Is there any way to report comments? williamsmith made spam comments on this thread and this thread. So far those comments seem to be their only activity.
Thus far, I've generally defaulted to reporting the whole thread and explaining the problem was a comment. It's worked well enough, though as a backup I'm prepared to PM Torg, jakelyon, and Friedman - the three people I know off the top of my head are capable of handling such a situation. I've never done this action as a forum topic just on the grounds that it relies more heavily on the hope the topic doesn't fall out of view. Report buttons specifically for comments is actually a very useful idea (or would be if more people actually used the report buttons already in place), so I'm going to swing this over to Suggestions.
I have a related problem. A guy, named protoborg, made some really awful comments on one of my stories, calling a chapter, in resumed words, a "waste". Well, I reported him to Friedman, and he delete the comments. I "ignore" the guy on CHYOA main page, to not receive any comment of him again, but again, I received another comment. How can I stop this guy from making any comment on my stories permanently once for all?
A: You can't, short of Friedman decideing to ban him... B: one of the Friends who guided me to this site used to work with Protoborg, and when I mentioned this to him he said that while Protoborg is harsh and abrasive, he generally speaking is actually trying to help. I suggest throwing him a PM asking what he means by his comments: Ex; he says the chapter is a "Waste", does he mean he thinks the story would flow better if it's: 1: Cut out? 2: Reworked? 3: Made into a sex scene? (You would have to un-block him to do this.) C: Finally, even if Protoborg IS being a deliberate troll, or sees the story in a way you disagree with, you just have to toughen your mental skin and ignore him. 1: If he's being a troll, give him enough rope to hang himself and let the Moderators do thier jobs, he'll be gone soon enough. 2: If you disagree with each other about the tenor, tone, and pacing of the story: that's gonna Happen! If everyone liked the same things; the strawberry and cabbage would be extinct! If he's not trolling the very fact that he cares about the story enough to form an opinion that strong indicates you are doing something right. If this is the case, take the critical opinion for the advice it is, and respectfully disagree; that's all you can really do.
Your best bet would be to just keep telling a mod or admin. I'd imagine eventually they get told about it. I remember about a year ago a former writer for one of my stories posted harassing messages on my introduction page insulting me personally. I sent a message to Friedman and explained the situation and he deleted the messages. A day later or so he did it again and was even more insulting and again I reported it to Friedman. Now I don't think his commenting rights were removed as I still see him commenting on other stories, but I haven't heard from them in a year. Still, It would be nice if 'ignoring' someone stopped them from posting on your chapters...although I could also see how that could be abused as a form of censorship towards actual constructive criticism. But what if the thing everyone liked was Strawberries and Cabbages? Sorry, I'll go back to lurking now.
A: That's wrong, we should have the option to erase the comments. B: I appreciate your advice, but how can anybody help using one sentence and using a word more stronger and unpolite that "waste"? C: I actually do that, I just "ignore" him with the option that you could use visiting his profile page. I leave that problem in the past, but it wasn't a "tenor" problem, I accept that my stories can have flaws, and also that some people might not like them, but he wasn't trying to make a good criticism.
In any case, I don't think responding in kind is appropriate. I see you also made a rude comment on his story, one that still exists and has not been deleted. Seems like he very recently noticed.
I treat with respect the people that treat me with respect. I was just responding to him in the way he deserves. If you treat something with disrespect, you can't expect anything else but disrespect. The site hasnt anything to stop insulting comments like he did, so I was just defending myself. My comment maybe was rude, but not insulting as the one he made on my story. And I have at least two users that can say to you, if you ask them, that I'm a peaceful user. And as you can see in previous comments, this guy has a certain fame of beign harsh and abrasive. The problem isn't mine, I'm just standing up against a bully. The site needs that users can block users, because in the actual way, admins have to do a lot of work to stop that.
It would also be a waste of an effort. Even if we take comments off the stories, all that does is create incentive to post on the forums. Then we'd really have some censorship issues: If ignoring stops additions, VMs, PMs, and e-mail, it does enough. Anything else, we're just exposing weakness and playing for control. So there's no desire for a moral high ground? On top of that, if the rude comments he left you this time happens to be this, then I'm inclined to think you're just being overly sensitive due to the previous comment. All this amounts to is someone correcting an apparent error, something the rest of us would be kicking ourselves for making. You just finished telling us how the moderators deleted his prior, non-constructive comments. It may not be a preventive measure, but then anything preventive would be censoring a user who, based on my experience, isn't a troll. If you can prove more than a single isolated incident, then maybe he can be barred from your stories. Otherwise, just smile and nod for the criticism while you report the non-constructive stuff. Going on to someone else's story to say this is not defending yourself. That's revenge. And turnabout, though on this site it is most certainly not fair play. Defending yourself is digging in your heels and asserting that the other person's opinion is wrong. This is not that. Additionally, this comment... ...disproves this sentiment. "Harsh and abrasive" is not "mean and obnoxious." Being brutally honest is not the same as being a troll. The amount of work we do is actually quite manageable if users hit report buttons. They report the problems and the system records the reports, in doing so establishing patterns of behavior. All that's required of us is to act on the reports for single offenses, and interpret the data to notice the pattern before acting with repeat offenders; or at least that's how it works on the forums, but I assume the rest of the site works the same way. As an aside, this is why I get pissy when there are clear problems and no one uses the report button - that's how you increase the workload since it becomes up to us to regularly read and reread everything on the site while committing to memory who's a possible troll and who's likely just slipped.
Not neccesary. Few people use the forums. And for post constructive criticism of stories? Even to protest for not be allowed to publish comments in the stories? Maybe only a few. I respect and can understand that some people don't like my stories, but my tolerance has a limit when you call my story a shit. You just can't pretend to have a moral high ground when some people pushes it down. And just tell me, how can you correct other people mistake using the word "shit"?. Think whatever you want about me. He had a certain reputation, maybe not bad, not a favourable one. I never had any problem with other user. This guy was the exception. And while beign brutally honest isn't the same as beign mean and obxonious, also isn't a good way to approach other people. But well, guys, do as you want.
I hate it when a good Daialectic turns into a Debate. Suffice it to say: 'an eye for an eye' followed to its inherently illogical conclusion, would leave everyone on earth blind. Someone has to chose to be the better man, unfortunately, 57, that wasn't you.
Well, you're taking it to a whole new level. He didn't commit a murder. Just a very unpolite comment. I made another not very polite comment, I recognize that, but he didn't apologize either. I can just let it go if he tell me "the grammar is poor, blah blah" but he just insult me. But well, that is in the past now.
