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OK peeps, I am seeing a lot of flamewars lately which go off-topic of this comm. I am also getting dozens of reports about people reporting each other for "rudeness" or "trolling". I don't want this comm to start becoming a drama haven, so I want to try and prevent people getting worked up like this.

What do you think about me starting to deploy strategic 1-day bans for people who I notice are getting into flamewars? If not, what else do you suggest to help people remain civil?

Don't just upvote/downvote. I won't take these into account, I want actual comments about this to better make a decision.

97 comments

  • I’m ok with a penalty box. Pointless bickering gets this sub off topic. It’s tough because people come here ready to air grievances so I think that pre-charges the atmosphere and makes it that much easier for things to get off the rails

    • It’s tough because people come here ready to air grievances so I think that pre-charges the atmosphere and makes it that much easier for things to get off the rails

      You put in to words what I was struggling to find. People are often already a little charged up when they show up here, that's the nature of this kind of board.

  • My suggestion is to warn the user first, and then if they don't comply a 3d ban. Because:

    • Cooperative users are quick to comply, even without punishment.
    • It helps to show other users the limit of what's considered acceptable in the community.
    • When people get really worked up, a single day is not enough.

    Trolls are a different can of worms. I think that users who are blatantly trolling should be removed = permabanned; there's no place for those.

    • [Replying to myself to avoid editing the above again.]

      Ah, I propose an explicit rule for this comm: "off-topic is only tolerated if non-divisive, non-derailing, and in the comments". That gives people some room to chitchat, but would do a quick work of "ackshyually u don't have rules against flamewars right".

    • Happy cake day!

  • Yup. 100% a perfect tool for the situation.

    And I say that as someone that has likely deserved a few of them here and there.

    It won't stop report abuse, but it will reduce the in-thread drama.

    Hell, it might reduce drama in general since the serious drama queens are going to get butthurt and not come back.

  • PTB. I should be allowed to be as mean as I want to whoever I want. But make sure you permanently ban everyone who is mean to me because that's bad.

    • Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, I’m the only one that people shouldn’t be mean to.

      (This is a joke if it wasn’t obvious >.>)

  • Didn't know about this community, just read the description to understand its title, and I immediately thought that it was going to be a trolling mess. So my first thinking is that you created a banquet for trolls, and now you're dealing with the consequences. Do you have the magic mental power to deal with this?
    If yes, then I would make it very clear from the beginning in the rules that uncivil discussion will be moderated, that continuous incivility will lead to a 1-day ban and that attempts to bypass the temporary ban will lead to a permanent ban.
    Get ready for motivated trolls spending days creating new accounts to harass your authority, or you, after they have been banned.

  • I find it hilarious that every single time I've been admonished about civil conduct, it's because I'm reacting to a bunch of assclowns who somehow evade any oversight.

    maybe start taking the reports as self indicators?

  • Tiny one-day bans are barely a slap on the wrist, which some people need to help them cool off. The usual caveats apply like perhaps driver a warning first and all of that, but obviously depending on severity you may not want to wait for that to develop further, at which point a quick ban along with explanation should at least, again, allow them the time they need to cool down.

    • You'd be surprised how seriously people take even a 1-day ban. There's a lot of ND people in these comms who feel passionately about their position, and you can easily hit someone with RSD or with ASD and get a bad reaction. I try to tread lightly because I know how these peeps can be affected but it cannot always be helped unless people have already internalized you're not trying to power-tip but to maintain civility.

      • Yeah that's a good counterpoint to consider. I think one of the issues is that the only way to implement such is a "ban", which is kind of a scary word. If it were called a "time-out", to "cool off", it could be taken differently, while to call it a "ban" seems so much more serious.

        Perhaps a message delivered to them directly, e.g. as a reply, could allow them to see that first rather than just stumble upon the modlog entry later. But I'm not certain how those work: can the recipient still access the community in read-only mode to see that, and is the button to reply greyed out or could they type a long reply but then not be able to deliver it, thereby generating frustration?

        And ultimately it's a juggling act: how to handle the needs of individual new (or old) contributors who want to be free to speak, while also showing consideration for those who may not enjoy what the community becomes whenever the former crowd are allowed free reign to do so.

        In Reddit we had similar issues of a community trying to be all things to all people. Post flairs helped a bit, like people could literally filter out those that they did not want (e.g., "yet another Lemmy.ml site-wide ban"). Perhaps you could go the route of offering a megathread, allowing people to post such as comments rather than making full posts? Though it was always an eternal struggle to get people to pay attention to such - like just about every single new post to r/Android was always "which phone should I buy", even despite the two other posts within the last hour asking the identical question (perhaps mods removed those, in which case the problem was even more intense as those were simply the ones that made it through the cracks).

        But whatever you do, please make it clear in the sidebar what the desires are for the community so that people are aware prior to posting. Like right now it reads to me as being receptive to all instances of potential power tripping mods, similar to AITAH.

        You have a keen mind. I trust you to find a vision for the community that you are comfortable with, that will be compatible with what can be implemented in Lemmy:-).

  • Rather than going straight to bans (except for egregious trolling, or repeat offenders) I think that maybe removing off-topic discussion threads in their entirety is probably the way to go. If they are discussing something that isn't directly related to the OPs original complaint, then it's off topic imo. That would cover 90% of the problem. Personally, I don't mind some strong language and argumentation so long as it's about the actual topic. While I know drama isn't everyone's jam, it can be entertaining for some folks. And I agree with @neurospice@lemmy.dbzer0.com that maybe a 24 hour or 48 hour post lock rule would also be helpful so people aren't going back to dredge up drama again in older posts, while still allowing time for folks to discuss the issue?

97 comments