Do messageboards go through waves of nastiness?

The BBQ Pit
1

Disclaimer: this isn’t about this board. It’s about another messageboard that I moderate. I’m not going to link to it because I don’t want to have the appearance of instigating a board war.

That said:

Jesus fucking Christ, people! We’ve gone well over a year with many thousands of members and not a single banning of a long-term member. Our rules are straightforward: no insulting other members, no politics, no religion, nothing that you wouldn’t want the archetypal Grandma to see.

Suddenly, though, we’ve had to ban one member permanently, and put another member on a temp-ban; and it looks like we may have a third and possibly a fourth on their way to bans.

We’ve posted stickies that tempers are flaring and that we’re going to start modding with a heavier hand. We’ve warned users before banning them. We’ve emailed users with details about why, exactly, their behavior was such a problem.

So what the fuck is wrong with them?

The perma-banned user became convinced that another moderator had it out for him, and emailed me explicitly to say that he would no longer recognize that mod’s authority. I told him, “This is not acceptable. You MUST follow the guidelines issued by all moderators. This is your only warning on the subject.” So what does he do? He writes back to insist that he won’t recognize that other guy, and then he blatantly defies me in another thread.

When I ban him, explaining why, he responds, “Oh, so the mods are allowed to abuse their power and attack members?” and proceeds as if I banned him for sarcasm.

No, dipshit, I banned you for saying that you weren’t going to recognize another moderator’s decision, even after I warned you that this was unacceptable. I TOLD you that in the message about why I banned you.

Now, I’ve got two other members convinced that their warnings are because we disagree with their opinions, and who are likely to get themselves banned because they can’t see that it’s their rudeness, not their opinions, that are causing trouble.

One year, people! One year! Why all the sudden dumbassery?

okay, I feel better.

Daniel

2

Burn out. Arrogance. Long Term Poster Syndrome.

I remember back in Ye Olden Dayes when Satan was the big cheese 'round these parts. As I recall, he ripped on another poster depsite Mod warnings and got himself banned. That was back when having 1500 posts was a big deal. You’d thought someone raped a puppy on live TV.

When a long term poster gets the ax, it’s guaranteed that several other posters will demand the head of the Mod who did it totally ignoring the facts that lead to the banning.

Remember when Handy was banned?

3

II see your point.

4

I think what the mods do here in ATMB, documenting the offenses and announcing the banning, is a very wise idea. Cuts down on the speculation and proves the mod’s case as to the banning. Can you do something like that on your other board? (as if there are other boards snooty society sniff :wink: )

5

Two? One plus one? Fewer than three?
I envy you.

Aside from that, Yeah, it goes in spurts and waves. I don’t have a nice mathematical formula, but I have watched nice people suddenly turn into despicable fight seekers and shit slingers and it seems that when one poster starts that, it entices others to lose their inhibitions. Occasionally you can (in hindsight) see an incident that triggered an outburst over some long-simmering issue or feud, but just as often it will catch you by surprise.

6

Oh yeah, I remember that. And Collounsbury, and December, and so forth.

To be fair, the users who aren’t creating problems aren’t the ones calling me an iron-fisted dictator (no, I’m not making that up). In fact, they’ve started a thread thanking me for being the jackgbooted thug that I’ve leately had to become. It’s just the problem folks who are absolutely incapable of recognizing that the problem is with their manners, not with their opinions.

I’m sure I’m overreacting: I’ve not had to ban a permanent user before (we’re very lenient on the banning front, but much more willing to close threads, delete offensive posts, etc.), and I’m just astonished at the thickheadedness of people. I mean, if they wanted to argue that their reasons for disrespecting another mod were legitimate, at least that’d be something–but they can’t even see the reasons for being banned that I told them about! They insist they were banned for a completely different reason!

Sheesh.

Next up: idiots studying to be teachers!
Daniel

7

Okay, while I’m ranting, I’m just going to shove this extra story into this thread. It’s got nothing to do with the OP, but I figure I’ll put it here instead of starting two threads. 'Sides, it’s partly responsible for my recent stress.

My wife called this incident “amusifying.”

I’m in college to become an elementary teacher. It’s harder than I thought, to be honest: I love learning, and I can really communicate this love of learning to students on some subjects, but in other areas it’s really, really hard. I’ve still not found a good way to teach math to kids, for example.

Given how hard it is, I wish that only very bright students entered the program: I’d love to be the worst in my class. Sadly, that’s, um, that’s nowhere fucking near the case. Apparently (according to one of my textbooks) college professors often gear the stupid students toward elementary education, and the smart students away.

Case in point (and note that I am absolutely not exaggerating here):
In one of my education classes, the professor was having us do an idiotic activity that culminated in telling one another one thing we knew about “The Revolutionary War.” Being a smartaleck, I told my partner, “There were lots of different Revolutionary Wars. The French one involved guillotines.” (I should’ve specified which French one, I know). My partner giggled and said, “I don’t know anything about the Revolutionary War–who was President then?”

I looked at her disbelievingly and, once I realized she was serious, said, “Uh, there wasn’t a President. That was kind of the whole point.”

“Oh, okay,” she said, “then who was President after the war?”

“You mean the first president?”

“Yeah! Was that George Washington?”

Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce you to the woman who will be teaching your children.

Daniel

8

Fuck off, assmunch.

:stuck_out_tongue:

9

As a parent of young kids: Do you have to scare us this badly. :eek:

Jim

10

Reason number 612 that I’m grateful Ivylad and I scraped and pinched and trimmed and downright slashed our budget to get our kids into private school.

I fear for our future. :eek:

11

Hey, misery! Look sharp: we’ve got company!
Daniel

12

Oh, Daniel.

Welcome to the world of elementary ed–where grammar doesn’t count with some teachers and spelling is not stressed all that much either.

I have had letters (general info) come home from elementary school teachers with misspelled words, poor grammar, sentence fragments, you name it. I have had teachers miscount the total wrong on a child’s test and when it is pointed out, shrug. I have seen misplaced apostrophes on bulletin boards within the classroom. And I have seen myths perpetuated for no good purpose (what the hell is it with primary school teachers and George Washington and that damned cherry tree? Stop it, already!).

That said, for the most part, my kids have received an excellent elementary education–and their school feeds into a blue ribbon HS (3 time blue ribbon winner).

IMO, it pays to be a vigilant, informed parent. I meet and keep in contact with the elementary teachers–and middle school as well.

I wish I could say that your experience is an aberration, but it is not. I don’t know if “the stupid ones teach primary level” is true across the board–I just know what I’ve experienced. I think the one you talked to is at the extreme end of the spectrum–she sounds quite clueless!

I think you’ll be a good teacher. Advice you didn’t ask for: try to make math pertinent. Kids love to learn about and handle money–lots of basic arithmetic there. Cooking involves fractions, porportions and basic algebra. Stuff like that.

13

My former room mate teaches 2nd grade.
She was completely serious when she revealed to us that she thought the “5 Second Rule” was based on scientific fact - the germs can’t grab onto the food in 5 seconds.
Billy, my other room mate, wanted to demonstrate to her that this was false by seeing if she would eat something after he dropped it in the toilet for 4 seconds (He never did, though.)

14

Heh heh heh. Yeah
[Hanover Fisk]Hangings too good for them. Burnings too good for them. They should be cut into itty bitty pieces and eaten alive[/Hanover Fisk]
:smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

15

I’m glad there’s someone competent going into education. One of my majors is Spanish, and a good number of the students in the lower levels are pursuing a minor in Spanish in association with the college of education. I don’t know about the primary school teachers, since most of these are going into secondary education, but the bane of my Spanish classes was always the ed majors. I know plenty of smart, skilled school teachers, so it’s a shock that it always seemed that without exception, the education students always seemed like the stupidest members of the class. I have no amusifying anecdotes like yours, just a general fear for the children, who are apparently our future or something.

Poor kids.

Incidentally, ivylass, public or private, isn’t it still the same bunch that’s teaching your kids?

16

Link to thread in which our beloved giraffe gets himself into a bit of trouble for claiming urine doesn’t faze him.

17

Hell, yeah. One of my favorite boards (sadly, it’s unmoderated) has acquired some new troll-like posters. They’ve turned most of the threads into name-calling and gross-out contests. I’ve given up hope that it will recover. Another board I used to really enjoy (hosted by a celebrity), had to close it’s forum because people got so out of hand.

Everyone needs to vent once in awhile, but jeez louise, sometimes the venom gets toxic.

18

Just as a thought, ivylass, or something to consider anyway, private schools don’t pay as well as public schools. That whole not union thing. Who do you think gets the better pick of teachers?

19

What you really want, is a public school in an affluent suburb.

20

It’s the Earth that goes through waves of nastiness. Message boards just reflect that.