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RFC: Should I start handing out 1-day "cool off" bans to thwart flamewars? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

OK peeps, I am seeing a lot of flamewars lately which go off-topic of this comm. I am also getting dozens of reports about people reporting each other for "rudeness" or "trolling". I don't want this comm to start becoming a drama haven, so I want to try and prevent people getting worked up like this.

What do you think about me starting to deploy strategic 1-day bans for people who I notice are getting into flamewars? If not, what else do you suggest to help people remain civil?

Don't just upvote/downvote. I won't take these into account, I want actual comments about this to better make a decision.

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

My suggestion is to warn the user first, and then if they don't comply a 3d ban. Because:

Cooperative users are quick to comply, even without punishment.
It helps to show other users the limit of what's considered acceptable in the community.
When people get really worked up, a single day is not enough.

Trolls are a different can of worms. I think that users who are blatantly trolling should be removed = permabanned; there's no place for those.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Happy cake day!

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

[Replying to myself to avoid editing the above again.]

Ah, I propose an explicit rule for this comm: "off-topic is only tolerated if non-divisive, non-derailing, and in the comments". That gives people some room to chitchat, but would do a quick work of "ackshyually u don't have rules against flamewars right".

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Well, this is drama heaven because it's for users who aren't legible to post in fedidrama (because they're involved themselves) and then they end up here. And IMO the posts kind of set the tone. You often start out with a negative impression after reading the post, and then you're likely to be negative. And it doesn't help that other comments are negative or low quality as well... Then it's super easy to drop what's left and just shitpost.

I'm not sure if I want to continue reading anyways. It's several posts a day of people whining about something they brought upon themselves. Often something completely insignificant like one removed post/comment or a one day time-out from shitposting. And half the people don't listen or get anything, neither does OP, and the commenters just flame about arbitrary things, or attack each other for their strongly held opinions... I'd say a bit more moderation would be worth a try. But don't listen to me, I'm probably not the target audience of this community.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I’m ok with a penalty box. Pointless bickering gets this sub off topic. It’s tough because people come here ready to air grievances so I think that pre-charges the atmosphere and makes it that much easier for things to get off the rails

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

It’s tough because people come here ready to air grievances so I think that pre-charges the atmosphere and makes it that much easier for things to get off the rails

You put in to words what I was struggling to find. People are often already a little charged up when they show up here, that's the nature of this kind of board.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I find it hilarious that every single time I've been admonished about civil conduct, it's because I'm reacting to a bunch of assclowns who somehow evade any oversight.

maybe start taking the reports as self indicators?

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

The amount of trolling and debatemebros keep going up each thread and it looks like people are just trying to start drama here now rather than report actual mod abuse. I'm not sure how you could improve this, it seems like every one of these kinds of communities turn into drama communities with people at each other's throats each thread lol. I think temp bans would help for the most egregious offenders, but locking threads after a certain timeframe might be better? Considering the comment threads keep going on and on for some of them.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

What would that timeframe be though? A week? A month? A day? Ultimately, what would that matter even - why is it bad to respond to something three months later, e.g. asking a follow-up question "was this matter ever resolved - did you manage to get in contact with the admin/mod and what did they say?"

The problem with that approach is that it penalizes people other than the offender (I assume here you mean locking the entire post, not just a comment chain underneath it?), e.g. if you take time to think about the scenario, read it thoroughly, go gather some additional references, type out a reply, and not even necessarily to the person inflaming the conflict but others who happened to respond more quickly, but then bam, your well thought out and crafted message is rejected, bc you did not deliver it quickly enough, and because while you were treating the matter seriously, a flame war was breaking out, but it's not like a chatroom where you can see the messages coming in live?

It makes sense for the people involved in spreading drama to be affected/penalized, but why discourage discourse elsewhere by others in the community? And all the more so the ones delivered more slowly, while allowing the most hot-headed quick replies to go through before the post can be locked.

[-] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

How about a automated system if someone downvotes a comment and then responds to that comment (or reverse), then they get tar-pitted and banned from the community for 1-hour

It would slow down people being nasty to each other and egging on a fight.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

That would be nice

this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2025

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Ye Power Trippin' Bastards

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This is a community in the spirit of "Am I The Asshole" where people can post their own bans from lemmy or reddit or whatever and get some feedback from others whether the ban was justified or not.

Sometimes one just wants to be able to challenge the arguments some mod made and this could be the place for that.

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Which mods/admins were being Power Tripping Bastards?
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