How Would You Define an Inflammatory Post

I reported most of the inflammatory remarks made by players on a certain thread.
Here: /130/59/62593/10.html#post671771

The thread was full of posts that included profanity, flames, and verbal abuse.
You can see for youself.
Nothing was done by the tech support to edit or remove any of the abusive posts.

I made a post listing some of the people's names that I reported.
I did not even say anything inflammatory.
The only thing I wrote on the post was "Reported."

None of the actual inflammatory posts that I reported were edited.
Instead, mine was deleted, and designated inflammatory.
Violation: Forum Formal Warning: Spamming, Trolling, Flaming

Are they giving us mixed signals of what an inflammatory post means?
I have read the TOS clearly about what a violation is.
I did not violate anything, and recieved a violation for it.
Yet nothing was done about the people that have clearly violated the TOS.

Does anybody know who I can contact about this?
Is there anything I can do legally about this? I am a paying customer.

Anything with my name on it.

**walks into thread wearing a bikini and holding up a Round Two sign**

Ding! Ding! Ding!

I think the signal is pretty clear, but I'm obviously reading it differently than you are.

These forums are supposed to be filled with adults. This is not a pre-school, or a bible study group, or a therapy group. Adults will sometimes express strong opinions in support of or opposition to another opinion.

Posting who you think is being naughty, and/or posting every time you've reported something, instead of just being adult and reporting it, is no more respected than the child in the back of the class tattling on all their other classmates. I know some teachers, and they don't think very highly of those students either.

If you find something objectionable enough to report, then just report it. We don't need to know who you've reported, why, or how many others you think are being naughty. If you're reporting for the right reason, which is to make the boards a more tolerable place, there's no reason to advertise it.

Pleasure, I think you have to realise the community that SL is comprised of.

I'm not going to get specific, but it is a community which thinks off-topic intepersonal humour and teasing is what "General" stands for.

I thought it was about discussing SecondLife when I came here - it isn't.

Unfortunately, what a lot of people don't realise, is that one persons off-topic interpersonal humour can easily be seen as an attack by, well pretty much 99% of the people not in on the inside jokes.

This makes for an environment very unwelcoming to those who are not on the 'inside'.

Every other mature forum quickly moderates this sort of behaviour into the off topic forum.

SL moderators, for whatever reason, do not. This has three effects:

1. New users feel very unwelcomed when they try to talk about SL and get teased about being enthusiastic and interested
2. The forums are constantly derailing into noise and nonsense.
3. Those who wish to discuss it seriously either.. a) leave, b) join the clique, c) fight back

I've tried c, and it really isn't getting me anywhere.

The powers that be are either too entrenched in their philosophy to actually do anything about it, or too scared to piss off the forum 'royal's to moderate them.

I really don't know. However, I would like you to know that you have a fully sympathetic ear in this corner.

The fact is, serious people avoid these forums like the plague. And for pretty darn obvious reasons.

These messages will no doubt be followed by exactly the sort of off topic, interpersonal humour I was talking about.

What those people don't realise is that they're not going to 'win' either. And, we have a stalemate.

The solution, really, is that Jeska moderate away anything off topic (interpersonal humour included) in these forums and then we can discuss SL and stop discussing each other.

This really is forum moderation 101. I really have no clue why it is, after 2 years, SL hasn't bothered to send their people to one forum moderation seminar or whatever.

Or, hell, log onto any of the other troll free forums and ask how they do it.

Simple - they moderate this off topic interpersonal humour.

I am reporting for the right reason.
It is not a pre-shcool, yet people continue to act like it is preschool. People make alot of rude jokes, and hurtful remarks against eachother. Why? It is not logical. It is not fair to people that want actual discussion. It should not be tolerated. They do it over and over, and get away with it. If I make a simple post that does not in any sense breach the TOS. Even without being a stickler to the TOS, my post could not in any sense reasonably be considered to have even the slightest comparison to real inflammatory remarks.

I deal in logic, and we all deserve to be treated with logic. Thinking logically, it is logically impossible for there to be any justification to hold me in violation instead of those that made the actual inflammatory remarks.

What can I say? You are 100% right.

I personally think this free account storm will finally wash away the entrenched forum royals, simply because they will be outnumbered and SL will finaly have to realise that unless they want to alienate all the incoming new users, they're going to have to put a stop to these people who think they're elite and can get away with the off-topic interpersonal humour and teasing.

Jon is right! Blaze is wrong (well, in another thread he would be saying the opposite - so blaze is never right or wrong. He just is. )

Great post Jon!

Pendari, there is something about forum anonyminity which reduces the mentality of individuals to child like behaviour.

A good moderator deals with this appropiately. SL does not have good moderation.

What Pleasure is saying is just an obvious reply to this.

Fortunately, I don't think I'm really going to have to push this point myself.

The fact is with all the incoming new users, there will be a parade of people who are going to make this point over and over again for me.

Well it seems blaze is making alot more sense.


Thanks for the insight.

I never thought they would take sides like that. It just made no sense to me, but after what you said, things seem a little clearer.
I really did come here to be serious. I fell under major attack because of it. On top of the attacks, I recieved a few violations claiming I violated TOS. Meanwhile, people that clearly violated TOS were not considered in violation.

It really is a shame that we are paying to play this game, and treated completely unjustly. Sure, they have the ability to do whatever they want. It is the decision of the Lindens. Unfortunately, these are decisions that do not seem fair to me, and in my opinion, not a very responsible method of moderation.

Yes. But unfortunatly. You and I disagree on those who act like children in the forums. I would say they are in the minority. But are the most vocal of us all. I think the forum moderation is *too* strict. And consistancy is hard. But then I'm sure the Lindens never thought they would have to babysit a schoolyard of crybabies who couldn't handle a little disagreement once in a while.

By the way. I was one of those kids with sand in their face all the time growing up. I learned that there were other ways to win people to my side of the argument/situation. I may not be super intellegent. I may even be a ditz at times. But even I recognize the fact that if I want to hang with the adults, I sure as hell better act like one. And yes. Adulthood is rough and full of disapointments. And we will not always get our way or be liked. But so the hell what.

Any person who had a mother that said life would be fair was gipped of a good mother.

Pendari, forum conversations are not the same as adult conversation.

99% of the posters in these forums, if they said everything they said here in real life, would be terribly ostracized from their respective communities.

Dealing with adults in RL is way different than dealing with them here. And we all know this, or at least, we should.

Rather than driving everyone into turning every post into a cynical parody, why can't we just all quit with the interpersonal dialogue?

Why can't we just talk about SecondLife and leave the gossiping and chit-chat for when we're in world or getting drunk over beers?

I disagree with your assesment of the forums. I also disagree with your attempt to control them based on one person's opinion. Your own. I think the forums are just fine the way they are. The are REAL. They are as much a part of our SL life as anything we do in world.

But, I'm in a good mood. And I know in a different thread you would be saying the opposite of what you are right now. So I'm going to bow out and continue having a good night.

Trying to pretend that people are different people when talking in world or over beers is the real problem here.

Not everyone employs different personas (or alts ) when in different venues.

I find blaze's statement riduculous coming from him, given his admissions of gaming the forums with alts.

Adult indeed.

Pendari, if you ever went to a serious seminar with a discussion topic, you'd be bounced in a heartbeat if you sat there and chatted away with you pal loudly in a way that everyone could hear.

This is not how grownups seriously tackle serious subjects.

Unfortunately - this is not a place that people feel the need to be serious. Mostly, I suspect, because no one else is.

It really is a community issue, I think. Interpersonal humour and dialogue don't seem out of place here because that's the type of community that LL has attracted, whether they wanted to or not.

One solution, I think, is that SL should create another brand called "SL 2.0" which doesn't have the word "SecondLife" in it, and thats where serious people will go who see SL as a platform and not a game.

Are you serious?

Blaze. Would you go to church and chat with your neighbor during the whole service? Would you go to a hockey game and sit quietly and not chat with the friend that came with you?

Both situations would allow the opportunity for serious conversation. The way you would handle those conversations would of course be adapted to the location you were in. Serious talk can and *does* happen on the forums. The medium is just different than a formal setting. Not a thing wrong with that.

EDIT TO ADD: And you know I am one of the biggest fighters of not calling SL a game. So I don't know what the hell you are trying to suggest in your end sentance last post.

I think, seriously, that SL should create another "Platform" brand.

"SecondLife" sounds like a game. It doesn't sound like a highly sophisticated virtual interactive platform for Getting Things Done.

Then ignore them. You have all the needed tools at your fingertips.

The point is that this is not the way people are acting. It is strange that you see it as too strict. One single disagreement, and people flame, throw tantrums, and come back with childish remarks. It is fine to disagree, but unecessary to include any insults and rude remarks. These posts need to be deleted, and this type of behavior should not be tolerated.

Oh, I do. You have absolutely no idea how long my ignore list is. It's gotten to a point where I think I have more people on ignore than aren't on ignore.

My concern is more for the new users which are going to feel completely unwelcomed.

My concern is for the seriously smart folks that want to come here and be productive and serious but who I never get to hear from because they take one look at this place and say "woah... these are not the kind of people that take all this seriously".

Unfortunately, this is the only game in town. So I stay and pray that one day the lindens will wake up and realise all the talent they are alienating and moderate this place and the serious people will come in and take over.

Uh huh.

To a new player 2 days ago:

How very welcoming.

I saw the thread you referred to. I saw disagreements. Even strong disagrements. The thread was beautiful until post 95. Mind you, that means 94 posts came and went and the convo was great!

After 95, things began to wane a tad. Mostly because post 95 came across a tad attacking. At least at first glance I can spot half a dozen words that would put others on the defense. But so what. That can happen in a controversial conversation. Otherwise, I saw you posting about every post you reported. Like your posts *really* contributed to the conversation? Sorry but no. If you feel the need to report a post, just do it. If your report is valid, the mods will handle it. Granted they are busy, but then this takes me back to my last few posts in this thread. So I won't repeat myself.