Let's make no mistake about it, the performance by some members has been shameful the past few days. Those members have been suspended indefinitely, along with warnings placed on the accounts of some others. There are also a few members guilty of harassment.

It stops, now. Get off your high horses and get over yourselves.

What an absolute disgrace.

I was driving from Sydney to Brisbane at the time, sorry I was unable to catch it sooner,

Let's make no mistake about it, the performance by some members has been shameful the past few days. Those members have been suspended indefinitely, along with warnings placed on the accounts of some others. There are also a few members guilty of harassment.

It stops, now. Get off your high horses and get over yourselves.

What an absolute disgrace.

I was driving from Sydney to Brisbane at the time, sorry I was unable to catch it sooner,

Thanks Coral, it was a pleasure to log back in this morning and see the forums back to normal, well nearly normal there are still some spam posts that need deleting from the board but I am sure you will get around to cleaning them up.

Cheers

Mav

Coral,

Why is it that BrownPixel is permitted to engage in trolling activities on this forum?

Members here have been reacting due to his deliberate baiting, agressive and disruptive posts. Even yesterday he has started a new thread along the same trolling lines yet this behaviour is tolerated?

BP is a writer for a magazine in new zealand, and frequently posts on its associated forum (audioenz) however there his posts are heavily moderated (including being previously banned) - no doubt he is cut some slack due to his professional relationship with the magazine/forum.

BP has a long history on the general internet of trolling in many forums, I provided proof of this in another thread (subsequently deleted). His behaviour here on DBA is the worst I have seen yet his posts remain unmoderated here which simply encourages him to behave in this highly disruptive manner.

This issue appears to have started with BP agressively criticisng foxtail, then after this went unmoderated BP began several other threads deliberatly baiting argument - for no constructive purpose - again these remained unmoderated.

Regular members were aware of BP's trolling nature and generally ignored his baited and loaded threads - however several new forum members - unaware of BP's disruptive intentions began engaging in debates with him. Little did they realise they were wasting their time and effort in trying to 'help' or discuss what they believed to be a problem or issue BP was having. BP of course has no intention of engaging in this type of constructive discussion, rather simply baits the new member, quoting obscure technical facts and providing deliberatly misleading information aimed to confuse the new member such that BP could attack and/or belittle them.

Regular Members began warning new members as to BP's intentions in an attempt to preserve the generally construcitve and helpful nature of the DBA forum community. BP again baited the regular members into hostile discussion until they became so frustrated their posts breached the forum guidelines and the threads were closed - thus destroying the chain of evidence and allowing BP to begin again.

A vicious circle was thus formed - BP starts a deliberate hostile thread, members try to reason with BP, discussion degrades BP's posts being unmoderated, the thread is then reported and threads deleted.

From my perspective there are two ways to resolve this.

1. Moderate or ban BP and his miriad of aliases which he has abused this forum under for the past months.

2. Ban the regular members whom are trying to preserve the good nature of the DBA forum community.

I'd also suggest amending the forum guidelines/rules to include not tolerating threads of a trolling nature or members that deliberatly troll such that future occurances can be dealt with swiftly before the forum is degraded again to this point.

Regards,

Bitey

Even in his supposed apology (that has since been deleted), Max admitted to baiting and inciting members.

What more evidence do we need of who is the guilty party here!

I agree completely with everything Mr.Bitey has just said - Mike R was provoked to unreasonable levels imo and was merely trying to warn the newer members to "not feed the troll".

Banning Mike R instead of "Blown Pixel"/"Mojo Man"/"LCD Fan" is a miscarriage of forum justice.

Derek J Osborn.

EDIT: one only needs to look at this thread to see the troll (Blown Pixel) at work: http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=34671&st=0

Coral,

Why is it that BrownPixel is permitted to engage in trolling activities on this forum?

Members here have been reacting due to his deliberate baiting, agressive and disruptive posts. Even yesterday he has started a new thread along the same trolling lines yet this behaviour is tolerated?

BP is a writer for a magazine in new zealand, and frequently posts on its associated forum (audioenz) however there his posts are heavily moderated (including being previously banned) - no doubt he is cut some slack due to his professional relationship with the magazine/forum.

BP has a long history on the general internet of trolling in many forums, I provided proof of this in another thread (subsequently deleted). His behaviour here on DBA is the worst I have seen yet his posts remain unmoderated here which simply encourages him to behave in this highly disruptive manner.

This issue appears to have started with BP agressively criticisng foxtail, then after this went unmoderated BP began several other threads deliberatly baiting argument - for no constructive purpose - again these remained unmoderated.

Regular members were aware of BP's trolling nature and generally ignored his baited and loaded threads - however several new forum members - unaware of BP's disruptive intentions began engaging in debates with him. Little did they realise they were wasting their time and effort in trying to 'help' or discuss what they believed to be a problem or issue BP was having. BP of course has no intention of engaging in this type of constructive discussion, rather simply baits the new member, quoting obscure technical facts and providing deliberatly misleading information aimed to confuse the new member such that BP could attack and/or belittle them.

Regular Members began warning new members as to BP's intentions in an attempt to preserve the generally construcitve and helpful nature of the DBA forum community. BP again baited the regular members into hostile discussion until they became so frustrated their posts breached the forum guidelines and the threads were closed - thus destroying the chain of evidence and allowing BP to begin again.

A vicious circle was thus formed - BP starts a deliberate hostile thread, members try to reason with BP, discussion degrades BP's posts being unmoderated, the thread is then reported and threads deleted.

From my perspective there are two ways to resolve this.

1. Moderate or ban BP and his miriad of aliases which he has abused this forum under for the past months.

2. Ban the regular members whom are trying to preserve the good nature of the DBA forum community.

I'd also suggest amending the forum guidelines/rules to include not tolerating threads of a trolling nature or members that deliberatly troll such that future occurances can be dealt with swiftly before the forum is degraded again to this point.

Regards,

Bitey

Simple! You are an adult! You understand TROLL behaviour!!!!

Don't FEED TROLLS!!!

Or do you advocate Strong Censorship?

Thankyou Coral

It is very heartening to see that those responsible for the recent issues have been dealt with/warned.

Looking forward to see the forum focus again on digital tv and its associated issues.

Regards Glen

Thankyou Coral

It is very heartening to see that those responsible for the recent issues have been dealt with/warned.

Looking forward to see the forum focus again on digital tv and its associated issues.

Regards Glen

Glenn, the problem is that the person causing all the trouble has actually got off scott free and is on at least his 3rd (that we know about) alias - Mike R on the other hand has always just been Mike R!

Glenn, the problem is that the person causing all the trouble has actually got off scott free and is on at least his 3rd (that we know about) alias - Mike R on the other hand has always just been Mike R!

Djos in some ways I agree but continuing the arguements and flame baiting does not improving the standing of these forums nor contribure to their aim of discussing digital tv and associated technologies.

Use the report button, I have already reported the new aliases for several individuals to the administrators and suggest that you do the same. Hopefully the administrator can use some IP tracking technology to prevent banned users from just re-inventing themselves.

The recent member behaviour is just unacceptable and not what I would expect from supposably mature adults.

If you have a problem with a member or their posts then either ignore them/it or report them or the post to the administrator for action.

Irrespective of whether Mike got too harsh a penalty, or whether Max is now sitting back laughing at people's successful self-lynching attempts, it can't be argued that it wasn't blindingly clear to the offenders that playing with fire may well leave them burnt.

Toey, MarkH and Co get way too worked up over trolling, and end up looking the worse for it.

Mike loses control.

Mello acts like Mello.

And valuable members continue to desert the forum.

If people are going to treat it as a kindergarten, then expect to be treated like misbehaving kids! (Which also means that you act like a 4 year old, and your arguments will have as much impact as a 4 year old's.)

As readers of this post would know, I favour (comparatively) minimalist moderation, which requires self-control and accepting the ump's decisions, even if you don't agree with them all.

(And, yes, I am disappointed that none of the "trouble makers" took up my repeated offers to "take it to the ClayPit". If they had, maybe things would have turned out differently. You'd still have your soapbox to shout from, but you wouldn't be annoying everyone who didn't give a ratz.)

IMFFHO, of course!

NB: Members who repeatedly flout behavioural warnings should look long & hard at themselves when they cause the loss of freedoms and priveleges for all ... preferably before engaging in repeat offending!

DO NOT FEED TROLLS

Is a familiar bit of advice sure.......but.......what makes a troll a troll is his ability to invoke an emotional response. Not everyone is going to react as rationally as others to being baited.

I agree totally with everything mr.bitey has said and some of these trolls are not as easily identifiable as you would think.

What everyone is forgetting is that Mike and other members may not have had as much control over their emotions as someone who may be more detached from the discussion. Actually as proof of this you only had to quickly gaze over some of the threads to realise this guy was upsetting just about everyone involved with the "discussions". There were very rare messages of support which were even ultimaly publicly retracted as well.

Santas points regarding childish behaviour is not far off the mark either however people must bear in mind that we are all the victims of this repulsive spineless form of baiting behaviour.

Mike expressed an emotion and a reaction to a mate being hammered by this simple dickhead. His reaction may or may not have been over the top but what must be considered is what drove Mike to resort to spamming the forum when our safeguards against equivalent behaviour seemed to momentarily be lacking.

I really sincerely hope that if Mike has been banned (excessively I believe) that the catalyst of all this has been sent packing back to New Zealand where he can now tell his mates we wont stand for any of his baiting over here.

I also dont believe excessive moderation is the answer either because these types dont become obvious for a while.....as mr.bitey points out......Communuity Mentality is the key I reckon.

This forum is huge.......and it can survive this without any dramas.

Regards

mello yello

MLF (Mike Liberation Front)

I think it's ridiculous that the only person being punished is the one that's been trying to keep the forum intact. Sure, his methods were unorthodox, spamming the entire forum with his warnings, but to allow the other party get away scott free is completely unjust.

A public warning should have sufficed, and if they continued abusing each other on the forum, that's when the punishment should have kicked in.

Personally, I've had my own share of tiffs with certain members of the forum. Generally, I don't lash out at them in the view of the public. If a certain member continually disagrees with me, I don't report them or act in a childish manner either. No, I politely inform them via PM that their behaviour will not be tolerated if they choose to continue, or I continue the discussion with evidence, which usually ends after one or two informative PMs. Both myself and the certain member usually end up agreeing to disagree and we just forget about it and move on.

It's a system that has always worked for myself and the parties involved, and it most certainly helps keep the forum clean.

btw, Santa, I'm not really gone, I just don't show up as often anymore

Guys what is the point of this poll in the HT forum? Why do these OT subjects keep draggin their childish attitudes into the regular DBA viewing public? It appears Corals actions have gone somewhat unheard? It's a bit hard for people to 'move on' when thist stuff keeps showing up in the wrong place.

Simple! You are an adult! You understand TROLL behaviour!!!!

Indeed I can, however a lot of inexperienced (forum wise) new members cannot. Im sure the entire idea of someone deliberatly behaving as Ive described is alien to them and furthest from their mind when they come here to seek advice, help or to have a discussion leading to a positive outcome with a forum member whom they assume to be here for similar reasons.

Don't FEED TROLLS!!!

Or do you advocate Strong Censorship?

Its easy to say do not feed the trolls - however new members do not know what a troll is, let alone whom is one here. I most certainly do not advocate strong censorship, I do however believe that individuals whom have a focus on trolling, continually troll should be removed.

Have any of BP's posts actually been about digital television?? BP's focus is on trolling using his knowledge to pervert the course of what would otherwise be reasonable discussion by reasonable forum members.

Regards,

Bitey

Just because someone may be a new user here doesn't guarantee that they are new to forums or forum ettiquite though now does it?

I hardly think that's a reasonable excuse, many of those that were feeding the trolls were the supposedly more experienced members anyway.

Sure there may have been the odd question thrown out by those that were none the wiser but it was the seasoned members that were getting into the name calling that dragged things down to new lows, trying to justify this behaviour by saying that it is to protect those unknowing newbies is a bit hard to take seriously.

I'm not sure when the forum police were appointed that decided that they needed to deal out the justice around the place.

Reasonable moderation would be a preferable option in future.

Guys - just move on. There are far more important things in life to get worked up about.

Consider, if you will:

*Troll enters and posts a set-up piece, waiting for both the unwary victim and the anti-troll brigade to bite;

Now, one of two outcomes:

EITHER:

*Victim bites, and troll sets the trap and/or AT brigade enters and starts spoiling for a fight; Followed by Fight On; Gets ugly, spills into various threads; Everyone ends up looking like a turkey.

OR:

*AT brigade has learnt its lesson; Reports trolling attempt if warranted or simply posts "The above resembles a troll's trap. Please be warned. If offended by responses, please use report button" and leaves the thread.

So - rather than "saving" new members from hostilities by waging all-out warfare across the forum - taking prompt, yet limited, action, and withdrawing from the thread, would isolate the troll and limit casualties.

Again, IMFFHO!

Santa, you are obviously an intelligent and reasonable man. Well said.

Santa, originally I thought you were only good for one day per year, I now realise what you do the other 364 days of the year, nice suggestion Mr Kringle

Santa,

The problem is that there is no mechanism through which the moderators can act regarding trolling - this is what I suspect the troll has been using to its advantage in having all the anti-troll threads removed whilst the trolling threads remain.

And as for withdrawing from battle...

Cheers,

Bitey

And as for withdrawing from battle...

And that is what separates the REAL men from the chlidren - knowing WHEN to withdraw!!!

On the very few occasions that someone has made personal comments or attempted to engage me in a squabble, my response has been to ignore them. They don't like that. Oh! and it makes me feel very superior to boot!

EITHER:

*Victim bites, and troll sets the trap and/or AT brigade enters and starts spoiling for a fight; Followed by Fight On; Gets ugly, spills into various threads; Everyone ends up looking like a turkey.

Shame that this forum went down the 'Everyone ends up looking like a turkey' path.

Seriously, use the report button, I honestly wonder if anyone had bothered to report the offending posts prior to the board meltdown.

The moderators/administrators can only act if someone alerts them to a problem. I am sure they have their own lives and are not on this forum 24/7 looking at posts so the only way they will know of a problem is if you report it.

USE THE REPORT BUTTON not the reply button when dealing with trolls.

Consider, if you will:

~

*AT brigade has learnt its lesson; Reports trolling attempt if warranted or simply posts "The above resembles a troll's trap. Please be warned. If offended by responses, please use report button" and leaves the thread.

So - rather than "saving" new members from hostilities by waging all-out warfare across the forum - taking prompt, yet limited, action, and withdrawing from the thread, would isolate the troll and limit casualties.

Again, IMFFHO!

I tell you what, one thing is for sure, the next time we get a troll visitor we will be well an trully prepared with suggestions like that. And we probably should be prepared given this is the third time the same charecter has caused absolute mayhem on this forum. He was banned the 1st and second time and who knows whether he has been banned this time - but either way probably would still return. And do hope to hell the reporting feature is a bit more responsive, people probably then would't have resorted to what they did.

One thing to keep in mind though trolls are smart and will sucker people in. They always make some sort of snide remark to get peoples backs up but will also throw in a small elemnt of truth/believability in there. All enough to start a squabble without even the troll needing to get involved. Ofcourse in the end of it he ends up looking liek the victim and everyone else like 'turkeys'.

And that is what separates the REAL men from the chlidren - knowing WHEN to withdraw!!!

Your not trying to bait me into an argument are you Lindsay?

Cheers,

Bitey