Well, Kaptain, I agree with you that the BABB is a very nice MB with a high signal-to-noise ratio, and that for this reason it's not like most of the other boards out there. However, it does have one thing in common with all the other message boards on the Internet--it's open to the public. And short of going to pay-to-post, there isn't much any of us, or the BA, can do about people who register here and then begin posting inanities. As long as they're not off-topic, rude, vulgar, etc., they're not violating anything in the FAQ or the registration agreement. There's nothing in the FAQ that specifies "All posts must advance the course of intelligent adult conversation". I wouldn't expect the BA to ban Skywatcher just for posting inanities. They aren't off-topic inanities, for one thing--he's not posting threads about Harry Potter or Britney Spears. He is sticking to the subject of "astronomy", to the same degree that the rest of us stick to "astronomy". (Viz. the "earth degree confluence" thread--it's not about astronomy, but nobody's jumping down Sarongsong's throat for that...)
This is what the FAQ says:
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I am not a fan of the post-and-run technique of posting a single provocative statement (or, commonly, a URL to a pseudoscience website) and then never posting again in a thread. This is only a step above trolling. Barely. Do this more than once and you'll be warned. Do it again, and poof: you'll be banned.
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But he actually
hasn't been posting provocative hit-and-run OPs (see below).
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"It happens on other boards" does not justify it happening here.
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Well, yes, actually it does. This is a public forum, like all the others. We can't keep this board any "purer" than anybody else on the Internet can keep their boards. I understand that it's annoying when Tacky Clueless People take up residence on "My" message board, the way it's annoying when Tacky Clueless People move into "My" neighborhood, or take "My Spot" in the church pew or at the municipal swimming pool, but as long as the Tacky Clueless People have the same right to be there, you can't do much about it.
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Inane posts dilute that and decrease the value of this board.
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Okay, so how are you going to prevent inane posts? Are you going to have Thought Police witch hunts, to finger all those whose posts are considered "not quite the thing" for the BABB, not quite "up to snuff"? Who's going to decide that someone's posts are inane? The BA? Doesn't he have enough to do? The membership? Which part of the membership?
How are you going to define "inane"? "An URL with no comment or followup"? Many members post "Hey, look at this" threads, with no followup. Aren't those then "inane", too?
Or maybe "asking a dumb question, the answer to which should be obvious"? "Dumb" to whom? All of us need to ask dumb questions from time to time--should we make people afraid to ask dumb questions for fear they'll be labeled a "troll" and hounded off the BABB?
See, the problem I see developing here is where people start labeling "anybody who doesn't fit in" on a message board as a "troll", which is incorrect. A "troll" properly speaking is someone who is here
just to stir up trouble, just to get people upset.
And so far, I don't see Skywatcher doing that. Usually when someone posts inanities on a message board with the express purpose of jerking everybody's chain, he turns up the volume after a week or so, and really starts getting in everybody's face, to where it's obvious that he's just there for mischief. Your true troll who is posting inanities will start coming back in his threads with "Oh yeah?" or "Ha ha" snotty remarks, and then you know where you stand.
But I don't see Skywatcher doing that.
And I don't see there's a danger that the BABB might turn into an "asylum for the Netically challenged". I don't think there's the slightest possibility of that happening. Look at the last two pages of the Memberlist sorted by registration date. The majority of the people who joined in the last week or so have post counts in the single digits, and even "zero". The majority of people who register here make a few posts (or even zero posts), look around, realize that this really is a serious MB about astronomy stuff, and most importantly, that there's no General Chitchat forum--and they leave. Even if they're Netically challenged and may be attracted by the overall tone of politeness, still it's abundantly clear that we only wanna talk about astronomy, period. And so most of them go away.
And anyway, trying to keep your message board from turning into an asylum for the Netically challenged by having Thought Police witch hunts to point out all those members whose posts don't "fit in" is not the way to go. You're talking about keeping your message board "pure", is what you're talking about, but if you go down that road, your MB turns into a never-ending series of troll hunts. You get members who devote themselves to deciding whether every new registration is a troll or not, which makes it INCREDIBLY hard for Newbies to find a place to fit in. If their every post is being viewed with suspicion, and is being evaluated by the board's Mrs. Grundies, sooner or later they step on some Mrs. Grundy's toes, she hollers "Troll!"--and the Newbie, if he's a Nice Person and not a Troll, has his feelings hurt, and he leaves. And hurting the feelings of Nice Person Newbies so that they don't stick around is a sure-fire recipe to have your MB turn into a troll-infested wilderness, where Nice People won't stay because Mrs. Grundy keeps accusing them of being a troll, but the trolls find it an ideal habitat, since battles with all the Mrs. Grundies are right up their alley.
In the interests of fairness, I have been sitting here, working my way through Skywatcher's posting history.
Here are all the threads he has started.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5604
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5611
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5625
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5618
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5599
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5624
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5655
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5679
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5676
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5689
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5686
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5693
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5723
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5720
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5728
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5758
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5761
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5687
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5731
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5779
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5829
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5890
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5806
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5892
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5897
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5920
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5925
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5880
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5921
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5915
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6021
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5978
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6048
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6024
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6093
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6099
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6088
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6135
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6125
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6163
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6191
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6204
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6145
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6239
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6252
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6251
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6210
I have looked through all these threads, and the following are the only threads where he never came back into the thread. In all of them, it seems to me that he had good reasons for not coming back.
Lots of us post threads ridiculing various hoaxers; I think it's understood that no further reply is called for from the OP.
And when you ask a question, and your question is answered, it's polite to come back and say "thank you", or otherwise indicate that you grasped the explanation. If you don't, it's tacky--but it's not "troll behavior".
Ridiculing Godlike:
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5611
Asking about a website that was down:
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5625
Had his question answered:
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5655
Had his question answered.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5686
Had his question answered.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5693
Had his question answered.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5758
Ridiculing Zetatalk.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5779
Had his question answered.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5806
Had his question answered.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5892
Had his question answered.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5920
Had his question answered.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5925
Had his question answered.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5915
Had his question answered.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6021
Ridiculing Godlike.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6048
Had his question answered.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6099
Had his question answered.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6088
Had his question answered.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6135
Questions about pix on Godlike turned into discussion of whether he's a troll or not. I don't blame him for not coming back into the thread.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6204
Ridiculing Godlike.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6239
Had his question answered.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6252
Ridiculing Godlike.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6251
You know, now that I sit here and read all these, all at once, it sure sounds to me like just an ordinary person trying to fit in on a message board. I don't see a hit-and-run driveby troll at all. I couldn't find a single thread where it seemed to me that he posted a provocative URL and then ran away. With the links to SOHO pix on Godlike--"What is this?" he asked, and the BABB told him.
I think a number of people on this board are reading all his "question" threads through their Suspicious Mrs. Grundy Troll-Spotter lenses. Why not try reading them as though they came from someone who says he's 21 years old, who obviously doesn't know anything about astronomy, but who is curious, and who has some questions and concerns, especially about things like Planet X and the sun exploding, and such-like, someone who is being buffaloed by what's posted on Godlike and Zetatalk, and who is trying to fit in here?
Give the kid a chance, guys, eh? I've just spent the last couple of hours watching entirely too many BABB posters jump all over him, sometimes in the very first post to his threads, sneering and hollering "Troll!" before he's even finished speaking. Whatever his motives for being here may be, I still say "aw, let him alone, he's not hurting anything".