I wish to formally object to the practice of deleting all posts and threads authored by banned users (specifically, those banned for being Socks or Trolls). I know that there is some pretty good logic behind why the administration of the boards does this, but in balance it seems to me that it is a bad idea. Here is why.
It feels like revisionist history to me. There have been many times that I have gone to check on a thread and found it gone. This gives me a “am I crazy?” moment that I don’t much care for. It also makes me feel as if I can’t trust the integrity of the displayed history and the searches.
Some of the deleted posts and threads are absolutely hilarious. I think that we are a poorer place by deleting them.
I know that the prevailing wisdom is that this is done because we are otherwise “feeding” the miscreant and that somehow the removal of the offending posts will have the effect of preventing future Socks and Trolls because they don’t receive the attention that they crave, but I wonder if this is true.
I suppose that it is possible that if we had Administrators and Moderators that did nothing but watch their particular forum 24 hours a day (and probably a lot more of them, at that) and if the offending posts were immediately removed before anyone else had a chance to reply, it might work. However, the pattern that I typically see is that Troll or Sock will post OP or a comment in a thread and then several posters will respond, either to refute what is said or to flame (if in the Pit), at some point someone will make a comment that accuses said poster of being a Sock or a Troll (i.e. “don’t feed it” or the like) and a mod will step in and gently warn the poster not to make that accusation. It seems to me that this person has already received a fair amount of attention, and further that we will never succeed in getting every single member and guest here to simply ignore and report. That is not a realistic goal.
The next thing you know, the thread is gone.
Finally, I would be interested to know if this policy is backed by any hard data. Was there a time when said posts and threads were not deleted, and if so is the case that we got less Socks and Trolls than we do now? Have the Mods and Administrators been members of other message boards, and learned through bitter experience that this is true? In short, is this policy based on something real, or is just something that “everybody knows”?
There was one that was just deleted, the Best Mini-series thread.
You know, it does get somewhat annoying. Can we maybe just lock the ones that are started by trolls/socks, then someone valid can renew it with a new thread?
Yeah, I found that annoying too. I must have clicked on it right as it was being deleted as I got the “you do not have permission to access that page” message and then it was gone. I understand deleting the blatantly trolling threads like “My wife wants a threesome” but relatively innocuous threads that are of interest to the general memebership should just be left open.
Just the other day I ran the search engine in high gear trying to figure out where a certain threat was moved (I assumed it was moved because it wasn’t where I left it). The search engine huffed and puffed as I went from forum to forum trying to what key words were in the thread title. Was it “Republicans” or “Repugnicans”? No good, how about seraching for “Repub”. Oh crap - too many hits, forget it. Much more of this and the search engine is going to need new spark plugs.
The only time I’d be ok with the OP of a sock being deleted is when nobody has posted to it. But if four or six people have taken the time to craft informative or witty replies, there is some good stuff being lost.
Better yet, can a legitimate poster offer to adopt the sock’s thread, and have his/her name go in place of the sock’s? That would cheese me right off if I were the sock.
Example, let’s say Binarydrone turns out to be a sock. I could adopt this thread and a mod could edit to show me as the original poster. Of course I’d have to agree to stand behind everything in the original post as if it were my own. Does the editing feature allow this?
I sometimes get a morbid curiousity in seeing just what someone wrote that got him/her banned. Deleting messages by banned users deprives me of my fun.
I also agree with the OP. In the thread that I’m sure prompted this, Binarydrone and I (and others) were having a good conversation where much ignorance was being fought on both sides. While I’m sure we could recreate it to an extent, or start a new thread picking up where we left off, it’s not the same.
Or, perhaps just replace the socks’ names with a fictitious name, such as Smarmy Threadshitter or some such?
I understand the “don’t feed them” mentality, but if all socks’ names were replaced, then the sock wouldn’t have the satisfaction of being able to keep up with which Smarmy he is.
I think that this may have been true once, but these days the troll just goes over to Livejournal to gloat about their latest efforts and gets fawned over by their personality cult. So they get their fix, deleted posts or not.
Just tell the Reader when bonus time comes around!
I just discovered how to do this. I’ll pass along the technique to the other Mods and we should be able to accomodate you in most instances. But, if the bannee is heavily involved in the thread, it just might not work. Let me work on this.
Glad I could do this one for you. Now all I have to worry about is putting it back in the right forum. :eek:
100% correct that is the tread that finally prompted me to start this one. I was pretty interested to see where some of the points in it were going. That particular poster also sort of proves my point, as there is already a “ha ha the poster is banned” thread. Not a whole lot of attention denying that I can see going on.
I wholeheartedly concurr with the OP. On a board devoted to truth and fighting ignorance, erasing history, even if it is embarrassing history, seems inconsistent.
On preview, I applaud samclem for his efforts at working out a compromise. That seems like a good way forward if the troll deletion policy is to stay in place.
It also screws up legit threads, because people start asking-um, what’s going on, who are you replying to? Then the whole thing gets side-tracked, then the mods have to come in and say, “Don’t feed the trolls!” again.
