflammatory". For one, it won't have any effect unless you are on right then or the mods are being usually slow. If the post doesn't end up thumped, then all the Holler tells you is that there is a troper in the thread who is perhaps over-sensitive, and if the post does get thumped, the Holler message was redundant. Additionally, Hollers are used for things other than reporting rule-breaking, and often one Holler is sent to report multiple posts. Finally, it has the unfortunate effect of turning the Holler system into an early warning system for rule-breakers—an equivalent to having every 911 call also give an anonymous tip to the suspected criminals. If people think there is a serious rules violation going on, they'll skip out on Hollering to avoid giving the suspected rule-breaker time to hide evidence from non-admins, while if someone is giving a friendly tip, they'll skip on the Holler to avoid moderator interference, making the Holler system worthless for reporting misbehavior (and annoying for more bureaucratic issues, since it will produce message spam).
Edit: @whale: Report it via the Holler system—it counts as dickish behavior. The most recent case was reported and has been dealt with.
edited 18th Oct '11 3:37:10 PM by Ironeye
I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.![]()
Isn't that just a long and article-packed version of someone linking to an article and saying "Discuss"?
What if someone says something, and "well this
disproves your point" is a valid response?
If the link is relevant and to the point, and such that it couldn't be paraphrased easily, then fine. There's no rule against using links, and there isn't going to be one.
Use your common sense.
If it were a face to face conversation would you just hand the other person a book or magazine article and say "This disproves your point", or would you at least give them a rundown of what it says and suggest that they read it?
@308: Why keep the threads? They serve no useful purpose. Locking is a courtesy to let people know what happened, but we don't need them cluttering things up. If you really want to discuss the topic, start a real thread.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Some folks may not know what to add, but can see the derailing clear as day, whereas those involved in the thread may be blind to it at the moment. Should they refrain from speaking up just becasue they don't have a stance or view on an issue? I don't think so.
Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

Gathering proof to support my claims would be difficult, that much I'll admit. I only have scant, anecdotal evidence, so you should take my claims with a grain of salt. However, emphasizing with italics doesn't make an opposing opinion seem more convincing, only more forceful.
edited 15th Oct '11 10:36:34 AM by PacificState
A case of true love has the same redeeming power as a case of genuine curiosity: they are the same.