The autonomous vehicles subforum is generally really good. There are some deep technical discussions, and folks like verygreen and jimmy_d share their hacking research, which in turn gets featured on Electrek. However, the whole experience is soured by the trolling that goes on unchecked.
The vast majority of the problem can be attributed to just one user, who posts the same stuff in almost every active thread, regardless of how related or unrelated it is to the topic of the thread. This user tries (and usually succeeds) to bait other users into the same old arguments that have been rehashed over and over — arguments that aren’t directly related to the thread topic. The user also employs the tactic of insulting other users, or making up insulting lies about them.
So, in short, the user successfully derails most active threads on the subforum, often by trolling other users until they respond.
This is not just my interpretation of the situation. Based on the posts and “likes” of other users, this is the majority view of subforum participants.
90%+ of the trolling problem could be solved by banning this one user and monitoring for sock puppets.
It would be nice if there were a bit more moderation beyond that to remove snippiness and the occasional drive-by troll, but I understand the mods are busy and may not have the time.
If you’re a mod, please direct message me and I can share further details privately, or if you’d like me to post them here, let me know and I can do that.
The vast majority of the problem can be attributed to just one user, who posts the same stuff in almost every active thread, regardless of how related or unrelated it is to the topic of the thread. This user tries (and usually succeeds) to bait other users into the same old arguments that have been rehashed over and over — arguments that aren’t directly related to the thread topic. The user also employs the tactic of insulting other users, or making up insulting lies about them.
So, in short, the user successfully derails most active threads on the subforum, often by trolling other users until they respond.
This is not just my interpretation of the situation. Based on the posts and “likes” of other users, this is the majority view of subforum participants.
90%+ of the trolling problem could be solved by banning this one user and monitoring for sock puppets.
It would be nice if there were a bit more moderation beyond that to remove snippiness and the occasional drive-by troll, but I understand the mods are busy and may not have the time.
If you’re a mod, please direct message me and I can share further details privately, or if you’d like me to post them here, let me know and I can do that.
