Moderator Action Sticky 2020

Submitted by Seth on September 5th, 2020 at 4:52 PM

[LOCKED. Time for a new thread, which is here]

Please don't post on here unless it's for Moderator Actions because they get cumbrously long.

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REMINDER THAT SHARING TROLLS COUNTS AS TROLLING: Sometimes desperately lazy outlets hire trolls, or trolls who are good at social media build enough of a following, that they become a headache for us, spreading hate or falsehoods. Because having them repeated on our site can directly harm us, if you're on the message board you should be aware that posting something from them could get you banned. They are:

  • SirYacht/Chat Sports/James Yoder - Fake news merchant who likes to make up plausible rumors or report non-sure things to get a false scoop.
  • Any local Spartan media when they talk about Michigan. Unless they're yelling "MAKE PLAYS!"
    Pete Finebaum: FoxNews for SEC fans. Occasionally useful to them but the only times he's intersecting with us is when he's carrying Saban's water.
  • Rainer Sabin: Finebaum wannabe hired by the Freep to troll Michigan fans.
  • Steve Deace: Curiously well-funded white supremacist radio host who's got such a small Michigan following you can safely assume anyone posting positively about him is Deace and ban him again. Running joke among Michigan media members because he creates lots of burner accounts to promote himself. Type of person who plays the "they hate me for my politics" card in hopes someone's dumb enough to switch their morning breakfast cereal to flavorless cardboard flakes to own the libs. Recently booted by Maven for advocating lynching.
  • Barstool: People who took the freedom of young internet too seriously because really what they wanted to do the whole time was propagate bad ideas.

WHY WAS MY THREAD DELETED? Read this: http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/mgoboard-faq

WHY IS MY ACCOUNT LOCKED? Read this: http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/mgoboard-faq

WHAT IS THE APPEAL PROCESS? Post here (start a new account if you were banned).

WHAT IS SEA LIONING? LMGTFY: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sea-lioning

Don't comment in this thread unless you have to: If you leave an irrelevant comment in this thread it will be deleted.

Hall of Stickies Past: For those who love to get lost in the meta. The first, the second, the third. the fourth. The fifth. The sixth. The seventh. The eighth. The ninth. The tenth. The eleventh.

MGoBoard
moderator action sticky

Ace

September 15th, 2020 at 10:05 AM ^

I forgot to copy the title of the thread before deleting it but... no Barstool stuff. We've been over this.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 67622

rob f

September 17th, 2020 at 4:31 PM ^

" Cool New Nike Apparel" thread removed from MGoBoard.  

Because this country is so polarized and Colin Kaepernick is a lightning rod,  this thread (as expected) immediately turned political, and then turned ugly political. 

Joined: 11/11/2010

MGoPoints: 195661

rob f

September 17th, 2020 at 10:00 PM ^

They're doing it for a variety of reasons. Some to advertise various websites by placing clickable links to things like dating services, essay-writing services, questionable job search sites, etc., most of them probably benign, but a few of them not so much. 

Others I've seen posting in ancient threads are doing exactly what you mentioned, MH20, trying to slip by unnoticed while building up 100+ points. 

Joined: 11/11/2010

MGoPoints: 195661

rob f

September 17th, 2020 at 10:45 PM ^

The biggest reason I'm spotting the spammers isn't that they're my first priority; it's just that they're easy to spot anytime I go to the "people" page which lists every MGoUser to ever have an account. They're all in reverse chronological order, so when I open that page I see immediately everyone who signed up recently.

I now spot-check the first several posts for each and every new user---in doing so I've quickly intercepted several obvious trolls including some osu fanboys, but I've already come across 4 tricksters who have each simultaneously opened up two new user accounts rather than just one. All but one of them quickly proved themselves to be trolls and were subsequently banished to Bolivia.  And I'm still closely watching the one who has so far survived, as I'm trying to figure out his motives---he seems to be gradually "pushing the limits" to see what he can get away with.

It's a bit of a "cat-and-mouse" game.  But as I monitor these newbies, I'm also especially watching for "Maizen" as I think it's highly likely he'll return again now that football is on the horizon. 

Joined: 11/11/2010

MGoPoints: 195661

Ace

September 18th, 2020 at 9:18 AM ^

Christine Brennan's Scathing Op-Ed Piece about the BIG

Was covered when it came out on the board and the front page. Even I think it's over the top.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 67622

crg

September 19th, 2020 at 6:26 PM ^

And it was good for all the previous contentious threads (i.e. the various ones that were locked) to have people "get out their anger and frustrations"?  The blog is for interesting UM and college sport related discussion, not anger therapy - there are other (and better) outlets for that.

Joined: 04/30/2015

MGoPoints: 75057

Hab

September 21st, 2020 at 4:46 PM ^

I created the thread to pay respects to the passing of an important figure in our country.  She just happened to be a political figure.  It seemed far enough removed from the norm that it was worth the roll of the dice.  And I wouldn't have batted an eyelash if the thread disappeared altogether.  It had the added benefit of flushing out some trolls from their hiding places.

Joined: 01/02/2015

MGoPoints: 39676

crg

September 21st, 2020 at 7:45 PM ^

I agree that her passing was a newsworthy event and certainly warranted a thread to honor her memory/achievements.  However, we have seen numerous past instances of similar such threads getting locked due to the inevitable political vitriol (the thread announcing the passing of George H.W. Bush is a good example) - and that was even before the recent extreme polarization of the board the past few months.  Additionally, you even stated the thread would be political in your title (not even marked as OT) - although there is a "no politics" policy in place.

That is why I suggested to just leave the information up and close the comments.

Joined: 04/30/2015

MGoPoints: 75057

Shop Smart Sho…

September 19th, 2020 at 5:42 PM ^

https://mgoblog.com/users/mike-damone

Just go back to his post from 9/12 and go forward from there.

 

https://mgoblog.com/users/boliver46

From the RBG thread. While I admit to being the "leftist asshole" he's talking to, this is just one of many comments he's made that should qualify for a trip to Bolivia.

"lol fuck you too you leftist asshole.  Screaming and crying every time someone hurts you feelings...and now you don't like it hypocrite."

Joined: 07/10/2008

MGoPoints: 9599

rob f

September 19th, 2020 at 7:54 PM ^

I'll be perfectly honest about this---I was in a celebratory mood yesterday and did absolutely no moderating, even though that thread was already pretty ominously long and political by early last night.

I'm just now been going thru that 400+ post monster of a thread, working my way through page 3.  I've earmarked one particular post for removal (which will also remove a half-dozen posts threaded behind it) and took notice already of some of Damone's posts on page 2. 

And Boliver46?  As far as I'm concerned, he's one offensive post from Bolivia. I don't GAF that he's been baiting me numerous times already, as I'm determined to not ban him for personal reasons.  But if and when I get thru that thread and find out he's crossed the line, he'll be banned. 

Joined: 11/11/2010

MGoPoints: 195661

Shop Smart Sho…

September 19th, 2020 at 9:35 PM ^

1st, glad you were celebrating yesterday. You deserved it.

2nd, that thread was really good and I hope you leave most of it alone. Outside of the trolls, the only bad comment I remember was the one wishing McConnell was the one who died.

3rd, why did you need to ask someone to ban a guy with negative 3000+ points?

Joined: 07/10/2008

MGoPoints: 9599

rob f

September 19th, 2020 at 9:57 PM ^

1st: Thank you, I appreciate the thought

2nd: still combing through the thread, and as I posted about a half-hour again the last page of it, the thread will probably get locked soon.

3rd) Because Boliver46 has been making it a personal thing recently with some of his comments in various other threads directed at and/or about me, I have been doing my best to avoid making it personal on my part if I were to ban him.

OTOH, I've called him out on his attacks and lies and false assumptions over the last few days, but in the end that did nothing but fuel his personal attacks even more. 

The actual banning came only after I did a thorough search for every post he made in that thread, and I found waaayy more than enough evidence before getting approval to seal the deal. 

Joined: 11/11/2010

MGoPoints: 195661

IGotJobbed

September 21st, 2020 at 6:21 PM ^

I would like to file an appeal for my account freelion which was banned a few weeks back. I did participate in some heated debates that got very political but I don't think I deserved permanent banning. I saw a lot worse that didn't result in banning for others so I'm not sure why I got sent to Bolivia.

Having said that, I will accept the judgement of the moderators and sacrifice the points I built up over the years as punishment if that is best. This incident did remind me to tone down my rhetoric across social media as this could affect my employment if I'm not careful.

The account formerly known as freelion

Joined: 09/16/2020

MGoPoints: 926

rob f

September 22nd, 2020 at 12:07 PM ^

I'm making no promises other than that I'll research it.  And it might not happen for at least a few days, as I'm preparing for a trip to the UP midweek.

Can you tell me exactly when you were banned?  Up until 9/4 (when I banned nearly a dozen accounts at 3am) and 9/2 (when I axed 9 accounts that day) I was keeping thorough notes on blocked accounts.

The only note I have regarding "Freelion" is that I noted your account on my watch list back on 7/10, but didn't note why.  Made no further notes on you after that, so I'll be relying on you as to exactly when you got locked out.  

Taking a quick glance at the page of old posts by "Freelion", I see all your posts from late June until 8/10.  After that, nothing, so if you commented in OP thread(s) after 8/10 that were completely deleted rather than just locked, that would explain why I'm not seeing anything after that date.

It's possible that I blocked that account, but at this point I don't think it was me, so until I have time to dig deeper... 

Joined: 11/11/2010

MGoPoints: 195661

rob f

October 9th, 2020 at 9:19 AM ^

I didn't forget about looking at your "Freelion" account and did bookmark it after taking a quick glance. But you didn't help your cause by trolling the Whitmer kidnapping plot thread last night.  In particular, your comment about Whitmer.

Inflammatory stuff such as that comment has put many from both "sides" on my watch list. There's now a few more from the left being added to my watch list for the non-stop poking at "Alaskan Yedi" in that thread. "Yedi" did a commendable job of not taking the bait. 

You, OTOH, were there obviously baiting others with a couple of your comments. Because you choose to troll, I'm getting very close to being the one that bans you this time.

It's your choice every time you hit the save button for your comments. Consider yourself warned.

Joined: 11/11/2010

MGoPoints: 195661

Seth

September 24th, 2020 at 5:22 PM ^

Colorado COVID article

I forgot to grab the title. How do we not need this on the site? Let me not count the ways.

UPDATE: ^that one.

Joined: 10/14/2008

MGoPoints: 149732

Ace

September 28th, 2020 at 10:05 PM ^

Banned Wolverine Devotee.

This was a collective decision based on repeated personal attacks and other violations. Today's two-for-one:

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 67622

Wolverheel

September 28th, 2020 at 11:36 PM ^

Consider a six month excursion to Bolivia or something, it can do wonders to make someone tighten up their act. Source: took a little trip there myself.

I know he brings some of the shit to himself with A) his posts themselves and B) his reactions to people, but it sure seems like a lot of it stems from super toxic, unneeded projection from people that need to have their accounts looked at.

Stuff like this bottom post by "Othernel" fit any definition of personal attack that I've seen and are present in pretty much 75% of the threads that WD posts. I'd start to get pissy to the level of that top comment in your screenshot above if people were like that with me. 

Joined: 03/30/2013

MGoPoints: 1670

Wolverheel

September 29th, 2020 at 12:46 AM ^

I had a reply somewhat typed up about how someone not really invested in his shenanigans can still back him up and how he doesn't really deserve the hate, but I think I've gotten over my 30 minute "awww I feel bad" phase. A break from this place could actually do wonders for him to the point where I think being banned is simply for his own good, even if it's quite harsh given the examples above. And after his Twitter rampage he can't seriously expect to ever get unbanned, so that's that. 

However, my point above stands regarding the people projecting their own life dissatisfaction onto him. Let's like... Be consistent with our banning. 

Or this is my long term WD alt and I've been compromised. I'll have to start all over with Heelwolver. They'll never know what hit 'em.

Joined: 03/30/2013

MGoPoints: 1670

Quailman

September 29th, 2020 at 1:09 PM ^

This.

Being a huge fan, and talking about gear and non-rev sports doesnt give you a free pass to act however you like. And those posts can be done by anyone. 

He very often acts immature on the board and towards other users, and he seems to think the board is all about him and we should all act that way. 

Joined: 08/30/2013

MGoPoints: 19833

crg

September 29th, 2020 at 6:49 AM ^

Seems a bit harsh - at least judging by the example posts cited (and considering the general level of heated discussion the board has seen this year).

The kid is obviously a bit overinvested in his UM fanhood and seems to get too emotional at times, but he has brought some occasional good things/news to the board (I can do without all the apparel stuff though) - and played a role in getting Dave Brandon out.  Maybe let this be a good "time out" to cool down and let him come back in some probationary period later?

Joined: 04/30/2015

MGoPoints: 75057