Perhaps. Maybe I’m unclear on the difference between perspective, which you ask for, and analysis, which you say you ignore.
How was it a fiasco?
I remember that thread.
It went like this:
[ul][li]Someone creates a sock account to point out in a Pit thread that some user contradicted him/herself with details about his personal life (I forget the details, but something like “I am an orthodox jewish french guy” in a series of threads, then several months later “I am a Korean-American transgendered person” in a new series of threads.)[/li][li]Sock account gets banned, mods discuss the situation through the e-mail loop.[/li][li]The poster accused of trolling admits to making up his/her life story.[/li][li]Poster is banned.[/li][/ul]
It all seemed pretty cut and dried to me. Of course, there was a long discussion about whether or not the sock account should be banned, and whether this was the right way to out a troll. My opinion at the time (and now) was that starting a BBQ Pit thread was unnecessary, PMing a mod would be sufficient, but I realize that some people just love drama and if the troll was quietly banned the need for drama would be unrequited.
They way that that guy made up this crazy life story, for a short period of time becoming a board favorite and then getting caught lying…that’s a fiasco to me. The way that the staff handled it was appropriate and they did so in a reasonable amount of time.
I disagree that PMing the Staff would have been sufficient in that case. Someone posted a bunch of evidence but the ensuing discussion in the Pit thread turned up even more. For example, someone recognized a picture posted by K6 as a Hong Kongese actress or something once the original thread got going. In addition, as you said, the mountain of evidence got K6 to admit in the actual thread that he has been scamming us so the Mod’s work was easy at that point.
This is my main objection to having anyone with a chip on his shoulder being able to start a thread saying “so and so is a troll, here’s the proof! Mods, do your duty!” You paint a big red X on their back. A bunch of internet vigilantes will decide to research everything they can about that poster, especially if the target is a person with irritating posting habits or unpopular opinions. If the target hasn’t been extremely careful with what they post at the board, then there’s a good chance that people will be finding out real-life information about him or her. They might post it here, or in one of the spin-off forums that have an “anything goes here!” approach to posting. I think that would be a Bad Thing.
In the case of Number Six / Caitlyn, none of that detective work was necessary, the first post in the thread was enough to prove that the poster was making up his/her life story.
Well, the mods researched and posted Aldebaran’s location. There’s many other occasions where the mods have researched and posted about a user’s posting habits on other message boards.I doubt the internet vigilantes are going to do much worse. It’s not like the “anything goes” forums are going to leave his home address up. They are likely do just like a moderator would, something like “That’s not what you said on the New Republic forums!”
And to point it out again, in my example above, when I posted about Desmostylus’ final warnings, I was accused of not liking his politics, “bringing up off board drama” and starting a ban drive when none of those were remotely true. Thus I think your fear about it is mostly jumping at shadows.
I’ve heard something about a poster being repeatedly called on his phone after his phone number was posted at one of the various snark forums. Back when I was a moderator, a troll once thought he had discovered my workplace and threatened to contact my workplace to let them know I was posting to the SDMB during US work hours. You think that some troll for the board wouldn’t be obnoxious and call someone’s work to harass them? I bet that could happen. The moderators at the SDMB can’t control what happens at the various snark forums or the other spin-off boards.
And if moderators of this or another spinoff message board will stop personal information being posted, what’s to stop another poster from reposting it at his own site? Weren’t you the guy that had a site devoted to “greatest hits of the snarkpit” or something like that?
Turning the board loose on trying to figure out stuff about a supposed troll has little upside, as far as I see it, and too much downside.
I guess I don’t get your point. All those things happened without someone painting “a big red X on their back” so it seems rather specious reasoning to think PMing a mod your troll concerns will reduce those kinds of incidents. In point of fact, the repeated phone calls came about because of the person himself giving out his own personal info not some internet vigilantism.
And I really have no idea what my website has to do with anything. Having links to big flame-outs and blow ups has nothing to do with the subject of stalking.
My point was: you said “posters won’t do anything worse than the moderators do.” I just showed that your statement was false.
Starting a thread to out someone as a troll will not do anything to reduce these kinds of incidents. If I had to bet, which method will cause more of these kinds of incidents: PMing a mode in private, or starting a board thread inviting people to prove that poster X is a troll, I am going to bet that method B would cause more of these incidents.
Because you said “personal information posted elsewhere would be deleted by a moderator at another board.” I thought I would remind you that it is possible for someone with a site like yours to post personal information offboard, and no moderator could delete it.
Well, technically you didn’t because another mod could have been the one who did that. Tubadiva is the one who harrassed someone on their livejournal. 
A site like anyone’s, not like mine in particular. Besides, if I was posting someone’s personal information and saying “go get him”, I am sure a letter to my provider would get me shut down pretty tout suite.
**Appropriate place for outing a troll? **
Under a fabulous bridge.
All right then, rephrasing, if information gets public, someone at the board can use it to harass the poster, and the more people there are who know about it, the greater the chance there is of it happening.
I’m not so sure about that. In any case you could post it less blatantly, something like “X at the message board is the alias used by John Doe of Anytown, USA”.
But now you just want to nitpick the details. My main point is that, if you open a thread saying “X is a troll! Help me prove it!”, it is asking our membership to investigate the personal circumstances of a poster, and it’s better if that sort of thing is discouraged, because there is a small subset of jerks who read the board who can use it to harass the poster. And the advantages of having the members here research a poster do not outweight the possible negative consequences.