So is MPSIMS exclusively for kitten pictures?

[BigT]

@Marley23

I’m going to disagree with you about that. I think this is a better description of being a jerk (SDMB definition). Trolling describes someone’s intent, and posters sometimes behave this way without the intent of stirring people up. More often the poster just reads something he strongly disapproves of, and says so.

MeanOldLady, there’s definitely some gray area. A lot of the time there is no factually correct answer to where a thread goes. Sometimes we’re responding to the way a thread is going, other times we’re guessing based on the way similar discussions have gone in the past. I think you’re interpreting this as a judgment on the posters for being uncivil or the OP for putting the thread in the wrong place. That’s not the case.

I made a post in the Pit a while back that I think it is counterproductive to define “trolling” by using such a nebulous concept as “intent”. You generally can’t know what’s going on in the person’s head, and I think it would be better not to try. I think it would make more sense to define “trolling” as certain activities that are likely to cause disruption.

But, even if you don’t call it trolling, I still don’t think it’s a good idea to give the “jerk” that much power. They may merely be vehemently disagreeing, but the result is often that the thread gets derailed into talking about how that person’s vehemence is uncalled for. I’d much rather the moderating SOP to be to put a note in the thread saying that the thread got off-topic, and, in order to resume that topic, start a new thread.

Heck, I’d love it if you guys could move it to its own thread yourselves, but I realize that can be a lot of work. I believe it involves starting a new thread yourself, moving the individual posts that are not on the original topic to the new thread, and either deleting the first post in the new thread or leaving it to provide context. After doing all that, you’d also want to include a post in the original thread to tell people what you’ve done.

Anyways, I do wonder if it’s okay to report the post where the thread got off track. It seems I often see rules violations where the mods don’t. I can’t help but worry that, if I keep reporting thread that are judged not to deserve action, I’ll develop a reputation to be ignored.

[twickster]

@BigT

Anyways, I do wonder if it’s okay to report the post where the thread got off track. It seems I often see rules violations where the mods don’t. I can’t help but worry that, if I keep reporting thread that are judged not to deserve action, I’ll develop a reputation to be ignored.

No, not at all. When in doubt, report. Seriously, we rely on you guys to let us know when there’s a problem – and when there might be a problem, even if a mod decides not to act on it.

[Marley23]

We have a lot more instances of jerk behavior (mostly one-off insults) than trolling. It’s sometimes possible to know what a poster’s intent is, but we don’t need to make the determination that often. Just about anything that could be called trolling could also be called being a jerk.

I don’t think your idea is practicable. To me, shutting down a thread every time someone makes a rude comment gives them more power than they currently have. It’s very disruptive, and even if it’s possible to reorganize threads in the way you are suggesting (I don’t think it is), I think it would get confusing, be a pain, and create unnecessary work for us.