Neg rep and sigs

[Pa. Patriot]

I would argue that there is no reasonable expectation of confidentiality, esp. because you are putting your feelings in writing.

No need to argue since you are correct I never claimed otherwise... It's not about "confidentiality"

Maybe if everyone knew that their back channel comments might become known to the public they would treat each other with respect rather than harass or worse through PM/rep.

Or, rather than allowing people to take an offline fight public, for nothing more than instigating a fight in public, we will issue infractions for neg rep abuse such as blatant pers attacks, threats, etc.

This was my initial problem in the thread cited earlier, and you are most certainly protecting the people who would rather, like cowards, harass people back channel with coments which, had they been posted in a thread, would result in bans and points.

And the topic of treating rep the same way is already a staff discussion. Rep abuse will be dealt with. But not by making it a public fight, which would be to the detriment of the board.

We are not protecting anyone, rather we are protecting public topics from being turned into mud flinging because someone got a nasty rep.

We'll disable neg rep before we do that.

[P-11 shooter]

Bottom line-- I don't want the moderators and staff involved in whatever personal beef the guy who keeps neg repping me has with me. All I want is the freedom to post neg rep verbatim (as much as my sig limits will allow) in my sig line. That's it.

Agreed


But now I'm not upset about it and instead my pants seem to be tingling.

So here is the incredibly sexy, yet always classy Norah Jones

[P-11 shooter]

We'll disable neg rep before we do that.

Interesting choice of words.

[emsjeep]

No need to argue since you are correct I never claimed otherwise... It's not about "confidentiality"


Or, rather than allowing people to take a offline fight public, for nothing more than instigating a fight in public, we will issue infractions for neg rep abuse such as blatent pers attacks, threats, etc.


And the topic of treating rep the same way is already a staff discussion. Rep abuse will be dealt with. But not by making it a public fight to the detriment of the coard.

We are not protecting anyone, rather we are protecting public topics from being turned into mud flinging because someone got a nasty rep.

We'll disable neg rep before we do that.

I know you didn't claim that, sorry, I was still going with my "recording of audio in public" perspective.

In the past, the staff has not stepped in, and I have seen nothing indicating that they were planning to do so with future situations unless someone is threatened outright.

You aren't intentionally protecting people, but the effect is the same. People get away with saying whatever inflamatory, racist, homophobic or otherwise derogatory things they want to over PM and rep as long as it holds short of outright threats. You either step in and hold it to the same standard as an open thread or expose it to public scrutiny, by doing nothing and barring exposure you are protecting these people.

[Pa. Patriot]

Interesting choice of words.

how so? ...

[Pa. Patriot]

I know you didn't claim that, sorry, I was still going with my "recording of audio in public" perspective.

In the past, the staff has not stepped in, and I have seen nothing indicating that they were planning to do so with future situations unless someone is threatened outright.

You aren't intentionally protecting people, but the effect is the same. People get away with saying whatever inflamatory, racist, homophobic or otherwise derogatory things they want to over PM and rep as long as it holds short of outright threats. You either step in and hold it to the same standard as an open thread or expose it to public scrutiny, by doing nothing and barring exposure you are protecting these people.

Understood, and as I hinted earlier, the staff was discussing this issue. Even prior to this thread. It is a current priority.

Regardless whatever the decision ends up being, I assure you all that the solution will not be to allow the fight to be taken into threads. So people can stop suggesting that

[son of the revolution]

FWIW , the idea of disabling the neg rep aspect isnt good IMHO . As has been evidenced quite a bit recently ,there are some people that say some of the most inane and patently false things imaginable . There needs to be some sort of readily identifiable way to draw attention to that potential with a given person ( i.e the red blocks ) .

Personally I'd rather see some sort of penalty for unwarranted or particularly vicious attacks via PM or rep dealt with by temp bans . It puts the recepient on notice that they crossed the line ( just like with posts ) , but retains the positive aspects of the neg rep ability . We have alot , and I expect many more new members joining . The rep system works as designed ( for the most part ) , to give users an overall general sense of a particular users standing in the community . And thats valuable enough to keep .

[Pa. Patriot]

FWIW , the idea of disabling the neg rep aspect isnt good IMHO . As has been evidenced quite a bit recently ,there are some people that say some of the most inane and patently false things imaginable . There needs to be some sort of readily identifiable way to draw attention to that potential with a given person ( i.e the red blocks ) .

As a forum participant I agree.
As a staff member I have to agree with most of the other mods and admin in that it very well may, someday, get to the point where the problems related to neg rep outwiegh the benefits.

Personally I'd rather see some sort of penalty for unwarranted or particularly vicious attacks via PM or rep dealt with by temp bans . It puts the recepient on notice that they crossed the line ( just like with posts ) , but retains the positive aspects of the neg rep ability . We have alot , and I expect many more new members joining . The rep system works as designed ( for the most part ) , to give users an overall general sense of a particular users standing in the community . And thats valuable enough to keep .

I agree again. Understand that the rules do not preclude infractions, manual bans, etc from being issued for PM's ore rep. Apparently some are under the incorrect impression that the rules only apply to "posts".
Staff takes less interest in PM/rep issues as a general rule of thumb as they are not public. AND, until lately have been a very rare occurrence. But in fact issues particularly with PM's have earned (or been partly responsible for) disciplinary action in the past. But we concentrate on keeping the public side of the forum polished.

[Exbiker]

If it was my forum I`d end negative reps. They`re gay and neg reppers are gay. It`s like a girlie thing. If that gets me a negative rep then that scenario is gay. Not that there`s anything wrong with gays.


Disclaimer:
The opinions expressed by Exbiker are for entertainment purposes only. If I have offended anyone, I apologize. This includes, but is not limited to, the moderators, members of PETA, all unions, liberals, conservatives, SAHMs, WAHMs, gays, whites, blacks, mexicans, asians, jews, christians, agnostics, atheists, buddhists and all other religions, the mentally challenged, witches, bitches, the truly stupid and anyone or anything else I may have forgotten. Thank you!

[ErSwnn]

For myself, what is told to me in private stays private. What I say in private I prefer be kept private.

Since I've never had to consider the problem of neg reps and pm's on a personal level I assumed that if a transgression of a grievious nature warranting an action occurred it could be forwarded to the mods and dealt with on an offical tier. Am I mistaken?

With a very recent infraction against me, and a justified one, I've been knocked back to my senses. I see some anger happening within this thread and I pose, as MHO, that we make our suggestions to the mods but let them do their job. This being a privately owned site, it all comes down to the owner's call, and he calls the mods to do their jobs within the rules he/they write. If I just can't live with those rules, I know where my delete button is.