Annoying member - how do you handle?

Just tell them - Your annoying people, now stop it!

Treat them like they were a party crasher at your house.

 

Kevin I can tell you didn't read the thread - I admit it's wordy! :p

That didn't work. Whole point of thread. :unhunh:

If they're nice they can stay. Otherwise out they go - and I will absolutely make that happen, it's my party. I don't care who goes with them. :devil:

 

Outstanding!!!

I have found about 0.1 to 0.5% cannot be reasoned with at all, and that is because they get their giggles from acting a certain way. They sometime appear helpful, but often take conversations in a certain direction for the fun of it, even if some misinformation is innocently given out. Asking questions they already know the answer to is another method they use.

And I'm getting good at becoming a persistent & chronically annoying admin. I thought of a new trick.

(this applies to vB only)
I created an 'additional user group' called 'Problem People'. I set up a 'notice' for only people in that Problem People group to see. That notice specified "<b>{username}</b>" with some comment regarding their behavior, and a link to the rules. The only rule we have is "Behave" so that works for us.

Think about it, how would you react if you logged onto a forum, saw your name in big bold letters that said "STOP IT! You are acting ___!!!". The first question would be "who else can see this?" if they log out they cannot see it, their friends they call cannot see it, but some other people can see it LOL...


Nothing else worked for a specific problem person we had, but that did.


Or require the "Problem People" to change their password on a daily basis, or "Schmuck of the day" as user title, or a number of other things. If it got to that point you may as well have a bit of fun, they certainly have been using everyone else for fun.

On one forum an admin put a html picture in the user title - it was funny!




Or maybe the notice could read:
Does anyone else think USER NAME should go? The staff thinks she is annoying and we want to know what you think.

 

:lmao:

It's so FUN to use the notice feature on specific users!

 

Yes Abomination, you describe it perfectly. We finally figured that out. There are just a very, very few people whose brains are not loaded with the same response function to being told to knock it off. We realized that we have been very slow to see this because we don't think as they do. Most people we are around don't, either. And ... we will never think that way and will never understand why they do. But it doesn't matter why. It only matters too identify them quickly and present them with binary, non-negotiable choices, right up front. Not the way we treat everyone else. That isn't completely comfortable for us, but we've finally learned it is necessary.

Calling people out with the notices or user titles is a fascinating tactic. I once had a boss for which I analyzed operational statistics who said that if you want to change behavior, publish the statistics with each person's name on theirs. (He wanted to add pictures of their family, too - well tonge-in-cheek.)

Of course we have a Problem Children sub-forum in management to track behavior over time, but I never thought of a usergroup. That is creative! The notice thing would be very powerful, although probably less for those who enjoy getting attention for being a butthead, excuse me I mean rebel without any cause.

On my forum I would need to be careful about the friends of the miscreant rallying to their side (although those people are often expendable as well.) One of my forum's biggest opportunities and challenges is it's offline reputation and word of mouth. A fair number of my most active posters actually see and spend time with each other periodically at hobby gatherings. They love gossip and some are into trash-talking a lot of different things... and they love hearing from others and passing it on, even if they have no personal experience with whatever it is. Because these things aren't posted on the internet it is hard to publicly call bs on it.

 

Let me be a bit more specific. We also have a set of people more problematic than others, the equivalent of your problem children.

But I only put 1 of them in the group to see the notice, and then only for a couple of days. No one else could see the notice except that 1 person. They were quite confused as to who else could see it. They did call their friends who could not see it, and that rippled through the problem children enough so everyone started behaving better.

In your case the friends of the person that could see the notice could not come to her aid because they would not be able to see it. And if they took a screen shot and passed it around quite probably people would laugh because no ones honor was offended. A notice that says "Username will you knock it off? Here is a link to the rules:_______" should cause many problems though.



However if you start doing things in public such as a custom title then that is a completely different scenario and her buddies will indeed come to her aid, at which point you could change their titles as well. You would be viewed as a horrible person or if you put enough happy smilie faces and typed in an up beat manner everyone could have a laugh. Slightly tricky, but it could be done.

 

I have used custom usergroups many times for problem members, the Miserable User hack is pretty good but sometimes subtle is better! With a group set up just for one member the possibilities are almost endless as you can target that member exclusively by screwing with their settings and leaving notices etc.

One member in particular used to post new threads in the incorrect forum constantly causing major headaches for the Moderation staff, I'm not talking about the odd posts either, I'm talking about 20 - 30 per day! Our General topic forum looked like an entire colony of trolls had taken up residence until I dumped him in his own group and tightly controlled what he could and couldn't do. He's much better now!:devil:

 

Actually that is an idea - only one member seeing the notice. Although almost no one gets to this point anymore - if they are that much trouble, they aren't on. But ... for those cruising close to the line but not over it, having a notice with a rules link is an appealing idea. We get tired of sending individual mod pm's.

The way they describe whatever we do to whoever will listen is "mod abuse." The way we word it is "if you think so you'll be happier on any other forum."

Why do people even bother fighting management? Why not just move on and find something else to do on the internet? Well obviously I'm not like the Problem Children. Part of the point of the update is that the Problem Children queue is considerably thinned, because no one gets to be one indefinitely anymore.

And it chaps me that so many suddenly understand the rules if they get an ultimatum, or something is done like what maleficarum described. I would prefer they understand the rules without the drama. But it's the human condition I guess.

 

That, is how they get their jollies. It is a special subcategory of troll. Usually quite bright and for all intends and purposes, a nice person on the surface.


Your approach works great!

 

Well, what I think makes the refusal to quickly ban someone a good thing is that, no matter our conviction, we may be, and occasionally are, wrong or not fair enough in our judgment. When we snap to the extreme decision to ban, we set ourselves up for mistakes. I think we have to endure and be patient. Do not be afraid to engage the offender, but do not be quick to moderate. Let the person build a portrait of himself in the forum with his confrontations, and your arguments in return. In regard to your arguments, don't be sarcastic or take the opportunity to politely-needle him, but be calm and explain yourself not only for the offender but for the members. It can, and often does, get to the point where even the majority of "moderates" (members who are not strongly against, or strongly for, the offender) would be willing to say "good riddance", and you can start to draft your case for his removal from the forum. With his footprints throughout the forum he would be hard pressed to keep from looking like he's full of it, and for the same reason you can keep from making too much of a scene despite such a major decision (i.e., the removal of an active member).

 

thanks !! :p

You are very correct about the "special subcategory of troll." Yes they are bright. Sometimes somewhat charismatic, a leader of the misguided. A few provoke universal disgust.

One thing that sometimes makes the action a hard sell to the members - they find out through the grapevine - and a potential credibility issue for management is those who have met the troll in person. "I can't believe she would do that! She is so nice in person!" They have no idea the full dimensions of what this person does, and we keep member issues confidential.

One of our mods says that these "so nice in person" trolls are our most disturbing cases. She says they are filled with toxic anger but think they must be nice, in person. But from behind the screen all the toxic comes out, they say and do things they never would in person. :mad2:

But nowadays that doesn't go. They are put out the door if they try to lash out from behind the screen.

 

We had one today who posted "Yes, I know the rules don't allow this kind of content and it is very explicit, so don't look at it unless you are 18 and over, and yes, I know the content is supposed to be PG-13, but the mods can delete it if they want later"

She got a 24-hour ban.

Dude. Annoying.

:doh:

 

:doh:

I just had someone pay me huge complements thanking me for such a nice polite site, then put up a link to a porn site. Not a bot, just a confused (really) old guy.

 

At first we actually had an annoying admin [Kuri] and we all changed our daily habits, when he was an admin, I was a member then a Super Moderator of the forum and chat. We knew it was bad for the community, but all damage was done by the annoying admin, chaos and hell broke lose and we moderators felt like we needed to do something about this annoying/abusive admin so we 'kicked' him out. After that incident, it seemed/seems that every users feels the need to start being annoying. By annoying I mean disagreeing with the members and telling them they are just idiots and they don't know anything, posting non-funny motivational posters at the point that they really offend EVEN on the "NSFW" section!!!

We tried to approach the users in various times, but the user usually took this as us "attacking" him or that we were biased to other users, bad mouthing us moderators on the forum and chat and sending PM's to other members stating that we were trying to turn the site into a dictatorship. He does this now, after Kuri was done with the site, killed it, dead and the staff is trying to get it back up, so barely anyone posts on the site, I HAD to turn on a modification I hate because of this user to see if he was sending advertisement links to users. We actually gave him 3 chances and approached him about how we felt of the situation, hoping he would understand, seems like he didn't since he's banned now.

 

I think I know what mod that was, and I hope to never have to install the vB version of that mod on any of my sites. Time will tell.

 

Well my experience is different.
I had such a member on my forum.
He didn't leave! Other members left because of him!!!

Finally, I had to ban him. What a relief that was!