Content Moderation on WHO / Blocking Problem Users

[stubbo-admin]

There has been an increasing spate of, frankly, offensive/borderline libellous name calling on the site across recent threads. Terms like 'nonce' go beyond acceptable banter, and as has been seen recently can result in court action and get both posters and the site into hot water.

On the flip side, WHO has always tried to avoid heavy handed moderation to avoid stifling genuine banter and debate of some controversial subjects.

But there are two key points to note:

1. We are short on moderators currently. This makes even, reliable moderation by long standing community members who have 'been there, done that' difficult. As such there may be some instances of inconsistent moderation.

If you see a post that goes beyond banter and is straight up abusive or libellous, please report the post (there is a button next to each post to do so) so the moderators we have can direct their efforts in a focussed way.

2. User Blocking. The new site allows you to 'block' from your own view the posts of users you have no interest in seeing on account of their previous actions. Essentially a way of you personally 'banning' a user from your own view of the Forum (and of course if enough of the Community do this the user ends up in their own private echo chamber).

To perform a user block, select the user's username from a post of theirs or within the member list, and choose "Add Foe". This will prevent that users posts from appearing in all threads you view.

This is not an area I've ever had any desire to get involved in, but an increasing number of perfectly good debates/conversations are being hijacked by the kinds of abuse that do nothing for the Community, lack humour of any kind and serve no purpose. 

So in short, to keep the site for the benefit of the majority.

1. Report truly abusive posts (e.g. libellous accusations/abuse that goes beyond what can be considered banter/humour).
2. Don't get involved in retaliatory abuse.
3. Block and ignore users who are consistent arseholes if you don't like their use of 'industrial' language or what they say.

Thanks.