Cut. It. Out.

[Vin Ahrr Vin]

I may hate myself later, but I finally did it.

I went thermonuclear today.

Deleted about 20 posts.

Banned someone.

Please, let's keep this board civil.
1. Stop arguing over the same points again and again. I really don't want this board to be a constant lecture in legal issues. I know when OSRIC and other retro clone games first came out, there were these huge arguments over whether it was all legit or not. I really don't want that here.
2. No more nationality slurs. I don't really want to hear all about the Nazis any more. I wasn't there and I doubt that any of our posters were, either.

I created this board because I enjoyed T&T. For a long time this was a fun place to hang out and chat about the game. Now a few people have decided to dump all over this place and not a week goes by when I don't get at least one PM asking me if I can deal with a few troublemakers. Now I've started getting PMs from posters who say they are tired of the c.r.a.p and are going away. What fun is that?

So today I dropped the hammer. I had to do this on my OD&D board a few months ago. It made me feel sick because I had to get rid of a founding member of that board, but the good of the group had to outweigh the good of the individual. Nobody wants to be the bad guy, but I guess it goes with the Admin badge that I wear.

The person I banned today had a couple of hundred posts. I looked at most of them before I made a decision. The first 3/4 or so were thoughtful and insightful, a real bonus to the board. Most of the posts in the past 2 months or so were spiteful and angry. I've tried PM-ing this person to ask for calm and I got attitude. I tried giving this person a "time out" for several days, but upon returning it just all started again. Today I decided that I was done. In reflection I guess that he made the decision to be banned because of his actions, and that it wasn't really mine. That doesn't really make me feel any better, but it's done and I don't even know if I can un-ban a person.

I guess I shoud be happy that I've only had to do this once in 1,654 days of managing this board. (If my count is accurate.)

I'm sorry if this isn't a fun place to hang out anymore. Hopefully my getting tough will make it fun again. If not, and if everyone gets mad at me and decides to stop posting here, I could just make the whole forum go away. I'd hate to do that because I love this place.

Let's play nice! Game on!

[sligo]

You do what you have to do, and sometimes you have to make tough decisions. I've been moderator and administrator on forums, so I know it's not an easy job. You start with a labor of love and someone turns it in to their own personal soap box for dishing out inflamatory diatribe, and you have to step in and put a stop to it.

It looks to me like you went through a reasonable process, and your actions were measured and appropriate. I may be just a noob on this board, but I support you and your efforts to keep and maintain a forum that is an enjoyable place to discuss our favorite game and other topics that we want to discuss.

Thank you!

- Sligo

[Vin Ahrr Vin]

I appreciate the support and hope you find this to be a great place for T&T discussion. It was pretty calm until recently and hopefully has returned to that state again! :-)

[machfront]

I'd like to publicly apologize to any and all for allowing it to get to me and "feeding the troll" as it were. I should have let the insanity stand and speak for itself.
I'm abrasive and I don't suffer such things gladly, so I sometimes can't restrain myself.

The last thing I'd ever want is a thread to get locked, a member to be banned and most of all for anyone to be less prone to take part in discussions here or join in the first place. I'd hate to think I would ever contribute to anything that would make this community less enjoyable and open.
If I do, don't be afraid to call me on it, publicly or private, mod or member.

As unfortunate as it is/can be, I think Vin took the right actions, ugly as those things can sometimes be.

Now hopefully it can be water under the TrollBridge. HAR! Har har har!

Sorrysorrysorry...

Now back to less of me, which I'm sure you'll all enjoy. ;D

[mahrundl]

Vin, you have my support, for what must have been a very hard decision. I agree with Sligo and Machfront's comments above.

I'm sorry that it was necessary, but I suspect that it was probably the right decision.

[Aramis of Erak]

Vin, there are always those who decide that freedom means freedom to be a jerk. It is for this reason that society has police, and boards have moderators.

It's always a bummer when a productive poster turns away from being productive, and more so when they turn destructive... but letting them continue is not a good thing.

And I, too, apologize for feeding into the troll.

One thing that is lacking is a "report post" button; I'd probably have used it instead of mouthing off.

[Vin Ahrr Vin]

Feb 1, 2010 15:21:45 GMT -5 Aramis of Erak said:

One thing that is lacking is a "report post" button; I'd probably have used it instead of mouthing off.

That would be a handy feature. I'll look in the Admin section to see if there is anything like that which I could toggle "on".

Some people sent me PMs when things got kind of heated. I confess that I don't always read through all of the threads anymore, and some of this stuff had snuck past me.

Nine times out of ten, feeding the trolls won't encourage them to stop.

[zanshin]

Its your board Vin, and i appreciate the efforts you and Mahrundl make to keep this going as a place to discuss T&T. IMO the best place. I apologise for the posts where i have responded aggressively. Thanks for all your work.

[mahrundl]

I must apologise for dropping the ball to some extent on this one. I had a busy few days where I didn't get to read through everything (I think that I missed reading anything for 48 hours at one point), and when I got caught up on the backlog it was all over bar the sweeping up...

[eagle]

Just keep it fun; today and everyday.

Your Tunnels and Troll Nut,

James

[Vin Ahrr Vin]

And now it turns out that by banning the IP address I inadvertantly banned another member who lives nearby. (Member can log in from work, not from home.) Not sure if I can fix the problem and wish there was an "undo" function... :-(

[sligo]

I wondered about that.

[trrrommm]

Looking forward to many friendly and productive posts and responses. T&T Rules!

[quoghmyre]

Yes they are.

[cartomancer]

I think you need to go nuclear again!

Bloody spammers!!