Fixing the problems with the forums and trolls

[smithy]

I don't post on a.org very often, but I do read it everyday.  What annoys me most about the forums is:

1.  People using HTML in their posts - often enormous images, which also appear in people's replies to the offending post.

2.  People posting garbage like "this is my 4000th post".  I think this is the worst kind of crapflooding.

3.  People posting stuff for the sake of it, that doesn't actually say anything.

What I'd like to stay in the Talk-about forums:

1.  People posting stuff about their lives - like finishing uni & wondering what to do next, just been dumped, planning a travel adventure, etc...  Amigans still have lives outside their Amiga-ish systems and some of these threads have been interesting reading and had some insightful replies.

2.  Politics.  Apart from "FluffyMcDeath"'s never ending and tiresome crusade against the United States (this loon also used to have a picture of a 20-year old Saddam Hussein on his avatar).  I've read some interesting threads about politics with an international flavour that you don't always find in Murdoch's finest.

If you're having trouble with your moderators, then I'd be quite happy to volunteer.  I'm well qualified because I am not allied with either side (I was indepdently classified as a "freelance/general troll" on ANN!).  I am definately not a name-follower, and I won't be putting up with any stupid picture-threads, threads about people bragging that they've posted 3 million pieces of ####, I don't get power-crazed, I'm not a patronising twit (like a certain other moderator here is), and I'm not about to fall in love with either side.

Waiting in anticipation  :-D

-smithy

[smithy]

Oh... and people posting jokes;  NO! :-x

[smithy]

Glaucus wrote:

1. People using HTML in their posts - often enormous images, which also appear in people's replies to the offending post.

Why shouldn't people take advantage of the World Wide Web when posting on a web forum?!? Perhaps we should turn A.org into a telnet/gopher server then?!?

No, but I don't particularly want to open a thread and find the page contains multiple links to enormous images on other servers and are displayed many times because people include them in their replies.  It messes up the layout of the site when large images when people include them in their replies.

2. People posting garbage like "this is my 4000th post". I think this is the worst kind of crapflooding.

It's called a right of passage. It's goofy, no argument there, but at the same time it's good to (self) honor those long time users of Amiga.org, with which without there would not BE an Amiga.org.

No it's not.  Surely any right of passage is how long you have been on the site, and how much of a contribution you make.  Getting a high post-count is NOT any indication of status or a right of passage.

3. People posting stuff for the sake of it, that doesn't actually say anything.

Well that's highly subjective. Communication is always good. I'm surprised people are so anal about this crap-flooding BS. Personally, I think it livens things up a bit. I mean, A.org is full of wacky characters, many of which I strongly disagree with, while others I'm indifferent with, but I'd never want to see anyone be removed. If someone's a goof, well, the world is full of goofs and that tells me that even goofs have a role to play.

It's boring to see crapflooding - for example, I've seen threads where people post nothing but smilies.  It doesn't add character, it's not charming and it doesn't say anything.  It's a waste of my bandwidth.  Incidentally, it's interesting that you, with your 2,500+ posts, are defending the right to posts that "liven" things up (i.e. crapflooding).

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2. Politics. Apart from "FluffyMcDeath"'s never ending and tiresome crusade against the United States (this loon also used to have a picture of a 20-year old Saddam Hussein on his avatar).

One man's loon is another man's straight talker. However it seems you're perfectly fine with personal attacks (perhaps you should have made that point number 3). How charming.
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What I wrote is more interesting than yet another (yawn) anti-American tirade - and these aren't one-off posts, it seems to be campaign.  First it bored me, then it irrirated me, now it makes me pissed off.  To the point where I wrote what impression he gives me.  If someone sets out on this kind of campaign on an computer website than what else do they expect when people get annoyed about it.