Does the moderator warn/suspend/ban users who make toxic comments?

[Anonymous]

What is the bar for getting warned/suspended/banned for misbehavior?

It's rare to see a thread about certain topics (like student performance or enrichment/magnet schools) that don't have 1 or more anonymous commenters making repetitive, content-free comments about how terrible the government is, or rich or poor families this or that, or racial stuff, or calling other posters stupid or jealous, or getting sucked into arguments with these troll-commenters.

It really drags down the quality of the forum, and drives away high-quality commenters, so it would be great to quarantine or suspend or remove such comments or posters.

I "report" these comments, but I don't know if this has effect or if they are officially breaking rules.

[jsteele]

I block or ban posters all the time but since this is an anonymous website, it is difficult for such actions to be effective. Generally the worst posters are the most determined to avoid efforts to prevent them from posting. It's a never-ending cat and mouse game.

[Anonymous]

Yes, Jeff blocked me for a few days for using unacceptable foul language. It did make me watch my words, so I'd say it works to some extent.

[Anonymous]

My phone access has been blocked although I posted nothing offensive. Quite the opposite, I make an effort to contribute kind and/ or constructive posts I have no idea why my phone is blocked unless there are other issues with my phone that I am not aware of.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:My phone access has been blocked although I posted nothing offensive. Quite the opposite, I make an effort to contribute kind and/ or constructive posts I have no idea why my phone is blocked unless there are other issues with my phone that I am not aware of.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/908231.page

[Anonymous]

The entire Religion forum would be gone if that were the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My phone access has been blocked although I posted nothing offensive. Quite the opposite, I make an effort to contribute kind and/ or constructive posts I have no idea why my phone is blocked unless there are other issues with my phone that I am not aware of.

Same here.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My phone access has been blocked although I posted nothing offensive. Quite the opposite, I make an effort to contribute kind and/ or constructive posts I have no idea why my phone is blocked unless there are other issues with my phone that I am not aware of.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/908231.page

Jeff, I'm not the pp you are quoting but my phone is also blocked. It's not the IP address--because I can post from my laptop just fine. And I've taken my phone on vacation and logged into my hotel's wifi, and it still doesn't work. I can read, but I can't post. It's something with my phone specifically.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My phone access has been blocked although I posted nothing offensive. Quite the opposite, I make an effort to contribute kind and/ or constructive posts I have no idea why my phone is blocked unless there are other issues with my phone that I am not aware of.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/908231.page

Jeff, I'm not the pp you are quoting but my phone is also blocked. It's not the IP address--because I can post from my laptop just fine. And I've taken my phone on vacation and logged into my hotel's wifi, and it still doesn't work. I can read, but I can't post. It's something with my phone specifically.

What happens when you try to post? Do you get an error message? My advice for resolving this is basically the same. To to post and see if there is an error or other problem. Then, confirm your IP address and use the "report" button to send it to me and I'll check the logs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My phone access has been blocked although I posted nothing offensive. Quite the opposite, I make an effort to contribute kind and/ or constructive posts I have no idea why my phone is blocked unless there are other issues with my phone that I am not aware of.

Same here.

I'm another person who recently can't access dcum forums on my phone - no matter where I'm trying to connect from (home, work, etc. - eg. IP address is different in these locations) I get the error "Safari could not open the page because the server stopped responding."

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My phone access has been blocked although I posted nothing offensive. Quite the opposite, I make an effort to contribute kind and/ or constructive posts I have no idea why my phone is blocked unless there are other issues with my phone that I am not aware of.

Same here.

I'm another person who recently can't access dcum forums on my phone - no matter where I'm trying to connect from (home, work, etc. - eg. IP address is different in these locations) I get the error "Safari could not open the page because the server stopped responding."

The two IP addresses that you reported belong to Cloudflare, which in my experience is a service used to protect websites. Apparently it has some sort of VPN service that you are using. I had blocked their IP range because we have seen quite a bit of abuse from those addresses. I've unblocked the address range for now, but if we seem more problems from those addresses they will probably be blocked again.

[Anonymous]

I’ve found that I can’t post from Firefox; is it because of their privacy settings?

I also wasn’t able to post from Safari when I had IP tracking hidden from websites (a setting I don’t remember applying, actually); once I allowed it again (while leaving trackers blocked), I could post. Since this is a device-specific setting, it might be worth checking for those of you having trouble from your phones.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve found that I can’t post from Firefox; is it because of their privacy settings?

I also wasn’t able to post from Safari when I had IP tracking hidden from websites (a setting I don’t remember applying, actually); once I allowed it again (while leaving trackers blocked), I could post. Since this is a device-specific setting, it might be worth checking for those of you having trouble from your phones.

Could you please turn the IP hiding setting back on and then check the address you are using at:

http://www.myipaddress.com

please? Then send me the address. Maybe the proxy address is blocked.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve found that I can’t post from Firefox; is it because of their privacy settings?

I also wasn’t able to post from Safari when I had IP tracking hidden from websites (a setting I don’t remember applying, actually); once I allowed it again (while leaving trackers blocked), I could post. Since this is a device-specific setting, it might be worth checking for those of you having trouble from your phones.

Could you please turn the IP hiding setting back on and then check the address you are using at:

http://www.myipaddress.com

please? Then send me the address. Maybe the proxy address is blocked.

So I did…and now I can access the site. Previously, it wouldn’t load, for weeks, but I was able to open it on Chrome and Firefox (but I wasn’t able to post from Firefox).

I assume there’s no reason to send you the address now….

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve found that I can’t post from Firefox; is it because of their privacy settings?

I also wasn’t able to post from Safari when I had IP tracking hidden from websites (a setting I don’t remember applying, actually); once I allowed it again (while leaving trackers blocked), I could post. Since this is a device-specific setting, it might be worth checking for those of you having trouble from your phones.

Could you please turn the IP hiding setting back on and then check the address you are using at:

http://www.myipaddress.com

please? Then send me the address. Maybe the proxy address is blocked.

So I did…and now I can access the site. Previously, it wouldn’t load, for weeks, but I was able to open it on Chrome and Firefox (but I wasn’t able to post from Firefox).

I assume there’s no reason to send you the address now….

No, no reason. Thanks for checking.