Dear Mods/Admin - Policies have to change to defeat these trolls

[REKX]

As a Federer and Nadal fan, I have been humbled to watch these two growing up. For me, they will always be number 1 and number 2 (regardless of order). We may never see the likes of the them again, if you look at matches like Wimbledon 2008 - the pace, the hitting, speed etc were beyond anything.

This site provides an excellent opportunity to have discussions - very few people follow play and follow tennis here in the UK. The only time is during Wimbledon, everyone talks about but the rest of the year, people generally have no clue. People here did follow it more when Murray was getting close or winning slams, but that's gone now. But this site is good place to talk about the sport.

We were attacked last week by (probably) the same guy, seems to have the same exact taste for disgusting crap. And clearly this person will keep attacking this site. We know one thing for sure, if there's no deterrent, he will have no reason to stop.

Also consider this is a public forum. I'm not sure if kids use it, but they can't come in and see these sorts of images - which will no doubt be posted below soon. Also I use this forum at times on my phone when I'm out, would look pretty bad on me if these images came up whilst I was out in public.

I think the solution is pretty simple. Just give a respectable member here, who lives in other time zones, the power to hide these troll threads at any time. Other forums do that, they have mini-mods who can hide a thread and then it gets looked at later.

We don't have to look at policies where new users need approval for new posts, that would kill the fun for new guys - especially during a grand slam, like now, where people want to come in and talk straight after matches.

Sincerely,

REKX

 

[Hamnavoe]

As a Federer and Nadal fan

Not breaking character, even in a serious post. I approve.

 

[BVSlam]

REKX on a first date being asked: "What is your favourite food?"
"As a Federer and Nadal fan, I vividly remember eating salty popcorn during the amazing final of Wimbledon 2008, so I would have to say it's salty popcorn."

 

[Deleted member 748597]

Stopped reading after the As a Federer and Nadal fan.

 

[Thriller]

On a motorsport forum I use, all reported content is immediately removed and quarantined until a mod can check it to approve or delete. If the number of reports for a user exceeds a certain limit (let's say 10 posts per hour), the user's account is suspended until a mod can review it. You cannot report content unless you are a member of the board. If you are maliciously targeting a user by reporting their harmless content, you get a warning and then banned if you persist.

It must take more work but I guess it will keep that forum out of court.

 

[blablavla]

Stopped reading after the As a Federer and Nadal fan.

that isn't exactly the point
current moderation team are as well fans of some players, so we can't have a 100% neutral team

point is that this place needs mauds during the time zone when the US based mods sleep

 

[jeroenn]

Mods in different timezones would be good, we used to have that on a large forum I ran for several years. Following up on these trolls might also be a good idea in this case. Some of the stuff they posted may actually have been illegal. They are certainly violating their ISP's code of conduct so they can be kicked off there as well. These type of idiots obviously have a screw or two loose, are as dumb as the content they post, so not savy enough to completely cover their tracks (if at all), so tracking them down shoudn't be too hard for an ISP.

 

[REKX]

Not breaking character, even in a serious post. I approve.

What? All my posts are serious.

 

[aditya123]

Anyone from Asia , particularly India who posts consistenly here will do I gues. Please recommend any person who is acceptable to all.

 

[PrinceMoron]

“disgusting crap”

Very apposite

 

[PilotPete]

Ban REKX while you're at it.

 

[Gazelle]

Thx to that troll I've stopped reading talk tennis at work.

It's not fun getting ambushed by porn pics while your manager is standing behind you.

I'm not sure though if threads like these should be deleted, but at the very least they shouldn't be accessable before 5 PM on week days.

 

[BeatlesFan]

Mods in different timezones would be good.

The easier way is simply to not allow new users to post new threads, problem solved. The rule should be that no one without a 100 posts and positive feedback on those posts should be allowed to start a thread. The mods are all in California, they're not going to have non-Tennis Warehouse employees getting involved with this.

 

[REKX]

The easier way is simply to not allow new users to post new threads, problem solved. The rule should be that no one without a 100 posts and positive feedback on those posts should be allowed to start a thread. The mods are all in California, they're not going to have non-Tennis Warehouse employees getting involved with this.

Nah you don't want to do that. A new user might want to argue a case for his player to be greatest of all time, or could want to comment after the match about something controversial happening. If they can't start threads it would just put them off.

Having mods in other timezones is a very good suggestion and how most other forums out there operate.

The troll will be back, he knows how the moderation is done, he is also a long term user of this website because he knows about posters. We have mole here and because nothing is being done, he will only feel encouraged.

 

[Amritia]

The easier way is simply to not allow new users to post new threads, problem solved. The rule should be that no one without a 100 posts and positive feedback on those posts should be allowed to start a thread. The mods are all in California, they're not going to have non-Tennis Warehouse employees getting involved with this.

My thread got deleted, so I'm not sure if you saw my post; but I apologised to you for premature speculation regarding the Federer fan who got banned from Federer News thread.

 

[AnOctorokForDinner]

The easier way is simply to not allow new users to post new threads, problem solved. The rule should be that no one without a 100 posts and positive feedback on those posts should be allowed to start a thread. The mods are all in California, they're not going to have non-Tennis Warehouse employees getting involved with this.

The optimal way would be to have posting any threads/posts blocked for new accounts (less than 100 posts would suffice perhaps) at the time of day when the mod shift is vacant. More difficult to program I guess but should solve the problem nicely.

 

[Third Serve]

The funniest bit is that he kept the “As a Federer and Nadal fan” schtick even in such a serious post lmao

 

[REKX]

Thx to that troll I've stopped reading talk tennis at work.

It's not fun getting ambushed by porn pics while your manager is standing behind you.

I'm not sure though if threads like these should be deleted, but at the very least they shouldn't be accessable before 5 PM on week days.

Oh boy.

I know some forums probably do allow that kind of explicit (distasteful) content. But I think the culture of this forum says otherwise.

I mean I had a thread deleted on here before when I asked if abstaining from intimacy with your partner helps improve performance. A widely talked about topic, but it was not deemed okay by the mods and they deleted it.

Best to respect the culture and character of the forum that we are taking part in.

 

[Amritia]

The sad thing is, sorting out this troll with a moderator in another timezone won't be too hard; but I think it's more likely they just shut TTW over this.
Would be a massive victory for that troll.

 

[BeatlesFan]

My thread got deleted, so I'm not sure if you saw my post; but I apologised to you for premature speculation regarding the Federer fan who got banned from Federer News thread.

@Amritia I didn't see it, but thank you. It's never good to falsely accuse others and it's usually good to be skeptical of those who do. It's totally classless and juvenile. In all the years I've been on TTW, I've reported three posts in the Fed news thread and all those users have since left the forum. Anyway, thanks.

 

[Amritia]

@Amritia I didn't see it, but thank you. It's never good to falsely accuse others and it's usually good to be skeptical of those who do. It's totally classless and juvenile. In all the years I've been on TTW, I've reported three posts in the Fed news thread and all those users have since left the forum. Anyway, thanks.

Fair.
At least me tagging you meant that you could see the accusation and defend yourself.

Whoever did decide to bar him from the thread was in the wrong, hopefully that can be reversed too.

 

[jeroenn]

The easier way is simply to not allow new users to post new threads, problem solved. The rule should be that no one without a 100 posts and positive feedback on those posts should be allowed to start a thread. The mods are all in California, they're not going to have non-Tennis Warehouse employees getting involved with this.

That doesn't solve any idiot posting junk in replies, and those would still linger for hours, as they did today. They may not start new threads, but they poach on any existing thread.

Using reputable community members to help moderating is an excellent way to deal with this. I ran a busy forum for a well known musician and we used community members to be (anonymous) moderators. With current forum software, moderation privileges can be delegated in a very granular way, so you can get a lot of moderators taking care of a small bit. Along with some guidelines, to move threads or posts to a hidden moderator forum where senior mods or admins can take additional meassures if needed. All our mods were able to impose an emergency ban, they would post about their actions and their reasoning in the moderator space. Better safe than sorry, and keeping the boards clean and dealing swiftly with trolls is a good deterrent as well.
Another good reason for having reputable members helping in moderation is that they tend to have a good feel for the forum dynamics and know their crowd.
On a forum like this where minors might be present, being able to clean up quickly the kind of posts I saw around earlier today seems to me a no-brainer and that in turn reflects well back on TW.

 

[BillKid]

It’s good to see that a lot of people here are concerned by that troll issue and are ready to play an active role in order to maintain that forum safe and healthy. I have seen a good amount of things in my life and I’m not the kind of person that gets easily shocked, but what was posted today was extremely disgusting and I really hope we’ll never see that again. Thanks to all of you, gentlemen.

 

[Slowtwitcher]

Report-Ignore-Move-On.

This is not hard, guys...

 

[BillKid]

Report-Ignore-Move-On.

This is not hard, guys...

True, but before « Report » there is « See » and most people would not expect seeing such pictures on a tennis forum. I can live with that but it may be really disturbing for sensitive or young people.

 

[Babolast]

What I saw was disturbing and vile. Made my stomach sick.

Simply not good enough. There needs to be moderation for new users. These trolls cannot continue to wreck havoc on this forum.

 

[Babolast]

I honestly hope TW reported this attack to the authorities. What he/she posted was beyond words. No one should see that, especially children.

TW needs to be better at protecting fellow posters to that utter shambles.

 

[s_p_a_c_e_m_a_n_]

As a Federer and Nadal fan, I have been humbled to watch these two growing up. For me, they will always be number 1 and number 2 (regardless of order). We may never see the likes of the them again, if you look at matches like Wimbledon 2008 - the pace, the hitting, speed etc were beyond anything.

This site provides an excellent opportunity to have discussions - very few people follow play and follow tennis here in the UK. The only time is during Wimbledon, everyone talks about but the rest of the year, people generally have no clue. People here did follow it more when Murray was getting close or winning slams, but that's gone now. But this site is good place to talk about the sport.

Sorry, but why is this relevant at all? For a topic like this?

 

[mauricem]

What I saw was disturbing and vile. Made my stomach sick

Gave me an actual nightmare, WTF is wrong with some people? Hopefully TTW have urgently implemented processes to stop a repeat

 

[Babolast]

TW should have contacted someone regarding the hack. What that poster posted was so vile, so sick, so disturbing and so wrong.

 

[PrinceMoron]

Got to feel sorry for the Mods to be honest. Not sure they signed up to deal with anything more than me getting a bit shirty with people from time to time, and pulling the carpet from under those who have gone a bit too far a little too often.
We appreciate what they do.

 

[Federer and Del Potro]

Got to feel sorry for the Mods to be honest. Not sure they signed up to deal with anything more than me getting a bit shirty with people from time to time, and pulling the carpet from under those who have gone a bit too far a little too often.
We appreciate what they do.

Yeah let's be honest here - it is a thankless task moderating this forum and this is quite a large forum to boot. I can only imagine the inundation they get with PM's on top of all of that.

Are there things that can be improved upon? yes. Do I appreciate the job they do? Also yes.

 

[milk of amnesia]

Report-Ignore-Move-On.

This is not hard, guys...

Agreed. Trolls are kind of like arsonists, they set fires and then stand by and watch the chaos they created. People give them power by starting threads complaining about what they did because it just confirms to them how they got to you. It would be better if the first person who saw the offensive thread posted "Reported," and then reported it and then the rest of us all just ignored it instead of making a big deal of it.

Also people shouldn't assume that the mods aren't taking steps to deal with this person and prevent it from happening again just because they don't tell us all about it. TW doesn't want this on their site anymore than we do - in addition to the fact that it's beyond offensive to any decent human being, it's bad for their business. I'm sure TW is doing everything they can to stop it.

 

[PrinceMoron]

will have to add a little click bait and then check the server logs to see who has bitten
It is not that hard to get the public up address his ISP has provided at that time