Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[mediocre]

So far, this forum has been my favorite, having been born from the debauchery of anold forum.

Discussions have been civilized, informative, impartial, and all-inclusive.

I hope we (with help the help of the admin) could maintain it. And I hope we could avoid the same debauchery that may happen to LL Forum if we let our guards down. And I'm not only talking about the unethical aspect of CLL world. Even petty stuffs that happen all the time in old forum and even in YouTube posts: starts with an innocent thread or post, then eventually a troll of political, racial, and religious display of their own wet dream and name-calling.

If we can censor ourselves and practice individual restraint, then nobody has to censor and police this forum!

[Smallguy]

Yes, I'm one individual who would need to practice self-restraint.

I like to come to this forum to relieve my anger and frustration from all the stress and pressure of daily life.

But it's good that you remind us this. We all want to make this forum welcoming and informative for other people.

[LLL]

Arguing and name calling only makes this forum lose credibility. Now, you know what (not) to do.

[mediocre]

I think we should up the ante for these violations. Like warning/suspending for x amount of time, otherwise these nonsense will keep on repeating if no stakes on the line.

[KiloKAHN]

Recent events have required some of us to re-evaluate where this forum stands in terms of how moderation is going to be done. When the site was first created, there were some people saying that editing posts that were disruptive would make this forum exactly the same as the old forum. Because it was popular at the time and because it seemed like people could practice some level of courtesy in their posts, Dameon decided that nobody including himself would have a moderator status. However, it appears as if more people want there to be greater moderator activity in making sure posts maintain a certain level of decency. So with that said...

1) How would people like it if the web owner and the mods posted on the board with the 'Moderator' tag visible under the username and reviewed/edited posts that contained inappropriate/offensive comments, etc?

Yes, this would mean that there's some level of censorship in order to ensure this forum remains a credible source of information on CLL. But, this does not mean that there will be editing/censoring of medical information that could compromise a prospective or current CLL patient's well-being, which remains the primary issue of the old forum.

[Orlando]

Anyone who starts personal arguments that involve name calling & insults,  will be told by other members to take it to PM right away, as in immediately.    If that person ignores it, a short term ban should apply.     

[Smallguy]

1) How would people like it if the web owner and the mods posted on the board with the 'Moderator' tag visible under the username and reviewed/edited posts that contained inappropriate/offensive comments, etc?

Yes, this would mean that there's some level of censorship in order to ensure this forum remains a credible source of information on CLL. But, this does not mean that there will be editing/censoring of medical information that could compromise a prospective or current CLL patient's well-being, which remains the primary issue of the old forum.

What is deemed as inappropriate/offensive comment? What is appears to be offensive to one person may seemingly to be appropriate for another person. I think people should be able to say whatever they want to say without having their thoughts and feelings be compromised/edited.

I don't feel comfortable with any level of censorship. It feels like big brother is constantly monitoring what I have to say. If someone chooses to use indecent language, that should be a reflection on that individual's lack of class and poor character. But I usually want to read a post as how the original author intended it to be without any compromises.

However, if there is a cat's fight that involves spamming the forum with irrelevant posts and making use of such indecent words as "pussy," "tampon," and other sexually explicit words, then I think the moderator should delete those posts and the argument should be strictly by PM.

I could understand the emotional anger that was erupted when someone chose to downplay Apoth/Sysop treacherous scheme. If you never got fuked over by someone, then you obviously have no emotional resentment toward that individual. And if you choose to defend that individual, then you have to accept the consequence of being spew with other people indignation.

[Muse]

Update:  I believe that members taking their personal differences to PM is the best solution for everyone and keep the forum clean for LL related discussions. 

Heated discussion that are not related to LL will be removed and the members reminded to use PM to discuss between themselves, not cluttering up the forum.

Discussions have been civilized, informative, impartial, and all-inclusive. I hope we (with help the help of the admin) could maintain it
If we can censor ourselves and practice individual restraint, then nobody has to censor and police this forum!

I agree about restraint,  keeping things civilized while still making your point. 
 
Self Censorship is a bad idea.  We want freedom of expression and open discussion but with quality and meaning to it.  That's been our direction from day one.   

What is deemed as inappropriate/offensive comment? What is appears to be offensive to one person may seemingly to be appropriate for another person. I think people should be able to say whatever they want to say without having their thoughts and feelings be compromised/edited.

I don't feel comfortable with any level of censorship. It feels like big brother is constantly monitoring what I have to say. If someone chooses to use indecent language, that should be a reflection on that individual's lack of class and poor character. But I usually want to read a post as how the original author intended it to be without any compromises.

I would say the same things that are deemed inappropriate/offensive  in the real world.  Examples are racism, threatening violence. 

In this context we're talking about how members interact with each other,  not how information is shared.

When it comes to LL information, I fully support uncensored and honest opinion.   

When it comes to interaction between members,  people want a supportive and constructive forum.   Therefore harassing other members should not be ignored.  Whatever the opinion is, people shouldn't express it by using insults and harassment on another member..  We have to emphasize this as a common understanding for all.

Recently the moderator decided to to suspend/ban a member for a few weeks because of ongoing harassing & disrespectful comments on another person's loss.  Those comments were unacceptable in any setting. 

We always draw the line by treating the forum in a real world setting, allowing people to use common sense when interacting with others.  This has worked well for the most part and most members here are friendly and open minded people here to share information in a  meaningful and intelligent way.

There is a very small percentage of people that occasionally violated this common understanding of how members should interact in a civil manner.

However, if there is a cat's fight that involves spamming the forum with irrelevant posts and making use of such indecent words as "pussy," "tampon," and other sexually explicit words, then I think the moderator should delete those posts and the argument should be strictly by PM.

This is the exact scenario we are talking about in this thread.  It doesn't help to clutter up threads with irrelevant posts of insults or name calling between members.   

We will probably need to be less lenient toward such behavior and start giving warnings & bans more actively.
   
There might be better ways to improve the moderation or it is fine the way it is.  Let's share those feedback here.   

[G-Man]

How about giving control to the creator of a thread?

This way he/she could manage his own thread as he intended to be.  If someone is disrupting, impolite or offensive he could remove his posts and boot/ban him but only from his own thread.
It's his/her thread after all and sometimes after a hard day at work, you just don't want to deal with some lunatics.

I have nothing against a good debate but when I see an insignificant individual, freely spitting venom and insulting people on all threads without consequences, it just makes me want to leave this forum.  I am not the only one and I'm sure that a lot of lurkers don't become members when they see the name calling, insults and so on.  Especially women, who don't like aggressivity.

Besides that, life is beautiful!  Keep up the good work, tx!

[Melan_sprint]

its called a little bit of venting, and reasoning with other human beings we are not robots dude, you are gonna have resistance no matter what you do in all fields of life.

Diary>proportions>celebrities height & acceptable limit>BS topics when waiting for the others to get updated. Thats me.

[theuprising]

One aspect that I would like to see when holding up the standard of this forum is that any claims members make regarding the safety of certain LL methods must be accompanied by scientific or medical sources. It is completely unacceptable to for members to say that one method is safer than another without any evidence to back that assertion. It spreads misinformation which when dealing with a surgery of this magnitude is dangerous.

Members must be held to account on this.

[4cms]

The forum should be a place where patients can come to confide their thoughts and feeling but when apothesis - sysop can get on here and make many fake accounts spread lies and make fun of fellow patients the forum has lost ita integrity .

Did you know sysop - apothesis - sysp from old forum  would take forum members personal details and use it against them in order to blackmail them .

He also revealed patients identities , and created stories about them , personally it happened to myself but the problem he has and what he didnt know was i actually dont get ashamed for bettering myself by way of ll , since i done it in a responsible manner 5 -6cms its not a big deal .

The problem lies when patients that lengthen think they now have a passport to make fun of others now that is simply low and hypocritical . it also shows the lack of character integrity .

Ultimatley i ve come to realise the forum be it here or the old one is no place to confide in

[KiloKAHN]

It's probably not a good idea to confide in anyone that you've not met in person. Too much personal info can be used against you online. We try to let everyone have a voice here but we're also trying to deal with trolls as well.

[FutureLengthener]

One aspect that I would like to see when holding up the standard of this forum is that any claims members make regarding the safety of certain LL methods must be accompanied by scientific or medical sources. It is completely unacceptable to for members to say that one method is safer than another without any evidence to back that assertion. It spreads misinformation which when dealing with a surgery of this magnitude is dangerous.

Members must be held to account on this.

I agree that misinformation can be an issue. But only using official scientific/medical information on the safety of LL? That would kind of defeat the purpose of keeping diaries and reporting our experiences.  If someone comes along saying outlandish things, like LL will make you a better basketball player, or the Fitbone is weightbearing, don't moderate them. Just tear their nonsense apart so all can see it and know the truth.

[theuprising]

I agree that misinformation can be an issue. But only using official scientific/medical information on the safety of LL? That would kind of defeat the purpose of keeping diaries and reporting our experiences.  If someone comes along saying outlandish things, like LL will make you a better basketball player, or the Fitbone is weightbearing, don't moderate them. Just tear their nonsense apart so all can see it and know the truth.

It would not defeat the purpose at all. The diaries complement the medical information. What we want here is as much information as possible. The point of my statement was to deal with certain posters on here who made outlandish statements, would not provide evidence when asked and then continued to pollute other threads with their nonsense.

The poster "yemef" was a prime example of the type of poster I am talking about. Please take a look at this thread to get an idea of the issue I am referring to.

http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=2164.18

[Antonio]

I don't like censorship, and I think that self-censorship is wishful thinking (I'm always right unlike that idiot ...)

But in these cases of personal liberty vs. digital commons, I think there is a definite role for the moderator. And that role of control/moderation has to be based on the principles of inclusiveness, fairness, and scientific reasoning.

1. Inclusiveness. Here what I mean is that the moderator has to consider not any individual or group, but the whole community and perhaps even the whole digital community in its entirety. The question here is: Does a certain comment or thread or poster harm the forum and its members, AS A WHOLE? I'll admit it's not easy evaluating the pros and cons of more than one parties especially if one is personally invested, but that is precisely the role of the moderator. And the criteria should be for the benefit of the group as a whole, and in the case of doubt, it should err on the side of caution/scientific reasoning.

2. Fairness. By fairness I mean that the moderator has to weigh the relative weight of freedom of speech vs. the personal freedoms of the individual. Note that this is a more restrictive principle as compared to the inclusiveness principle, which is more of an economic benefit principle. The question here is: Does a certain comment infringe on the rights of others not to have that comment made? For example if a user reveals private information of another, and the other is offended and requests redress, the moderator has to weigh the relative values of the information and the damage to the other user.

3. Scientific reasoning. Here I mean that issues need to go through the scientific process of information/hypothesis/evidence/rebuttal/accepted theory to be useful. And that takes time. Very often we see that arguments made in the beginning do not seem to be very relevant or make much sense, but upon further discussion reveals important insights. In this case, the question is: Is the comment interesting and does it need time to develop? The implication is that certain comments or arguments should not be removed immediately but be allowed to see where they end up.

As regards to the punishments for breaking these principles, there is a whole gamut of possibilities, ranging from banning, suspension, comment deletion, but I think the punishment should fit the degree of the infringement.

I hope I have provoked thought on this topic. If not, you can say whatever you like!