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posted by on Friday August 25 2017, @11:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the we're-really-big-time-now dept.

Welcome, new trolls! We're pleased as punch to have you aboard, unfortunately as you may have noticed our moderators are unable to give you the moderations you've been working so hard for. Since we can't really do much about people not moderating more, we're going to be giving out more points so that the ones that do can give you the attention you so desperately crave.

Moderators: Starting a little after midnight UTC tonight, everyone will be getting ten points a day instead of five. The threshold for a mod-bomb, however, is going to remain at five. This change is not so you can pursue an agenda against registered users more effectively but so we can collectively handle the rather large uptick in anonymous trolling recently while still being able to have points remaining for upmodding quality comments. This is not an invitation to go wild downmodding; it's helping you to be able to stick to the "concentrate more on upmodding than downmodding" bit of the guidelines.

Also, this is not a heavily thought-out or permanent change. It is a quick, dirty adjustment that will be reviewed, tweaked, and likely changed before year's end. Questions? Comments?

Related Stories

Mea Culpa! Corrections and Clarifications on Moderation [Updated] 97 comments

[Updated 20190129_204134 UTC. Added background on prior restrictions with respect to commenting and moderating in the same story discussion. Added background and link to explain the number of mod points going from 5 to 10. Clarified example of what happens when someone tries to perform more mods than they have mod points. --martyb]

I had some information incorrect in my prior story SoylentNews, Moderations, and You.

But, before I go into that I just want to say how impressed I am at the community's participation and discussion regarding the site. From that I see how much people value what we have here and do not want to see anything happen that would potentially degrade it. I saw a lot of passion expressed and it makes me all the more proud to be a part of what makes it happen.

I see my misunderstandings caused unnecessary anxiety in the community and for that I humbly apologize. I've learned to ask for feedback and verification before putting out a site-related story in the future (including this one!)

It was intended as a solicitation of feedback from the community. As in previous site upgrades we will put out a proposal, accept feedback, and if deemed warranted, give it a try. None of this is permanent; if it doesn't work out, it can be tweaked or rolled back.

Read on beyond the fold for corrections, history, and an expanded explanation of the current thinking.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday August 25 2017, @11:38PM (39 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday August 25 2017, @11:38PM (#559153)

    How much pain would it be to have separate pools for modding ACs vs registered users?

    • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @11:53PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @11:53PM (#559161)

      I am registered but almost 99% of the time post AC. Sorry people are dicks and like to dox you. You never know what will set them off... So sorry if that makes you mad but I am going to protect myself.

      I try to mod fairly. I regularly mark things OT that I may even agree with. If you are not contributing to the convo. Then I mark it. Also a reminder to other mods. Also Troll != disagree. There are a couple of accounts that tend to pick up troll from me. They are obvious troll accounts meant to just piss people off. They are almost always offtopic or try to make the topic about something they hate/love.

      I did not mod you on this one bob_super, but I would however mark it disagree.

      The slashdot system of modding has a bad problem with more points in the pool. Stuff will either go -1 or +5 and stay there. I have seen many comments that are a 3 maybe a 4. That are +5 or -1. It is a poor side effect of the system. There is no clean way to fix it. Not everything is OMZG AMAZEBALLS or DIE DIE DIE IN FIRE YOU BASTARD. Yet this system produces it. Also being logged in and adding +1 to a comment produces over inflated items. So other mods look at the current score and decide. Adding more points will basically degenerate the sd system of modding into thumbs up and down.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:12AM (4 children)

        by bob_super (1357) on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:12AM (#559174)

        I am not sure you are correctly answering my question, which was genuinely the technical difficulty of having mod points separated between AC and registered users. I mod ACs up a lot more than I mod them down (mostly because very efficient people do take care of the trolls quickly), and outside of rare odd cases, I am not complaining about mods I receive.
        I have left obvious trolls unmodded in the past, because I wanted to keep points to reward those very good comments which keep me coming. Having a separate pool to reward ACs or punish AC trolls could potentially avoid that effect, when giving everyone ten "universal" points risks a +5 overdose...

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:30AM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:30AM (#559181)

          I just disagree. Like I said. I think more points will make the problem worse. -1/+5 is what will happen no matter what. More points just shows the issue more. 'special points' do not do any good other than let people over-inflate a particular segment.

          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @06:21PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @06:21PM (#559520)

            As I see the moderation system here get more and more complex, the more I think it should just be thrown out completely.

            It's like a balance is trying to be found for something that cannot be balanced.

            Each supposed ``fix'' introduces new problems and new incentives for unwanted behavior.

            So throw it all away. Throw away comment ratings. Throw away mod points.

            Show all comments by default, regardless of who they're posted by.

            If you like a comment, then reply and say why.

            If you don't like a comment, then reply and say why.

            If you don't want to read a comment, then skip over it.

            I always have to browse at -1 anyway, so I can see the best comments here.

            The ``quality comments'' that have been modded up are usually bland and state the obvious, or worse, they push some circle-jerk line of thinking.

            The most intelligent, insightful and thought-provoking comments are often at 0 or -1.

            Having to browse at -1 just to see the best content means that the moderation system has utterly failed. So get rid of it. Discard it.

            The moderation system here serves no beneficial purpose, and is actually quite harmful. It should be removed immediately.

            • (Score: 2) by Justin Case on Saturday August 26 2017, @07:04PM

              by Justin Case (4239) on Saturday August 26 2017, @07:04PM (#559534) Journal

              Damn! I'd love to mod you up, not because I agree, but because you raise some thought provoking ideas I haven't seen so well supported before, so I'd like others to consider them too.

              But...

            • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday August 27 2017, @12:36AM

              by Reziac (2489) on Sunday August 27 2017, @12:36AM (#559652) Homepage

              While I largely disagree, you raise an interesting point: we all disagree on what's interesting or thought-provoking, sometimes vehemently. I've rescue-modded enough comments from -1 hell to know that it doesn't mean "positively is shit and needs to vanish" -- at least in my opinion. Yours? that's why we have discussions and don't just repeat everything here by rote.

              --
              And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday August 25 2017, @11:56PM (15 children)

      Pretty significant one. And one that I can't tackle any time soon anyway what with constant back pain keeping me from coding right now and a paying gig coming up next week or so that I'll have to code through regardless. Try and keep it to an average of 20% or so downmods to total mods and you won't even get a frown out of me. Not that it's something that's regularly checked; we allow worse moderation ratios, we just don't like them.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:50AM (4 children)

        by Non Sequor (1005) on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:50AM (#559201) Journal

        Ok, so why not more modpoints, but the cost of modding varies with the direction and status of the target? Logged in vs anonymous and curent score maybe.

        --
        Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
        • (Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 26 2017, @01:56AM (2 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 26 2017, @01:56AM (#559222) Homepage Journal

          Simplicity first, complexity if that doesn't work out. It's a happy little rule.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Monday August 28 2017, @07:47AM (1 child)

            by FakeBeldin (3360) on Monday August 28 2017, @07:47AM (#560091) Journal

            Funny, my thoughts after reading a few comments went exactly like this.
            - Problem is trolls? Well then don't give everyone more, just give everyone more options to beat trolls down.
            - We like promoting ACs, but worry about promoting everything to +5? Make it "for free" to promote a comment (AC, or maybe all) from 0 to +1.
            - Oh, we want to avoid having everything at +5? We could make it progressively "more expensive" to promote comments further up.

            Yeah, all of it is possible. All it requires is TMB hacking a lot. For which we only pay him in more comments.

            As a comment above pointed out:
            Is the point of the moderation system sufficiently satisfied by the current version of the moderation system?
            Clearly, in the eyes of (at least) TMB: nope, so let's try a simple fix.
            Downside I see to the simple fix is that it'll cause a lot more upmods then downmods, while the problem was insufficient downmods.

            I don't see a simple solution to that without changing the community. You could get some folks as designated downmodders or some such. But yeah, that changes the dynamics and then you have police running around the forums... :s.

            • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 28 2017, @10:06AM

              Actually, the problem this was meant to address wasn't insufficient downmods. I stated that poorly. It was meant to allow people to keep a good upmod to downmod ratio while still addressing the called-for downmods. Which is to say, don't take that as meaning I don't think we can use the additional upmods as well. Not on all stories by any means but on the heavily commented ones we could definitely use more upmodding.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 26 2017, @01:57AM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 26 2017, @01:57AM (#559224) Homepage Journal

          Not shouting you down, mind you. Just saying let's see if we can fix it without big changes before we go getting funky with the Cheeze-Whiz.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by Kell on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:17AM (3 children)

        by Kell (292) on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:17AM (#559231)

        Sorry to hear you're having back pain problems, Buzzard. Best wishes to a speedy recovery!

        --
        Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:22AM (2 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:22AM (#559236) Homepage Journal

          Cheers. It's just a pulled muscle but it's a back muscle and those do tend to cause way more annoyance than anywhere else.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 2) by Kell on Saturday August 26 2017, @04:20AM (1 child)

            by Kell (292) on Saturday August 26 2017, @04:20AM (#559279)

            Glad to hear it's nothing permanent/crippling. Speedy recovery!

            --
            Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
            • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @06:47AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @06:47AM (#559325)

              Uzzard injured his back while trying to suck his own cock; therefore, he deserves to be permanently crippled for attempting such an immoral act.

      • (Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:44AM (2 children)

        by Arik (4543) on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:44AM (#559271) Journal
        "Try and keep it to an average of 20% or so downmods to total mods and you won't even get a frown out of me. Not that it's something that's regularly checked; we allow worse moderation ratios, we just don't like them."

        As I would prefer to avoid being disliked, it would be hella cool if I could actually see my moderation ratio, on whatever time-frame and terms of reference y'all look at them. Because I have little idea what my ratio would look like. I am pretty sure I mod up more than down, but is it 1%? or 30%? *shrugs* no clue. I spend those points on impulse. Generally trying to up-vote if I think something is legit insightful or informative and down-vote if I think something is a troll/flamebait AND rated too high already. I'm sure some days I do a LOT more down-voting than others though. When you look at it, are you looking at a daily score, a weekly/monthly/yearly average or what?
        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by lx on Saturday August 26 2017, @06:29AM

          by lx (1915) on Saturday August 26 2017, @06:29AM (#559320)

          This way it's better. IMO modding should be done on the merits of the comment, not on the basis of moderator point scoring. Modding is about promoting healthy discussion not about you or me being liked/disliked. If that means wacking trolls all day and getting a lower mod score, so be it.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:10AM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:10AM (#559373) Homepage Journal

          Last I looked at it, it was a since-go-live tally. Don't worry about a day to day or month to month ratio. Not all days and months are created equal. The smallest unit of time worth considering is probably six months or a year's span.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday August 26 2017, @04:09AM

        by RS3 (6367) on Saturday August 26 2017, @04:09AM (#559277)

        Oh man, sorry to hear about your back pain. I've had problems with it; used to take and swear by various glucosamine supplements (esp. "Cosamin"), but stopped a few months ago. Back started hurting a lot, but now pain has gone away.

        I find it's mostly sitting positions that cause the problem. If I sit such that my lower back curves outward, very very bad for many days. If I'm sure to keep it pulled in, I'm good.

        And moderate exercise and activity seems to help. Most of the work I do is fairly physical but doesn't seem to hurt the back, unless I do something really stupid like try to pick up something crazy heavy. A few 80 lb bags of concrete mix don't seem to be a problem (that work is very rare) as long as I'm generally in good shape.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @08:49AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @08:49AM (#559747)

        Can you assign modpoints and downmodpoints, such that they can be used only according to their direction?

    • (Score: 3, Disagree) by Snotnose on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:02AM (13 children)

      by Snotnose (1623) on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:02AM (#559168)

      I don't mod AC's anywhere but down. If you can't stick your name on your droppings I'm not gonna bother.

      --
      Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
      • (Score: 4, Informative) by Gaaark on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:32AM (6 children)

        by Gaaark (41) on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:32AM (#559184) Journal

        I don't usually mod AC's either, but if one posts something funny or interesting, I'll grant them an up mod. You have to realize that some members just like being anon.

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
        • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:23AM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:23AM (#559238)

          You have to realize that some members just like being anon.

          If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide.

          • (Score: 3, Touché) by Gaaark on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:13PM (1 child)

            by Gaaark (41) on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:13PM (#559410) Journal

            Tell that to the Jews in Nazi Germany, 1938ish, who were told to report to police stations to be identified as Jews.

            Oh...you can't. They're dead.

            --
            --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
            • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @07:51PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @07:51PM (#559557)

              whoooooooooooooooshhhhhhhhhhh
              .
              .
              .
              .
              . ---> You.

        • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Reziac on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:24AM (2 children)

          by Reziac (2489) on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:24AM (#559259) Homepage

          I usually don't notice who the poster is til after I've already decided to mod it, so makes no diff to me if it's an AC or whoever.

          --
          And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
          • (Score: 2) by Kell on Saturday August 26 2017, @04:27AM (1 child)

            by Kell (292) on Saturday August 26 2017, @04:27AM (#559280)

            Ditto - moderate the comment, not the commenter. But given that the vast majority of shit comments come from ACs, there is reason to consider "open season" on moderating ACs

            --
            Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
            • (Score: 3, Touché) by Reziac on Saturday August 26 2017, @04:47AM

              by Reziac (2489) on Saturday August 26 2017, @04:47AM (#559292) Homepage

              Oh, I dunno... I often find I've modded up an AC. And I can think of a dozen folks here who shitpost under a regular nym.

              --
              And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:13AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:13AM (#559256)

        My ac posts are the same as my logged in posts

      • (Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:33AM

        by Arik (4543) on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:33AM (#559262) Journal
        About the only time I bother to down-mod an AC is when their comment was inappropriately up-modded before I got to it.
        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Saturday August 26 2017, @08:02AM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday August 26 2017, @08:02AM (#559339) Journal

        You are doing the readers of this site a disservice. Moderation is not done for the posters, but for the readers. If you don't want to read AC posts, you can just go to your settings and give ACs a negative score there. That way you are not affecting other readers who want to read comments based on their quality, not based on their authorship.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @01:27PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @01:27PM (#559424)

        I don't mod AC's anywhere but down.

        That's a direct admission of intentional abuse of the moderation system.

        This "Snotnose" account, and any other associated accounts or IP addresses, should be permanently banned from moderating here.

      • (Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Monday August 28 2017, @07:51AM (1 child)

        by FakeBeldin (3360) on Monday August 28 2017, @07:51AM (#560092) Journal

        I don't mod AC's anywhere but up. If I think it's worth reading, I'll mod it up so it gets more eyeballs.

        Downmodding AC's is kind of pointless - either they are at 0 where the only folks who get to see them are the folks who choose to do so (so why interfere), or they are upmodded, in which case other moderators already found the comment worthy of more attention.

        • (Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Monday August 28 2017, @08:02AM

          by FakeBeldin (3360) on Monday August 28 2017, @08:02AM (#560096) Journal

          PS: If you were trolling: congrats! Bait widely taken by many, including me!

    • (Score: 2) by bart9h on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:58AM (2 children)

      by bart9h (767) on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:58AM (#559253)

      Or maybe downmodding ACs don't cost you modpoints?

      • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday August 26 2017, @08:04AM (1 child)

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday August 26 2017, @08:04AM (#559340) Journal

        That would just provoke bad behaviour.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @09:00AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @09:00AM (#559750)

          I can live with that. Downmoding is not erasing/censoring, although it can push a post into an unfitting company. For someone like me who always post as an AC and always reads at -1, it means that I, and whoever reads my posts, have to see some ... online vandalism equivalent, too, but any grownup should have enough guts to endure that.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Friday August 25 2017, @11:49PM (49 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Friday August 25 2017, @11:49PM (#559157) Journal
    Trolling is intrinsically an act of attention-seeking.

    The way to extinguish the behavior, in a nutshell, is to avoid rewarding it. Don't give them the attention they seek - either ignore them completely, or find a different sort of attention they won't like.

    Getting more mod points out could be a roundabout way of getting more ac comments modded down, which in turn could result in fewer people biting the lures, I see the logic there. I'm skeptical how it really works though. I suspect to the trolls, the downmod itself is one of the responses they are hoping to provoke. It proves that someone read it, was so affected they had to reply, yet had nothing intelligent to say in reply and was left with no way to express just how triggered they were but by wasting a mod point on an AC post.

    But ok, maybe I'm wrong, maybe on bulk downmods will discourage them more than it encourages them. This announcement, however... I get it, you always announce what you're doing and that's good, but you have to realize this is exactly the sort of recognition they want right?

    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @11:50PM (7 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @11:50PM (#559160)

      Trolling is intrinsically an act of attention-seeking.

      Funny since the main target of trolls is attention seekers. Get off of my bridge ;P

      • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:06AM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:06AM (#559172)

        shut the fuck up nigger.

      • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:04AM (1 child)

        by stretch611 (6199) on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:04AM (#559225)

        Trolling is intrinsically an act of attention-seeking.

        Funny since the main target of trolls is attention seekers. Get off of my bridge ;P

        If only trolls weren't so stupid. After all the point of trolls and their bridges is to collect a toll for people on them. This is counter intuitive to making them get off the bridge.

        --
        Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:00AM

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:00AM (#559167) Homepage Journal

      Yeah, if there were an easy solution someone else would already be using it and I'd shamelessly steal the hell out of it. Just seeing if this helps mostly.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:15AM (3 children)

      by stretch611 (6199) on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:15AM (#559230)

      Trolling may be attention seeking and even downmods may excite trolls.

      However, when the get downmodded to the point that they are no longer seen, the reverse is true.

      --
      Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
      • (Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:18AM

        by Arik (4543) on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:18AM (#559257) Journal
        But that doesn't happen (depending on the readers settings.)

        For instance I turned off notification of anonymous replies to cut spam, but when I load the article I still see all comments. A negative rating is functionally equivalent to small positive ratings, only the highest rated comments are different.

        Not sure on the numbers but I'm sure I'm not the only one that does that.

        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
      • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:27AM (1 child)

        by Reziac (2489) on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:27AM (#559260) Homepage

        I have a troll follower on Gab whose mission in life is to achieve more downmods than anyone else (apparently there's a competition going on somewhere in the deep dark where I haven't looked). He's sometimes quite funny so I forget myself and mod him up, then have to give him two downmods so he's happy again.

        --
        And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @09:05AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @09:05AM (#559751)

          That's why I went full time AC: no followers! Not that I myself was followed, but I've seen it done to others.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:30AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:30AM (#559240)

      Trolling is intrinsically an act of attention-seeking.

      You mean like using a font apart from the default?

      Maybe I'll start posting this way:

      ldkfjhdjlkfjghlkj

      No, maybe this one:

      feels so good

      NO, NO ATTENTION GATHERING HERE, FOLKS!

    • (Score: 2) by rigrig on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:48AM (24 children)

      by rigrig (5129) Subscriber Badge <soylentnews@tubul.net> on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:48AM (#559250) Homepage

      Offtopic: could someone explain why some comments (like the parent) show up monospaced for me?
      Looks like the whle comment is somehow enclosed in <tt></tt>.

      --
      No one remembers the singer.
      • (Score: 4, Informative) by bart9h on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:06AM

        by bart9h (767) on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:06AM (#559255)

        He's just trying to seek attention.

      • (Score: 2, Informative) by Arik on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:29AM (19 children)

        by Arik (4543) on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:29AM (#559261) Journal
        It's a combination of board and browser settings.

        There's a control, might be a drop down list, when you post, as to what 'mode' you want to use, and if you're logged in you can set a default.

        One of them is 'code.' I set it as default after some testing, years ago, determined it was least likely to munge up what I typed in and post something different. Usually leave it alone, occasionally change modes if I want to do something that's easier in another though.

        Apparently the most popular browsers, with default settings, change to a monospace font in response to what the server sends in this case. Server very likely does wrap the whole comment in <tt>, haven't actually looked at it. 
        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:40AM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:40AM (#559267)

          very likely does wrap the whole comment in , haven't actually looked at it.

          Uh huh. Sure.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:43AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:43AM (#559269)

            So now he knows and can change the action. Oh wait, no, I guess it's just a lost cause.

            LOL!

          • (Score: 4, Touché) by Arik on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:47AM

            by Arik (4543) on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:47AM (#559273) Journal
            "very likely does wrap the whole comment in , haven't actually looked at it."

            Was there something that you posted but no one is actually seeing in your post? Did the server just munge your post?

            Annoying, isn't it?

            There's a simple fix ;)
            --
            If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @09:42AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @09:42AM (#559365)

          > the most popular browsers, with default settings, change to a monospace font in response

          You said it was code. Have you coded? Have you tried with a variable-width font? The coders of popular browsers use monospaced fonts for coding, and don't imagine many fruitful coders would want otherwise.

          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:35AM

            by Arik (4543) on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:35AM (#559387) Journal
            "Have you coded? "

            Yeah, I'm not currently a coder but when I started with computers there was no other option. A PC out of the box was just a bunch of parts, and once you got them all soldered together and working you still had little more than a computer - waiting to be programmed. That was what a *normal computer user* did - create programs. The typical productive strategy was to do an outline using BASIC, then profile it and figure out which sections were causing it to go unresponsive for long periods of time, and recode them in hex. Admittedly, for a number of reasons, I haven't done that in a long time.

            "Have you tried with a variable-width font?"

            Yeah, I've tried them, but the best thing to do with them is just delete them. But it has nothing to do with code! Code or no code, FONT! you have one job, convey information. You look real pretty but lose information? YOU FAIL!! I don't need you, I don't want you, I certainly don't love you.

            --
            If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
        • (Score: 5, Disagree) by lentilla on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:32AM (12 children)

          by lentilla (1770) on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:32AM (#559384)

          Server very likely does wrap the whole comment in <tt>, haven't actually looked at it.

          You know what, Arik, it does wrap your entire comment in a <tt>. I looked it up for you.

          You have been told many times; by many people; that your posts appear in a monospace font and that it's very annoying. If your browser doesn't behave this way then it's broken. Your browser is broken - not everybody else's.

          When you are writing for an audience the onus is on the writer to make it easy for the reader. That's because it's a "write once, read many" situation. What you are doing comes across as lazy and arrogant.

          So don't be a dick, mate. What you have to say has merit, just not how you go about saying it.

          To Long Didn't Read? Arik: Please stop posting using "Code" mode. You say you know where the control is, now go ahead and use it. It's very jarring to everybody else.

          • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by Arik on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:41AM (8 children)

            by Arik (4543) on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:41AM (#559391) Journal
            "You know what, Arik, it does wrap your entire comment in a <tt>. I looked it up for you."

            Thanks!

            "You have been told many times; by many people; that your posts appear in a monospace font and that it's very annoying."

            Oh lord, it's another of THOSE posters.

            If you don't like the font your browser is displaying then FIX IT you farking maroon!

            "If your browser doesn't behave this way then it's broken."

            Absolute nonsense! My browser, in fact, does behave this way - but if I told it not to, then it would not! If it bothered me, I would tell it not to! And if I told it not do this but it STILL did it - THEN I would agree it was MY browser that was broken!

            "When you are writing for an audience the onus is on the writer to make it easy for the reader."

            I'm not writing for you. If you enjoy my post, wonderful. If you don't, fuck off. You haven't paid me a cent and I wouldn't take it if you offered.

            "What you are doing comes across as lazy and arrogant."

            Right back at you, you myopic, self-obsessed little jackass.

            --
            If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
            • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Gaaark on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:25PM (2 children)

              by Gaaark (41) on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:25PM (#559411) Journal

              I look at it as, if I don't want to bother my eyes reading your 'font', I skip it and scroll past.

              It is annoying to look at and might make me miss something I might have wanted to read, but I have a choice. Just like why I don't adjust my settings to skip AC's. I might miss something intelligent.

              --
              --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
              • (Score: 1, Troll) by Arik on Monday September 04 2017, @09:09AM (1 child)

                by Arik (4543) on Monday September 04 2017, @09:09AM (#563366) Journal
                "I look at it as, if I don't want to bother my eyes reading your 'font', I skip it and scroll past."

                I'm going to put myself, mentally, in the place of someone who knows nothing about computers. This is easier than it sounds, for me, as I do it regularly.

                Yeah, that sounds reasonable.

                In fact, though, it's not. It's umm, 'magical thinking.'

                Fact is, I have no font, I have no way to make my font appear on your screen. I'm just sending text.

                YOUR browser determines which fonts it will use to render that text. If you don't like it, well that's not unexpected. You're probably running a toy OS from Microsoft, and it probably has abominable font choices preselected for you.

                But you are not helpless, my friend. Dig in. Figure this computer out. Bend it to your will, don't let it run the show. You may not be able to REALLY take control of Microsoft Windows but even on that you can certainly prevent it from using fonts you think are ugly.

                *I've tried NOTHING and I'm all out of ideas!*

                --
                If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
                • (Score: 1, Troll) by Gaaark on Monday September 04 2017, @10:58AM

                  by Gaaark (41) on Monday September 04 2017, @10:58AM (#563406) Journal

                  Sigh

                  From your own post elsewhere:
                  "Trolling is intrinsically an act of attention-seeking."
                  You like attention. "Mommy, look at me. LOOK AT ME!"

                  I know. I get it. You type in 'code' for the attention it gets you. That is why i put 'font' instead of just font.

                  My profile will show you i use linux. I am typing in palemoon. I am just not going to change my browser settings for one troll.

                  I was actually saying a nice thing:

                  I might miss something intelligent.

                  I guess in your place, i am wrong.

                  --
                  --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
            • (Score: 4, Touché) by lentilla on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:53PM (4 children)

              by lentilla (1770) on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:53PM (#559415)

              "The folk at 71 Baxter Street were having an extended party. On the morning after the third night of loud revelry, a group of neighbours gathered in front of number 71. A spokesman stepped forward and knocked on the door.

              "Yeah, whatcha you want?", said the large man that answered the door.

              "Neighbour - you've been having some mighty fun these last days", said the spokesman, hat in hand, "but we're all hoping you'd be keeping it down some in the evening-times. Our kiddies can't sleep for the music and it's causing trouble in our homes."

              "Yeah?"; said Mr Seventy-One; "well put in some earplugs you farking maroon!""

              ---

              I'm not a maroon, and neither are you Arik. I don't want to make enemies and I was simply asking you to quit with the <tt> tag. I; too; expect people to accept me for who I am but I always try to take their wishes into consideration because I'd prefer to live in harmony rather than constant conflict. We appear to have a fundamentally different view of the world - and that's OK too. I look forward to your future postings outside this thread - even if they happen to be in monospace.

              • (Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Monday August 28 2017, @08:20AM (2 children)

                by FakeBeldin (3360) on Monday August 28 2017, @08:20AM (#560098) Journal

                Hey Arik,

                Your use of code as default for comments is annoying me, to the point that I skip over your comments. They're just not worth the effort they require of me. Case in point: I skipped your grandparent post after the first line, because I'm not going to waste effort on it. Then I read the replies. Specifically, I read all of Lentilla's silly, off-topic story-slash-analogy. The story was way too long to make an obvious point obvious. Yet I read all of it, and I could not read more than the first line of your post, even though that might be more on-topic.

                Clearly, your posting style is annoying the hell out of me.
                Equally clearly I'm not the only one.

                You might want to consider changing.

                Sidenote: @TMB and others: I'd love to auto-hide any all-code comments. Or apply an automatic -3 mod to them or something. Same thing for other comments that deviate from regular style. Can this go up on the wishlist?

                • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 28 2017, @10:13AM

                  The auto-mod thing, possibly. We can't get rid of them any more though because they've been an established if little used feature for too long. Justified butthurt would ensue. Really, the best solution is just to make Arik a Foe at the moment and adjust Foe-post karma down if it really bugs you. For me it just makes it easier to tell who wrote something. I look at monospace all the time in terminal windows, so it doesn't bother me in the least.

                  --
                  My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                • (Score: 2) by Arik on Monday September 04 2017, @08:54AM

                  by Arik (4543) on Monday September 04 2017, @08:54AM (#563361) Journal
                  Hey FakeBeldin!

                  Thanks for letting me know you're a moron. I didn't really need, or want to know, but thanks anyhow! It really warms the cockles of my heart when I hear a REAL HONEST TO GOD MORON go off like this! You're the reason I'm here, and I love you!! *smooch smooch smooch*

                  --
                  If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
              • (Score: 2) by Arik on Monday September 04 2017, @08:49AM

                by Arik (4543) on Monday September 04 2017, @08:49AM (#563359) Journal
                If your "fundamental view of the world" includes blaming others for your own browser settings then I don't have a kind word for you. YOU ARE THE REASON WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS.

                To put it concisely, You ARE being a maroon and the care I would normally have for your feelings is trumped by that fact, prohibiting me from exhibiting the sympathy I might otherwise feel for your poor MAROON ass.

                The gentleman who spoke for the residents of 71 Baxter Street gave it a try, as any gentleman in his circumstances would have to. After the rude reply he received, he should have called the police. And under no circumstances would I recommend he take any direct action until that route had been played out to whatever effect it might have.

                Do you really think there is any sort of recognizable symmetry here? I am sending a signal to the server which consists of several parts. The logic of the server requires a value for the type of post, and I give it the value which results in the behaviour I find least objectionable, for objective and easily verifiable reasons.

                And in response to all of this, sometime later, the server then sends your browser a signal.

                And in response to that signal, your browser renders the HTML (which is actually generated by the server, you understand? no matter what post mode I choose) and it's choosing a font you don't like.

                FSCKING CHANGE YOUR FONT? Why is this hard to understand? Why do I have so many trolls that appear so sincere but really have a problem with this?

                I DO NOT CONTROL YOUR FONTS! YOU CONTROL YOUR FONTS, YOU CONTROL YOUR COMPUTER! OR YOU SHOULD! IF YOU DON'T THAT'S NOT MY FAULT!

                I am seriously sick to death of computer illiterates infesting tech sites. You sound like a nice person, and I really don't want to antagonize you, but you don't have a clue what you're talking about, you're about 5% north of the folks that don't know the difference between a browser and a webpage, and you're not paying my salary so I don't have to be nice to you.

                And I'll just leave it there.

                --
                If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
          • (Score: 3, Touché) by Justin Case on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:42PM (1 child)

            by Justin Case (4239) on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:42PM (#559469) Journal

            your posts appear in a monospace font and that it's very annoying

            I gave you a disagree because some people prefer monospace.

            What is needed is some kind of software that lets the person viewing something adjust it to their preferences instead of giving control to the author to force things the viewer doesn't want.

            Oh, wait, that already exists. It's called a browser.

            • (Score: 4, Touché) by tfried on Saturday August 26 2017, @08:37PM

              by tfried (5534) on Saturday August 26 2017, @08:37PM (#559578)

              Umm, yeah. And I want my browser to show all posts alike, unless they are actually marked up different for a reason. I don't want everything in monospaced, I don't want everything in variable spaced. I expect the author not to lie about the nature of their post (are Arik's posts code?), so my browser an I can make a reasonable choice on the appearance.

          • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday August 28 2017, @12:20PM

            by urza9814 (3954) on Monday August 28 2017, @12:20PM (#560185) Journal

            Dude...If you don't wanna read it just adjust your settings so you don't see his comments. Personally, I don't understand what the hell you're going on about. What, do you never use a terminal? Never write code? I frankly don't see how you're getting through the modern world if you're THIS annoyed by monospace fonts. They're not exactly uncommon...in fact, now that I think about it, that's how most of my text editors are configured -- not because I've set them that way, but just because that's the default. A lot of people do prefer it.

        • (Score: 4, Touché) by rigrig on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:01PM

          by rigrig (5129) Subscriber Badge <soylentnews@tubul.net> on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:01PM (#559436) Homepage

          Thanks for explaining.
          I was a bit worried it was something on my end messing up posted text, but I'll just scroll past the blocks of code from now on.

          --
          No one remembers the singer.
      • (Score: 2) by tibman on Saturday August 26 2017, @04:59AM (2 children)

        by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 26 2017, @04:59AM (#559297)

        It's caused from his JavaScript allergies.

        --
        SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @07:50AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @07:50AM (#559336)

          It's caused from his JavaScript allergies.

          It's not. SN works quite well from a modern browser with no javascript enabled whatsoever. The non-default monospace is used due to his choices. WHY he made those choices is somewhat less clear.

          (This post made 100% javascript free.)

          • (Score: 2) by tibman on Saturday August 26 2017, @08:36PM

            by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 26 2017, @08:36PM (#559577)

            Maybe JavaScript is required to hear whooshing sounds?

            --
            SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
    • (Score: 4, Informative) by aristarchus on Saturday August 26 2017, @05:10AM

      by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday August 26 2017, @05:10AM (#559302) Journal

      How soon do we forget? https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/05/09/0326228 [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Saturday August 26 2017, @08:07AM (8 children)

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday August 26 2017, @08:07AM (#559343) Journal

      The way to extinguish the behavior, in a nutshell, is to avoid rewarding it. […]

      Getting more mod points out could be a roundabout way of getting more ac comments modded down

      AC posts != troll posts.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @09:58AM (7 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @09:58AM (#559370)

        jmorris posts == troll posts

        • (Score: 4, Informative) by aristarchus on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:31AM (6 children)

          by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:31AM (#559382) Journal

          Where is jmorris? Hasn't posted since the 18th! Even the Social Justice Warrior Special jmorris Survellience Squad is getting worried. Do you think his head finally exploded?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:33PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:33PM (#559466)

            Und wo ist Francis? [soylentnews.org]

          • (Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday August 27 2017, @07:08AM (4 children)

            by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday August 27 2017, @07:08AM (#559734) Journal

            It didn't explode, exactly...implode, more like. See, when someone gets their head that far up their ass, they basically become human Klein bottles. As that's not really compatible with 3+1D spacetime, well, it got...messy.

            --
            I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
            • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday August 27 2017, @09:15AM (3 children)

              by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday August 27 2017, @09:15AM (#559752) Journal

              This is how minor stars go, they first collapse, but then meet themselves at the center, and "recoil with great force from their own selves". Right, not pretty. Would love to mod you up, Azuma, but I am banned from modding, since I took a line from an ancient book, and I spam modded The Mighty Buzzard. So I will limp along, unable to support the sane people on SoylentNews, but I will support where I can with comments. Human Klein bottles! The outside is the inside, and the explosion is the implosion! And jmorris, well, is jmorris.

              • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday August 27 2017, @10:30AM (2 children)

                Well, it is what you were after, after all. You Spam modded a technical answer and then laughed about it in another comment, so one can only assume that you wanted to be mod-banned so you'd have something to whine about.

                --
                My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday August 27 2017, @11:56AM (1 child)

                  by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday August 27 2017, @11:56AM (#559799) Journal

                  And you fell right into the trap of mod-banning a Soylentil who was objecting to being unjustly spam modded? Not too bright, are we, oh Buzzard who claims to be mighty?

                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @02:21PM

                    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @02:21PM (#559848)

                    Buzzy is right here. The spam mod takes more points away than the other mods and it gets added to a queue that Buzzy or other folks have to deal with.

                    Perhaps if you'd be less of an incompetent asshole, people wouldn't view you as such a worthless cum stain. Scratch that, at least with a cum stain you get the pleasure of a good jerk off.

  • (Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Friday August 25 2017, @11:56PM (20 children)

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Friday August 25 2017, @11:56PM (#559163)

    Thanks, and just commenting on the obvious I have also gotten tired of the troll problem and I think it may be discouraging some people from visiting Soylentnews or taking part in discussions. Certianly it can be hard to take a story discussion seriously when the first several posts are about raping donkeys or whatever. Although to me the most annoying ones are the ones that look and sound perfectly intelligent but genuinely are trying to provoke unneeded responses. There are a surprising lot of those on this site.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:05AM (19 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:05AM (#559171) Homepage Journal

      If they're off-topic and garbage. Mod them Spam. And keep doing so. They'll have to go to all the trouble of keeping a running list of proxies or using ToR to post again.

      Mind you, if they're at least tangentially TFA-related, they don't qualify for Spam; even if otherwise garbage.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 3, Informative) by SomeGuy on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:32AM (18 children)

        by SomeGuy (5632) on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:32AM (#559182)

        Since you mentioned the spam mod, I just re-read the moderation FAQ. The examples of garbage posts are the sort of thing I was in the habit of modding as just "troll". I guess I usually think of advertising as spam, and I don't recall if... that other site.. always had a spam mod. Very old habit.

        If marking as spam instead of just troll makes a difference, it might be worth it for others to re-read that section of the faq: https://soylentnews.org/meta/faq.pl?op=moderation#spam [soylentnews.org]

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:04AM (10 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:04AM (#559226) Homepage Journal

          Offtopic + Troll can equal Spam, yeah. It doesn't necessarily always though. Generally you only want to hit the one-line racist garbage under that qualification. Useful, entertaining, or interesting-content-free and not in any way relating to TFA or the current tangent. When in doubt there won't be a modban issued, just an admin to user message and an unmoderating of it.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 4, Informative) by aristarchus on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:38AM (9 children)

            by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:38AM (#559389) Journal

            Minty Brussard is talking about my posts, since he thinks that they are offtopic and trollish. But really, TMB just doesn't get satire, sarcasm, literary reference, political innuendo, or intellectual repartee. So it is not surprising he thinks this, and that poor me has had to labor under the misunderstandings of, wait, TMB is in charge of sorting out Spam mods? Is this not a clear conflict of interest, like having Jeff Sessions being attorney General and in charge of investigating Trump and making hippies stop smoking dope? My gawd, no wonder this place is so messed up, as regards the modding. Just an admin to user message, and my Spam mods rescinded? Which they have not been? Oh, the irony, the hypocrisy, the alt-right bias of the whole thing!

            • (Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:47AM (8 children)

              by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:47AM (#559394) Homepage Journal

              All senior editors and above are in charge of sorting out Spam mods, they usually just leave them to me though. Mind you, I won't be sorting out the one you just slapped on me, someone else will and I expect you'll whine incessantly about the mod-ban that will most likely result from it.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
              • (Score: 4, Informative) by aristarchus on Saturday August 26 2017, @05:39PM

                by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday August 26 2017, @05:39PM (#559507) Journal

                What? Some slapped an unjustified Spam mod on you, TMB? I feel your pain! And, hope the back is feeling better.

              • (Score: 3, Informative) by aristarchus on Sunday August 27 2017, @01:59AM (5 children)

                by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday August 27 2017, @01:59AM (#559678) Journal

                Whine? Did it hurt, Buzzard, when they pulled the Spam mod off of you? Did you realize that me giving you a Spam mod could be nothing but symbolic and ironic? DeathMonkey nearly died in an act of civil disobedience to make this point, and this is how the staff of SN behave? Expect much more discussion.

                • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday August 27 2017, @10:31AM (3 children)

                  You got the mod-ban you asked for. Stop complaining.

                  --
                  My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday August 27 2017, @11:53AM (2 children)

                    by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday August 27 2017, @11:53AM (#559798) Journal

                    Not complaining, social justice warrioring! You cannot tell the difference, you banner of free speech? This is going to get interesting. (Get the double entendre? Banner, like a sign, and banner, as in mod-banning aristarchus? Too much to expect of you?)

                    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday August 28 2017, @12:09AM (1 child)

                      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Monday August 28 2017, @12:09AM (#559966) Journal

                      This is a losing fight. You're not going to win against someone who controls the site itself, especially not someone who claims neutrality but has also on numerous occasions admitted to trolling the site for his own political ends. No, if you actually want to do anything to him, you'll have to do something outside the site, and that can get...questionably legal.

                      --
                      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
                      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 28 2017, @01:42AM

                        A) For my own amusement. I don't have political ends because I don't have political ambitions.

                        B) Everything I do is way out in the open. Show me any line I've crossed.

                        C) I'd suggest buying me a beer. That tends to favorably dispose me towards most anyone.

                        --
                        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                • (Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Monday August 28 2017, @08:26AM

                  by FakeBeldin (3360) on Monday August 28 2017, @08:26AM (#560100) Journal

                  Nice troll! You got a thread going, and even got modded insightful!
                  I'm enjoying the thread, so I'm not going to mod you troll for it, but you deserve acknowledgement. So: kudos, well played!

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @11:47PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @11:47PM (#560589)

                "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it..."

        • (Score: 2) by martyb on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:08PM (6 children)

          by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:08PM (#559598) Journal

          Since you mentioned the spam mod, I just re-read the moderation FAQ. The examples of garbage posts are the sort of thing I was in the habit of modding as just "troll". I guess I usually think of advertising as spam, and I don't recall if... that other site.. always had a spam mod. Very old habit.

          If marking as spam instead of just troll makes a difference, it might be worth it for others to re-read that section of the faq: " rel="url2html-15895">https://soylentnews.org/meta/faq.pl?op=moderation#spam

          Yes, I noticed that this morning when reviewing a spam mod.

          I disagreed with the spam moderation a particular comment. Wanted to point the one who did the moderation to the Spam Mod guidelines in the Moderation FAQ. So, I reread the FAQ. Saw that two of the examples given were actually pointing at comments that were not moderated as spam. :/ (Out of three: one was actually moderated as spam and two others were moderated as troll.)

          Located two other spam-modded comments and updated the FAQ to point to them.

          --
          Wit is intellect, dancing.
          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday August 27 2017, @12:33AM (5 children)

            Bytram, most of those examples were around before the Spam moderation existed. There's no error there.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
            • (Score: 2) by NCommander on Sunday August 27 2017, @02:21PM

              by NCommander (2) Subscriber Badge <michael@casadevall.pro> on Sunday August 27 2017, @02:21PM (#559847) Homepage Journal

              To be fair, our documentation should be up to date. I don't actively check the Spam mod logs, but if I see a comment marked Spam that isn't, I'll reverse it, and check the mod history of the user to determine if it's a misclick or abuse.

              --
              Still always moving
            • (Score: 2) by martyb on Wednesday August 30 2017, @01:49PM (3 children)

              by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 30 2017, @01:49PM (#561495) Journal

              I respectfully disagree that the documentation was okay.

              I was specifically referring to the 'here' links which appear in the Examples part of the Spam Mod [soylentnews.org] section of the moderation FAQ.

              Here #1 *was* moderated as 'Troll', Here #2 *was* moderated as 'Flamebait', only the 3rd 'Here' was actually moderated as 'Spam'... not the best of examples.

              Old 1st 'here': https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?cid=123138&sid=5164 [soylentnews.org].

              Old 2nd 'here': https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=11580&cid=287626 [soylentnews.org].

              Side note: I could be mistaken, but it seems like I needed to escape ampersands when providing links using the template editor '&cid=1234' now needs to be coded as '&amp;cid=1234'

              --
              Wit is intellect, dancing.
              • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday August 30 2017, @10:14PM (2 children)

                by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday August 30 2017, @10:14PM (#561780) Homepage Journal

                What I am saying is that what the examples were moderated is irrelevant. There are several reasons a piece or chain of spam could be moderated other than Spam and still be a fine example. In the case of the examples it was because they existed before anyone could moderate them Spam, unless I'm badly mistaken.

                --
                My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 05 2017, @06:37AM (1 child)

                  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 05 2017, @06:37AM (#563672)

                  If there aren't enough examples that have actually been moderated as spam, that's very telling.

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