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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 28 2021, @03:54PM (41 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 28 2021, @03:54PM (#1139679)

    was rDT ejected, always took it to gettng bored with the presona. or did SN really start censoring so long before FB and the rest?

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 29 2021, @12:28PM (36 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 29 2021, @12:28PM (#1140005)

    He was actively posting and then abruptly stopped. Word at the time was that he was "exposed as a sock puppeteer" but TMB would throw those accusations around liberally.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by martyb on Friday June 04 2021, @01:18PM (32 children)

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 04 2021, @01:18PM (#1141752) Journal

      What happened to realDonaldTrump.

      tl;dr: The community moderated his comments.

      He enjoyed an initial upswing in popularity (I'd seen several references to his posts as being a parody — good for a laugh — and I saw many "+1 Funny" moderations by the community.

      As time went on, the account was less favorably viewed by the community. I started to see fewer upmods and started seeing more downmods; "-1 Offtopic" and "-1 Troll" became more common.

      The moderations affected his karma (as they do for all logged-in users. His karma eventually dropped low enough that he lost the ability to post comments. (That's part of the design of our moderation system.) Actions have consequences. Nobody on staff put a anything like a "block" or "ban" on the account.

      The community spoke.

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.
      • (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 04 2021, @04:54PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 04 2021, @04:54PM (#1141832)

        I thought the rDT persona was interesting, but it had limited long-term potential in this room. Like Paulie Shore or Emo Phillips (or Whoopi Goldberg). Ultimately, though, it wasn't the rDT performance - often positive and refreshing - it was the moderation. "less favorably viewed" means to eliminate threats. Encourage what you want, and drive away what you don't.

        America sucks: +3 Insightful
        MAGA: banned for life

        I sincerely tried to lighten and maybe enlighten this room, and find relief my long, stressful days; fortunately, much of my work (and personally-identifying info) was lost last month in the fire.

        Non-sequitur trolling, humorless anger, and driving-away other viewpoints are your fate. For me, the party's over, my friend.

      • (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 04 2021, @05:07PM (22 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 04 2021, @05:07PM (#1141835)

        Arguably EF was more offensive, but posted for much longer - Question: He hasn't posted since April, have you banned him?
        rDT attracted downmods for his political statements, even though they were satire, as Hemocyanin's project has drawn attention to. Question: Has the green site banned users from voicing opinions that a brigade doesn't like?

        This poll has been up for a week, and this may have been the first reply by staff to the concerns people have brought up. It has been more disconcerting than I would have expected. No effort to assuage concerns, plus I learn that a mob can cancel even a logged in account.

        I have the technical skills, but hell no.

        Shouldn't have run your skilled admin TMB off.

        • (Score: 2) by martyb on Saturday June 05 2021, @01:12AM (21 children)

          by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Saturday June 05 2021, @01:12AM (#1141932) Journal

          Arguably EF was more offensive, but posted for much longer - Question: He hasn't posted since April, have you banned him?

          Same thing happened to EF as what happened to rDT... in this case his "offensive" posting (as you called it) caught up with him. He received enough downmods that it caused his karma to drop below a level where he could post comments.

          This poll has been up for a week, and this may have been the first reply by staff to the concerns people have brought up. It has been more disconcerting than I would have expected. No effort to assuage concerns, plus I learn that a mob can cancel even a logged in account.

          Several factors at work here. First, staff learned of TMB's departure when he posted it to his journal. Much scrambling ensued. And continues. There was much that was done over the past few years that was not documented. We've been discovering things, and documenting them, as we go. Each of us has taken on a part of TMB's former activities on top of what we had already done before. We also have a couple staff members who are on a leave-of-absence for personal reasons.

          So, today was the first day that I noticed this poll was here and I am making some time to respond to it.

          Let me take this opportunity to extend my personal thanks and amazement at the selfless extra efforts that staff has made during this period! The attitude has been all about "what can I do to help?" I count myself privileged to be a part of this organization. I've never before worked with such a selfless and talented group!

          That said, I need to step away from this discussion -- our pending story queue is running dry.

          --
          Wit is intellect, dancing.
          • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @03:15AM (15 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @03:15AM (#1141952)

            Same thing happened to EF as what happened to rDT... in this case his "offensive" posting (as you called it) caught up with him. He received enough downmods that it caused his karma to drop below a level where he could post comments.

            They both posted at similar rates, yet EF somehow kept clear of being cancelled for two years longer than rDT? How curious.

            It's apparent there was some sort of coup behind the scenes here, around the time Ncommander showed his self around. It doesn't look like anyone has ended up vocally pledging loyalty to him, but suddenly there was talk of "enforced niceness", Hemo and TMB left and erased their journals, and EF was cancelled.

            Fuck beta and all that, but how is the Green Site nowadays? As for me, it looks like I'll go perusing the Register more often. They have more stories and their comments have a fair share of dissenting opinions.

            • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @04:04AM (14 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @04:04AM (#1141959)

              Karma bans are temporary. EF can come back whenever he wants. rDT probably got bored of playing the character.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @05:03AM (11 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @05:03AM (#1141965)

                Even if rDT were allowed back, nobody with any energy and talent likes playing to empty seats.

                • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @10:04PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @10:04PM (#1146147)

                  rDT the talented? Ha! More like people realized it wasn't a parody at all and just another user driving a rightwing agenda in a joking manner. Republicans beat troll humor into the ground and are busy skull fucking the corpse at this point. Actually, they switched from trolling into straight up psychopath behavior and are currently trying to generate support for a military coup.

                  That shit ain't funny.

                • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday June 17 2021, @03:19PM (9 children)

                  by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 17 2021, @03:19PM (#1146520) Journal

                  Even if rDT were allowed back

                  He is free to return, there is no ban issued by SN. His karma went below the level that permitted him to post, thus he became silent. That was a result of community moderation. However, his karma has long ago returned to its default level and, if he wishes, he can resume posting again.

                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 18 2021, @03:54PM (8 children)

                    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 18 2021, @03:54PM (#1146990)

                    That's like Captain Edward John Smith saying, "All is forgiven. Come on back aboard, we miss you!"

                    • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday June 18 2021, @08:17PM (7 children)

                      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 18 2021, @08:17PM (#1147116) Journal

                      Except we are not sinking, personally I don't wish to see that persona back, and it is the community that moderated him into silence, not us.

                      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22 2021, @05:47AM (6 children)

                        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22 2021, @05:47AM (#1147943)

                        With bulkheads made of Perl. As the bo'sun orders you to take on ballast, and the first mate jettisons the lifeboats. And yet you blame it on the sharks.

                        • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday June 22 2021, @07:06AM (5 children)

                          by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 22 2021, @07:06AM (#1147948) Journal

                          Nobody orders anybody here to do anything. We are all volunteers and we each get on with our own role. You have a very distorted and inaccurate view of how this site is managed and how we all function. Politics or personal vendettas do not exist. Views expressed in comments however are personal views and we each have a right to comment as does every other member of this community.

                          The only reason that I can see to explain why rDT stopped posting was because his karma was moderated down below a certain threshold - I think -5. It returned within a very short period of time, and had he chosen to do so he could have continued to post comments.

                          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22 2021, @04:21PM (4 children)

                            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22 2021, @04:21PM (#1148064)

                            You seem to take a very narrow view of the analogy. rDT is just a symptom, not some charismatic martyr. Review earlier posts. You can see the true theme here, again and again. And again. We are abandoning a sinking ship because...

                            • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday June 22 2021, @05:04PM (3 children)

                              by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 22 2021, @05:04PM (#1148076) Journal
                              OK, bye.
                              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22 2021, @05:32PM (2 children)

                                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22 2021, @05:32PM (#1148082)

                                Okay, fine.

                                Somebody else must have figured something was awry. Otherwise, why did they start this poll about "Why Don't You Want Anything To Do With Us?"

                                • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday June 23 2021, @05:01AM (1 child)

                                  by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 23 2021, @05:01AM (#1148276) Journal

                                  You have made your decision to 'abandon ship' based upon erroneous information. What does it matter which language the site is written in? It makes no difference to how you interact with it. You seem to think that there is some sort of evil cabal overseeing this site plotting against certain community members - which is simply untrue. I have tried to correct this misconception but you have still decided to go. If you distrust us that much then I can only wish you luck in finding a community that you can join and enjoy being a part of.

                                  The site depends upon Rehash - our fork of the original Slash code written in Perl. It has been proven to be robust and more than capable of supporting a community several magnitudes larger than our current one. A decade or more ago Slashdot was famous for remain operational despite several attempts to bring it to its knees by Denial of Service attacks. The same cannot be said of the vast majority of modern frameworks. Rehash depends upon an old version of Apache. Work has been continuing on converting it to work with a modern and fully-supported version of Apache but this work was invisible to the community and, for the time being, has come to a stop. However what we currently have is working fine - the problems experienced over the last few years have all been systems problems and nothing at all to do with the Perl code. If it ain't broke - don't fix it.

                                  The the poll was run because we are always trying to recruit more staff. We have a very small editorial team, there are currently only 2 active sys-admins which is insufficient for 24 hour coverage and the amount of remedial work that a restructuring will require, and the last active developer for our software has just left the team with no warning. The software is fine but, currently, we are unable to make any enhancements or other changes. The problems have all been exacerbated by the arrival of COVID which has left many in our community struggling in their private lives and jobs with little time for giving support to the site. The poll, which was suggested by a member of the community - not a member of the site staff - is an attempt to discover if there are any other reasons why people are reluctant to join the team.

                                  There is also a frustration amongst the current team that many in our community are not here to discuss the stories that are published, but are using the site to push their own political or social views or simply to troll other members of our community. They seem to think that it is acceptable to attack the speaker rather than debate the views that are being expressed. We are not unique in this regard - social media of all kinds is battling with exactly the same problems amid much publicity. We are constantly looking for solutions to this problem and we discuss various options from time to time. None have yet been implemented and none will be without consultation with the whole community. None of the possible solutions discussed will please every member of our community and none discussed so far will address every aspect so we have not introduced them. But the fact that we are looking at the problem is not something that the community should interpret as an attack upon themselves.

                                  Good luck wherever you find yourself a home.

              • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @09:02AM (1 child)

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @09:02AM (#1141996)

                Parody eventually gave way to the strangeness of truth. By the time they could post again, there was no challenging what is true, for truth is always strange but fiction has to make sense.

                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @04:15PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @04:15PM (#1142066)

                  Should've started using realDrFauci last year, 'cause it's starting to lose its humour, now.

          • (Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Tuesday June 08 2021, @07:55AM (3 children)

            by shrewdsheep (5215) on Tuesday June 08 2021, @07:55AM (#1143059)

            Same thing happened to EF as what happened to rDT... in this case his "offensive" posting (as you called it) caught up with him. He received enough downmods that it caused his karma to drop below a level where he could post comments.

            Maybe that is a bad thing. If one wants to be offensive one can always go AC. I can block a user (can I?) but I cannot block AC. Will users with low karma first start at -1? This would seem sensible to me: do not ban but start posts at -1. With 10 mod points per day it seems that by using a couple accounts a given user can be banned in a few or even on a single day. BTW 10 mod points per day is to much IMO, bring it down to 7.

            • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DECbot on Tuesday June 08 2021, @03:26PM

              by DECbot (832) on Tuesday June 08 2021, @03:26PM (#1143161) Journal

              It started as 5 points, but moderation was very sparse. TMB was the one who poked that the code to first make 5 points an automatic thing instead of random chance and then bumping up the point level to 10 to encourage more moderation. I agree that the original point scheme from slashcode doesn't work for a smaller community like SN. Perhaps the better solution was bumping up the chance you are awarded mod points to a number between the $orig_chance and the current 100% chance we enjoy now? That way you're more likely to receive points than what the original slashcode dolled out thus returning moderation into a reward for good karma and limiting users with sock puppets to a smaller pool of points to modbomb posts. Of course the way to defeat that is to just have more sock puppet accounts to increase your odds of getting an account with mod points that day--but with a vast quantity of puppet accounts to guarantee a daily pool of points, signs of abuse would be flagrant in the IP logs. Though take my recommendations with a grain of salt, I'm not staff and I haven't actually looked at the code. This is just what I recall from previous conversations about the topic.

              --
              cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @07:47PM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @07:47PM (#1143258)

              BTW 10 mod points per day is to much IMO, bring it down to 7.

              Especially if those points are used to punish your enemies.

              It depends on what your definition of "offensive" is.

              We've seen so many times here what the definition of "enemies" is.

              • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:19PM

                by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:19PM (#1147987) Journal

                Especially if those points are used to punish your enemies.

                We needz 15 pointz, precious. (grin)

                --
                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:12PM

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:12PM (#1147986) Journal

            He received enough downmods that it caused his karma to drop below a level where he could post comments.

            No redemption for the sinners, even if they were to repent, eh? (not that I imagine EF would)

            --
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday June 11 2021, @12:17PM (3 children)

        by PiMuNu (3823) on Friday June 11 2021, @12:17PM (#1144226)

        I didn't realise that you could lose the ability to post comments. Personally, I would prefer that to not happen - maybe lose the freebie +2 mod points you get for logging in. I don't see that banning comments helps, as anyone can come in as AC, it just means we lose the ability to track unpopular people. I don't mind reading the slander fest that is FaceF?ck - it's just their style, and I appreciate knowing who posted so I can take that into account. Probably doesn't win them many mod points though.

        Nb: I thought RDT was an insightful poster right to the end. For some he is MAGA. For others he is satire. For others still he is just a jerk. Same as the real realDonaldTrump. That was the whole point, I thought. Moot point (for now) as the *real* realDonaldTrump has got the kick for now.

        Nb2: Reminds me of Starship Troopers (the movie). For some it is MAGA. For some it is satire. For some it is just a movie. I appreciate the trichotomy, especially given the historical context of the Iraq Wars.

        • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday June 14 2021, @02:18PM (2 children)

          by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 14 2021, @02:18PM (#1145063)

          Following that thought, what happens when a bad poster's karma goes so far down that they can't post comments?

          What can they still do, as a logged-in user? Can they reform their character and raise their karma back to the point where they can post useful comments again?

          • (Score: 3, Informative) by PiMuNu on Monday June 14 2021, @05:27PM (1 child)

            by PiMuNu (3823) on Monday June 14 2021, @05:27PM (#1145127)

            Some other post said the bad karma disappears after a few days.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @05:49PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @05:49PM (#1145602)

              Aren't there any Rules of Engagement? It's no wonder people go off shooting in all directions. And all the foot injuries.

      • (Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Friday June 18 2021, @12:17PM (3 children)

        by shrewdsheep (5215) on Friday June 18 2021, @12:17PM (#1146918)

        The community spoke

        That is very debatable at least. Mods (up or down) would only reflect the community if individuals were chosen at random (maybe weighted by their activeness) and would deliver a mod. This assumes that fake accounts do not exist. By contrast, few active modders (potentially using several accounts) dominate the modding landscape. Again, I advocate for limiting the number of mod points.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 19 2021, @06:25AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 19 2021, @06:25AM (#1147246)

          But I thought the only solution to bad speech is more speech.

        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:23PM (1 child)

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:23PM (#1147990) Journal

          By contrast, few active modders (potentially using several accounts) dominate the modding landscape.

          [Citation needed] No, seriously, that's quite an accusation, proof would be in order.

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
          • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday June 23 2021, @11:12PM

            by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday June 23 2021, @11:12PM (#1148510) Journal

            Shrewdsheep is clearly a sockpuppet account of a conservative on staff, probably chromas. In fact, maybe all SN accounts are sockpuppets. Everywhere I look, there is sockpuppetry, and injurious downmodding and mod-banning! So in the village where the barber shaves everyone, who is the sockpuppet puppeting the sockpuppets?

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Saturday June 05 2021, @08:59AM (2 children)

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Saturday June 05 2021, @08:59AM (#1141994) Homepage
      He had ~5 clearly-defined and radically different personae, but rarely kept more than 3 active at any one time. For a while some were used just for self-upmodding, which of course is a Bad Thing(TM) - so we had way more justification to remove rights (such as AC posting) than were ever exercised. In fact, I don't recall even mod bans being placed on him, as he prosumably realised we were onto his game, and curbed that behaviour naturally. He's still active, just doesn't have such a characterful character presently. Looking forward to Sleepy Joe 2.net's comments in the future.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @04:19PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @04:19PM (#1142067)

        Which is less healthy, vanity up-modding oneself, or ganging together to drive-out opposing viewpoints?

        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday June 11 2021, @11:12AM

          by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Friday June 11 2021, @11:12AM (#1144214) Homepage
          Totally personal opinion - I find both to be pretty equally cowardly.
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Sunday May 30 2021, @04:43PM (1 child)

    by Magic Oddball (3847) on Sunday May 30 2021, @04:43PM (#1140275) Journal

    TMB confirmed in the comments of his good-bye post that both RDT had been a satirical account by one of the regulars that I haven't seen on site in quite a while. The same person was (according to TMB) originally the creator of Azuma 2.0 but then lost control of the account to someone else.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 20 2021, @06:28PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 20 2021, @06:28PM (#1147534)

      It's hard to make parody of someone who long ago descended into self-parody. It was funny in 2016 and maybe for the first couple of months of 2017.

      Azuma 2.0 is horrible. It's one thing to parody a public figure, another to parody a community member, even one who's a troll. (And she's not even as bad as her gang of haters, EF, or any of the other troll accounts).

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @02:46PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @02:46PM (#1142048)

    Question is why haven't r3alB1d3n appeared yet?

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:26PM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:26PM (#1147991) Journal

      He's still sleepy, I reckon.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford