In light of what happened today on the forum...

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Hey All

To answer a couple of the good issues raised, let me say first that the Moderators are from around the World. Lost_Soul lives in the UK, Boco lives in Eastern Canada and I am from the West Coast USA. The Auran people are from Oz.

We would never let an offensive post to remain in sight for one second longer than we were aware of it, and would also ban the invidual who made the extremely offensive, vulgar and racist comments.

That having been said, we can't be here all the time. I personally try to spend six hours a day at least logged into the Forum. I don't stare at the Monitor for six hours of course but I'm here to receive reported posts and PM's as are all the other Moderators.

It is regrettable that a few individuals apparently have nothing better to do than to act out here and insult others. We deal with it as soon as possible.

Cheers and put this bad experience behind you. I promise we will do our best to stay on top of it.

AJ
 
Angelah you have more friends than enemies and I for one class myself as a friend.Without you knowing it,you have help me,as you have helped others,through your posts to this forum.You are a highly respected member of this forum and I for one will feel your loss.I.P numbers should be logged,and as has been mentioned,only members who have registered their version of trainz should be allowed on the forum to post.
 
Well there is one fix that was offferd many times apoint more community mods. More eyes watching the less chance it will happen again.
 
..........and the Forum should be protected with filters that prevent obscenities from being reproduced, particularly as this is a "family" hobby where folks of all ages and backgrounds gather!

I wasn't here to see the last abuses, but I imagine it's the same person that does it periodically.

What a shame that one of our gentler members, who produces fine layouts, should be insulted so much that she has gone for the forum! The ******* won!
 
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No insult AJ, but your (as in all mods) efforts are obviously not enough, not blaming anyone except Auran for not having more mods.

Not only that but this has been going on for months, in a much smaller manner granted, but still there, and nothing was done, now its reached the stage where the attacks are open and on the forums, not only email.
If something is not done quick it will drive even more from the forums.

Cheers David
 
I think we have to be careful what we wish for. The more restricted the forum gets the less inviting it becomes for newbies.

I am all for moderation, but if I I can say, only in moderation.

Remember The forum crash of November 2006?

Wasn't that brought about by hackers.

I don't want that to happen again.

We need to weed out the serial pests and prevent them logging in multiple times. I think serial numbers included in registrations is the way to go.

My 2 cents

Regards
 
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The timing of all this is right when we're very focused on getting a Gold Master release of TS2009 ready for release. Of course it is unfortunate when one person can cause so much damage, but let's also realize that there's a very easy way to avoid getting too upset about these sorts of things: at the first sign of a post being offensive to you...stop reading it.

Can I also suggest that people refrain from posting replies to these people which works only to fuel the fire. Simply report the post and ignore the thread and thereby the poster really becomes powerless. Perhaps do some of your own moderation such as posting "Thread reported to moderator" and leave it at that.

We will definitely explore all the options. Adding more moderators is a possible solution (although there is also a potential backlash from users who then feel overly moderated). Serial numbers are an option, but they won't be implemented this week. We will also look at /ignore functionality which works well in chat rooms so why not forums?

I'm hope that once Angelahs blood stops boiling (understandably so) she will at some stage return. I have been verbally abused by this guy as well (in his many guises).

Tony
 
This is my final post on any thread related to this subject. Not because I do not agree that the situation is not satisfactory and have sympathy for the victims of the drive by postings, but because more public posts hinder rather than help.
 
Tony,

Here is what you can do now.

1. Lock all the open forums. Make them read only.
2. Recreate the useful forums in the areas that require registration.
3. Don't punish innocent users that advise the use of the "Ignore User" function of this forum. I don't see these post because the second or third time I see a childish or hateful post from a user they are added to my ignore list.

Then you will have time to to make more long lasting changes after the launch.

William
 
I didn't see the latest outrage but hope Angela reconsiders - any train sim needs all the content creators it can attract.

Unfortunately not a new thing - when Barney and I tried to run a train sim forum back in the early days (1999 - 2001) it was hijacked by a couple of anarchists. We tried all sorts - IP blocking, vetting new account applications, banning Yahoo and Hotmail email addresses for registration but all to no avail. In the end we closed the board as the hassle was cutting into the pleasure we were trying to derive from the hobby.

Vigilant moderation is the initial answer (along quite rightly with not feeding the troll) but I have to point out that the previous thread with an "F-bomb" sat there for several hours with the offending text visible after mods or Tony had actually posted on there, before it was cleaned up.

Long term the answer has got to be registered users only - forum nick is your Planet Auran name and if you cause offence it's banned for however long the mods decide (or permanently for gross misconduct).
 
AJ_Fox said:
That having been said, we can't be here all the time. I personally try to spend six hours a day at least logged into the Forum. I don't stare at the Monitor for six hours of course but I'm here to receive reported posts and PM's as are all the other Moderators.
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Precisely my point!

I find it hard keeping up with new posts that interest me, never mind the whole forum, but when it comes to reading the messages sent directly to Mods concerning reported posts then there's no excuse.

If the reported messages take several hours to show up in the Mod area, then the system needs to be looked at.
If the reported messages don't take that long to get to the Mod area (which obviously they don't) then it's the people using the system that need to be looked at.

Even if you checked the Mod area once every hour during a six hour stint, these types of things would be noticed and dealt with a lot quicker than they were today.

Either no mod checked the forums for the duration of this farce, or some did and thought it acceptable!

Either way, it's Auran's reputation on the line here, and they need to be sure that's being looked after suitably.

Edit: BTW, are we saying that it's Zwabberaar that's doing this in different guises?

Smiley.
 
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Tony_Hilliam said:
Perhaps do some of your own moderation such as posting "Thread reported to moderator" and leave it at that.
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What Tony says above makes a lot of sense, and the culprit will soon get fed up it nobody reacts to his comments.

I would suggest using the following banner and unsubscribing from the thread, without any other comments.

threadreportedcz4.gif


This image is located at: http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/7411/threadreportedcz4.gif (copy&Paste somewhere safe).

Even the most short-sighted Mod will not miss this in the middle of a thread, and the offender will soon realise that no-one is listening to him.

Smiley.
 
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Tony_Hilliam said:
Can I also suggest that people refrain from posting replies to these people which works only to fuel the fire. Simply report the post and ignore the thread and thereby the poster really becomes powerless. Perhaps do some of your own moderation such as posting "Thread reported to moderator" and leave it at that.

Tony
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Hi All,

Let me just throw my 2 cents into the ring...

What Tony said is right-on ... that's all we can and should do!

I, myself, have reported a couple in the pass, and never posted in such threads either!!

That's it ... everyone have a good day!!
Ishie
 
Smileyman said:
What Tony says above makes a lot of sense, and the culprit will soon get fed up it nobody reacts to his comments.

threadreportedcz4.gif


.
Click to expand...

Hi Smileyman

That is good idea, report and unsubscribe from the thread.

The guy also made some offensive comments towards me yesterday, I just ignored him and reported the post.

Regards

Ahsan:)
 
Hi All,
I have only just seen this thread and didn't see the offending one, AND I don't want to.

Lately there are quite a few offensive post getting through, and remaining for all to see before being deleted.

What on earth is happening to our Forum; yes; Our Forum.
There have been some good suggestions on tackling the current problem and if I can make a suggestion that could work without the initial mod; being around.

If one of us comes across an offensive post or thread starter and reports it, it will automatically be suspended and removed (quarantined) until a moderator can look at it.
In the event of some idiot reporting every post; that idiot would get a lifetime ban, and his/her ISP login would be noted so he/she couldn't log on under a different name.

I always thought that you had to have a registered Trainz, before you could be active in this Forum, or has that changed.

Another thing, in the UK as well as several other countries it is a civil offence to transmit (by whatever conveyor) offensive or abusive material. Couldn't Auran trace the offenders and prosecute to the full extent of the law. I'm sure they would only have to do this a few times before people get the message and cease. Put a warning message out, that such behaviour would lead to prosecution, AND carry it out.

As I see it, its up to us. Don'T let this Forum go the same way as the last.
Yes, bring in more Mods; so we can have 24/7 coverage. There's enough nationalities here to make this possible.
If I sound annoyed in this post, its because I am. I'm holding back to prevent myself from being banned.
Its our Forum and working together we can kill this trend, before it kills us.

Angelah:: If you are reading this in the background I can only send you my personal apologies on behalf of this Forum for what has happened to you. Don't let these childish idiots, who must have a very sad life and will grow up to be lonely, sad old people who will regret ever living. (If you whoever you are, wish to send me a PM, dig out, I will track you down and expose you publicly). Anyway Angelah, you have a lot of friends here, hopefully you will return.

To All,
Sorry about the long post. just had to get it of my chest.

Cheers
Pete
 
Pete,

Visitors are allowed to register without a serial number , they have access to the General Forum and I believe the Screenshots Forum .
If they are banned they can simply reregister under a new usernane and continue their abuse of the Forum .

But with all the recent input on this subject , I am certain Auran is looking for a better way ?

--- ,dave
 
Unfortunately this subject is too topical at the moment as there are other threads concerning foul and abusive postings by unregistered users.


My tuppence

1. Pre Moderate all posts from unregistered users (heavy on mods time) telling them their post can take up to 48hrs(whatever) to appear, and when the user has shown he/she is genuine then allow them to post directly.

or

2. Have a newbie area where unregistered users can ask questions, and make the General Trainz area for registered users only.
 
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