Dear Rob...

Rob,
Do you have any idea how unpleasant this message board is lately? I'm not sure if you're here enough to fully realize that the trolling (that many here believe is part of how BWW is run) is so out of control that it's making this place unbearable. There's always at least some level of trolling happening, I mean it's a public message board so it's to be expected. But what's going on now is so far past the point of ridiculousness that it's just offensive.

I'm not sure if anything can be done or, if people are right and the trolls are part of the "team" working for the site, but please be aware that Broadwayworld is fast becoming known as "the troll message board".

It's a problem that could easily be solved by bringing back the "ignore user" option that the message boards once had. Why it was ever removed is a mystery.

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this is going to sound stupid,

but is a troll someone who posts something just to stir up trouble? or someone who posts something with ulterior motive?

A troll is someone who consistently posts things with the intention of getting a rise out of a group of people.

No discussion, no dialogue. Just disruption.

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We certainly don't have trolls on our team, but of course recognize the acceptable vs. unacceptable ways that people like to 'stir the pot'. I'd encourage anyone who's seeing violations of our rules that we're missing to use the 'abuse' form.

right ok. that's what I thought.

someone who didn't get enough love in their childhood and needs the attention....

Liza, the mods don't get paid much if at all. They need the help of the posters to point out the problems they don't see. The truth is, many of our regular posters troll all the time with copycat threads and personal attacks. It isn't just the trolls that do nothing but troll that are the problem here. There's an awful lot of infighting and bickering that goes on here.

With all due respect, Rob, I think that's being more than a little obtuse (and, frankly, cavalier with your brand). Unfortunately, as is the case in most on line communities (as in real ones), behavior needs to be moderated. It doesn’t take more than 5 minutes to see that it’s not. Yes, long time valued “real” posters do “take the bait” and engage with these offensive posters, but they are not the problem. You have to know that you have serious problems here, and you have to know who the real culprits are. Other on line forums have found multiple means of dealing with issues such as these, and I’d think it’s in your best interest to do so, too.

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The thing is- and this pains me to say- there is nothing in the outlined rules of the board to prevent what has been going on.

The way the guidelines are worded, disruption and derailment is perfectly acceptable as long as it is not discourteous or contains personal attack or "so long as the content is not illegal, obscene, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, infringing of intellectual property rights, or otherwise injurious to third parties or objectionable and does not consist of or contain software viruses, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings, or any form of "spam." "

The trolls have even pointed this out.

I suppose "objectionable" could be applied here.

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Updated On: 8/21/13 at 12:07 PM

Sometimes one person's troll is another person's long-time online adversary, and sometimes one person's troll is a naive new user asking a silly question, etc. We handle all these things case by case, and our moderators have access to look up a variety of things in our security and registration system that detect dupe users.

That said, if there's someone or something that we're missing, and isn't being reported by abuse, we monitor that mailbox VERY closely as it goes to all online staff and mods (which is why we routed it through the contact form).

And if someone is not technically violating our guidelines, but is doing nothing but baiting and spamming (which we probably should add) and we get enough abuse complaints, we'll certainly take action.

I think the BWW message boards are Disneyland compared to some of the other public ones out there. CNN and other news sites? Good god.

They do have several ways of dealing with the negative (and sometimes horrifying) comments:

"Like" buttons. If a post receives enough "dislikes" (which I think is only five) it is hidden from the default view. You have to click on it to read it.

"Block" or "ignore user" which I think is probably the best solution. It allows everyone involved to have the most freedom.

Or, as PJ suggested, allow the OP of each thread to have "delete" (or mod) privileges. Not only is that more complicated to code and manage, I personally don't like the idea of creating a bunch of little "gods" who can censor what other people say for all concerned, not just themselves. I would probably just start my own thread on the same exact subject, in that case, causing more or less a "thread war." It sounds potentially very messy.

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What I'm getting from this thread is that even though lots of us feel the site is being abused by one (or more) posters, we're stuck with it because it isn't breaking any rules.

that's a shame. It's ruining the enjoyment of participating here.

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Can Rob, or any of the longtime posters here, explain to me why the "Ignore" function was taken away?