What To Do With the Trolls

Submitted by xtramelanin on

Mates,

I am hoping to avoid a 'Lord of the Flies' scenario, but man, we have been infested by trolls lately.  Like many, I appreciate the cool rival fans that post here (e. g. nittany, buckeye chuck and others) and I also don't think we need to be bubble wrapped to protect against the occasional abrasive/snotty remark.  That said, there are some posters that aren't making this a better place.  They come in two kinds:

1.  The aforementioned over-the-top jerk rivals

2.  The more recent multiple account knucklehead(s).

The solutions for each might not be the same.  I guess I'd vote to nuke the rivals who lack self-control, but for the multiple account type(s), I really don't care what they post but enough of the false-conversation volleys.  No matter how many times they are told how silly they look, they persist.

[Insert pic of Gladiator emperor with his thumb out, but not turned either way....but 3.0]

So my question for the board is this:

Assuming our Mgoblog overlords listen to us (and they generally do, at least when we're rational), what would you like to be done with the trolls?

 

XM

MGoBoard
Other

FauxMo

September 13th, 2018 at 8:00 AM ^

Here is my plan:

1. Find a troll, an especially bad one;

2. Capture him or her IRL;

3. Take them to my basement, which is windowless and virtually soundproof (don't ask why(;

4. Torture and disembowel him or her with "great prejudice";

5. Videotape said disemboweling, and post on the board as a warning to the others. 

Joined: 06/17/2010

MGoPoints: 137521

Moleskyn

September 13th, 2018 at 8:07 AM ^

Are the mods able to determine if this multiple account person is actually one person with multiple accounts? It's reaching a point where it would be helpful to get some decisive clarity: either it is one person with multiple accounts, and he needs some help...or it's not, and these people are getting unnecessarily bullied, and that should stop. I don't know what information is available to the mods, but it would be helpful to get some clarity on this.

Joined: 06/28/2010

MGoPoints: 10287

Arb lover

September 13th, 2018 at 9:22 AM ^

There are two forms of email verification that might come in handy, more for users who are worried about being perceived as a troll (but then do you really want someone like that posting in any case), or for new users who you might be worried are returning forms of the same persona(s).

1) Google/FB authentication. Most people won't go through the hoops to create an actual second persona. If internally Mgoblog captures you and your phone number as a person, that probably means more than john doe registered under the email [email protected].

2) That Umich.edu email and/or your UM Alumni Association ID- you only get one. It's not going to work in many situations, but more likely than not if someone has registered with a umich.edu email, they are probably not the same person as someone else with a umich.edu email registered address or a different Alumni ID. I would also hope that if mods can look your name up in the registry that in and of itself would be enough to keep people from trolling. I realize for a variety of reasons not everyone has one of these two things, but see #1 above.

As far as rollout, a lot of sites when they upgrade will ask for this new authentication from  even existing users. Now there are multiple ways do to it and it's definitely a mixed bag asking people to essentially link into a different account. Even simple two step verification using just a phone number can feel invasive to people, but then most trolls aren't going to have access to multiple phone numbers, or especially  multiple phone numbers after having been banned once or twice. 

I mention the Alumni Association ID because apart from the obvious authentication, the association might be willing to partner with MGoblog because it could increase membership, and the blog is a legit school spirit website so it's not a random relationship. 

Joined: 11/26/2017

MGoPoints: 6915

RDDGoblue

September 13th, 2018 at 9:30 AM ^

I am not an expert, but I modded on a very basic message board 15+ years ago, and we could see folks IP and ban the entire IP if it was a problem.  This isn't an option for you guys?

 

If so, HUEL might not be well served by advertising themselves to the mgoblog audience.

Joined: 09/07/2008

MGoPoints: 1824

mGrowOld

September 13th, 2018 at 8:11 AM ^

Problem 1 is solved with a quick and expeditious banning.

Problem 2 is different IMO. I think one very famous (here anyways) poster got very upset about a year ago when a parody thread was created and not immediately removed by the mods.  He was upset and candidly deservedly so.  It was pretty mean spirited and the creator of the parody thread was never identified.

He was (still is?) a big proponent of user name validation and my guess is he thought by creating multiple user names he would somehow "force" the blog to take action to control the creation of new accounts like the one created for the sole purpose of mocking him in the parody thread.  How it spiraled this far out of control is anybody's guess but last night LSA 2000 FINALLY started caving the multiple names.  I think that issue might start to go away now.

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 212545

LSAClassOf2000

September 13th, 2018 at 8:25 AM ^

I had actually been trying to pick at it in the background once I finally got the power to do it back, but I hadn't quite gotten to the bigger (biggest) offenders until last night with a mass dump. 

I know which incident you're referring to and what it spawned. I think I got all of those accounts from the first wave (I think that person began to open parody accounts for multiple regulars here), but why they would choose to persist, well....who the hell knows....

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130561

jimmyjoeharbaugh

September 13th, 2018 at 11:15 AM ^

if that's the answer then fine, but i'd like to have that explanation from LSA. No honest person who would have spent even a couple of minutes looking into it would confuse my posts for the multi-account person's.  

spoiler: they were

show me what you mean.  honestly, the only thing i did to get connected was to post actual team news - that harbaugh had made dylan qb2 - and said maybe MKing was right. I had no idea what I was wading into by referencing that name in my post.  And no idea that the multi-account person would go full-on spambot over the next few days.  So i played along with the joke for like a day and then started vehemently denying any involvement and showing in detail why it wasn't me. 

i suspect the actual answer is that LSA just fired the cannon indiscriminately at any account even remotely connected to the situation in an effort to solve the problem in one fell swoop.  in that case i'd like to be rehabilitated and exonerated, or at least get an acknowledgement that that's what they did.

Joined: 09/12/2018

MGoPoints: 5445

jimmyjoeharbaugh

September 13th, 2018 at 12:32 PM ^

that's a fine answer too, i can see that being a bannable offense. but then there's a lot more banning to be done here because that comment is child's play compared to what i see here on the daily. so if that's the answer, fine. but then let's get busy purging all the other vulgar folks spewing fire at people. i posted a long list on the mod action sticky, easy to find people saying much worse than that. 

Joined: 09/12/2018

MGoPoints: 5445

StraightDave

September 13th, 2018 at 11:19 AM ^

I see MarcusRay's point.    Anytime someone disagrees with the masses he is immediately labeled a troll and demonized.   And the attacking and labeling come from the same groups of posters on this board who try and control the narrative.  

And It's the mob mentality of this board that gets me - if you disagree with us, you are a troll.   The DPJ thread yesterday was a perfect example.  The OP asked a simple question, while walking on eggshells, and he was immediately labeled a troll.  In the same thread UMBig11 agreed with the OP and received upvotes because he's part of the group controlling the board.  

Why not get rid of MgoPoint totals and simply go to a system of up-voting and down voting individual threads like we now have?  Do we really need points on an internet blog to make us feel better about ourselves?  

All the votes and point totals do is discourage posters from making threads and asking questions that don't fall in-line with the Harbaugh lovers.   Every person here has to think the same or you will be bullied until you leave or the group at top cries to Seth and demand you get banned.   

Joined: 12/27/2009

MGoPoints: 4232

trueblueintexas

September 13th, 2018 at 11:39 AM ^

If you go back through the DPJ thread the OP quickly devolved into defending HIS belief no matter what based on one stat instead of engaging in discussion with the many responses which either provided data or well explained counter arguments. 

I have no problem with multiple and conflicting views leading to discourse, what really grates on people is someone throwing out a question and using the board as a platform to defend their belief to the bitter end. 

Joined: 11/10/2008

MGoPoints: 36453