REPORTING TROLLS, SPAMMERS, ETC.

I wish there was a thread in the forum for reporting trolls, spammers, members scamming for money, people sabotaging the boards with anti-Christian religions, cyber bullies, predators, etc. That way regular members could be alerted and avoid the trolls until they get banned.

I noticed that there are a lot of members here who think they're being helpful by being nice to these types of newcomers. In reality, all it's doing is interfering with genuine fellowship and keeping people preoccupied in their worthless troll threads. There are many people here for friendship, prayer, learning and growing in Christ. Why forfeit the needs of our brothers and sisters by posting page after ridiculous page of debates with trolls and spammers?

Anyhow, I thought if we had a thread to report cyber trouble makers, people who are getting entangled with them could be alerted to the thread to let them know it's a total waste of time to debate with them.

I don't know if it would work or not... just a suggestion.

Natedegrimes. Dont be mad

No, I'm not mad at you, dear. But I'm not asking anyone to report people in this thread. I was just suggesting to the Admins maybe we could create a forum for that. Maybe it won't work, I don't know.

I was talkin to him if he saw it. Thanks though

Problem with this is some trolls are Very obvious and can be spotted and recognized by anyone. Others are more subtle. And in some cases there can be debates between users over if someone is, or is not, a troll. Or what constitutes a troll.
Most people already misuse and abuse the report button. Giving them a public space to continue that misuse would create a... crapstorm of issues. It would mostly be full of BDFers reporting each other for being heretics.

It could work AuntieAnt. I got no time for blasphemers and mods can't be expected to detect everything. Just like youtube, people enter forums and discussions with no intention of sincerely seeking truth but to target others, if there are strict criteria and maybe keep submissions private so it isn't used as a weapon when people merely disagree.

thank you so much for what you posted in that thread

and for this suggestion here

when knowledge is put before love, no one listens ... that is all that was going on

they will keep showing up...how long until believers wake up and either pray or just tell him the truth...which was that he was muslim and trying to trip up Christians

he believes that mohammad was the one Jesus was speaking of

his so called questions were disingenuous

yes, it's 'just' a forum...but I doubt discernment of some is any better in a real situation

And to avoid that, Ugly I was thinking more along the lines of what SteelToedKodiak posted. "Strict criteria and maybe keep submissions private" ~ that would work. I do believe it would help alleviate the stress of the mods looking into every reported issue, ya know?

Perhaps a few people could be assigned as Troll Mods.

thoughts on this?


millions of people free...through this woman

where do people get this from?

never mind I know

I generally just report Jack and his troll lackeys.

Yes, but sometimes the mods are not available or they are swamped with tons of other things to look into and these trolls cyber-bully, shipwreck or sabotage threads for days on end. A lot of people get hurt by them or are seriously misled. I thought maybe if we had a few assigned people specifically for the troll problem, it would ban them more swiftly and restore peace in the forums quicker.

Oh, absolutely, Auntie! I agree. I certainly don't report people willy-nilly.

Well I was kinda suspicious too; that's why I quoted from Ephesians 6 concerning spiritual warfare. I figured the OP could take it any way he/she wanted, but I was praying that this person would be freed from doctrinal error (if that is indeed the case).

I didn't read all the replies

just the op

right

we need discernment and wisdom to use it

break for Boxxy

Please explain.

They would be the same criteria for reporting someone, yes? And yet reporting people is still a constantly overused aspect of the site.
Reporting people is private. It goes directly to mods, so they don't have to go to a special section of the forums to see it. And there are already a set of guidelines in place for reporting. Also what if they determine someone isn't a troll? Now there is an Extra step involved in having to go and remove this persons name from public.
And they have to investigate every accusation, so i'm not sure how making this public would do so?

If you remove the privacy and create a space where people can be publicly called out, no matter what guidelines you put in place, it will be abused. Probably worse than the report button.
Also how many people would go to a forum just to see who is being accused of being a troll? What if someone is accused falsely and there's no one on to remove them from the list? Then the falsely accused person could be on there for hours.

What about those who defend certain trolls? How will they respond if they see someone publicly reported as a troll? What kind of arguments will that stir up?

Also it runs the risk of why someones name is on the list. What if (just for an example haha) i put your name on such a list? And no one was on for 5 hours to deal with it? Then it would be an issue of 'why is she on there?'. This could lead to gossip. You feeling defensive. You may even be able to figure out it was me. Posting names of people accused of being trolls just leaves open so many ways for it to go wrong. And no matter what restrictions you put someone will misuse it.

I don't know if they still do this, but in the chats they used to have a few people with the kick and ban capacity who were not mods. They were only allowed to use this for people who were obvious and blatant problems, such as repeated cussing and other clear violations. Who they were was not revealed, so they had no rights to do any other sort of mod activities, such as step in on arguments or mandate a subject change.
Something similar may be of use in the forums, on a very restricted basis. But even then it would be a volunteer position and no guarantee they would be on either.

Well, we could just get better at writing "This post has been reported", so others in that thread realize we suspect the OP is up to something

Welcome to the internet.