Post #184123 by hanford_lemoore on Sat, Sep 3, 2005 2:33 PM

On 2005-09-03 13:03, Swanky wrote:
Bad behavior on TC is rarely dealt with.

Swanky, you simply don't know what you're talking about. Bad behavior is taken care of all the time. However, I like to do it in private, in part so that the gawking-at-the-train-wreck effect (in topics, to a degree, like this one) doesn't occur. And when I deal with things in Public, the users in question tend to want to defend himself/herself in public and feel stifled if I don't let them. When I deal with things in PMs, I can discuss the issues with the user(s) at length to put things to rest.

And no one knows the number of banned users because it's a private list, and I don't share it.

Offensive posts are not deleted. Offensive posters are not dealt with. Offensive topics are not removed.

That's a gross misrepresentation of the real situation.
See here, for example. Or here. Or here, or here.

Not all offensive posts get deleted. Many never get reported by users. But mostly I've learned from experience that there are different approaches to take depending on the situation.

Often I ask a user to go back and edit it themselves. This can lead to a better understanding of what they did and less resentment about the situation. TC has had users who got edited by moderators temporarily explode under cries of "censorship!" and post dozens of inappropriate topics that I had to go back and delete. I've learned from those situations and others that taking the blanket approach of "delete it, lock it, ban it" is simply not the way to go.

I admit that things fall through the cracks from time to time, but the generalization of "Bad behavior on TC is rarely dealt with" is just not true. I don't think that every act of maliciousness should result in a ban of a user or a public shaming. I hope you agree with me.

~Hanford