Image is everything

[Grandtheftcow]

Check this out.

bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?t=103641

Yeah yeah I know its stardestroyer.net. Anyway.

This is a question also (or especially) for non-SD.net-Admins. In this forum here I don't see much of a problem, because exceptionally stupid debaters usually get their asses handed to them by other debaters.

However in other forums that is often not the case. On one of the forums that I administer there are a few cases that appear to have graduated from fallacy-college. And looking at the topics they take part in, it's not even that have any agenda, it's that they are apparently incapable of rational, logical debate, even in cases where the position they take is defendable with sound logic, they will always go for the worst fallacies to argue their position. And unfortunately they seem to have too much free time on their hands. Given that they gravitate towards populistic stances, there will also be many users that don't challenge them. However challenging them is, as I found out, a seemingly futile effort, as the arguments will not penetrate their shields. They will constantly argue against their own strawmens, use extreme slippery slope fallacies together with fear and emotionalisation, personal attacks, and they will always claim it is them who is being attacked and so on. Basically it's like a fundie but without the religious aspect, only the stupidity (yet they appear to have the same drive to never stop and keep piling on).

So, my questions is to the administrators or moderators among you (here or preferrably on different forums), do you have some kind of disciplanory rules you invoke to deal with those people? Just let it run it's course and ignore it? Does it actually work or what kind of problems are you running into?

This is the opening post of the thread. He’s pretty much sick of standard Internet behavior and wants to clamp down on his membership for it.

And here’s my post in response.

Fallacies win public debates. I know the members here are generally smart enough to see obvious debating tricks but on other forums if you project a calm posting style while being a dishonest fuck you can win the popular vote and eventually just pick on your red faced opponent.

If you really want to implement a no fallacies rule I’d recommend one long ass list of rules explaining what fallacies are and examples of what is not allowed. That way you can just point to the rules thread rather than saying “LOL Google noob.” Also make sure your staff are on board with this. Resigning staff members might create an exodus of members from your board. One last thing I can’t stress enough is get rid of any questions suggestions & feedback forum or moderator actions section. Policy trolls like me can continue on forever in any policy debate or in an open discussion on what action a staff member took.

Oh and don’t blame us if your forum takes a nose dive and everyone leaves because you’re ban happy, nazi admins, starving for an ounce of imaginary power, or whatever other common line departing members use.

Nothing objectionable about that right?

The problem with your position is the assumption is that you would get to make your bullshit claims from behind a veneer of civility without facing any kind of punitive action. You should also take note of the rule that says that the rules are not an all-encompassing list of things or something that you can hide behind on a technicality. That sort of bullshit would result in your summary banning.

Edi

Why are you bragging about your ability to skirt rules and be dishonest?

He wants to test SDN tolerance to rule-breaking? The "don’t blame us if your forum takes a nose dive and everyone leaves because you’re ban happy, nazi admins, starving for an ounce of imaginary power" outbreak certainly looks like icing on the cake. Or perhaps walking straight into it.

Because he's GrandTheftCow. Of Troll Kingdom fame.

We like it that way. We also like to host curbstomping parties for trolls and idiots who do think they can debate dishonestly and get away with it. A good rule of thumb for this place I've quoted before: "If you can't stand the heat, get out of Nagasaki".

I think what he's saying is that imposing such rules at larger, more popular boards would be ineffective because even if you were successful in enforcing it, much of the population would just leave and form their own board.

Hmm I wasn’t expecting that. :gtc-down:

I’ve since posted a response in an attempt to clarify my position. We’ll see if they accept it or go for round two.

 

[Archibald Nixon]

We like it that way. We also like to host curbstomping parties for trolls and idiots who do think they can debate dishonestly and get away with it. A good rule of thumb for this place I've quoted before: "If you can't stand the heat, get out of Nagasaki".

This one sounds like a real sweetheart.

 

[Tamar_Garish]

StarDestroyer.net

How are all my nerdy little admirers doing? Acacia sends her love! :smooch:

 

[missmanners]

Mister Wrong wouldnt even let me join. Even when I sent him a personal email promising to behave. And give cookies.


mm

 

[The Question]

Oh, fuck them and their pretensions to logic. Look up the posts of "Mal Reynolds" (I forget whether that was with a space or an underscore between Mal and Reynolds). I argued, very logically, that Mexico is waging an undeclared invasion of the U.S. Granted, my suggested response to that was an open troll, but the argument leading up to it was no less logical than anything they spew on a daily basis.

They claim to love logic; what they actually love is Political Correctness of the most extreme variety.

 

[jack]

Just like my little Commie asshats