I don't think there are any universal standards for what constitutes trolling or not. This is dependent on the values, goals and tastes of the online community. Broadly speaking, trolling is any activity that would be harmful (overall) to the interests of the board in the long run.
This could be in terms of:
a) Making 'unacceptably' disrespectful remarks towards one or more fellow posters.
b) Making 'unacceptably' disrespectful remarks towards some entity (in this case, film or person) that would hurt fellow posters
c) Use of language or images that are 'unacceptably' inappropriate on the board.
d) Misusing features (e.g. Sending too many PMs, reporting everything, registering under multiple accounts) of the board when not warranted
I have been a moderator on various boards for the past 15 years, and I have found the word "unacceptably" to be helpful. You have to give some latitude to the types of comments that can be permitted, but some comments clearly do not conform to the implicit standards of a board and have to be deleted. I have been on boards in which the expectation was to delete even a single post containing a swear word, and other boards which deleted nothing unless if was unrelated pornographic or spam content. What constitutes as "unacceptable" depends on what most of the community (and potential new members) can tolerate or not.
For instance, a post like: "That actor is f*cking scum and needs to die," could be considered to be unacceptable in some places and not in others. Even if the poster did not make the post with the intention of getting a negative reaction, it can cause a lot of distress to fellow posters (if they are not thick-skinned).
I am not sure you can "define" the degree of the post's severity in order for it to be deleted. This is something that the mods need to discuss actively (on a case-by-case basis when possible, in a mod forum) in the beginning when the community is small. After a while, it is becomes more-or-less implicitly clear to all mods on what they should look out for, and even users (by trial-and-error) roughly understand the type of post of post that will be deleted (versus not). It is a really a fine balance between keeping the majority of existing users happy (depending on their level of sensitivity), and new users not pissed enough to leave. With time, the new users also get used to the board's implicit posting guidelines.
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Wilson (879)
8 years ago
Guidelines.
Not moderators, not automoderation but guidelines. This should be the entire goal of any censorship here.
If a post gets many reports filled against it because the community feels it doesn't follow these guidelines then some sort of look at the post with a diverse set of moderation eyes should happen.
If the post is fine and the user is reported often then those doing the reporting should be looked into.
Some warnings and a ban from a collective of varied moderators who have discussed the issue on multiple occasions is as far as any access to power or responsibility should go.
Leave people alone and let the thin skinned learn to stay away from discussions they can't handle by using an ignore feature.
This thread alone is a great warning as to why moderation would be a terrible choice for MovieChat.
If I wanted idiots with a power complex in charge I would have gone to IMDB 2.0 or elsewhere.
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Apis (1624)
8 years ago
"That actor is f*cking scum and needs to die"
Sentences like this one, trolling or not, should be at least deleted by mods. Even if the poster who wrote it wasn't a troll at all. He/she doesn't even have to receive a warning for trolling from the mods for writing this, but the sentence itself looks like something that has no place on a civilized board.
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Bella-UK (1288)
8 years ago
I think moderating a board and asking someone to behave is very hard, as I have been told people don't like being policed, or mothered. So you have to be careful and be balanced too. It's not easy.
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