Why bother with moderation?

[Tymeric]

you just put the person / persons on filter and carry on reading, easy.

On a slightly different tack...most people are put off by handbagging sessions very quickly...although you might be used to it as being part and parcel, it is not conducive to attracting the casual visitor who might be considering joining the board/group...and ultimately, the website traffic needs to have a healthy turnover to survive. Most of ADVFN is the equivalent of LoST...unless you're up for it, it can be tiresome looking for the nuggets

[DiamondEcho]

@Tym. Perhaps it depends which ADVFN boards you follow? I don't read any 'debate' type boards as such, nothing of the LOST kind. I only follow boards of the individual shares that I own, and they are much more objective in nature. That's why when a ramper/troll etc shows up they stand out like a sore thumb [and I tend to hit the ignore button straight away].

ADVFN have both up and down vote buttons, it's interesting to see on the boards I follow how rarely either is used.

[Tymeric]

Perhaps it depends which ADVFN boards you follow?

I'm obviously not moving in the right circles.....

BTW, I'm thinking of reporting your post/this thread...it's off topic..

[melonfool]

@Tym. Perhaps it depends which ADVFN boards you follow? I don't read any 'debate' type boards as such, nothing of the LOST kind. I only follow boards of the individual shares that I own, and they are much more objective in nature. That's why when a ramper/troll etc shows up they stand out like a sore thumb [and I tend to hit the ignore button straight away].

Presumably the clever ones don't stand out like a sore thumb - do you spot them?

Mel

[DiamondEcho]

Presumably the clever ones don't stand out like a sore thumb - do you spot them?
Mel

Most trolls haven't time nor patience to be 'clever' as such IME. Post-count/join-date is plenty enough to get a good bearing on another poster. It's the later anointing with gongs that seems to subsequently detract from it.

[GJHarney]

Thankless job being a Mod, and a difficult one. But it's a bit like a football ref, you want a light touch and someone who lets a game flow rather than blowing the whistle every few minutes, but equally you want someone who doesn't let players take the pee, and that is a hard line to balance on. The other problem is that everyone has their own personal offence meter that will be different to others, but probably the best aspect to a good Mod is in encouraging good manners and basic respect for others without things getting too sterile and prissy. I also think it's important to briefly indicate or explain where necessary why a post has been deleted or a poster removed, but otherwise you shouldn't know a Mod is there at all

[todthedog]

I think the mods should have a look at this

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/high-cour ... ous-posts/

Also have a look at the rules to make sure they have a ' get out of jail free card' that folk are entirely responsible for their own posts.

[chas49]

It's more relevant to the site owner than the mods. (I'm a mod and I don't control the site - just deal with a few dodgy posts).

When you signed up for this forum, were you required to provide any directly traceable real world information? As far as I recall, I just gave an email address. So that's all that the site owner could be compelled to hand over by a court order like this. And possibly an IP address.

That information would probably be of little use to a civil claimant. Law enforcement possibly but not someone pursuing a libel case.

[todthedog]

As far as I can see the offending posts had already been removed from the site by the mods. The court then demanded names and addresses etc. I don't know if you have a mods board hidden from view of the ordinary mortals. If you have it might be worth having a thread of deleted posts and IP addresses unseen by the public just to watch your backs.

[redsturgeon]

As far as I can see the offending posts had already been removed from the site by the mods. The court then demanded names and addresses etc. I don't know if you have a mods board hidden from view of the ordinary mortals. If you have it might be worth having a thread of deleted posts and IP addresses unseen by the public just to watch your backs.

Post are generally "soft deleted" which means they disappear from general view but can be easily retrieved.

John

[Breelander]

...it might be worth having a thread of deleted posts and IP addresses...

May not help. With BT (and many other ISPs) the IP address is allocated from a pool of available addresses each time you reboot your router. I get a different IP address each time.

[UncleEbenezer]

...it might be worth having a thread of deleted posts and IP addresses...

May not help. With BT (and many other ISPs) the IP address is allocated from a pool of available addresses each time you reboot your router. I get a different IP address each time.

Dynamic IP address can be chased if you're prepared to throw enough at it and have the legal establishment on your side. BT's logs would show who had the dynamic IP at a particular time.

It becomes harder if someone has made positive efforts to cover their posts. Go through a (hijacked) IP address well outside UK jurisdiction and the blame will naturally fall on foreigners: often "Russian" or "Chinese" agents. That's a much higher hurdle to trace than just a UK court order, and correspondingly more tempting just to point the finger based on political expedience.

There's a lot more you can do. But in the context of posting to a public forum, it's not MI5 or the CIA who'll care about unmasking you. Just don't leak your local Mafia's most sensitive secrets!

[melonfool]

The Mumsnet case is not new news, it is the same as the law already said.

The easiest thing is 'no defamation and we would throw you under the bus at the first sniff of trouble'. People need to take responsibility for themselves.

The MN case was about a plastic surgeon who was being rubbished by a number of posters. He would probably be able to show a downturn in business which is a very serious effect.

Of course, the problem with such legislation is that it protects rogue traders to a degree - though it's not defamation if it's true of course

Mel

[Alaric]

Of course, the problem with such legislation is that it protects rogue traders to a degree - though it's not defamation if it's true of course

On the TMF "Fool and his Money" Board, posts alleging malpractice and dubious schemes seemed to be removed at the first objection. You needed to remember the names of the organisations or individuals complained of, as more often than not, they turned up again several months or years later in FSA/FCA enforcement or even Courts of Law with guilty verdicts.

[melonfool]

Of course, the problem with such legislation is that it protects rogue traders to a degree - though it's not defamation if it's true of course

On the TMF "Fool and his Money" Board, posts alleging malpractice and dubious schemes seemed to be removed at the first objection. You needed to remember the names of the organisations or individuals complained of, as more often than not, they turned up again several months or years later in FSA/FCA enforcement or even Courts of Law with guilty verdicts.

Who 'needed to remember'?

Mel

[Lootman]

On the TMF "Fool and his Money" Board, posts alleging malpractice and dubious schemes seemed to be removed at the first objection.

My perception is different. At least on the "Fool and his Money" board there was a lot of rubbishing of third party providers of financial services. No doubt many were removed but many remained and TMF were at least mildly supportive of such allegations, judging by the anecdotes of a couple of people here who have commented on the topic in the past.

My sense about TLF is that they don't want to deal with those risks, and I don't blame them. It's an exception to my more general observation that moderation at TLF has a lighter touch then TMF.

[Lootman]

Dynamic IP address can be chased if you're prepared to throw enough at it and have the legal establishment on your side. BT's logs would show who had the dynamic IP at a particular time.

There are a number of reasons why IP addresses are becoming increasingly useless for identifying people:

1) Dynamic IP allocation, as you note.
2) The increasing use of proxy servers, VPN's and Tor
3) With mobile computing, your IP address is constantly changing. Knowing that I posted from a Starbucks probably won't help you identify me much.
4) An act as simply switching off your device, in many cases, will change your IP.

[chas49]

Moderator Message:
Moved from DAK to Biscuit Bar as seems to be offtopic for DAK. (chas49)

[PinkDalek]

... Also have a look at the rules to make sure they have a ' get out of jail free card' that folk are entirely responsible for their own posts.

Such as here app.php/rules?

"Any views expressed herein remain the responsibility of the user posting the views. LemonFool takes no responsibility for the content posted by its members."

Perhaps they need beefing up, along the following lines (as a random example):

http://www.fool.co.uk/help/terms-and-co ... nification

[Slarti]

Moderator Message:
Moved from DAK to Biscuit Bar as seems to be offtopic for DAK. (chas49)

The link is still sitting in DAK, which confused me when I saw the "Retern to Biscuit Bar" link


Slarti