"Eliminate the Complaint button." Topic

The stool pigeon and snitch have always been despised, except in dictatorial societies.

I think it is far too easy to drop a dime on TMP posters who offend you. All you have to do is hit the complaint button, or the box that looks like this: [!]
This is too easy. I suggest that we eilminate this function to whine about your little brother . "Ma! Smokey is looking at me!!!

You can still turn someone in by emailing the Editor, so you still have that recourse, if you feel you must. Why make it so easy to be a crybaby? Eliminate the one button stool pigeon, I say! If you have to turn someone, work at it!

Bill:

Do the Complaint Button messages get sent to you in a different folder, manner, or priority than regular e-mail or news submissions?

John,

If we get rid of it, how can I complain about all of your posts? Stifling is for the weak willed.

Many websites make it very difficult to contact the webmaster/owner for a reason.

Steve
cavalcadewargames.com
nycjadie.wordpress.com

The solution to contacting The Editor is on this page. I have no problem if people can't figure out how to use it.

I'm going to complain about this complaint about the complaint button.

I'm going to complain about anyone complaining about this complaint about the complaint button AND anyone who complains about me complaining. So there.

And I second the motion. Here's our campaign slogan: Ditch the snitch switch!

Allow people hit to the button and let the Editor sort it out. It's his site and he has been pretty clear about what is and is not acceptable.

If you live on the edge you might fall in some times.

Man up and deal with it if you fall in.

I wish to complain about the previous complaint.

Push the button.
You know you want to.

I have complained about the previous people complaining about the previous complaint

Just change it to the whining button.

Just No

I completely agree with OFM, it's gone too far. Get rid of the complaint button and the option.

If we do, society and Western Civilization will break down, and TMP will become the American version of Frothers!

Keep the buttons Bill! Granted, I have never used them, but someday, I just might. Just not today.

Oh, keep s.

I just want to eliminate the Speed Dial option for turning people in. Make the snitches work at it. Spend 30 seconds to do it instead of 1.

If the complaint button makes Bill's life easier when administering this site, then it should stay.

It actually might not work at all. Sort of like the Thought Police in 1984. you never know who is going to turn you in so you are paranoid about everyone.

Have a double plus good day.

If the complaint button makes Bill's life easier when administering this site,

I don't see how. Email is email. I don't want to make things harder for Bill. I want to make things harder for the whiners and stool pigeons.

But I LIKE being a whiner and a stool pigeon! Why do you ALWAYS have to rain on everybody else's parades. John?

I just have to start reading the memos.

Was there a specific incident that triggered this?

you never know who is going to turn you in so you are paranoid about everyone.

But if you aren't breaking the rules, what have you to worry about? So why be paranoid?

The rules can change on an hourly basis.

It's just like the USSR or in the 30s, or the RPG Paranoia in…whatever century it's set.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

But John there is a certain percentage of any population, including TMP--or maybe I should say especially TMP, that are victims looking for something to be offended by. If the splat is taken away it will be much harder for these wandering wondering victims to maintain their secret identities resulting in a complete breakdown of civilized society and a return to a period where folks were publically held accountable for their own actions.

We wouldn't want to return to the failed policies of the past would we?

I didn't think so; now please push the splat on me and move along, there's nothing else to see here.

Someone complain about Terrement!

Perhaps a democratic "delete post" if it gets so many unique votes the post is eliminated?

I'd like to complain again.

This is fun!

Post/word count worries?

Do the Complaint Button messages get sent to you in a different folder, manner, or priority than regular e-mail or news submissions?

I should go look in the code… perhaps there's a database somewhere, overflowing with complaints!

Complaints turn into emails that are tagged so I know they are Complaints and can get to them right away – which is important when eliminating spam on the boards, or stopping a flame war in its tracks.

I want to make things harder for the whiners and stool pigeons.

Are the "whiners and stool pigeons" people who disagree with what you say?

The only times I hit the complaint button are for . . .

1) Threads I create, but later realize I misspelled the title. So I ask Bill to make the correction; and
2) Threads that others create but post only in one board*, when it is obvious it should go on a couple more.

CC
* The funny thing is that many of the originators of those threads complain that no one is posting, until Bill cross-posts it.

All due respect, John, but I think you let some features on this site bug you far more than they should.

I've hit the ! for the same reasons CC has. Or, pre-delete button, to have one of the posts I made (in response to BME) deleted, as I was pretty darned mad when I posted, even after making myself wait a couple of days to cool down. I posted, thought better of it, and asked Bill to delete it. Given the general tenor of the post, I would not have been surprised to be nailed for a short stay away from TMP, but it didn't happen.

Alternatively you could just go through every thread and push the splat on every entry everyday! Unless the Ed has a mass delete option that he keeps only for himself (I doubt it-and this might help in the development of one) it should make the whole pushing of the '!' pretty meaningless.

Stop the ! by breaking it with an overload of !

Heh, heh!

And if a few folks were to do this daily well-----

Imagine!

Never complain and never explain.

I'm just a laid-back, easy-going kinda guy from sunny Southern California.

Opinions are like a-holes. Everybody is one. Express yours the way you see fit.

JW

How about an OFM button? The Editor would say,"Hmmm, just another complaint by or about the OFM. No action required."

Sneakgun – That is the best suggestion I've seen on TMP in a long time.

Having access to similar systems at the boards I've helped run is useful for helping to eliminate spam, stop flame wars and crack down on major violations of board rules. However, I get your point John. It's the "tattle tale" aspect, the "let me see if I can get him Dawghoused" game that people seem to play here. It also creates an environment where people can game the system or feel that they must talk around an issue for concern over "!" retribution.

And, I hate to say it but there's a capricious nature to the way these "punishments" are carried out. I've probably learned more about being a moderator/admin by watching how Bill runs this board than I have from just about any other person on the 'net and most of those lessons have been positive. Call that butt kissing if you want but I'm being dead serious and this is something I've expressed at just about every forum I've been a member. I have a similar "time out" system in place at board I help admin and similar rules of conduct and the members know I will use it and that I have no problems banning people who refuse to behave. I've had people break rules and try to push my buttons but in four years, I have yet to put anyone in the "Dawghouse" and I've only banned three members out-right. Two for grossly inappropriate and potentially illegal behavior and another for posting graphic rape and murder threats against another member.

*Turned out in that third case that the supposed "18 year old male" making those threats was actually a young girl somewhere between 10 and 13 years old who had unsupervised access to one of her Dad's old laptops. When Mommy was finally located and contacted, her reaction was pretty much total indifference. Nevertheless, the little "darling" is perma-banned.*

My point, and I think I have one, is that the complaint system does serve a useful purpose but the whole "complain and Dawghouse" part seems to be used as a "gotcha" game to "win" against real or perceived opponents. For the record, yes, I have used the complaint button myself. Last time I used it was not to "tattle" on anyone (and I even specifically said that no one had engaged in a Dawghouse-able offense) but to express a concern to Bill over what I perceived to be a troublesome trend. The one case where I remember a former member getting on my nerves enough to hit the "!" about him was a guy who clearly enjoyed gaming the board rules to start flame wars. He knew damn well what he was doing and his aggrieved victim routine was well rehearsed and transparent. His favorite trick was to get other members to mention his proudly and openly held political affiliation by name since that name is considered an insult and a rules violation here. It was a cute little piece of message board theatre where members had few choices but to either complain, try to endure his behavior or open up on him in the forums and give him the satisfaction of playing victim while seeing his "abusers" punished for giving him a justified "what for".

Bill, instead of doing it all yourself, why not set up some moderators you trust? Heck, Jethro told Moses himself to get some help!

For those of you who don't want my too long; didn't read version, here's the pithy version. The button has some legitimate use a moderation tool. However, it's also subject to a great deal of abuse. Perhaps some sober reassessment of the whole "complaint and dawghouse" is in order. Barring that, perhaps a statistical database to "name and shame" the people using it could be put up, along with a complaint button that calls this:
picture

(For those without a humor gene, those last suggestions are called "satire".)

why not set up some moderators you trust?

In the normal course of things, there really aren't that many Complaints that come in.

But when it rains, it pours.

Are the "whiners and stool pigeons" people who disagree with what you say?

Kind of what I was thinking when I first read it too.

We wouldn't want to return to the failed policies of the past would we?

I'm a Republican. I LIKE the failed policies of the past.
They're better than the failed policies of the [[[BLYUE FEZ ALERT!! BLYUE FEZ ALERT!!!]]]

I used to share the OFM's views on the matter but not anymore. As DHing is so wonderfully capricious and arbitrary, pushing the complaint button has just become part of the fun of the fair. It's always an interesting exercise to see just who the Editor will and who he won't DH. Of course once upon a time there was a Current Affairs board where such matters could be aired but that was another failed policy of the past.

To balance things out I like to reward those who are DHed unfairly with Good Trader stars. I believe that's what they are there for.

For the record, I pushed the button on Smokey. Nothing personal, all in the name of scientific inquiry. Sorry Smokey, if it's any consolation I will be awarding you a good trader star.

Now, off to look for an egregious remark by John the OFM.

Oh and release Smokey!

I didn't even know what that button was for. Maybe if it automatically CC'd the accused so we can know who the whiners are… (Cue in evil sounding chortling here).

Haha that's funny, I wondered how people got good trader stars!

Having met John in person, I didn't hear one "y'un" in his speech.

Steve
cavalcadewargames.com
nycjadie.wordpress.com

Are we done complaining about complaining?