The Question and Answer Board

[Koikaze]

The administrator has the tool needed to control the board ... the ability to delete posts. Informing a poster why their post is being deleted and deleting the post prevents the post from becoming a source of contention and lets the poster know their disruption will not be tolerated.

It is an effective method. You could see it in action on #board-1125, if the incidents were not so rare that it would be a chore to dig them out. Instead of having you hunt for them, I'll describe the method as well as I can:

The board is administered by Zeev Hed. To keep his board focussed on his primary interest, trading, he:

1) provides a second board (#board-1245) for a particular type of post (i.e. political opinions) which he deems inappropriate on his "trading" board. When someone posts "political" material on the trading board, he responds to the poster by referring him to the "politics" board, and deletes the post.

2) When someone writes an offensive post, he responds with a simple declarative statement (something like "That is uncalled for"), and deletes the post.

The result is a high-traffic board with a minimum of disruption.

Administrators inclined to "engage" a disruptive poster in a rational debate are fighting a losing battle. Disruptive people have no interest in "being rational". Their purpose is to vent their spleen and disrupt the board. Many of them are small-minded enough to take pride in their ability to wreak havoc. The only way to stop such people is to remove their trash.

Applying this method can be difficult because disruptive people deliberately invoke emotional responses. It takes time to learn to not respond to their barbs. I suggest management encourage board administrators to use the tools available to them.

Occasionally, it may be appropriate for management to send an encouraging private message to the board administrator:

Dear Board Administrator,

We note that you are being harassed by an unruly poster. You have the ability to delete such posts. If you do so, we suggest you first respond with a simple statement telling the author why you are deleting the message, something like this:

"We are deleting your post because it is vulgar."

"We are deleting your post because it is offensive."

"We are deleting your post because you repeatedly make the same point."

There is no requirement that you tell the abuser why you are deleting the post, but the other participants on your board will understand and appreciate your effort to provide a congenial atmosphere for their messages.

iHub Management

It is possible that you already do this. If not, I hope you will consider the idea. As board administrators become better able to handle disruptive posters, your workload will diminish. You'll only have to deal with those phreshest of all phish ... the real piranhas.

Fred