How do you feel about 'other toxic discussions' on this forum?

[neptronix]

I'd like to collect your feedback on how you feel about OTD. Please vote in the poll and leave any comments you may have.

Please leave debates about certain personalities in OTD out of the discussion, i'll delete those because this is an information collecting post, not a flame war.

[wineboyrider]

Nep. It's one of the only reasons I am still here.. lol

[Chalo]

On a slow day, that's definitely where most of the action is. I think it helps keep the on-topic parts of the forum somewhat more on-topic than they might be otherwise.

[Dauntless]

Yeah, I'm probably the only person you'll hear any indignation from, the rest are quite at home with the mudslinging. Of all things, the guy posts the statement from Popper on complete tolerance so often leading to NO tolerance. I always see a few things need to be capped no matter how free with it you wish to be. Letting it go 100% (And you HAVEN'T. Rumme, Bluto, etc.) would never work, cleaning up a little might be good.

If there was any way to put an end to the multiple identities. My own experience is the more names a person has, the worse their behavior in any they don't consider their real self. (I mean I realize there are those who love being hateful in their OWN name, but most people don't.) I realize those clever enough can post with an IP in another state and it's probably impossible to track. Don't know the real answer for it. But I really dislike the anonymous board entity where you can just see someone dancing around over their "Cuteness" with the deliberate antagonizing people for no other reason than they don't care if their particular name gets banned anyway. (I'm sure you never noticed.)

Sometimes I wonder why that 'Wind Solar Nuclear' thread hasn't found its' way over there. But I wonder at a few whose behavior could be WORSE if it WAS there. Maybe knowing you might bounce it there holds them back at least a little.

[pickworthi]

It is quite amusing watching white USA males telling other people what to do in absolute terms, and then having an aneurysm when they *think* someone might tell them what to do.

[ZeroEm]

I think it helps keeping topics more on topic, if not you could not say "take it over to toxic".
Like that 'Wind Solar Nuclear' thread, some good info. Maybe better than a Novel?

[nicobie]

On a slow day, that's definitely where most of the action is. I think it helps keep the on-topic parts of the forum somewhat more on-topic than they might be otherwise.

I think it helps keeping topics more on topic, if not you could not say "take it over to toxic".
Like that 'Wind Solar Nuclear' thread, some good info. Maybe better than a Novel?

Nep. It's one of the only reasons I am still here.. lol

Like, Like and Like

[MJSfoto1956]

I like that OTD no longer shows up under "New Posts" -- a big improvement IMHO in usability and separating the wheat from the chaff.

[nicobie]

Just so google bots and the like are kept away, I don't think it's hurting the owners reputation any and it's a good way for some to let off steam.

One thing that would be useful for the Mods that I wish was available when I was a mod on a couple of contentious boards would be a tool that a mod (or maybe best, an administrator) could use to force a member to ignore another member. It would be used on both of the members at the same time. For example, I would not see Dauntless' posts and he would not see mine. This MIGHT work to slow down the insults and other crap. I think it would be worth a try if at all possible. However, some might think it overbearing.

[neptronix]

I like that OTD no longer shows up under "New Posts" -- a big improvement IMHO in usability and separating the wheat from the chaff.

Yeah i recently did that, given that this is the last phpBB update we will have. I literally just hacked that feature into the code.
OTD will show up in 'your posts' or in searches etc, but it's sort of.. let's say, quarantined off from the average joe user.

During winter, OTD can be the most active place on this forum and i don't want new users getting the wrong idea about what this place is for.

Just so google bots and the like are kept away, I don't think it's hurting the owners reputation any and it's a good way for some to let off steam.

We've had OTD on 'invisible to web crawlers' for quite a while, thankfully.

One thing that would be useful for the Mods that I wish was available when I was a mod on a couple of contentious boards would be a tool that a mod (or maybe best, an administrator) could use to force a member to ignore another member. It would be used on both of the members at the same time. For example, I would not see Dauntless' posts and he would not see mine. This MIGHT work to slow down the insults and other crap. I think it would be worth a try if at all possible. However, some might think it overbearing.

This hasn't been really possible on phpBB but.. i am going to put it on the 'wants' list, if our new system makes it possible to do.

[nicobie]

Thank you. Sounds interesting, cant wait.

Sounds kind of like www.badgerandblade.com

This is the most well run forum I've run across in a while. It's a bit overmoderated and way too strict on their marketplace, but as it's pretty busy it might be necessary.

They do their photos a bit different. They have a gallery.

[markz]

Winter and Covid makes for lots of time for the spammers to get in, but its really not that bad. I just noticed theres a little more spammers around, doing their advertising and posting in whatever language.

[Dauntless]

What you should have is automatically no access to OTD if you have ANY use of ignore. Obviously you don't belong in their if you're too delicate. BANG! Hit the ignore button once and you ignore ALL of OTD, as adult society and the U.S. Constitution intended.

[gogo]

Its a useful place for discretionary material, and more useful than fun.

[neptronix]

Sounds kind of like www.badgerandblade.com

This is the most well run forum I've run across in a while. It's a bit overmoderated and way too strict on their marketplace, but as it's pretty busy it might be necessary.

They do their photos a bit different. They have a gallery.

Interesting forum setup. They have a nice array of related topics. Perhaps that's something to emulate in ES 2.0.

I was immediately appalled by the covid-19 posting warning. I wonder if that's them being overprotective, or it's a mitigation against a real problem ( IE their users trend -20 IQ points versus here ).

I suppose we are lucky here. We only have a few village idiots, and a lot of critical thinkers. This is part of why looser moderation works well here.

When i ran endless sphere facebook, the IQ and emotional maturity level was much much lower than here. We had to ban discussion of politics also also put a hard segregation between commercial and DIY/individual activity. As the group grew, it became harder to moderate due to FB's format. I didn't like that there was a disconnect between how ES FB had to be moderated vs here.

[neptronix]

It seems that most people are OK with / see value in OTD thus far. I'll continue to run this poll because i want more less frequent posters to chime in with their opinions.

And now for my take.

My issue with OTD is that there's a few personalities who make discussing things like politics in any rational way impossible because they are constantly stirring the pot and provoking other people. It is a majority of what they do on this forum.

This is called trolling on any other place on the internet. And seen as distasteful and unwanted on everwhere except perhaps 4chan.

I think OTD sucks for this reason.

[nicobie]

I think OTD sucks for this reason.

Seeing as how shit always runs downhill, Maybe we should rename it the Basement.

P.S. I'm really trying to limit my input down there. I am only replying to posters I kind of respect. I guess you'd call it self-moderation. Maybe I haven't been doing too good, but damn-it, I'm trying.

[LeftieBiker]

It seems that you are being flooded with spam - some of it in cyrillic, I think. I have no desire to moderate at another forum, but if you want help deleting spam and spammers, PM me, or tell me here. That was how I started at the Leaf forum. I'm up literally all night, so I was able to at least get the spam under control until we went to early post moderation (which I still think you should adopt here).

[neptronix]

It seems that you are being flooded with spam - some of it in cyrillic, I think. I have no desire to moderate at another forum, but if you want help deleting spam and spammers, PM me, or tell me here. That was how I started at the Leaf forum. I'm up literally all night, so I was able to at least get the spam under control until we went to early post moderation (which I still think you should adopt here).

Thank you for your offer, i'll keep in mind for the future. I sent some info to the mod team that highlights some modifications they can make for the time being. We've got it for now.

[LeftieBiker]

No problem. Just remember that most spammers can now spoof IP addresses, so the most effective approach is to ban them by user ID, by email, and by IP. It's as much a PITA as it sounds.

[jonescg]

I think it helps keeping topics more on topic, if not you could not say "take it over to toxic".
Like that 'Wind Solar Nuclear' thread, some good info. Maybe better than a Novel?

That thread has a life of its own. An interesting exercise in the subtle art of persuasion, or not, as the case may be...

I do like the idea that politics, religion, sex and drugs are in a separate room though. I tried it once or twice, but didn't inhale

[neptronix]

No problem. Just remember that most spammers can now spoof IP addresses, so the most effective approach is to ban them by user ID, by email, and by IP. It's as much a PITA as it sounds.

AFAIK you can spoof an IP address but you can't get the responses to your spoofed IP address back to your real one so easily.
Spoofing is now mostly used in DDOS attacks.

[LeftieBiker]

No problem. Just remember that most spammers can now spoof IP addresses, so the most effective approach is to ban them by user ID, by email, and by IP. It's as much a PITA as it sounds.

AFAIK you can spoof an IP address but you can't get the responses to your spoofed IP address back to your real one so easily.
Spoofing is now mostly used in DDOS attacks.

They don't need responses to go to a spoofed IP. They spoof the IP to post, and post a link to another site entirely in that post.

[neptronix]

True, but our system bans based on the login IP, not the post IP. With logins, you need to receive a cookie.. so there must be a packet sent back to a correct address.

Same with signups.. usually the same IP address doing the signups is doing the logging in. You want to see a packet back during login too.

There's lots of low hanging fruit ways to defeat these spammers. But we are not committed to PhpBB anymore so it is not worth the time to write code to mitigate that since the problem isn't horrendously bad. On our next platform, spam control will be a priority. And we have at least one other guy here who writes PHP code who can perhaps pull the heavy lifting there.

[DanGT86]

I am in the "fun sometimes but mostly here for the bike stuff" camp. Unfortunately because I posted in one of the busiest OTD threads its now always at the top of my Quick Links-my posts- link. Is there a way to remove stuff from that list? I like being able to check on that thread but hate the fact that any time I click my posts I always have that monster thread staring me in the face at the top of my list. When I want to step away from the news and read about bikes its always there dragging me back in.

I also totally agree that having a separate place for OTD threads really helps. I have had heated discussion with members on that thread and posted totally productively with them on the bike side of things moments later. I love the off limits nature of keeping them separated. It really helps the bike content stay clean.