Trolling in the sports section

[Minstrels]

So before a Moderator chooses to deal with a post he / she should ask a member of that Forum (who could well be biased) before he / she does so? I do not believe that would be a feasible way of approaching the problems in that Forum. As I say, and as Matt has said, we are looking at dealing with the situations that are arising in the Sports and Hobbies Forum but it requires the support of the regular users of that Forum in the form of feasible suggestions that we can implement.

No, you mentioned this...

we have contacted the Forum's Moderators in reference to how the section should be Moderated.

If the problem is moderators not being able to moderate the section due them not being able to see what level of banter it is then what's going to change if you're asking the SAME moderators how the section should be moderated?

Surely you should PM regular uses of the section asking them to give examples of the banter which the users believe is trolling and what isn't. The moderators could then use these examples as future references when moderating that section in the future.

[Catzsy]

I would say that telling somebody a sports person or team is 'rubbish' is just an opinion but if you are offensive to that person, continually, or indeed racist then it surely it should be considered to be trolling. I am not sure what happens in the football terraces is really a good example of what behaviour would be acceptable on the forum. As an example of this there is a swearing filter on here whereas it is almost considered the norm on the terraces. You don't have be interested in the sport or be a regular on the football terraces to consider the feeling of others. If it seems offensive to a moderator and the other party considers it offensive then it is as far as I can see. Another important factor is that there is a permanent written word on here which can be seen by others for a long time rather than a transient verbal exchange.

[Immenseman]

I suggest having moderators who understand football to moderate the section.

[Jordy]

Is it possible to have 'Banter' over a forum? People reckon that sarcasm isn't possible over a forum, perhaps banter also isn't possible over a forum.

Depending on the person, when they post 'Your teams rubbish' they could mean to spark some friendly banter or just troll to get a reaction out of someone.

Usually you can tell by the forum member if they're trolling or having a laugh but it's pretty much impossible to tell the difference between the two.

[The Professor]

Is it possible to have 'Banter' over a forum? People reckon that sarcasm isn't possible over a forum, perhaps banter also isn't possible over a forum.

Depending on the person, when they post 'Your teams rubbish' they could mean to spark some friendly banter or just troll to get a reaction out of someone.

Usually you can tell by the forum member if they're trolling or having a laugh but it's pretty much impossible to tell the difference between the two.

Spot on. Imo it makes forums like D&D, Sports and Hobbies and Spam impossible to moderate effectively. Its admirable that habbox wants to keep their users happy but they kinda need to take a solid stance on how they want to moderate it: they either need to allow all trolling or ban it. Allowing it causes lots of arguments but the users generally know what they're getting into and which crowd they're talking to. Banning it gets rid of the problem outright but upsets lots of people. The middle ground doesn't really exist though because as soon as a moderator takes any form of action it's deemed too harsh because the mod isn't part of the in crowd.

As for getting people who use the forum to moderate it, going by what you've said with all the "banter" that goes on, the people chosen would be far too biased towards letting people off and would ignore genuine cases of bullying and trolling and such. Sure, it makes the users of the forum feel better, but it isn't really moderating effectively.

[e5]

Just becos u feel so strongly about sport and for the majority of ur time spent on here is the sports section, does't give you the right to go and give smart arse comments anyway, it really annoys me when people like u do tht.

[Geraint]

*REMOVED*

Edit by Robbie! (Forum Super Moderator): Please do not target other members. This can be seen as a form of bullying.

[leah]

I suggest having moderators who understand football to moderate the section.

Good point, people who don't understand football wouldn't be able to distinguish between trolling and a joke.

[Wootzeh]

After this thread you then went on to make a new female moderator, moderator of the football section! what a joke that was, this then resulted in 4-5 of the main posters in the small community banned because of one person trolling.

Trolling is the act of purposefully antagonizing other people on the internet, generally on message boards. When done in a moderated internet community, this can result in banning.

NEEDS SORTING!

[Immenseman]

Only bad members get banned :-)