Forum Post: Is Anyone Moderating Here??
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 16, 2011, 1:32 a.m. EST by LaughinWillow
(215)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I really would love to have productive discussions about OWS, but this site seems totally out of control. You've got obvious trolls posting every 30 seconds, filling the site with crap (and no, I don't object to alternative viewpoints - I'm talking about the blatant insult and "I'm a rich millionaire with 5 cars!" threads), and a bunch of crazy stuff about the OWS being the antichrist and other similar nonsense.
Is someone actually moderating this site and/or in charge of its design? Or are people giving up and moving to that Multitude site? I just would like to know, because I really would like to discuss stuff, but don't want to waste my time here if it's just been commandeered by folks sent by Rush or something.
Thanks y'all.
Yes. Private message me when you see trolls and I'll global network ban them.
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Yea can we get the people who keep posting spammish text walls with lots of links - well maybe not banned but give them a warning? And if they continue, ban?
Right now our #1 goal it to get misogynistic/racist/homophobic/transphobic/etc. shit off the forum as well as obvious trolls.
ok got it
Peer pressure sometimes works with those text wall people ; )
I know this one guy has been doing it because he's hyper pissed we haven't found the time to implement categories yet. Since he really likes the forum and has legit grievances I'm going to let that slide for now until we can add the new features.
He's toned it down a lot since some of us said something.
He does have a point though.
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I will make a note of this
Thanks. I actually just g-lined a few people tonight for posting links to fascist propaganda.
I'm gonna send you a couple of names since you're online
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&pli=1&formkey=dFlNNHJTRlZwMWs5ZjlhTWN0NlZReHc6MQ take this poll, relax, post, and visit http://plainsite.org and http://www.occupyr.com
There is a lot of crap going on, but there are different ways to look at it.
The fact that nobody is controlling the message let's everything come out.
It seems like the truth eventually rises to the surface. I don’t see too many people getting away with pushing their agenda or propaganda. They get called down on it, often in front of others and people get a different point of view from what they have been fed from other sources
At first I was put off buy it then I realized it is part of the process. It seems like it most often shows the reason for the protest. In other words it generally works against the liar and deceivers
Spamming might threaten things, I don't troll myself (not intentionally although not everyone always agrees with me) but I can see how trolling is kind of valid. I guess I just don't mind trolls unless they spam. Spammers, people who just seem to want to fill space with their message and drown out everyone else seem more disruptive than trolls, regardless of the content that either one of them is saying.
How about doing something really productive? Identify the rich puppeteers behind the tea party - march to the Koch brothers
Right on. Webmaster should get that through the NYC GA ASAP. Post a terms of use statement for registration. And, keep the 'graffiti' off the board.
This issue has been discussed many times. Some us got tired and got our own forum site, which is well moderated: http://www.themultitude.org/
Problem is that all the traffic is here and we have no way to get them to go to this site. Some think that we are spamming. Others are blaming that we are trying to splinter the movement. I believe all we are trying to do is to show the OWS people running this site is how it should be done, so they can start a proper phpbb based forum like this. Till they do this, we can use the above forum site for a sane place to discuss serious issues free from the trolls and provocateurs.
This place is basically lost. There's no moderation, and it's not actually connected to the movement. It's a specific unorganizational decision made by, I don't really know who.
What are you talking about dude? We're here on the streets helping out which is half the reason we haven't had as much time to deal with the forum which gets like 7 posts per minute.
PS - you don't need to explain anything, I'm not like handing out grades or anything. Do what you gotta do. I'm just saying, use your resources.
First, let me say that despite the tone I'm about to take, I am incredibly thankful for your existence. Just keep that in mind.
You have people who are not on the street - not even in the city - who want to help. You have an enormous resource base to tap into, right here. There was a time, just a few days ago, when getting a mod team together would have been quick, and the work would have been easier. The longer it takes to get the support together, the harder it's going to be.
There is no connection from the on-the-ground team to the people you've rallied here. I have the luxury of going down to the park in person, but every time I get down there there's no word there either about organizational support. If I can get down there, ask people, and still not have any idea what's up, I can only imagine the state of confusion for people outside the city.
I am sympathetic to your time constraints. I just feel like this shit could have been foreseen. There are people here looking for ways to support you guys, and you have a clear need for support. What's missing?
There are many problems causing this disarray. For starters we've had several spaces donated to us we could have used as organizing hubs but we later heard the owners were intimidated by the city. There's also the fact that it's impossible to work in the square because it's packed shoulder to shoulder. There hasn't been a place there where I can sit down and use my laptop for weeks and I have to spend half my time couch surfing and hopping from office to office. Many of these problems could be solved if we could just bloody expand and occupy other parks, but the GA in Wash. Sq. just voted to "occupy at a later date". :sigh:
Are you developing this site open source? Feel like there used to be a link somewhere to the source code. Do you have a web team, can you recruit a web team, or does that have to go through GA?
How much space does the web team need, and when would it need access? Have you put out a call for workspace? I'm just thinking if people know what you need, someone might be able to help.
Of course: https://github.com/jart/occupywallst The link's on the about page I think.
If you're talking about our team specifically, it'd be even more helpful if you could help us find a loft or something in lower manhattan with bunk beds so we could at least have a common space to sleep/shower. It's tough being sort of homeless, full-time activists managing a website that gets 300,000 visitors a day as well as dealing with press / public relations.
Shit, I've been meaning to learn Python, but I thought I had more time to stall before it would matter.
I'll ask around about crashing space. Only people I can think of right now that live in lower Manhattan have two kids; there's no room at the inn. Any other people following this thread that can ask around?
The posts with "throw a rock at a jew" and shit like that make it hard to be here. Its totally childish and if you said that on a street corner you would be arrested, but we have to put up with it to protect your free speech? Fuck off. I know exactly why LaughinWillow made this post and I agree.
I meant to reply to plasmastorm....made a mistake and admitting it in public! There goes my career in politics!
LOL I already asked that, apparently not. That is GREAT for free speech, on the down side it makes the whole movement and it's followers look like a bunch of irrational trouble makers and turns off the moderates and middle-class Americans.
I was down at OWS all day today and I don't think people have time to moderate the site. This is especially true because there were several demonstrations carried out all over the city today. These "trolls" as you call them, are just terrified.
I get you, but it seems like there should be enough support out there for folks who aren't physically at the protests to moderate. Has there been a call for moderators to help here? I've moderated other forums, and might be willing to volunteer some time.
I have found the decentralization of this movement to be cool and refreshingly democratic but it is also very frustrating. I am definitely in the Republican Democracy camp rather than the direct democracy camp where nothing gets done.
Currently, there's no support for people who aren't at the park or at the demonstrations. I think it's a lack-of-human-resources thing...? It's hard to tell, but then there wasn't really much support for people at the demonstration today, either. Mostly our path was dictated by the NYPD. When we got to Times Square, most of the people at 46th St. had no idea there were people at 42nd St., and vice versa.
It's a shame because six fewer people at today's march definitely wouldn't have been missed, but they could make a huge difference in rallying support online, and in how the movement is perceived externally. Still, it's early. At some point, you (or at least I) have to believe an organizational strategy will pop up on the radar.
Wish I could get up there. Stuck at home with 4 kids and a job with no time off. I'd love to help organize this thing. Used to be pretty good at that.
I will say this: if anything good is going to come of Occupy, it will take a long time. So don't lose patience. Keep it on your radar, check in here and at the Facebook group, and bide your time. Once the ground team gets its shit together, I suspect they will discover they need as much help as they can get.
When or if you think of something you can do to help, you don't have to ask permission. If you can rally the support here to get your idea off the ground, and you think it will help the cause, do it.
I know there's some confusion about what the cause is. Right now, the cause seems to be simple and very limited: awareness. The movement is still focused on raising awareness and shaking the people awake (one could argue that it's getting past time to move forward, what with 1000 cities organizing concurrent protests, but that might be my personal frustration talking).
Imagine that. LaughinWillow wants to reduce opposition in a so-called "free speech" movement whose only reason for continued existance is that the police force in New York hasn't reduced your free speech. Ironic. And unlike your protests, persons voicing dissenting views on this website are following the laws of the United States while you are not.
Freedom of speech protects you from the government interfering with your speech.
It does not protect you from owners of websites or other forum posters who don't like your comments. They're free to call out any posts they don't like just as you are free to say what you want.
The problem some of us have is not dissenting views, it is worthless posts with obscenity and racial epithets that exist for no other purpose than to throw mud or make the forum look bad.
Lol. You're funny.
I don't want to reduce opposition - I just don't want to wade through 300 posts from yahoos calling people nazis. Are you suggesting that I have some ethical obligation to read 300 posts from people calling people nazis?
I also have no obligation to recognize laws which I had no part in creating. If you respect those laws, go for it. I choose for myself which laws I follow.
Read 300 posts from people calling people nazis?
And for a moment there I thought you may have been referring to the protesters and their signs in Wall Street. Oh
Yeah... Whats up with the guy offering jobs?
Ah, the first twitching of leadership and control - filtering the revolution in the name of the revolution - ROTFL