Forum Trolls

tezboy1234

Bikeradar,

I'd like to say that overall this site is fantastic and the team tend to do a great job.

The only floor i can find is in regards to the forum trolls. Is there nothing more that can be done to stop them? Maybe a three strikes and your out kind of thing, or the option to maybe click there name and report them. They spoil this site for a lot people, and there's several repeat offenders who should have been banned a long time ago in my opinion, but who continue to get away with it.

Now ok, there not exactly robbing banks or skinning your pet cat, but they are nevertheless nothing but bullies, however subtly they may be doing it. It's perfectly fine to have a different opinion and voice it, like "i think 29'ers are great" or "i think 29'ers are rubbish" and that sort of thing. But now, you can make a post on a perfectly innocent subject, like a frame recommendation or how to change a headset, and instead of getting some helpfull feedback all you seem to get is sarcastic comments, insults and people taking the mick, even over things as little as a spelling mistake, lol.

Now, these things usually turn in to pointless arguments and personal attacks, and the original point of the post gets lost and you end end up losing any potential help. I have always tried to ease these situations but if you keep poking a dog, eventually it's going to bite. I did this a little yesterday, wich resulted in my post being removed. Although i was only defending myself to be fair.

These sort of situations are becoming a bit too common, and people like me, who are only seeking advice, give or take, are having our posts and experience of what should be great site, ruined by idiots. Im sure there's an endless amount of Bikeradar users who feel the same way.

Please give us the option to click on a persons name and report them, or maybe you could start banning people, for small time periods at first, and then eventually to more permanent bans. Anything to get rid of these trolls. This is a forum for bike topics, lets leave it for the people who only want to use it as such, and stop idiots spoiling it for others.

Thank you.

Easyriding

I tend to agree with you tez. I haven't posted many items on here and possibly would do more, but feel that I might be subjected to somebody's snide remark or a daft reply to an innocent question. There's nothing wrong with a bit of banter but having your spelling or grammatical mistakes pointed out by some anal know-all isn't very helpful at all.

danlikesbikes

Think a lot of people would agree & most users probably have a list of pet hates that include;

Being picked up on spelling/grammar
"use the search function"
FTFY - for either spelling/grammar or the context of what your saying
IGTFY - rather insulting way of saying "I found this because you were too stupid to look it up yourself"

I think you need to take peoples responses in context of the part of BR you are posting in. As the banter that comes up in some areas would not be good form in say the beginners or buying advice sections probably should be a bit less lenient.

However opening up the report option is only likely to get hijacked by the very same people who cause the abuse/issues. Plus when you look at what what some people say it can be hard to get the humour & witty sarcasm and possibly confuse this for snide and downright rude posting. I know I have started a few threads that have been hijacked to some extend but still contain the answers I was looking for & and probably am guilty myself on occasion of hijacking a thread to some extent, though I would not do this in the beginners or buying advice sections as feel this is way out of line.

Personally I don't know if an additional button would change anything about BR or make the mod's jobs easier or harder if the reported numbers jumped up.

alihisgreat

The more frequent posters tend to get exasperated at the constant cycle of the same (often silly) questions being asked.

so yes there is a bit of 'banter' but the vast majority is light hearted. (and to be fair some posters do deserve the less light hearted 'banter' they receive)

Wouldn't BR be an awfully boring place if we weren't allowed a bit of freedom in what we post?

supersonic

Please give us the option to click on a persons name and report them

There is the option to report individual posts - every post has an icon in the top right. Use that, and fill out the explanation box.

Faye@BikeRadar

Just to echo Supersonic,

If you see a post that you feel breaches forum rules please use the 'report post' button \!/ found in the top right of every post. This way the issue will be flagged up to our moderators who can respond appropriately.

Thanks for airing your concerns.