Animation Source Forums

It's an iffy situation in which the administrative team once again takes the easy way out.

It is, from what I've seen, a crime to defend yourself because you are then seen in a similar light to those who started the whole mess. The mods need to defend those who are being attacked, not attack the defenders for defending. Allow me to quote myself on a previous topic:



Though the people Shaggystar is talking about might not be trolls, it is nevertheless looked upon as wrong to defend one's self.

The follow is directed towards the mods and the administration - Yes, you guys are actually going to have to do something this time if you want results. No, doing nothing and preaching story time morals of "just ignore the trolls/flamers/etc" are not going to help you or this forum.

Actually if one person is reported 3 times in a short period of time they will be automatically banned. ;]

But still, fights are very tiresome here.

I agree with everyone's posts here. I've been trying to defend my self from countless trolls, and with some I've gotten yelled at. I've also been banned trying to defend myself and my friends around me. Now, I try to ignore them, and that's what many mods tell us to do. "Just ignore them, why don't you try to ignore them, ignore them, ignore them yeah!" >_> Well, that's KIND OF HARD TO DO SOMETIMES. I have Posttramatic Stress Syndrom, and if I'm having that moment, and I'm eiher over stressed or upset, it's hard to ignore a troll. I can only go up so far until I explode. Infact, just the other day I was extremely upset from my Posttramatic Stress, and a troll came in the shout box, calling all of us rude names. >.> (As in cuss words.) I couldn't take it. I started to defend for myself and others around me. Thank goodness I didn't get yelled at, or even worse. But yeah, you all get my point.

You see, when you respond to them, and "defend" yourself, you're actually making the situation worse. Trolls require fuel (attention) in order to complete their mission. That's why you're always told to ignore them. They choose sites like this because they're easy. If you don't interact with them, or feed them, they will go away, simple. Seems nobody these days is able to ignore things, or shrug them off, which is where we get into these situations in the first place. Don't give them an inch, because that's all they need.

It's interesting how half the times that a troll comes on, there are no moderators online, at least from what I hear. It's a lose/lose though, because moderators can't be on 24/7, so when someone less desirable comes on, the moderators get blamed for "not doing anything" and the members fail to do anything other then try and shoo it off. And if we're there, we get chastised just because we're moderators. Oh well, can't please everything.

Having a functional mod team is too much to ask?

I am under the impression that a mod team is generally chosen by considering many things. And I thought one of those things was to have a diversified group of people that can cover 24/7. So the "we can't cover 24/7" thing shouldn't be an issue. It's not necessarily your fault, in fact hardly at all. It's the fault of whoever recruited the mods in the first place.

Members try to "shoo it off"....Isn't that what you just said you wanted us to do? Ignore/shoo it away? I fail to grasp your point there. But what can we do? Ultimately? Nothing. Actions to take are up to the mods and not us. That was a bad card to pull on the members, Alpine.

I guess I see people saying "go away!" and snapping back at the trolls as not ignoring it, and egging it to proceed with it's actions. I know this sounds old and overspoken, but if they report the troll, and ignore it, when a moderator does in fact get on, they can ban the troll, and it's a done deal.

I think Alpine has pretty much said what I wanted to say.

But I have something to add: If the troll is on the shoutbox, just have many people report him - I can guarantee he will go away (but that's as much as I can say >_>).

And we'll also be able to deal with it in a proper manner later.

As for 24/7 moderation: this would have been possible if this was a commercial website, which we would have been payed to moderate. That just isn't the case, and I think I speak for all of us when I say we have to prioritize real life matters above BaltoSource (moderation is a "spare-time" activity, so to say - even though we try to be online as often as possible).


However, if we had some Australian moderators, we would be able to cover BaltoSource on a 21/7 schedule (if every moderator is online two hours a day in succession), leaving only 3 hours of inactivity, mod-wise.

Most trolls who come to BaltoSource are former members of the website, that knows our non-existent "working schedules" - people that know when the moderators are least likely to be online (like our infamous Lumin).
There is little we can do about that, other than having the website return a 404 error unless a Moderator is online - or force a login request before the website is opened, that only works when a moderator is online. And I believe this solution would be highly inefficient.

I have to agree with Alpine and Wolflux on this issue. They have said what I wanted to say so that means I have nothing more to add, at least nothing intelligent and for good reason that could help this topic.

Alpine, Wolflux, thank you both for putting what probably would've been my words and making them your own.

*bows head* Gentlemen... Other members... *departs*

I agree with Luxy's post and pretty much all of Alpine's but another problem is the fact only a few members on the site are actually capable of being able to tell a troll from just someone causing a problem. (CoughJonasBrothersFightsCough).

Mods in other countries are needed or ones who can get online at times different to the current ones at least.
Members who actually use the report system properly are needed instead of sitting in the shoutbox complaining that "The reports never do anything and the mods don't do their jobs!".

Aaaand lastly people have really got to learn to let things go a bit more. >_> I know most will immediately say "We would if things were dealt with quicker!" but so many times I've just arrived on BaltoSource, looked at the shoutbox and seen several people all fighting, lo and behold, when I check back at the previous messages it all started when just one person made a mistake or disagreed with an opinion and then up to 5 members (!!) all posted at once saying "Don't do that! It's against the rules!".
Of course any mod appreciates members helping each other out so they don't get in trouble but it gets to the point where it's not helping each other out, it's several members almost attacking someone for it, when said person gets upset or annoyed that loads of people have just told them not to do something it starts a fight and in the end a few people end up getting a warning or being banned when no one really should have been.