Idea to minimise impact of troll threads

[MummyAbroad]

I have reported a couple of threads recently that have been the equivalent of a heavy breather phone calls, just a string of swear words and porn and because they were put on late at night, they didnt get deleted until the next day (although in my time zone it was MN tea time)

So, instead of having to look at these 'orrible threads for ages, I was wondering if you could implement something that would make reported threads disappear from active convo's - sort of the opposite of a bump, so that its priority in the list gets set to very low and it disappears from page 1 of the list of threads. Of course it could be re-set if it is not deemed to be a serious infraction, but i am guessing that most MNers use the report feature responsibly, and therefore most reported threads are dealt with by being deleted.

Could it work?

Can you not hide the thread once you've reported it so that you don't need to carry on looking at it?

Hi there,

Thanks for this. We are working on a fix for the overnight (UK time) troll problem - apologies to everyone who's been affected.

MNHQ

Not bumping troll threads is sensible.

It's the opposite of troll-hinting.

actually, seeing what you've written themarriageplot, makes perfect sense.

rather than getting involved in bumping and feeding troll threads, we should concentrate on posting on everything else to move it down the active convos board....

Of course, for some it's a lot less fun.

Also, as long as you have plenty of trolls on the site, you also have a need for self-righteous policing of the site.

chimmar, "rather than getting involved in bumping and feeding troll threads, we should concentrate on posting on everything else to move it down the active convos board...."

it was this that actually inspired me, there was one recently that was so gross that I actually contemplated commenting on every active thread except that one in order to bump it down the page!

Fissplaps Of course I could have hidden it, but I was thinking more of other people having to be exposed to it too (it was in pregnancy and talked about fetuses dying, really gross)

I think MNHQ are great at getting rid of these really offensive ones pronto, in the day time, but overnight they do sit there for a bit too long.

Does MN only have people that can investigate/delete threads in the UK?

It would make sense to have people available to deal with these threads during these hours.

You could always bump the other threads by quickly posting a full stop, MummyAbroad. Lots of people do a quick bump that way.

.

I suppose people might think you were nuisance bumping (ie for some weird reason of your own) though, unless you explained.

Anyway, sounds like it's in hand at HQ.

MummyAbroad the only issue I see with your suggestion is that anyone could then report any thread they find offensive (even when it isn't offensive to the majority, eg someone asks for genuine advice on abortion or divorce and someone takes it upon themselves to report it because it clashes with their beliefs, or they are a troll themselves) which then means genuine threads are stuck in the ether until HQ get to look at them.

HQ have mentioned previously that they do have international people for non-UK times but I don't know how many or where they are.

TSSDNCOP after all.

I know it will never happen, but malicious trolling would probably stop or be greatly reduced if we all had to register a debit or credit card as part of the signing up process. MN don't take any money or anything, but it is verified and is a way of ascertaining identity.

I wonder if they knew that the site had their name and address etc, it would stop some of the freaks signing up to be weird at us.

I also think that the fact we can have as many usernames as we want does encourage those with the propensity to be spiteful to indulge that. They are regulars on the board under their 'real' name but namechange to be utter utter bastards. That's a problem that won't go away as long as we can namechange willy nilly.

I think MNHQ should name and shame malicious namechangers. I would, if it was my site. Fuck 'em. If you've namechanged to be a bitch or upset people, then namechange back to be all pally with the very people you've set out to upset - why the hot holy fuck should you be protected?

I know plenty of message boards that you have to register a credit card to use that have troll problems.

I do agree about name changing and have said so previously.