Reporting posts

thatbags - do you sometimes debate a point on gransnet, but think differently to the side you have taken?

There are heated debates about facts, principles and policies and there are personal attacks on those who advocate those policies or have posted facts that someone thinks are mistaken, or who works to a different priority or thinks that things are not as cut and dried as they are presented as being.

Distinguishing between the two is not always easy. Some people are very quick to take offence, and some are very quick to give it. If the two come into conflict, the sparks fly. The only was to avoid any disagreements at all is to keep to subjects like the weather or post photos of cuddly kittens. That would be very boring.

I'm allergic to kittens, cuddly or not!

There is a huge problem with this site which seems to be more of a money generating concern for the owners.

The worst thing is that people can not see the thread of the poster and posts, sometimes there are so many posts in between that the thread meanders on a momentum of its own, and everyone gets , except for a few posters, a bit muddled as to who said what.

Is it not possible to see the thread, then respondants can refer specifically to who said what and when.

More work for the back staff I fear.

Hope you are well paid

Of course we can see the thread, jollyg. What do you mean?

If you select "customise" jollyg you can choose how many posts you see on a page - up to 1000. Then you can scroll up or down to see everything posted on that thread.

Or posting could be restricted to X posts before a thread was cut off - but I don't think that would be popular.

As for people wandering off the point, that is how real-life conversations go, and without someone at HQ reading every post before allowing it to appear, or suppressing it if it was off the point, I don't see how you can stop that. Do you really want HQ to censor all posts?

The forums are only a part of the site, however much the posters feel that they are at the centre of it. It costs money to keep a big site operating and interesting to visitors, so income has to be generated, I can't see it surviving without it.

soon perhaps it will help if we use this more familiar example:
Parent says to a child, 'I don't like that behaviour'. The parent likes the child, but not the behaviour, the child is not being criticised, only the behaviour.
So, if a poster says that an opinion is stupid, it is the opinion and not the person expressing it that is deemed stupid.
If I say to a person, you are stupid for holding that opinion - then that is the person that is being criticised.

Thanks Elegran

Ill try customise as you advise,

I still get a snarky reply from a member

Please don't do it

If you're referring to my post, jollyg, what was 'snarky' about it? I genuinely didn't know what you meant about not being able to see the thread - how could we not see it?

I think that I am slow to see that ga.

What if a poster say Oh FFS after someone has posted. Is that criticising the behaviour or the poster?

What if someone says "I dont like you being rude", is that criticising the behaviour or the poster?

i think you are splitting hairs, soontobe

Neither, soon. It is expressing irritation, the irritation of the person who says FFS.

Those last few posts illustrate just how we all interpret posts differently sometimes!
I could easily have read them and seen them in different ways too!

In answer to soon's question
"thatbags - do you sometimes debate a point on gransnet, but think differently to the side you have taken?"

Not exactly. If I am unsure what I think because, for instance, I simply don't know enough about the subject, I might well debate from the opposing side, so to speak, in order to draw out more discussion, in an attempt to decide what I think about a subject. Sometimes I remain undecided. A lot of subjects are not clear black and white and I prefer to keep an open mind in that case.

Exactly. Playing devil's advocate can sometimes be a useful way of determining one's true opinion, or non-decisiveness on a subject.

(Blimey, that was clear as mud, wasn't it? )

In four years I have occasionally reported a post that I thought contravened GN guidelines but 10 posts in under six months must be a record!

10 posts in two months, she said, absent. An even better record. Did we not have high enough standards?

I notice that there are a lot of regular posters who are not saying a word about how many non spam posts they report!

No, I dont think the standards are high enough. But it is not going to change on any internet forum probably, as it would cost too much I assume is the reason.
But no, no way in real life do I allow people to talk to me as the talk is allowed on here.
Does anyone else?

I thinkt that the site is largely self moderating? I need a relook at the guidelines, as I havent looked at them in a while.
So if it is self moderating, and people regularly complain about posts on here, then it is up to us to report.
But my problem was I didnt know that I didnt know what is defined as personal and what is not.
Not sure I do now, but I am probably nearer the mark now than I was.

So we can look forward to many more of our posts being reported now, can we., soon?

I've never reported a non-spam post, but quite a few spams.

Seems like some people just love reporting posts!We are all grown up on here I take it?Unbelievable.

Yes Ana.

There is no way of knowing how many posts are reported. I am still reeling from soontobe's revelation of 10 within a couple of months of joining GN. By no means are all reported posts deleted by GNHQ. In fact, deletions of posts are fairly infrequent and deleting whole threads is even rarer. In the case of the latter, it is usually at the OP's request although there have been couple of really nasty ones that many of us were glad to see go. There are also occasions when individual posts are deleted at the poster's request.

It is understandable that posters may feel a little upset if their posts are deleted because, presumably, they thought whatever they had said was valid. However, this is simply a social internet forum so why not just shrug it off. Starting a new thread to whine about it is an increasing and unattractive trend.

Bring it on, soon.