General Moderation Topic

[Jesse13927]

This thread is primarily for announcements. Your query is more for here:

Griping about moderation, bias, et cetera

There’s been quite a few complaints recently about moderation and “echo chamber” bias on the BBS… usually in the middle of topics that are completely unrelated to issues of moderation. Those posts are promptly Flagged by community members as Off-Topic (because they are), only to spur cries of “censorship!” and “favoritism!” (which isn’t the case when a Flagged post violates the Guidelines.) Whelp, here you go. Here, for your enjoyment, is a thread to argue and complain about this issue to your …

[orenwolf]

Was a gun mentioned anywhere in the article? Let alone the parents getting their teen one?

The phrase “but what about the cost of tea in China?” comes to mind here. Feel free to open your own topic if you wish, do not derail topics while “Just Asking (unrelated) Questions”, please.

[orenwolf]

User Yasif has been banned for derailing a topic and making it about them - again, after previously being specifically warned not to engage in this behaviour.

On a related note, anothernewbbaccount has all received a suspension for feeding that same derail with other unrelated posts and topics as ammunition.

We have multiple topics to discuss this sort of thing (including this one) and I have on multiple occasions punted at the various ways that Boing Boing has to reach out to Authors or the site in general in this very topic. Please use them. These sorts of off topic comments in topics in an unthreaded forum like this one completely kill the primary conversation- about the original post itself. Please don’t do that. Use one of the many alternatives posted here repeatedly. Thank you.

[orenwolf]

The warning below apparently didn’t stick, and Ghost_In_A_Jar has now been banned for continuing their quest to only have BB cover what they want them to cover.

@orenwolf

User Ghost_In_A_Jar has been given a timeout for repeatedly, over many topics, posting their displeasure that Boing Boing covers some subjects they are not interested in.

Boing Boing is the sum total of many diverse voices, posting about the things that interest them. Sometimes those voices disagree. Sometimes they cover topics others aren’t interested in. Sometimes those voices repeat each other. We regret the latter, but the former traits are part of what, in my opinion, makes this place so wonderful in the first place.

This necessarily means that not every story may be of interest to every Mutant. Them’s the breaks. But putting in the effort to make sure everyone is aware of your displeasure, every time a topic comes up you don’t want covering contributes nothing to the BBS as a whole. You are welcome to redirect your eyeballs to other wonderful areas of Boing Boing that do interest you instead. I promise it will be more productive and fulfilling than complaining about the parts that do not interest you!

Thanks.

[orenwolf]

User avunculoid has been banned. People who believe, or who create posts suggesting that transphobia is only something someone should be worried about appearing to care about, rather than bigotry being a real, genuine thing that affects real people today, have no place with Boing Boing.

[KathyPartdeux]

[jlw]

User TheChineseWatch was suspended for 1 month for using bad analogies as a gateway to slinging unfounded insults.

[orenwolf]

User Humbabella anonymized at user request.

[Faffenreffer]

I am saddened by this. Humbabella’s thoughtful posts were one of the things that drew me to the BBS.

They will be missed.

[LutherBlisset]

I’m not saddened, I am a bit shocked.

Their posts were really worth reading. And they seemed to be very much an integral part of the community.

I can’t follow the BBS as much as I used to, so I don’t know their recent posts. But I mourn that loss.

[MrShiv]

Pardon the ignorant questions, but what exactly does anonymization do? Is it reversible? For what reasons might a user request anonymization? Is it a stalking or doxxing thing? Can the user still post using their anonymized profile?

Just curious, mostly. This BBS has so many features it’s hard to keep track sometimes.

[orenwolf]

Anonymization removes all references to your email, username/password, and any other personal information (including IP history) from your account. It is irreversible, and you cannot use the account afterward.

It allows your posts to stay (thereby preventing the disruption of old conversations), without including any identifying data. People can request it for any reason, we don’t require an explanation, but I do tend to make it very clear that the act cannot be reversed (because we’ve lost all identifying data that would prove ownership of an account).

[MrShiv]

Thanks for the explanation.

[GilbertWham]

Damn right.

[orenwolf]

User DizBuster has been given a timeout for apparently believing the gender gap doesn’t exist and it’s all a big misunderstanding. Oh, and that “females” who respond to him are just being emotional, too.

Way to not read a room of mutants.

[orenwolf]

User 8-p has been banned for directly attacking other mutants.

[orenwolf]

User Flanker7 has been given a brief timeout for “rooting for violent uprisings”, which is pretty much the opposite of “be cool”.