GaG recommendation: Concerning “Trollers”

[Rosexøxø]

Okay so, this will not look professional, as it was rushed.

I know a few good mods and some I wish to give honorable mention to because of the very fact they don’t truly abuse their role in any way.

To them- it is a JOB (without pay), and NOT just a “title.”

This is my recommendation to the GaG team: Admin and mods.

I’ve gotten some troller posts- I don’t mind some of them. As ridiculous as it is, I learned maybe ONE or two things from the craziness of their question or conduct.

If they’re a threat or continuous problem to the credibility of this site or even worse, the legitimate safety of certain users, I recommend:

Making the anonymous feature a “delayed luxury,” and “earned privilege.”

Users should only be able to ask anonymously when they reach a level of xper 4, maybe even 5.

If this is not included or considered as part of an update, the second part I’d recommend is mod abilities to

freeze accounts linked to anonymous accounts or something of this nature. It’s better if mods don’t know the account owner, so that they are not biased in their power of freezing accounts.

If an anonymous account gets (temporarily?) frozen, around three times,

the account that has three penalties should be completely frozen or deactivated.

This helps in the anonymous part of this site, as I think the troll/ legitimate user ratio is severely imbalanced.

I see dozens of anonymous questions, and little official account questions.

Nothing wrong with this, but I think helping mods better assess this situation, will help the site steer clear of any possible mistreatment or so.

(One final mention- that GaG limits the intake and outtake of anonymous questions, pausing the “feed flow” of it, when it hits that mark).

maybe only 50 anonymous questions are allowed per month; etc.

This seems like a better way, than mods reporting or telling others not to engage with the “trollers.”

I wish the best for this site and all of its corresponding members. To me, they’re all the face of GaG. 🤜🤛🙌

[PrettyPriya]

This is a good MyTake with some good suggestions. The base is there for changes that would benefit the site. So, a couple of things... one is that anon function is never going to be gone, not that you are suggesting that.

I have mentioned in the past limiting anon depending on Xper level. I do not think that waiting until level 4 or 5 is realistic. I do think waiting until level 2 is super realistic and should be implemented.

If I had to guess, 80% of trolls never make it out of level one. Most are discovered, have their content removed and account frozen. That leads me to the next point. Myself and any other uber mod can indeed freeze anon accounts. I just did minutes ago when our "rich dentist" troll popped up for what seems to be the ten thousandth time.

I bet by the time I am done opining, he will have a new account, which will be inevitably frozen. The biggest problem in my eyes is the ability to block moderators. There is a very simple solution to this though.

If a user blocks a mod, that means that the mod cannot DM that user, opine on his/her questions or opinions. However, we can still SEE all their content. There are trolls that make it their first order of business to go and block as many mods as they can.

How are we supposed to moderator when we are blind? There are some high profile users that have all mods blocked. Admins attitude on this is that they can still see them. I just don't know how much they are looking at these people that block us all.

[Rosexøxø]

I appreciate this honesty, observancy, and helpful contribution in explaining how these trollers operate. It's helpful and should help in picking an effective dilution, to the anon-troll situation. I hope an override is established on their deliberate misuse of the site. Thank you for this moderator: Priya :) as well as the time offered.

[PrettyPriya]

You are most welcome and thank you for the MHO. I think you bring up some really good points that could be used as a base to improve user experience before. At the very least, it could lay ground for some compromises to make this site more enjoyable.

[Rosexøxø]

Fair points :]

[msc545]

With all of those contingencies and rules you might as well just eliminate Anonymous posts all together. people often have good reasons for posting anonymously and I don't think that it should be restricted to the extent you're suggesting.

[Rosexøxø]

It could seem as a restriction in a negative sense but it filters out a lot of trollers.

If we were to do a percentage observation of all anonymous questions, I’m sure what could be found, would be the result of mass portions of trollers and a microscopic portion of genuine askers.

I’m not trying to control anyone. I enjoy a free site, but apparently mods are very bothered by these trollers.

I have no issues with it myself, but if it got worse than what it is now, later on, I could see some minor implementation of restriction as being helpful.

We can always just choose to scroll past or so.

Anyways, I’m not bothered. This was a response and honest suggestion to the teams if they feel it would help their work, move a lot smoother.

@TheSpaceGnome actually made a really good suggestion as well. Better than mine, I think.

What do you think?

[msc545]

The only suggestions I saw were yours. As for trolls, if moderators are bothered by them then they probably should do something about it. I don't really mind trolls one way or the other because I'm not a moderator and in fact I'm not anybody around here.

[msc545]

I just looked again and it seems like the space gnome person has blocked me. So be it.

[Rosexøxø]

I appreciate you, for the balance you keep in this particular netting of media.

[Rosexøxø]

your perspective keeps*

[Nikki1989]

Offensive posts and the people that make them will never go away because this site restores the posts that are hidden by the mods 99% of the time. They even allow users to block the mods which is stupid beyond belief.

[Rosexøxø]

That’s incredible! 😆

I never knew this. It almost could make a comedy I sure don’t know! 👀😂

[LargeMemberAsk]

“Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.”
― Henry Louis Gates Jr

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
― United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Just because you do not feel that you can agree with the questions and opinions asked and want to suppress the speech of others does not mean that people should be silenced and oppressed by moderators. What use would the site be without the content provided by ALL of the people who use it? Any information would be pointless, illusory and sterile. It would no longer be GAG and YOU could no longer be considered a GAGger with no opinion to share.

[TheSpaceGnome]

The only problem with anon posting is you can't block them. If they let us block individual anons via their question or comment, that would solve everything.

[Rosexøxø]

I like this idea! They should consider this too.

I want them to know their options, and not put any bandaids on any real posing problems

[shortster]

The problem is that some of the mods are trolls. Until the admins address this nothing will get better. It would be like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

[Rosexøxø]

Lmaoo really helpful anology, and I’d agree 100%

[Rosexøxø]

Analogy*

[shortster]

Thanks

[Juxtapose]

Funny, I only get my posts called "trolling" when it's in political disagreement with a mod who didn't like it 🤭

[Rosexøxø]

I'll have to look out for this XD

[SweetTwistedSatanist]

Do Moderators actually read these things? Day 2 here

[Rosexøxø]

Yes there are a frequently few active mods. The ones I do know of and usually see around would be @BCRanger10 @NathanDavis and @PrettyPriya

Priya has already commented on this post and has assessed this situation before.

You can tell when an account is owned by a moderator, when you look at their profile in a comment section, or post, and you notice a smaller circle that breaks the line/ boarder of the bigger circle, at the bottoms. The smaller circle will have a lower case letter ‘m’ or lower case letter ‘u.’ The m stands for moderator and the u stands for Uber moderator. Uber mods may have more capabilities or respected credibility. I treat them both the same ;-; lol.

Usually if you see a post that I would say seems directly ‘HATEFUL,’ or harmful- to self or in general, you can make a comment on that post tagging the name/ ID of any mods.

I think another mod who also has no problem taking down hateful posts and freezing/ handling “troll” accounts would be

@Agape97 ? I think that’s her ID

For the most part, these mods give nothing, but their best efforts. It gets served alongside their personality at times, so that can be expected.

I’ve only heard of some threatening situation a while back. Compared to something on that scale, I think the trollers who spam questions and etc. are perfectly harmless.

From what I’ve observed the few I engaged with, we’re from other countries who used this as some sort of hook for “nxdes”

Maybe 1% is some older users who make fake accounts to spread hate in the form of ideas and comments (men haters/ women haters)—> is the typical form of aggression you’ll see here, if at all- because it IS a gender specific site: GIRLS ask GUYS (and vice versa ofc, though some guys won’t admit this lmao).

So that’s pretty must the just of all of this. I made this take not with any REAL urgency. I just figured it can be considered and optional for the team- if they feel things get out of hand, or escalate in a negative way.

[Rosexøxø]

Also WELCOME to the site! Whether you stay for a day or make it part of the “old routine,” lmao or even if you use it periodically- I hope you’ll find it beneficial and enhancing to your knowledge, and you can take something, to add to your personal life and social circles.

*Some users will come on and off. Some are gone for good, and others just like the vibe of the site and being helpful, to old and new users, alike.*

🙂😁 hope ya like it

[PrettyPriya]

Thanks for the mention. If any user has an issue, they are free to DM me about it or tag my username.

[SweetTwistedSatanist]

Rose can I attack you with questions in private about this?

[SweetTwistedSatanist]

@PrettyPriya pleased to meet you

[kespethdude]

If one is either a pedophile, an insurrectionist or abuses the anon feature to spew hate speech, that should be a ban on the FIRST offense and legal action on top of it.