Is there a way for us to give extra lurve to Ben and Andrew for getting rid of awful users?

I think that Ben and Andrew transcend lurve.

The mods always deserve the lurve as often the messengers are the ones who get shot.

I think you just did.

@Dog: Oh, I wholeheartedly agree. The poor mods have to deal with so much crap. Lurve to all mods!

I’d like to thank them by making them guacamole for once. I’ll even bring my own bicycle.

Okay, now it’s time to dish! Who got removed?

Good, old sucking-up will do.

@La_chica_gomela: switchhitter

Thank god. He only “switched” between nasty and stupid.

did i just say that out loud?

Good to hear. I guess enough people flagged him/her. Then it works.

[mod says] It doesn’t make us happy to deal with difficult situations, but someone has to do it, I guess. There is a lot of agitas that develops behind the scenes. We certainly won’t be winning too many popularity contests.

@shilolo: This will help with the agita.

And the man whose avatar is a cookie would know.

Absolutely.

so when it gets dark you want mommy to switch the light on, and leave the bedroom door open?

Yes, mammal, that’s exactly it. People here are scared of monsters. More to the point, users want a site free of trolls and people whose communication skills are so poor that they cannot comment without belittling other users (and embarrassing themselves in the process).

@shilolo i prefer the Beowulf approach personally

One man’s troll is another’s articulator of truth.

I wish we could hear the stories of your dealings behind the scenes. It would be interesting to understand where you draw the line, and how you define troll and other such nasty things.

I do appreciate what you do very much. Sometimes, I think it is a difficult thing to decide whether I think someone is playing it too close to the edge, and is picking fights more for the sake of picking fights than for any real interest in discussion. I am capable of determining this for myself, and ignoring such people, but a lot of other people are willing to take the bait, so I guess you mods have to find a way to safely remove the hooks and throw the fish back in the lake.

@Ivan If you discover the Unification Theory only to shout it at the top of your lungs all the while calling people assholes, you are unlikely to get a positive response. If, on the other hand, you explain yourself quietly and cogently, you might expect to face critique (for such a grand discovery), but at least you would be heard. Effective communication isn’t all about content. In fact, delivery counts as much if not more in all forms of communication.

@daloon When issues come up with specific users, it is usually blatantly obvious what a person’s intent is for joining the site. We usually give people some leeway, and direct warning via PM. Only after that, and discussions amongst the mods, managers and Andrew-Ben is action taken (well, except for spammers). The hard part is when people are pushing the edge of the envelope of appropriate decorum. Clearly, we don’t want to stifle discussions, but when people persist in personal attacks or racist-homophobic-etc. comments, we step in. What might surprise you is that many users aren’t actually banned, but disable their accounts after a brief stint of baiting and trolling. In contrast, some are warned, often repeatedly, before we suspend or ban them. In the end, hard decisions are made as a group, so as to avoid relying on one person’s judgment.

@shilolo

I’m glad to know that you would be willing to ban the genius who develops a Unification Theory simply because he happened to be an asshole.

@Ivan I’m glad to see that for someone studying physics, what with its abstractions and such, you are so linear in your thinking. Ever heard of a metaphor? Perhaps something more in your “wheelhouse”? Are you familiar with the signal to noise ratio? If your “point” (i.e. the signal) is obstructed by a ton of random stupidity and nastiness (i.e the noise), it makes it very difficult to appreciate anything worthwhile. Or, to make it even more basic, there is the old fable about the boy who cried wolf that can be applied. If one goes around spewing nonsense (wolf, wolf, wolf), then when that person has something meaningful to say (Shit, there really is a wolf), people have now tuned out. But, feel free to believe what you want regarding effective communication. You are blessed with the (over)confidence of youth.

I believe my point was that we should not be kicking people out simply because we don’t appreciate their attitude, especially when they have something legitimate to contribute.

And I believe that I never said we ban people for having an attitude. What I said was, trolls (baiting with nonsensical and inflammatory comments for the sake of it) and people who espouse hateful philosophies (racism, homophobia, etc.) are kept on a short leash or banned altogether. There are plenty of alternate venues where these people can frolic.

I would be eager for you to provide me an example of someone who has been banned who fits your criteria (Do you really miss lemsteve/IowaCynic so badly that you want him back in your life?).

I started off by saying that a proponent of hateful philosophies is no more a troll to us than we are to them.

And this has nothing to do with Steve. But yes, I do miss him.

@Ivan You can’t honestly believe that. Don’t you have any morals?

So, we are to allow racists or anti-Semites to post outright bigoted material here for the sake of an open forum? You might prefer posting on YouTube, or some other unmoderated site. Oh, wait, that is your preference. Why are you still here again?

Listen, if you want to moderate behavior that you feel will disrupt site activity and persuade people to leave, that’s your choice. But I would take a member who thoughtfully and articulately explains his belief that African Americans are inferior over someone who does nothing but talk about how we should all get along and never participates in any discussions.

[mod says:] You both are off topic. This question is about thanking Bendrew and not “oh do give us your views about moderation for the millionth time.”

Wouldn’t want to allow discussion regarding whether or not they should be thanked for this.

@Ivan – We have had plenty of threads that discuss that. If you feel the urge to create yet another one – go for it, but don’t ruin this one. Any further off topic stuff will be removed.

Geez, I leave for a couple days and this happens. Thank you @PnL. I think of these threads as conversations. In real life, you wouldn’t go up to a group of people talking about farming and interject a thoughtful point about dog training. It just doesn’t make any sense. Also, I would like to point out that the user to whom I was referring when I asked this question did not contribute anything intelligent to the conversations he participated in. He just displayed hate and spouted personal attacks. I do not think people who display their unhappiness should necessarily be banned. Take @Ivan, for example. I think he whines too much about how fluther is modded and that he can be nasty sometimes. However, he has also offered some intelligent and interesting points to certain discussions.

the moderators on this site lack judgement, i’ve personally seen them do nothing about people openly congratulating each other at the killing of so called Somali Pirates, for want of a more reasonable term to describe these people. Perhaps i should get all excited about the next terrorist attack on American soil, see how that gets moderated. Double standards and a shallow world view in my God’s honest oppinion.

@mammal Your opinion. That is correct.