I have received complaints about the quality of some of the threads and messages posted to the forum these days.
If I see a thread that is out of control, I can and do mark it as Read-Only. This effectively shuts down the thread. However, I just don't see a majority of the rogue threads.
So, my question is, should we try to inhibit the noise and improve the quality of the responses in some way? For example,
Let me know your thoughts and feelings on this.
Jon
Removed posts seldom leads to bickering. An existing post can be read again and again and produce more agitation. A lost post will not be missed - most people wouldn't even know that it did exist.
People loosing a post have basically three choices. - ignore it - scream about it and loose more posts - repost again, but this time using a filtered language and less personal attacks.
Most normal people would choose alternative 1 or 3. The problematic visitors would go for alternative 2, but after having lost enough posts it would be no fun anymore to just loose their posts without being able to trig large numbers of irritated responses to keep the war ongoing.
Recognizing trolls? The problem is that a troll and a really lost noob with wrong expectations make very similar posts. If we just ignore all posters who looks like trolls, we will at the same time ignore lots of people who need help. So a troll here or there will feel macho for getting people to waste time on a dummy thread. I can live with that - it is still their loss to possibly be bright but have stayed at a maturity level closer to what could be expected of our closest pelted relatives.
"I feel if Keil tech support could just glance at the posts occasionally to block or wipe the undesired post, [...]"
If Keil had the time then it would probably be easiest with just a "report this post" button. Very quick to implement and works quite well, but requires some form of attention on a 24x7 basis. This concept works best for national sites, where most posters are in the same time zone as the private or organisation that hosts the site. Distributing the role to a subset of the regulars can solve the time-zone problem but be a bit problematic since many posters will feel that one or more of the "user-space" moderators will have received more power than they where capable of wielding.
Removed posts seldom leads to bickering.
Sure, but a voting system certainly would.
The problematic visitors would go for alternative 2, but after having lost enough posts it would be no fun anymore to just loose their posts without being able to trig large numbers of irritated responses to keep the war ongoing.
Without full moderation (ie posts viewed by a moderator before they appear) I think they'll still find it satisfying enough.
Recognizing trolls? The problem is that a troll and a really lost noob with wrong expectations make very similar posts.
Do you really think so? I'd say in most cases the difference is fairly obvious.
If we just ignore all posters who looks like trolls, we will at the same time ignore lots of people who need help.
Well, I'm not sure that many of the responses that the troll/lost noob category receive really count as help.
So a troll here or there will feel macho for getting people to waste time on a dummy thread. I can live with that - it is still their loss to possibly be bright but have stayed at a maturity level closer to what could be expected of our closest pelted relatives.
I don't think they're bright - the clever ones are all trolling Usenet.
"Well, I'm not sure that many of the responses that the troll/lost noob category receive really count as help."
I was talking about the look of the original post, where a lot of noobs produces very similar requests as the trolls.
Its on the second, third, forth post that the trolls and the noobs diverge, but without some form of moderation, then it is too late to stop the rolling snowball. With many real threads ongoing, the trolls gets gets ignored but on slow days, the people on this forum has to be able to offload some comments somewhere ;)
"...but on slow days, the people on this forum has to be able to offload some comments somewhere ;)"
I cannot speak on behalf of everybody, but I never considered this forum to be a kind of therapy :-)
Yes, it is quote often students who manages to find this forum and starts to spread havoc.
In some situations, it might be nice with an updated Terms of Use, containing a note that posters are tracked, and students abusing this site will be reported to their relevant school administration.
Yes, I know that the problematic students are not reading the terms. But anyone on this forum can post a link to the information, and also quote that text.
If such information is officially mentioned on the Keil site, it might possibly get some students to be a bit more carefull after having been warned. Moral compass is one thing. An explicit threat of a meting with the school principal may mean something.