In Ancient Greece, Herostratus set fire to the Temple of Artemis in order to become famous. To thwart his intent and discourage similar acts, the city leaders decreed that his name was never to be mentioned, on penalty of death.
The Roman Senate could pass damnatio memoriae - condemnation of memory, a judgement that one must not be remembered and that all documentary references to them would be erased. This sentence was felt to be appropriate to traitors and others who discredited the Senate.
It occurs that we could learn something from these ancient practices. Earlier this week, I reported a libellous post. The comment was directed against an ET poster who has claimed to work in the highly regulated financial industry. The nature of the allegation was that the gentleman was dishonest and interested in obtaining pecuniary advantages by deception. There is no evidence at ET or elsewhere to indicate this, and the post therefore could not have been other than malicious.
Apparently the Moderators took some action in response to my report, as the offending post was removed. Shortly after, the troll complained of being warned off by the moderators and went on to repeat the libel. Again, I reported the subsequent post. However, by this time numerous others will have seen it.
I would propose one of two options:
#1 is that an admin imposed super-ignore-list is created which applies to both logged in users and guest browsers. Known trolls are added to this list. It is hoped that they continue to waste time posting, ignorant to the fact that their posts cannot be seen by anyone but themselves, before eventually returning under a new alias.
#2 a permanent ban which removes the username of the poster and every single post they have ever made to this site, as though they had never existed. In addition, their nickname is to be placed in the swear filter. (I know this is technically possible as the member formerly known as spike five hundred has ceased to have ever existed)
It is rather obvious what sort of site you will end up with if you do not protect those who work in regulated industries and in a position of trust from anonymous defamatory comments and those who would post them (while offering nothing of value to any of the discussions). I appreciate that some of these serial posters are losers who spend all day on ET and generate a lot of ad impressions, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere.
In solidarity with quality contributors who have been hounded off the site by such abusive conduct, I will refrain from posting anything further outside of "feedback" section until the Admin creates and enforces a policy which is effective in mitigating the effects of trolling. I would ask that other market professionals do the same.
The Roman Senate could pass damnatio memoriae - condemnation of memory, a judgement that one must not be remembered and that all documentary references to them would be erased. This sentence was felt to be appropriate to traitors and others who discredited the Senate.
It occurs that we could learn something from these ancient practices. Earlier this week, I reported a libellous post. The comment was directed against an ET poster who has claimed to work in the highly regulated financial industry. The nature of the allegation was that the gentleman was dishonest and interested in obtaining pecuniary advantages by deception. There is no evidence at ET or elsewhere to indicate this, and the post therefore could not have been other than malicious.
Apparently the Moderators took some action in response to my report, as the offending post was removed. Shortly after, the troll complained of being warned off by the moderators and went on to repeat the libel. Again, I reported the subsequent post. However, by this time numerous others will have seen it.
I would propose one of two options:
#1 is that an admin imposed super-ignore-list is created which applies to both logged in users and guest browsers. Known trolls are added to this list. It is hoped that they continue to waste time posting, ignorant to the fact that their posts cannot be seen by anyone but themselves, before eventually returning under a new alias.
#2 a permanent ban which removes the username of the poster and every single post they have ever made to this site, as though they had never existed. In addition, their nickname is to be placed in the swear filter. (I know this is technically possible as the member formerly known as spike five hundred has ceased to have ever existed)
It is rather obvious what sort of site you will end up with if you do not protect those who work in regulated industries and in a position of trust from anonymous defamatory comments and those who would post them (while offering nothing of value to any of the discussions). I appreciate that some of these serial posters are losers who spend all day on ET and generate a lot of ad impressions, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere.
In solidarity with quality contributors who have been hounded off the site by such abusive conduct, I will refrain from posting anything further outside of "feedback" section until the Admin creates and enforces a policy which is effective in mitigating the effects of trolling. I would ask that other market professionals do the same.
