Rules for reporting posts - please advise

Oh, and by the way, I have come across posts where the posters claimed to be lawyers, multiple and various professions are represented here by well-educated women, indeed.

Very true, Luan.  There are quite a few bright and well-educated people on these boards.

Actually, I'm a brain surgeon. I just don't like to brag about it.

Interestingly, there are more than a few posters on here who guard their identity and professions. It was publicized that Elizabeth Edwards participated in a BC support forum.  I'll always wonder if she ever posted on our Stage IV forum.

AnnNyc seems to think that some are dogs.....

Lewing:  I like your ideas, but how can you prevent one person from having multiple identities?  That person can use their various screennames to delete someone, apparently.  This seems to me the ultimate form of cyber bullying.

May I offer my experience as a moderator of a top ten big board?  It's a very active board, as this one is.  Like all boards, it has the same infighting and problems.  

To be fair I'm not in the loop on board politics here, and don't wish to be.  I wasn't even aware that a certain number of reports automatically removed the post, which is a bad idea, IMO, and ripe for abuse.

That said, I am offering my experience, as both a moderator and as a person who has helped to train other moderators and have set up moderating for other boards.  You can take this for what it's worth - maybe it'll spark some positive discussion or maybe it won't, but my intention is not to knock anybody or create an issue.

First, moderating is a very tough job.  You cannot read every single thing that goes on on the boards.  You must rely on the report button to catch spammers and people who violate the rules.  It is likely an unpaid job, which means that the mods do it in their spare time, when they are around. In my forum, the reports  come to my email inbox. If it seems like it takes hours to get to a report, it's because I'm doing something else and haven't checked my email, and the same with the other mods. It can depend on timezones, holidays, etc.   We are very good but we have lives too.  Anyway, I click the link in the email  to get to the offending post, and decide if it violates a rule or not.  If so, I will remove it and let the offender know which rule was violated.  If close a thread, I cut and paste the rule and give my reasoning.

That is not a perfect system, because people gang up and report a subset of users posts, which seems to be the complaint here.  Sometimes, due to the gang-up situation, a user is goaded into responding negatively.  As a mod, I often don't have time to read an entire 30 page thread so it is unfortunate, but one person may get their posts deleted more than another because of the "bullying" activity.  However, it does eventually become apparent when somebody is ganging up on somebody else and at that point, I stop responding to those people's reports, so it will come back on them.  I always warn the ganged up on person that they still have to follow the rules and to try not to let people get under their skins and respond with flaming.  They are still responsible for their actions.

I have found over the years, most users are not objective when it comes to the rules.  If what is said offends them personally, they report it as a violation, when it really isn't.  For that reason, we don't allow discussion of politics or religion.  The exception is when something major is in the news, but those are heavily moderated (which means we read them) and we are proactive in warnings and removing posts.   And, for that reason, moderating makes people angry, because their personal feelings get involved too much and they can't see what is a real violation and what is something they don't like.

Moderating is a thankless task and most people don't know how much mods do to make a board a pleasant place to be.  Without moderation, spammers and nuts would take over.

Our rules are very specific.  The rules here, in my opinion, are too vague.  

We have rules and guidelines, and specific consequences that are spelled out to everybody and I'll share them here. I did change things specific to my board so that they would match here:

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Forum Rules

1. You may not post material that is false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, discussion of race, sex, or politics, or material that would otherwise violate any law, including copyrighted material (unless that copyright is owned by you or this forum.)
2. No links to any website that discusses anything that is not permitted on this forum.
3. No Flaming - You may not assault, harass, or degrade other community members in your activities in the community.
4. No use of obscene language or photos, or links to obscene language or photos.
5. Avatars are small graphics that are displayed under your username whenever you post. You may use any cartoon or non-moving graphic. However, to enhance the community aspect of this board, we strongly encourage a photo of yourself.  Avatar images of a political, rude, obscene, or sexual nature are not permitted.  You also may not use animated images, or another member's personal photo.  We reserve the right to remove such images or take further action (including but not limited to account suspension) as deemed necessary.
6. You may not post to the site under multiple User ID's.  If it is found that you are doing so, action will be taken including, but not limited to, account suspension or banning of all affected or applicable User ID's.
7. No links to advertising or spam are permitted. No referral links are allowed. No linking to your own site for the sole purpose of driving traffic to it is allowed. No selling of products on the forum. Members may put a link to a "vote for me," personal site or blog, or favorite charity in their signature, as long as it is unobtrusive.
8. Refrain from "yelling" - Remember, ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in print is considered yelling.
9. Don't post "flame-bait" - That is a post just to provoke a reaction from other members. Those type of posts will be removed.  An example of this: "Only ignorant people take Chemotherapy."  A post such as "I'd like to discuss alternative therapies" would be acceptable.
10. Using cryptic messages to "skirt" the rules is not permitted.  Posts of this nature will be removed.
11. Duplicate posts or "bumping" of threads is not permitted.
12. Do your best to choose the appropriate forums when starting a thread.  Moderators may move threads to the appropriate area as they deem fit and without notice.

Policy Enforcement and the Role of Forum Moderators

• Moderators are volunteers that help out the forum for free.  Please treat all moderators with respect in both public forums and in any private messages.
• Moderators have the right to edit or remove posts that are in violation of any rule or ones that they consider offensive to the integrity of the community.  Moderators may lock a thread because it is has gone as far as it could go, in their opinion, or is heading down a path that would violate the rules or guidelines (based on experience).  Rules may be added or changed at any time.
• If a moderator closes a thread, do not start another one on the same topic. 
• If you have a question for a moderator on a decision they have made, you can send a PM and discuss it privately, and the moderators will do the best they can to respond in a timely manner.  Do not question moderators in public.
• If there is someone in a thread or on the forum that bothers you, put them on the "ignore" list. Don't respond back to something with another flame or inflammatory response; even if you were technically the initial victim, action may be taken against you as well.  Rather, please message a moderator, who will address your issue in a timely manner.
• Please remember that each moderator, being human with different life experiences, may see things through slightly different eyes and some variance is to be expected.  However, moderators promise to base their decision on content of threads rather than personal feelings about the person posting in them.
• We have implemented a "three strikes" rule for violations.  Users will have two chances to follow the rules of the forum and on the third strike, the user's account will be banned.
  
  The first and second strikes will result in temporary bans from the community.  The duration of the ban will depend on the nature of the violation, to be determined by the site moderators.  The third violation will result in the offending account being removed from the community.
  
  Not every violation of the rules will result in the receipt of a "strike."  Flaming, fighting with other members, and duplicate accounts are considered to be among the most serious of offenses.
  
  As such, moderators will use their own discretion before issuing strikes, taking into account the motives and previous behavior(s) of the user.  There are instances where the user will receive a warning or have their post(s) deleted without a strike being issued.
  
  If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact one of the site moderators in a private message.

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As you can see, on my own forum, this thread would not even exist. 

I think more specific rules, designed for this community, would help a lot.  Maybe not the ones I posted but something that would address common problems here.  I also do not think that users should have the power to remove others posts.  Only a mod should be able to do that. 

People need to realize that as much as they need a forum, it is part of somebody else's business.  The ads all over this place are not by accident.  This forum  costs money in servers, bandwidth, management, etc.  And it also brings in money and moderating decisions are often made to protect the business interests of the forum owner.  We users are here as guests, and we should behave accordingly.

Do we need this place?  I do. Facing a brand new metastatic diagnosis is frightening and I need the advice and support of those who have been dealing with it.  Everybody on this forum feels the same way, so hopefully, people will take the time to think about that and let things go a little.  It would be wonderful if everybody could drop their grudges and just let people be, but that utopia will never happen. So, I offer some ideas to the mods and forum members that I hope will be helpful but if not, if they don't really apply here, I just hope my good intentions were clear.

My board is dedicated to technology and has been going strong for 13 years now.  I've been modding there for ten and it's still very active and and we have many many members who were there from the beginning.

I have no intention of becoming part of any sides or arguments - I don't know what or who they are and I don't want to.  So, I hope this is not taken that way by the mods.  I have some experience and thought I'd share it, and now, it's up to you to take it or leave it.

Have a good day everybody. 

This is a great forum and none of us could do without it. I thank the mods for their hard work and I thank the BCO owners for providing such a great place to get support and knowledge. 

Very good points, Cool-Breeze, and I hope the Moderators avail themselves of your experience and advice!

Luan, I don't think people here are dogs!  Maybe you're joking!  I was just trying to lighten the mood -- that is a classic New Yorker cartoon from the early days of the internet.  See, I wasn't sure what you meant when you said, "there are women here who claim to be lawyers, etc." -- so i replied that there are certainly many accomplished women in many professions on BCO.

But since you said "claim to be" -- I thought maybe you meant you didn't necessarily believe them.  And that's why I said, it's true, you're right, you basically have to take everything on the internet with a grain of salt (and posted that classic cartoon).

But my final point was that everybody on this Board who I've gotten to know better (through PM, snail mail, phone calls, and even meeting in person) is who they represent themselves to be.

Peace

enjoyful:  That seems like a good solution, but from what I understand, it is easy to have multiple IP numbers.  You could have access to several computers, both at home or work, or you could probably generate numbers yourself if you know what you are doing.  I am not a programmer either.  Does anyone else think there is one person with multiple screennames?   Seeing Athena get deleted like that was chilling. It makes me wonder who will be next.   

Seems best to eliminate the Report this Post - and just use the Ignore button. If someone starts posting on a thread that has been going for a very long time, and doesn't like what's being posted on that thread - then just stop reading that thread.  Seems the easiest way to handle this strangeness - anything to prevent someone from being "banned" when she is very ill, or might be needing help, just because someone has a "grudge" against her "gang" ( if there are gangs..)

Who could POSSIBLY, POSSIBLY be bothered by the post of Otter's that was "reported"  - really!

CoolBreeze:  Thank you for the information.  And thank you moderators.

Interesting that you strongly recommend using a photo as our avatar.  I had used my picture earlier, but then I thought I had read we shouldn't post personally identifiable information.  But I do love seeing everyone's photos. 

Of course, rules need to be specific to the forum.  I don't recommend what I posted be taken verbatim.  My forum is dedicated to technology so there is verbage in there to prevent some illegal activities, copyright theft,  etc.  There is zero reason to have political or religious discussion on a forum dedicated to technology but here it is different.  Healthcare concerns are vital to our lives, and religion for some, as well.

We found that having people use their own photo as an avatar built community.  It was a requirement when the forum started, and then people complained about privacy so we backed off.  However, more people complained about the lack of community and not being able to see what another looked like, so we put that wording in there.  Again, that is a forum with more males than females.  What we really want to avoid are blinking, animated, huge avatars and signatures that are so large you have to scroll a lot to see it.  Those make a forum look juvenile.

It is very easy to match IPs for users and see if they are using different accounts.  Now, that said, we use vBulletin software - I have no idea what this software is.  But, with one click I can match users.  Yes, some people can use other IPs and hide themselves and we can't control it all.  However, even on a forum dedicated to technology, with a lot of programmers participating, we still manage to catch most of them.  Sometimes, we've banned an IP range when we had particularly persistent people coming back.

If you don't have a "report" button spammers will take over, because the mods can't possibly watch every thread.  But, the ability for people to report and have automatic deletion should be taken away and I'm guessing based on technical experience that it's just a hack or mod in a line of code and not hard to do.  Just a guess though.

Okay, gotta hit the store and buy my husband some beer for tonight!   

Another day, another reported post.  I am reposting here what I wrote last night in the Alternate thread.  That post has now been reported.  Can anyone (preferably a Moderator) tell me why? What rule did my post break?  What rule did my original post (the one embedded in yesterday's post) break?  Why aren't the individuals who are reporting posts that don't violate rules being named and/or banned?  

Any bets on how long it will be before this post is reported?

Here's a copy of my post from yesterday: 

.

Popping in here to join the fray, but just for a minute.

The posts that are being reported are not just in this thread. Here's a post of mine from the Just Diagnosed forum that was reported last week after I dared to post - just one time - about some of the same issues that have been discussed here:

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Actually, any amount of DCIS is still Tis and is still Stage 0. The classification of tumors by size only applies to invasive tumors.
Sommer, your diagnosis line indicates that you are Stage IIIC and had positive nodes. Assuming that's correct, then it means that while you may have had some DCIS, you also had invasive cancer. DCIS and invasive cancer are often found together; when that happens, it's the invasive cancer that determines the staging - the DCIS will be mentioned in the pathology report but it won't be relevant for staging. So your TMN staging would reference the invasive tumor (a T2 tumor, it appears) and not the DCIS.

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Fortunately my post wasn't reported enough times to be deleted but seriously, how did it violate the rules? How was it not civil enough in tone?

I bring this up only to make the point that it's not just questionable posts that are being reported. The Report this Post button continues to be abused. Posts are being reported simply because someone has a grudge against someone else or disagrees with something they said. I don't see how this will stop until the names of those who report posts are listed publicly.

I'm going back to my cave. I come to this board to try to offer help and support to newbies. I do a lot less of that these days because I just don't have the time or energy to deal with the garbage. What I've found too often is that even when you are simply trying to offer support to newbies, you might inadvertently cross the wrong person (which is how I got involved with this whole mess in the first place). And then you run the risk of being insulted, being criticized and having your posts reported and deleted. It's not worth it.

Beesie:  I am sorry for what happened to you; there was nothing wrong with your post.

I just recently starting posting outside my main area (triple negative) and seem to choose the threads where a lot of trouble starts.  I don't want to give up, I have decided to stay away from those threads and choose different ones.  I am very excited to see a thread about books.  Anyway, like you, I worry about new people getting bad information from certain people.  I hope that things will get better and that you won't feel the need to stay in your "cave" (although I can understand it.) 

Otter,

I think my internet service is something like yours. It's called a proxy server. I'm not sure what it means but if I google WHAT IS MY IP? it tells me my number is a wide variety of IPs associated with different parts of the country.

QUestion: Since you and many of the others posting seemed experienced in the recent differences people have here, I'm going to ask a question that has been probably been asked and answered a hundred times.

Why don't the people who have a lot in common go start their own online groups? That way the factions wouldn't be angry and complaining about each other. It seems people absolutely hate some of the aspects of BCO and I see today that the hate has spread to several forums. It's scary to see cancer patients so upset when they could recruit all the people they have something in common with to a new place.

Just askin.