Forum Post: Let users block other users, please.
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 14, 2011, 1:52 p.m. EST by Faithntruth
(997)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
When I see comments by trolls, I would like to be able to block that user so I don't have to waste time siting through nasty, divisive, or ridiculous posts that are flooding the site with. Is it something you can add?
I appreciate comments on my posts, (and yours), that pertain to the subject matter. I particularly dislike the ones that dehumanize the street protesters and well meaning posters of this forum, and the redundant naysaying is somewhat overwhelming. If you find any answers to improve your forum experience, let me know. Finding and following good posts shouldn't be impossible, but that seems to be goals of some, who are enjoying themselves, at other's expense.
One thing would be helpful...when people post a link, say what it is. If someone lies about what it is, post to inform others of the lie.
Communists never like other side , if they could kill all of non-communist ! That's why your shit movement will never get success !
Fox News communist? Whoda guessed it!
Thanks to jameswestonmusic for correctly reading my intention. I am talking about individual control of what shows up on my screen, rather than controlling what shows up for everyone. I am talking about being able to block the nonsense posts, ones that promote violence, and posts that are racist so I can actually find the serious conversations.
I have to say I am weary of dealing with hate filled, antagonistic, racist, flag waving, fox followers. I live in an area dominated by them, I was force fed their world view every working day for 12 years on the job, and insulted and shunned for not adopting their group think ideology. I do not hate them, I feel sorry for them because I see that that they are fearful of change, fearful of "other", and fearful of the prospect of themselves being forced out of their group for "wrong" thinking. After twelve years, I no longer believe it is possible to affect their thinking in any way because persuasion requires one to be an authority in their eyes, and that requires sharing their worldview and ideology. If you concede one point, they perceive it as vindication of all their ideas, as well as weakness of your resolve and personal strength.
I have posted in the forum to try point out the common ideological ground we all share, generate ideas, and to point out propagandist tactics. I try to remain open minded, but I do know my morals, ethics, and the ideological beliefs I've derived from them. You people of Occupy are redefining the group, I think--I hope--so I fully support your endeavors, including welcoming everyone to the conversation. But I have been having these same conversations for years with nothing but antagonism and isolation in return for my trouble, so I am over it. I spent too long as a lone voice arguing against the power grab by government, the wealth and power accumulating with giant corporations, and the destruction of our personal freedoms based on a false promise of security. I am not willing to go there anymore.
My choice to edit what conversations I engage in is my right, and my experiences have led to the choices I make. It has nothing to do with anyone's free speech, but about my own freedom to embrace positivity of spirit after years of being drowned in hostility and negativity.
whats needed is serious forum and sub forum organization, and mods to sort threads into sub forums. block is not so good for assorted systemic reasons including now you wouldn't be able to see or respond to what might be some really lame BS you need to respond to and debunk. see?
we need organization, not control.
We don't need nanny state mods. Daily Kos does that, and you should see all the chicken fighting on that silly blog about HR (they've got their own special little codes) ratings, ability of people to HR based upon their posting record (I guess if you disagree with people there too much you don't get to be in the club). What we need is free exchange. Ignore a diary if you wish, don't respond if you think a comment or diary is ridiculous, and there are some, but we don't need babysitters.
This post was about each person having their own ability to ban obvious others who have no intentions than to spew nonsensical trite. Not baby sitters. I read your other posts above and have come to 2 conclusions. One, you are reasonably intelligent. And 2, you are an egotist. You should follow your own advice. "Ignore a diary if you wish, don't respond if you think a comment or diary is ridiculous, and there are some, but we don't need babysitters."
I apologize if I did not read it correctly. I thought he was advocating someone be in charge of deciding who were trolls and who weren't.
i know.. the sad part is the trolls are actually winning. notice most conversations here either start out well, then are derailed, or are insidious from the beginning. I rarely post here anymore. i use other forums. Sad part is, this is the main site for OWS and if I were an outsider, I would laugh at this joke.
But it is still a place to engage people that have different viewpoints, sometimes radically different, than yours (mine). I read Daily Kos for fun, and it just stuns me that they fancy themselves the "reality-based" community, but ban people left and right. I know, I've been banned because I came on and presented arguments from a conservative standpoint. They do say they are a site for democrats to elect more "and better" democrats, but they just are a big circle jerk. They jump on each other constantly in the comments sections if someone so much as hints at posting a conservative thought. If you do it more than once, out you go.
http://www.themultitude.org
that place is decent, because it is new.. you have to stay ahead of the news.. most trolls are paid to do what they are doing by organizations, or they are just filled with hatred and anarchy. stay ahead and you will find good conversation. although, THE BEST PLACE to go is to a rally, or occupy location. Face to face is always best.
sorry, I literally vomit at the mouth when I post, just too many thoughts running together, I apologize.
I'm sorry, but I am just the type of person that is wary of groups and groupthink. I am very aware of what many in the occupy movement think and want. The guy you see with the union cap on on the videos going around is a blogger on DK and I've probably read a thousand of his diaries on DK. I know exactly what he thinks and what he wants. He comes off on the videos as just trying to have a "conversation". I would suggest that you spend some time visting DK and searching through their search feature for "Ministry of Truth" (his handle on DK) and read his screeds. I may be an egotist, but I am an intelligent egotist, and know when I am being bullshitted. There is a reason the protests haven't gone to Washington, because the movement would have to protest both the Democrats and Obama as well as Republicans. Obama is taking huge amounts of Wall Street money for the election. The movement is a disguise not only for money in politics, but to establish far left liberal policies. Until I hear someone at Occupy talk about a reasonable way to get rid of our deficits and start in on the debt without, my ears are closed. I am surprisingly reasonable when it comes to some expenses, I think everything should be on the table, specifically the military budget (we could easily do with a 10%-20% cut), entitlement spending, and if it would appease liberals, I'd even sign off on some type of increase in taxes on the very wealthy, even though I believe they will either find a way around it, switch asset classes, move it overseas, and in some cases, lay off workers, rearrange their compensation to get in under whatever level is determined to be the cutoff for the new tax. They are smart, and hire even smarter people to do these things. They just react, same as me or you would do. Demonizing them doesn't do a damn thing. Demogoguing the issue and saying they "need to pay their fair share" when it is the spending which has gotten out of whack and so their fair share doesn't look quite as fair as a percentage doesn't do a damn thing. It is a fact that we have a $1.5 trillion dollar ANNUAL deficit. It is also a fact that raising taxes on the 1%, if you can extract it from them, will get you maybe $100 billion of that. If you lower the corporate tax rate and make it simple and fair and get rid of all the fancy accounting deductions, you could probably get that to pass, say down to 25% from 35%. Quit subsidizing companies, period, oil companies, everyone. Get out of the game entirely. You still have to bring the deficits down or we're going to get into Grecian territory if we run this up to $20-$25 trillion in the next 5-10 years, interest rates rise, etc. That means the military is going to have to get cut, and the entitlements are going to have to be tweaked, and some very tough decisions on health care are going to have to be made, and ALL Americans are going to have to suck it up, get rid of their interest group mentality, and suffer for a while like their grandparents and great grandparents did. It won't be forever, and our kids and their kids will be much better off for it. And no, I'm not one of the rich. In fact, the last couple of years have been terrible and I've had as much affect from the crashing stock market as anyone. I'm an independent contractor, have been since college, work commission only, have a wife and 3 kids, two of whom are in college (barely), pay for 100% of my own healthcare and always have, so when I hear about someone in a union with a steady job being asked to kick in 10%-15% of their health insurance premiums and subsequently taking over statehouses, I'm disgusted. If we could get money out of politics, and had a national drive to pay off the national debt (and a balanced budget amendment with carve-outs for emergencies), and you had a running ticker in every city in America with the national debt shown going down like it was the Jerry Lewis telethon, I could get behind that and would sacrifice. The government just does not spend money wisely or even in the place that it is supposed to be spent (i.e. the SS "trust fund" disappearing). That's why no one wants to pay taxes. They'd pay it in a minute if it wasn't another entitlement program or other boondoggle and it was going to pay off the debt.
Small picture stuff. I don't subscribe to parties or movements, only people. The good thing is that it is becoming OK again to talk about politics. The bad thing is people trying to profit from it. I don't believe in what other people say unless it is proven to be true. I too am disgusted by profiteering and greed. I too am an independent contractor, yet I don't have any children. But I care about yours and also my nieces and nephews. I hope some good comes out of this conversation we all seem to be having, and in most cases, agreeing upon the core issues. The only thing that I know is, there is a lot wrong with our government, and society. And when I am leaving this earth, I want to know I did my part to help preserve it for the future of humanity. I am not reckless with money (I owe no one), I am simple with my needs, I recycle everything I can, I eat healthy, I help others through charity, I work hard, I belong to no religion, party, group, country. I don't subscribe to any Ism, only humanity. I support the people of OWS, and not just OWS itself. The people are important here. I CHOOSE to not judge them, however different, they are just like me. A living breathing human with rights the same as you or I. They choose to camp, march, sing and shout, to pull the focus towards one of the stems of this oppressive world we live in. They have that RIGHT. However misguided some think it is. In my opinion, they do more for the children of the world than most, because they are ACTIVE. I say rock on people, your voice is being heard.
i don't agree. The only power i am suggesting to give them is the power to move content to someplace apropritate for that content. I'm not talking about deleting, silencing, or censoring- i am talking about organizing. there is a crucial and critical difference there, and anyone who wants a sane and civil conversation deserves to be able to have THEIR freedom of speech ALSO.
trolling is an attempt to quash the freedom of speech of others. people like you too easily miss this.
I don't mind what you have in mind, but silencing anyone, even trolls.
i agree, i wouldn't have any troll meat to eat as the eater of trolls... its important to have the trolls... its just more important to organize things so that it does not become a trollhatten. Most people would then leave and that would cede the online space to trolls. Do we want that? troll VS troll to represent us online?
insist a poster responds to 10 posts before being allowed to start a new topic
Yes! What this free speech and assembly movement needs is lots of regulations on free speech. What this peoples' dissent movement needs is people silencing other people's dissent. Brilliant!
we must listen to each other
why don't you go the the "people's mic" at your "general assembly". and suggest that. You obviously have no interest in anything that differs from your preordained view and you want it to be constantly reinforced, without dissent. I think it is painfully obvious to all by now (evidence all the "trolls" you speak of) that you are not even close to the 99% and should stand up at the people's mic and proclaim that you wish to have intellectual honesty and a new percentage named to accurately describe your people (say, 9.1%, the unemployed). The creepiest thing is that you all remind me of the people that went to Guyana with Jim Jones and his "People's Temple". Those people had no dissent either, he talked, they repeated, and then one day he told them to do something, that today was the day that the "man" was coming for them, the day that they'd been waiting for, and they all calmly drank the koolaid, laid down, and died.
No, I am happy to participate in conversations that are intelligent, polite, and respectful, instead of engaging with people who think insults make one more correct in their stated views, or better than the other person. Your statement, for example is comprised of insult, attack, and negative association and lacks any form of substantive content or intelligent thought.
What does not count as polite, respectful, or intelligent is claiming that you are the 99%. Do you really think that the, oh, let's take a stab at it, 50,000 or so total people protesting in the U.S. really reflect the views of the 99% of America? Or is it just a catchy political stunt? Why the generalized nature of the protest? Is there something that the movement is afraid of? Like, maybe, telling the rest of America what you are really for, specifically. You all have an opportunity to have commonality on a couple of issues with people who share none of the rest of the far left agenda. Like getting corporate and union money out of politics, ending bailouts, imposing reasonable regulations so that the country cannot be brought to its knees again by the financial industry (of course, this will have to happen in conjunction with the realization that not every American deserves or can afford their own home). That's a very good start and one that I think there is widespread support for. But alas, something tells me the movement doesn't want to stop there. Taxing millionaires is going to do nothing to put a dent in our deficits or debt, raising taxes on corporations will do nothing but cause them to lay off workers or relocate. Think about it like this. Let's say you operate on a $75,000 annual budget for your total bills and you make $90,000, so you save or are able to spend $15,000/year. Now, say the government comes in and says you need to pay them an extra $5,000 to pay for new highways or whatever. So, do you sit down at your table and say, well, at least I still have $10,000 left, or do you go through your expenses and see where you can cut $5,000 so that you can still save $15,000,like maybe the landscaping company or your nail salon lady who does your nails a couple of times a month, maybe both? That costs someone else their job, or at least reduces their income, but it is a natural inclination on the part of the one doing the cutting. It is not selfish, but very natural to try and earn the same or more each year. Government might (and I emphasize might) be better off financially, but some individual or company out there won't be. You are simply trading the ability of the individual to decide where their money is spent for the government's to decide, and unless you haven't noticed, the government wastes more dollars in pet projects, cost overruns, picking winners and losers, and generally nanny-stating the populace than can ever be imagined. I've had personal experience with it, the GSA (General Services Administration), and am familiar with how they must always spend their budgets, so that they can get an increase in budget the next year (how ridiculous is that?). It is a bureacracy spending OPM (other people's money) that has absolutely no accountability. If we want to become Greece, we're well on our way. Speaking of Greece, what do you think the people throwing gas bombs and rioting are hoping to accomplish after they've destroyed their city? What about the next day when they wake up? They are shit out of luck. They simply do not grasp what is going to happen to them, they're just going to riot and kill people because of it, but it won't change the outcome a bit. They are paying the piper now. Their government doesn't have the money to pay them any longer, they can refuse to pay their creditors I suppose, let's see how that works out for them when they can get absolutely no credit anywhere in the world, their government can't lend to them, tourism dries up because of the violence. They're looking like they're going to end up having to sell the Parthenon.
Word!
No,Word Up!
What a bunch of hypocrites.....we are the 99% we hate the 1%...unless you disagree with us then you are in the....hey, wait a minute....we've run out of %'s.....crap!
What a bunch of hypocrites.....we are the 99% we hate the 1%...unless you disagree with us then you are in the....hey, wait a minute....we've run out of %'s.....crap!