I have to admit that I almost never report this kind of stuff. My fault I guess, but I’m sensitive to the mods being volunteers, and don’t like to add to the workload. So it is really my own fault, and not yours.
What I would again urge people to consider is that the fact that a thread is “in the Pit” has no inherent meaning. It means only what you choose to assign to it. Take a step back and look at it from the perspective of someone who has not been here for 20 years.
“Oh, there’s threads on this board where all the normal rules don’t apply and people just scream at each other? And not even over particularly egregious offenses most of the time, there’s just … running meta-threads where people post “fuck this guy” like clockwork every time certain people post in OTHER threads?”
Why should people who don’t already agree with you about the totally artificial construct of “this thread is in the Pit so everything you would think if it was in a different subforum doesn’t apply, because I say so” not react to this the way a rational person would?
Along with gdave, ISiddiqui and Delayed_Reflex in this thread, who haven’t been Pit and want the Pit eliminated or changed, there are several more in the other threads.
From just a cursory glance at the other threads, there’s also kevlaw, codinghorror, mod RickJay. and GuanoLad that I don’t think have been Pit and want the Pit to be eliminated or changed.
I’m hoping not to have to see that argument that people who want the Pit gone are only those people who have been Pit repeatedly. It’s just another example of how quick some people are to vilify people who are against the Pit.
Back to the OP, I like the idea of the thread and the poll, but I think the poll results may be skewed. Just from my observation, many people who post in the Pit also post in ATMB. I’m not sure if that’s so true about people who post in say, IMHO. There’s a poll in IMHO where almost half the people say that they don’t post in the Pit or frequent it rarely. I often see the same names in ATMB that I see in the Pit, but I see people who frequent IMHO posting in ATMB less often. Without public polls, it’s hard to tell how much the overlap is.
Of the almost half of the people who either don’t post in the Pit or post rarely that voted in the IMHO survey, they might be more inclined to get rid of the Pit than the people who post in ATMB regularly.
One of the good thing about this board platform is that you can hide forums you don’t want to see, (at least you can if you use the Latest sorting filter at the top of the page.)
I’ve hidden the forums I don’t care much about, those posts never show up. If I’m bored or curious about a reference to something said I can still go read, but my preferred feed isn’t filled with Games or Debate posts that I have no interest in.
I like the Pit. I don’t read everything, I skip the most vitriolic stuff, I occasionally hide individual topics. But I think being able to pretty much say whatever you want in one place is no bad thing.
It’s all easy enough to pass over if it’s not your cuppa.
In real life it’s easier to see that most people in fact are just ‘innocently going along’. And it’s easier to remember it’s a real person with feelings you are making horrible accusations against and trying to hurt.
I looked at some Pit threads, and many seem an awful lot like school bullying. School bullies also think they are justified in being cruel to those who don’t fit in with the clique. I even see the same pattern of speculating about people’s mental health.
It leaks in the sense that after you have spent time saying hateful things to another poster, and had them saying hateful things to you, you don’t exactly approach them in new threads with an open and constructive attitude. And the debate forums are often full of pointless, snarky comments that contribute nothing to the discussion, so the Pit clearly isn’t doing the job of confining it to one place.
Some people think the Pit is useful for driving away posters they dislike, but who is it really driving away? Assholes enjoy attacking other people. It drives away people who disagree with the majority and might make interesting contributions, but don’t want to wade through a sewer to do it.
One, I wasn’t talking about the Pit, but about the troll-hunter threads.
Two, here are a few (old data, and the links no longer work):
List
1 RavenSong Joined 12/21/2018 Named a troll on 12/21/2018 here Last post on 12/21/2018 (Seemed not to understand the purpose of SDMB)
2 Benjarmyn Joined 2/20/2019 Named a troll on 2/20/2019 here Last post on 2/20/2019 (Banned for a coincidental name, then reinstated)
3 MortSahlFan Joined 11/6/2018 Named a troll on 12/22/2018 here Last post on 3/29/2019 (Supposedly, a Russian bot)
4 Frank Burly Joined 11/11/2018 Named a troll on 11/19/2018 here Last post on 1/19/2019 (No idea why)
5 Dacien Joined 11/26/2018 Named a troll on 11/26/2018 here Last post on 3/28/2018 (“Oddly up to speed,” evidently)
6 EscAlaMike Joined 7/16/2018 Named a troll on 9/11/2018 here Last post on 2/15/2019 (Held opinions that somebody didn’t agree with)
7 dredwick Joined 9/14/2018 Named a troll on 9/14/2018 here Last post on 9/14/2018 (Seemed to have had “attitude”)
8 sanusense Joined 10/3/2018 Named a troll on 10/4/2018 here Last post on 10/3/2018 (Name sounds a little like “nuisance”)
9 Grandma72 Joined 8/27/2018 Named a troll on 8/27/2018 here Last post on 8/27/2018 (Gastric distress after eating teriyaki.)
10 fschwartz Joined 4/19/2002 Named a troll on 9/3/2018 here Last post on 9/3/2018 (Not a newbie, but a long-lost member. Last post was in the Omnibus thread)
11 Mumberthax Joined 8/25/2018 Named a troll on 9/3/2018 here Last post on 11/16/2018 (Looked like a sock to somebody)
12 Alfishius Joined 3/28/2016 Named a troll on 8/24/2018 here Last post on 2/15/2019 (Has a “weird posting pattern.” Not a newbie, exactly, but doesn’t post much.)
13 MosaicTruths Joined 7/20/2018 Named a troll on 7/20/2018 here Last post on 7/20/2018 (Wanted homework help)
14 ohiomstr2 Joined 6/13/2018 Named a troll on 6/13/2018 here Last post on 3/17/2019 (Newbie who didn’t understand the board)
15 AuldWolf Joined 6/10/2018 Named a troll on 6/10/2018 here Last post on 6/10/2018 (Had an opinion on a movie)
16 Boacrow Joined 5/29/2018 Named a troll on 5/31/2018 here Last post on 5/31/2018 (Had an opinion and used the Pit as the Pit)
17 Ruined Joined 5/15/2018 Named a troll on 5/16/2018 here Last post on 5/16/2018 (Had opinions others didn’t like)
18 LA Zombie Joined 3/4/2018 Named a troll on 4/14/2018 here Last post on 3/29/2019 (Trump supporter)
19 nexopia Joined 4/21/2018 Named a troll on 4/25/2018 here Last post on 4/29/2018 (Wondered if SDMB is mostly Boomers)
20 Delicious Joined 5/5/2017 Named a troll on 4/28/2018 here Last post on 8/10/2018 (Made a joke)
21 crosspairnatural Joined 4/7/2018 Named a troll on 4/8/2018 here Last post on 4/7/2018 (Asked a personal question)
22 Berty Joined 4/8/2018 Named a troll on 4/8/2018 here Last post on 4/7/2018 (Asked a personal question)
23 Analog-Aptitude Joined 4/18/2018 Named a troll on 4/19/2018 here Last post on 4/18/2018 (Simply a new poster)
24 lil_sapiosexual Joined 4/2/2018 Named a troll on 4/2/2018 here Last post on 4/2/2018 (Posted an opinion without using capital letters)
25 A Odom Joined 3/24/2018 Named a troll on 3/25/2018 here Last post on 3/26/2018 (Evidently could not prove the resurrection in two days of posting)
26 Davidngrk Joined 3/27/2018 Named a troll on 3/27/2018 here Last post on 4/4/2018 (Addicted to escorts)
Sadly your links appear to be broken. But seems like a fair summation.
Reporting Trolls with details is useful. You wouldn’t believe the number of fairly useless flags we get that pretty much just say, “They’re Trolling”. or even “Troll!!!”
But a Flag that says “Hey this new guy sure sounds like banned poster So_and_So.” or we’ve had ones show up in the troll thread where they found a nearly identical Op from years earlier and a “different” poster.