Moderator Feature: Ability to ban particular members from a thread.

[ElectroMaster]

Usually when a thread gets derailed or goes off topic its from a single person.. I think this would be a great idea and I'm going to try to figure out how to implement it.

How difficult would it be to ban members from participating in individual threads, while leaving them free to post in other threads?

This idea is not new, it has effectively been placed on me for one particular member here (for which I thank the moderators, to be honest), though no actual software has been implemented. Would it be too hard for EM to add the feature to the site? Allowing moderators to ban individual members from individual threads?

Just a thought....

Matt

Please show your support for this feature by replying.

 

[dougy83]

Sounds like a good feature, but would it be more appropriate for the OP to be able to perform this task?

 

[ericgibbs]

Sounds like a good feature, but would it be more appropriate for the OP to be able to perform this task?

Hi EM,

I would agree with 'dougy83', we do have a similar option on chat to where a member can choose to 'ignore' a fellow member.

A method could be an 'ignore button', that alerted Moderation to the OP's request, supported by a reason why the OP is requesting the action.

A Moderator would raise a Dispute Thread to the ignored member explaining why his posts are being blocked/deleted from the Thread

Eric

 

[atferrari]

KISS - Moderators only.

The idea that the OP is the "owner" of the thread, I do not like really, much less the OP being able to exclude anyone. It's just the originator to me.

If moderators have sometimes difficulties to judge on what to do, imagine someone that is emotionally involved simply because he is the OP. No to speak if what he said is wrong or objectionable.

To be honest, sometimes I find hard to tell the difference between moderation and censorship as practiced in two of the three forums I frequent. Whatever is that, common members should not mess with it.

Eventually, let the OP to ask the Mod to do something. More or less what Eric suggests.

 

[jpanhalt]

I agree with atferrari. I think exclusion of a member for comments that are not otherwise an offense worthy of banning is a terrible idea, regardless of who applies that exclusion.

Moreover, there are acceptable alternatives. That is, moderation can remove off-topic comments or other inappropriate comments, such as baiting. Or, if the OP is that sensitive, he can create a private thread.

John

 

[DerStrom8]

As stated in one of the posts following the original regarding this idea, I don't know if giving OPs full control would be a good idea. Take a member we had a while ago, k******s. If he had control over who could respond to his threads, he would have banned just about everyone who responded. I feel if the OP was given control, in many cases the power would be abused. It would make much more sense to me if the OP could just request that a moderator ban a specific member, and if they gave a good reason then the mod could do so. However, I do understand that this would make more work for the moderators, so I suppose it's completely up to you.

Regards,
Matt

 

[Ian Rogers]

I'm okay with it.... It will stop some bickering.....

Although I always maintain that this "Open Forum" has the ability for the opinions from everyone... Suppressing that is like the big brother syndrome.....

 

[DerStrom8]

I'm okay with it.... It will stop some bickering.....

Although I always maintain that this "Open Forum" has the ability for the opinions from everyone... Suppressing that is like the big brother syndrome.....

One can provide his or her opinions in a polite and reasonable manner without causing disturbance among the members. Once they start posting just for the sake of argument, for example, or start flaming, that is when the proposed ban would be put into effect. When I first suggested it I did not mean that a person should be banned even just for disagreeing with the OP. The idea was that it would stop major arguments or otherwise non-constructive forms of "conversation" from taking place, without the OP having to lose his or her thread. Closing a thread because of two members, neither of which are the OP, is often not a very good idea IMO. It could mean shutting down an excellent thread in which dozens of our esteemed members have contributed, simply because two members (neither of which is the OP) decided they didn't like the way the other said something. The banning of individual members from specific threads would have the same criteria as a regular ban (if name-calling, coarse language, flaming, etc began to appear), only it would be less restrictive. There are some threads that simply get on my nerves and bring out my bad side. Ian, I know you and Eric have both seen this, and imposed a similar, though not physical, ban on me. To be honest, it's working for me. Some members here are very helpful in 99.9% of threads, and just one or two pop up that they lose themselves in and things get out of hand. Why ban them permanently for those one or two threads if they're perfectly reasonable and appropriate in all the others?

Okay, I stretched this out a bit further than I thought I would, I guess I was responding to some of the posts in the original thread (where the idea was first proposed). That's all for now

Regards,
Matt

 

[ericgibbs]

Some members here are very helpful in 99.9% of threads, and just one or two pop up that they lose themselves in and things get out of hand. Why ban them permanently for those one or two threads if they're perfectly reasonable and appropriate in all the others?

hi Matt,

No one has suggested a permanent Banning of a member for being Off Topic.

The proposal is to have a method for the OP to request to Moderation, that a member who is deliberately pulling his thread 'Off Topic', to be prevented from making further posts to that particular Thread.

Each request from an OP would be considered by Moderation before any action was taken to block another member from posting to that particular Thread.

Personally I would say the blocking option is a good idea after seeing how some members are using an OP's simple request for help on a specific Topic point, so that they can argue ad infinitum about some minute detail of the Topic.

Eric

 

[jpanhalt]

The proposal is to have a method for the OP to request to Moderation, that a member who is deliberately pulling his thread 'Off Topic', to be prevented from making further posts to that particular Thread.

Each request from an OP would be considered by Moderation before any action was taken to block another member from posting to that particular thread.

Eric

Isn't that what the "report post" button does? Has a member ever ignored a request by moderation not to participate in a thread?

Sounds like this change will solve a problem that doesn't exist.

It seemed to me that the original suggestion was to allow the OP to have more direct control over such exclusions. That is what I object to so strongly.

John

 

[DerStrom8]

hi Matt,

No one has suggested a permanent Banning of a member for being Off Topic.

The proposal is to have a method for the OP to request to Moderation, that a member who is deliberately pulling his thread 'Off Topic', to be prevented from making further posts to that particular Thread.

Each request from an OP would be considered by Moderation before any action was taken to block another member from posting to that particular Thread.

Personally I would say the blocking option is a good idea after seeing how some members are using an OP's simple request for help on a specific Topic point, so that they can argue ad infinitum about some minute detail of the Topic.

Eric

Hi Eric,

I guess in a way you're right, in that this feature would be used to keep the thread on-topic. But my original idea was to keep the thread from being closed because of flaming, arguing, name-calling, etc. Sure, that's off-topic, but it's a bit more than that.

It seemed to me that the original suggestion was to allow the OP to have more direct control over such exclusions. That is what I object to so strongly.

John

Being the person who originally suggested this, I'd like to point out that I've been arguing against the underlined portion above all along.

Regards,
Matt

 

[ericgibbs]

Isn't that what the "report post" button does? Has a member ever ignored a request by moderation not to participate in a thread?

Sounds like this change will solve a problem that doesn't exist.

It seemed to me that the original suggestion was to allow the OP to have more direct control over such exclusions. That is what I object to so strongly.

John

To the best of my knowledge no OP has ever used the 'report post' to ask that another member be 'barred' from posting to his Thread.?

When we do get reports from a member, concerning other types of complaints, we act upon it as appropriate.

I agree that the OP should not be allowed to directly block a fellow member from a Thread, but request Moderation to do so.

 

[jpanhalt]

I agree that the OP should not be allowed to directly block a fellow member from a Thread, but request Moderation to do so.

Given that, what needs to be changed?

As for whether OP's (or anyone else for that matter) have asked for another member to be "barred," I think that is drawing too fine a line between objecting to a particular post and asking that it be removed versus "barring" the poster of such a post.

Is the dialog on this forum to be so perfect that a single transgression should result in barring, versus simply and more politely removing the offending post?

John

 

[ericgibbs]

Given that, what needs to be changed?

As for whether OP's (or anyone else for that matter) have asked for another member to be "barred," I think that is drawing too fine a line between objecting to a particular post and asking that it be removed versus "barring" the poster of such a post.

Is the dialog on this forum to be so perfect that a single transgression should result in barring, versus simply and more politely removing the offending post?

John

hi John,
With respect I believe you are misunderstanding or misreading ElectroMasters original post.

What I am saying is, for an Off Topic 'offending' member, the OP could request Moderation to consider blocking the offending member from making posts to that particular Thread, stating a good reason why.

No Ban of the offending the member, just a 'block' of any further posts from him to that particular Thread.

If a blocking action is taken by Moderation against a member it will done using a personal Disputes thread to the offending member.

Given that, what needs to be changed?

What needs to be changed is that threads cannot be hijacked by members who want to pursue esoteric arguments about details the OP has not requested help.

At the moment the 'report' option is to cover posts which are deemed offence in some way.

If ElectroMaster decides that the 'report' option should also cover 'Off Topic' arguments that do not help the OP, then this is what will happen.

Is this clear.?

Eric

 

[jpanhalt]

Yes, it is clear, which is why I used the word "bar," not "ban."

The report function is defined as,

Note: This is ONLY to be used to report spam, advertising messages, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts.

I presumed, perhaps incorrectly, that "problematic" was not limited to just the examples given. If it is meant to be exclusive, maybe adding "off-topic" could be added to address the current proposal.

EM mentioned needing to do some reprogramming to effect the proposed solution. It seems to me that a simpler solution is at hand without a lot of reprogramming being needed.

Although there is now a very small difference in effect (i.e., warning the member vs. barring him from the thread), I would still prefer the warning as a first step.

Think of a hypothetical situation when the offending member drifts off-topic but still could have something significant and on-topic to contribute. One could easily consider something like that happening in the microcontroller forum. For example, someone could ask a question about Assembly, and a forum member makes a suggestion to use C. Arguably, that is off-topic and could result in barring according to the proposed rule. I think that action would be a gross over-reaction. At best, it should just be taken as a suggestion to the OP and considered as part of the usual banter in a thread. As an extreme, the member should just be warned.

One thing I have seen happen on another electronics forum is the development of a myriad of controls and buttons at the request of individuals. At least half of them are redundant. That has lead to confusion in how to use the forum's controls. Most important, some of the basic functions, such as "mark forums read" do not work with all browsers. It has made that forum quite cumbersome to use with Chrome. Let's be leery of setting up policies and procedures with unintended consequences.

John

 

[ericgibbs]

Although there is now a very small difference in effect (i.e., warning the member vs. barring him from the thread), I would still prefer the warning as a first step.

You still have not understood my post, so I will highlight what I consider should make it clearer.

What I am saying is, for an Off Topic 'offending' member, the OP could request Moderation to consider blocking the offending member from making posts to that particular Thread, stating a good reason why.

No Ban of the offending the member, just a 'block' of any further posts from him to that particular Thread.

If a blocking action is taken by Moderation against a member it will done using a personal Disputes thread to the offending member.

I expect ElectroMaster will reply to any other points you may raise.

E.

 

[jpanhalt]

Sorry, I apologize. In American English, "bar"(as an action) and "block" have much the same meaning.

John

 

[ericgibbs]

Sorry, I apologize. In American English, "bar"(as an action) and "block" have much the same meaning.

John

hi John,

You see, we are both supporting the same outcome, in a slightly different way.

Eric

 

[DerStrom8]

I am very confused about who is arguing what now....

Simply put, currently moderators do not have a way of preventing individual members from posting on specific threads, except perhaps by verbally asking them to stop posting there. My idea was to add a moderator feature that would allow them (the mods) to block any future posts from being made by these individual members.

And, if an OP feels that a member is dragging a thread off-topic or is beginning unnecessary arguments, they could request that the moderators block said members from making future posts. The OP would need a good reason, of course, and if the moderator agrees then the "ban" (actually "block") from the thread would be put into effect.

I'm hoping everyone is understanding this a little better now

Thanks to all of you for your consideration!
Best wishes,
Matt

 

[ericgibbs]

hi,
As far as I am aware there was no misunderstanding or arguing about the need for a method of preventing an an 'offending' member from posting to a specific thread.?

The only problem John and I had was with the terminology of the US and UK about the meaning of certain words being used.

All you have done is repeat what I have already said in Post #16.

E