Nastiness of the boards

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[Post New]02/23/2009 11:08
Anonymous
Is it me or are many of the boards becoming increasing nasty? Its to the point where the boards and this forum as a whole are becoming less and less usefull and helpful.

So many topics start of fine, but within one or two posts someone has to get on a start a rant about either the OP being an idiot or one of the PP being an idiot. This of course begins the back and forth volley or who is the bigger idiot, finally degenerating into name calling. Its an incredibly useless vicious cycle. I am tempted to try and disect the psychology of those who just want to be nasty and mean, but it pointless and probably pretty obvious why.

My point really is how do we make these forums more helpful again. Would thing change if we were all forced to register with screen names? Would accountability make this a forum sane again?
[Post New]02/23/2009 11:16
Anonymous
I don't think posters can take the poll unless they register but I could be wrong.
[Post New]02/23/2009 11:18
Anonymous
Wait, don't we have to be registered to vote in the poll?

But, I think the boards are nasty too. I think it's a necessary evil on anonymous boards and there would be a huge decline in traffic on this board if it was limited to registered users.
[Post New]02/23/2009 11:24
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Wait, don't we have to be registered to vote in the poll?

But, I think the boards are nasty too. I think it's a necessary evil on anonymous boards and there would be a huge decline in traffic on this board if it was limited to registered users.


I agree 100% however people can register with any email and any user-name. They really do not need to divulge their actual name or email. Just create a new gmail or yahoo email and use it. The only real identifying factor is the IP address and I am pretty sure Jeff can see that whether we are anonymous or not, and Jeff is the only one who can view that.

The downside would be that the user-name would then be tagged to all of our responses so we would know who was posting what, but I guess that is the point!

I really feel posting is like reading email though, you have no idea what tone is meant to be conveyed and you have no idea how other people read/perceive things. Posting with a name may not change that at all.
[Post New]02/23/2009 11:37
mrbobby
Member Offline
I'm all for it!
[Post New]02/23/2009 11:39
Anonymous
mrbobby wrote:So magical Jeff knows exactly who you are?. Does he work for a government agency? I didn't know IP address were that specific.


But maybe I'm wrong.


Mrbobby, This is what I said - The only real identifying factor is the IP address and I am pretty sure Jeff can see that whether we are anonymous or not, and Jeff is the only one who can view that.

I said the only identifying factor is the IP address. I did not say he knows exactly who we are.
[Post New]02/23/2009 11:49
Anonymous
Totally agree. It is much nastier these days. On the plus side, I went on to the Urban Baby Board - the one for NYC as I wanted to know about something related to NYC - and was absolutely floored by the level of bitchiness there. We look like amateurs in comparison! What is it about women + kids + Internet = nastiness???
[Post New]02/23/2009 11:51
Anonymous
YES YES YES. There is a better way but Jeff Steele doesn't want it, and said he doesn't want to do the work to enforce it. I think the discussion boards on www.mothering.com are very well managed and much better overall. They are still anonymous (people register with a unique username, such as MomofBoys or MarathonMom, and each forum is monitored by a volunteer monitor (not one person, like Jeff) who enforces the guidelines when necessary. The rules are basically no nastiness, no attacking, no defamation. I quizzed Jeff about this over a year ago and he said that he believes that nastiness is a freedom of speech so he doesn't mind it. The lack of guidelines is implicit support of the nastiness. So it's a no-rules culture on DCUMs, which greatly limits its potential.

Here are the rules on http://www.mothering.com/mdc/mdc_useragreement.html

1. Do not post in a disrespectful, defamatory, adversarial, baiting, harassing, offensive, insultingly sarcastic or otherwise improper manner, toward a member or other individual, including casting of suspicion upon a person, invasion of privacy, humiliation, demeaning criticism, name-calling, personal attack, or in any way which violates the law.

2. Do not post profane or sexually explicit text. Discussions of a sexual nature should be within the realm of topics inherent to Mothering discussions such as sex after delivery, sex and the family bed, etc.

3. Do not post copyrighted material without permission. See copyright guidelines.

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[Post New]02/23/2009 11:54
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
mrbobby wrote:So magical Jeff knows exactly who you are?. Does he work for a government agency? I didn't know IP address were that specific.


But maybe I'm wrong.


Mrbobby, This is what I said - The only real identifying factor is the IP address and I am pretty sure Jeff can see that whether we are anonymous or not, and Jeff is the only one who can view that.

I said the only identifying factor is the IP address. I did not say he knows exactly who we are.


The message I as responding to was edited by the poster so of course this makes no sense now.
[Post New]02/23/2009 12:07
Anonymous
You have to remember that since everyone is anonymous, people will say things on here they would never say to your face. Most of the threads (with the exception of the Special Needs subtopic) are good reading for entertainment and nothing more.
[Post New]02/23/2009 12:08
mrbobby
Member Offline
I edited my post because it sounded too snarky. I didn't know anyone saw the original post.

Sorry.
[Post New]02/23/2009 12:10
maynie
Site Admin Offline
This comes up every so often. There is no way it will ever happen. This website has such heavy traffic because of the anonymity. Jeff did try a board where you had to be logged in to post and had to delete it because no one used it. I think everyone here that wants to use a login, should do that.
Also, I've spent a lot of time on the mothering boards and agree there isn't nastiness, but you're only allowed to post things in agreement with everyone else. Everything else is deleted.
[Post New]02/23/2009 12:11
Anonymous
mrbobby wrote:I edited my post because it sounded too snarky. I didn't know anyone saw the original post.

Sorry.


Now I feel bad! Sorry Mr. Booby.
[Post New]02/23/2009 12:21
Anonymous
I really like the anonymity, and don't mind dealing with the occasional nastiness. I think can you learn to roll with it. Personally if one or two people posty something nasty on n otherwise positive thread, it doesn't detract from the overall usefulness of the thread. If I want sunshine and puppies, I can head over to the "mothering" boards.
[Post New]02/23/2009 12:29
Anonymous
maynie wrote:There is no way it will ever happen. This website has such heavy traffic because of the anonymity. Jeff did try a board where you had to be logged in to post and had to delete it because no one used it.


I don't agree, and I don't think that Jeff's prior set up of a sub-board for registered users only was a valid test. Why would anyone have wanted to use a user name on a sub-board when posting anonymously to the original board was still an option? Of course it got no traffic.

I suspect that if the entire DCUM forum section was adjusted to require a user name, there would be very little (if any) drop off in traffic. In fact, there might even be an increase in traffic since people would not be driven away by the overwhelming nastiness. This might be the only truly anonymous message board I even participate in. Another message board I participate in (on a wholly different topic, but one that nevertheless generates a lot of disagreement) requires a registered user name for everyone, and there currently are 58,700 registered users there -- no lack of comments and no lack of disagreement, but you quickly learn to spot the trolls.

All this talk is just talk though, since only Jeff's "vote" counts.
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