I know our English language updates all the time, and I kinda don’t like that it is this way.
But did the meaning of “caution” change?
A “warning” button needn’t be clicked.
Alas, enough, maybe?
Maybe “moderator” means “fealty”, nowadays.
So should we just close down all discussion threads because there is not clear cut solution and people don’t know how to act in public?
3 Likes
As a french i don’t see any issue about peoples arguing if its not personals attacks.
For a example, i’m a leftist (who would have guess 
), i’m arguing way more with other lefty than anything because opinion like good wine need to be refined 
1 Like
I believe the issue as a whole is on a case by case basis. Perhaps my reply didn’t make this clear, so let me try to make it clearer here: the thread that got locked and spawned this one, in my opinion, needed to be locked. If, in the future, there are threads like that one, I believe the moderation can hand warnings to individual users who have acted wrongly and do cleanup. If things don’t change, close the thread down because it’s clear a consensus can’t be achieved through diplomatic means and no matter how much the moderation team hands warnings, mutes and so on, things won’t improve.
Now, one issue I can foresee is that this will push certain individuals to derail other threads and act poorly. I believe the moderation team, in those cases, could mute those individuals for a long time or straight up ban the individuals in question for misconduct.
2 Likes
Please join the moderation team!
A ta santé!
1 Like
This is where issue’s arise. We all have a very different opinion.
I believe we can have civil conversations where we can express our idea’s with a passion. The issue comes when others who completely disagree start defending their position like their home is being invaded by Aliens.
Moderators can only do so much. Since its a volunteer position people are not required to be on 8 hours a day to monitor the threads. There must be a way to do some self moderation while still being able to have an intelligent conversation.
The big things I see is really people today seem to have just a basic unwillingness to Listen, Understand and Respect a different opinion and are to narcissistic to leave it be.
Why not just ban those users who are causing issue from that thread (not a site ban) and allow those of us who are discussing civilly continue?
5 Likes
This is a public forum, but we have a ruleset to keep this place friendly, inclusive and non-offending.
This is not authoritative, it is about every member of this community can do their part on keeping this place friendly. The Admins CEOs Devs Moderators all of these people doing this by free will not as a paid job. Keep this in mind. Intervention from a Moderator or Admin should be the very last thing that should happen. Not the general rule.
In order to continue to be able to keep this forum in an orderly path, and to keep the time required as minimally as possible, decisions also have to take abbreviations.
We do not have always the time to discuss every little bit in detail. In case anyone of you see that users got mad, simply try to remind on the rules, if it does not help report… But report before it is too late. In case, two users got mad at each other, and it has heated up… Removing the posts does nothing, the next time they will go even a step on top.
Everyone has to keep in mind that creating a post is in your personal responsibility and also what happens in this thread if other answers … Take responsibility and ensures that this forum remains open to this type of conversation.
None of the Admins here are interested in suppressing the community’s mutation. That’s nonsense.
I do ask the community to help yourself, to keep the forum friendly.
And not to cause hours of work with every little thing just because a decision doesn’t quite fit.
This is our place that’s a great thing, take a look at the world, and rethink about blaming others.
14 Likes
That might be better, yeah.
1 Like
I like that proposal! It is not as harsh as a ban for the whole forum but it is still a strong message for the offender. But I dont know if that is technically possible with discourse.
1 Like
Yep the software is our limitation.
Some possible solutions: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/can-discourse-mods-ban-a-user-XgyR0Ov1T.KHvYv_odyVzg
- Category-level restrictions: Moderators can create a new group, copy all users except the disruptive ones, and adjust the category permissions accordingly1. This method is more suitable for category-level restrictions rather than individual threads.
- Temporary bans: Instead of thread-specific bans, moderators can implement temporary bans for disruptive users. This can range from 7 to 30 days, depending on the severity of the behavior1.
- CSS-based solution: As a workaround, moderators could create a “not-allowed-in-xxx” group and use CSS to hide posts from specific users in certain categories1. This approach might be adaptable for individual threads, but it’s not an official feature.
Web Search gave me this (from 2017): https://meta.discourse.org/t/ban-members-from-specific-topics/61800
Full search: https://search.brave.com/search?q=can+discourse+mods+ban+a+user+from+a+specific+thread%3F
2 Likes
Close it.
- Not able to answer is imho not cooling people down, at least not online. Often it’s more infuriating, and people count down the seconds to eventually vent again.
- New people who come in hours after the initial confrontation are chiming in and fire the thread up again.
- Mods can clearly articulate: This was over the line. Everybody sees where the line is.
- Long simmering threads are a drain on mods.
2 Likes
Then those can get a ban because they are looking to start trouble and that is not a friendly environment.
I wont disagree with this however WE as a Community need to be able to self police with out the necessity of Mod’s.
The end problem isn’t Discussion its just the way People Act. And just like in the real world you can’t control what people do you can’t do it completely here either. I mean yeah you can clean up but you can’t control what the person writes to start with.
At then end of the day its the Community that must step up. If we rely on Mod’s to clean it up then we are expecting an Authoritarian type of Governing over Self Governing. At the end of the day We need to respect each others idea’s and move on when we don’t agree.
5 Likes
The whole point of why I added a poll, instead of just asking a question.
The community makes the decisions together.
Yes, this is likely the best online forum, but the idea of mods making all the final decisions without rebuttal is not something I agree with.
They still “have to” (not really) review the all the threads even if the threads are going well. The argument that a thread going on for a long time causes more strain isn’t really a strong reason.
Maybe add more mods? @thefrog and @smokey would be my suggestions. Oh, and @swh if he isn’t already one.
2 Likes
Some people are just butting heads over a specific topic. Closing that topic down is better than a two strike ban for a user over a single topic in a single, heated conversation.
99.99% of us self police by behaving “normal”. But you will get an outlier, and for those you will need mods to enforce the rules. After decades of online communication this will not be the forum that becomes the miracle and breaks the pattern.
2 Likes
Adding that this specific Thread starting in May of the last year.
And only to make sure closing it was not about restricting the topic, but a reminder to the community to get back to acting as a group of friends.
We can go reopen this after some days.
The users acting up are both get official warned in addition. An option to exclude single users from a thread is not there as far as I know.
I see a lot of good suggestions here, but general actions from Moderation have to be the very last resort.
Take responsibility for your posts/threads! If you start a thread, you will know about what happens there and in case contact Moderation give the info needed to act in the best/better way.
Look:
over 1000 posts … Consider one have no time or wish to read all this to understand deeply what exactly happens between all the users there what is valid or what is wrong e.t.c
4 Likes
Exactly. All of you put together don’t have that kinda time. So, let the community decide.
You could add a post to a thread similar to this:
This topic seems to have pressed the wrong buttons. Should we
A) Temporarily ban User A (respond with
)
B) Slow down the thread (respond with)
C) Close the thread (respond with)
This both gives you the opportunity to not have to read all the comments, while also allowing the community to make the decision.
If for some reason it’s tied, then go with the middle option to slow the thread.
1 Like
I wouldn’t actually suggest a “number of bans” before a close again Context of things will be important. How bad is the “offense” Again we must be willing to engage in meaningful dialog without loosing our cool and if we as a community see someone being completely disrespectful to the community and its rules then its up to us to make sure they know that isn’t welcomed including contacting moderators to report the issue.
A Ban would always be at discretion of the MOD who answers the call.
Who else should make the “final decision” ?
Should all decisions be discussed by moderators with the users before acting?
It is a straining thing to read 1000 posts.
Adding more mods could be a thing, but what is about you as a poster taking responsibility in the first place? It would, may not happen that a thread got closed, or may the two users getting in an argument do not go mad on that, and instead calm down before a Moderator has to act.
2 Likes
I made another post with a possible solution that answers all of that, I think.