> Sorry if my response caused problems
No apologies; I was speaking generally. There was no real problem with anything
anybody did. I was typing up a reply to one of the posts here in the general area but by the time I hit submit, somebody had come in behind me and removed it. Still, reminders are good and I think that if we, as mods and visitors, act in concert we can handle these things quick, painless, and effectively.
> ...I'll ignore lamers here at MTMG as requested....
Just to be clear. I understand that each situation usually carries its own unique set of circumstances. That usually means there's a degreee of leeway when handling things. It's a judgement call... that's best exercised with common sense and calm reasoning. If somebody, again I'm speaking generally, if somebody feels that a few well chosen words will make a difference, then by all means give it a try - because you just never know. But what we want to be wary of is pouring fuel on the fire because once it starts blazing, there's almost no stopping it.
Anyway, the forum is here for everybody, and I think if we all work together we can weather any storm.... even if it is just a sprinkling, lol.
> you missed his post in the "Harbour Town 1997" track thread
I left it there deliberately. I need to keep 1 (one) post around so I can track the ip address if it gets that far. I usually leave the mildest one here in the general area (sometimes just blanking out the message or subject line). You'll see a couple examples of that in the back pages. This time around I was too slow, lol. That stems from my way of reading the forum (bottom to top). By the time I got to things, they were already gone. Can't be napping around here
So, anyway, I left that one there for the sake of keeping a record.
Some methods used to curb problems:
- soft name ban on the forum only (cussing and venting)
- soft ip ban on the forum only (flooders)
- medium ip ban for the site
- hard ip ban for the server
- scripted bans for specific pages
- ip/trace route tracking to locate the trouble maker
- TOS notification to their isp
- e-mail contact to an authority where they live
- telephone their parents
There are a lot of options available but it seldom requires extreme measures. Kids think they're anonymous on the internet. They're not. Often, just the knowledge that I can do these things is enough to put an end to it.
Any questions? Just ask. It's your site too and we all want it to continue problem free.