As the original Moderation page has developed a bug so that permalinks no longer navigate to the appropriate comment, I thought I’d put up a page for continuing discussion on moderating issues. The Rules can be found there so anyone with an issue should check that they are familiar with them.
26th June 2015: the bug has now affected this page so there is now a new Moderation Issues page here.
Learned Hand seems to be locked out. He’s available at AtBC.
Fixed (I hope). The posts had been flagged as spam. (He is posting as “Colin”).
Two things, one the reason i logged in, the other a surprise to me when i logged in.
One, It isn’t for someone who is borderline troll himself to call for a ban, only the mods should do that and only in back channel communications. But I will ask that Gregory be put in permanent moderation if he thinks it is ok to use real names, known or not. He has no internal executive control. Such control will have to be forced on him externally.
Two, i discovered when i logged in that apparently i have editorial control over other peoples comments and in threads i am not author of. This can only be a bug of some kind as i doubt anyone wants me to have such control and i am fairly certain i don’t want such control(though flattered).
From the site rules:
I contend that Gregory’s posts (most of which seem to have been moved to Guano) violate this rule. The only excuse for doxxing someone is if they make credible threats to harm someone else. In that case, their details should be provided to law enforcement. Aside from that, doxxing is always intended to cause some form of harm to the person being doxxed. It has no place in honest, good faith, online discussions.
I support Gregory’s freedom to express any ideas he would like here, no matter how offensive. I do not support the act of attempting to harm a pseudonymous commenter, whether ID proponent or opponent. Those comments should be deleted.
Thoughts?
Ninja’d by a tubulidentata!
I agree, except for the “should be deleted” part. I see those comments as documenting what sort of person the author is. I’m for keeping them in Guano.
I don’t mind that Gregory insists on using my real name — after all, I “outed” myself — though I consider use of the pseudonym to be a matter of politeness. It’s his aspersions on my character, motives, and intentions that I find problematic, together with the not-so-veiled insinuation that my university made a mistake in hiring me. What matters to my institution is how well I can do my job, not what I personally believe. My teaching evaluations and publication record speak for themselves as how competent I am at what I do. Besides which, I make it a point never to reveal my personal views to my students, since I tend to think that doing so might endanger the pedagogical function of philosophy classes, which is to give students the tools they need to think for themselves. Of course, if Gregory actually knew anything about me, he’d know that, too.
I moved Gregory’s comments and a reply to them by KN. I was on the move and my fingers are too fat for my smartphone so only now got chance to post. The rules on outing are clear, Gregory is well aware of them and his comments undoubtedly breached the rules.
I intend to edit out the names (unless anyone objects) and suggest we leave the comments in guano.
@ Aadvark
I’m sure you can be trusted with the unsought responsibility. I’m not sure if the admin board promises more than it will deliver but I’ll check it. I wonder if it has to do with changing user roles via a now defunct plugin?
@ KN
Appreciate your relaxed attitude. Gregory does seem to have a thing for you!
Leaving the comments in Guano but redacting the personally identifiable information sounds like the best approach.
Patrick,
Glad you agree, Patrick.
I am in complete agreement with this.
I concur.
I would be grateful if Gregory could focus on another highly entertaining TedX talk.
I’m just concerned about his loosening grip on syntax and clarity …
I’ve been testing a role editor plugin. Please let me know by flagging it here if there are any problems.
I’ve been trying a plugin to reduce the level of spam registrations. It seems to get less effective over time and after updates. Initially it seemed almost 100% effective but spam registrations have crept up to over 20 a day now (though switching off the plugin sends spam registrations soaring to over a hundred a day.)
I’m wondering if a simple “Captcha” plugin might be worth trying. I gather the downside is it might discourage genuine would-be participants. What do others think?
That seems reasonable to me. It’s only onerous for people who sign up multiple times, and that’s what we want to discourage anyway.
Neil Rickert,
OK. I found “WM simple captcha” that only shows up on registration. It doesn’t appear when logging in or commenting. I’ve tried it on a blog of mine and it seems quite human-user friendly. I’ll activate it just to see if it is effective at eliminating spam registrations. It can be tweaked a bit if necessary.
Please let me know if it creates any issues.
The captcha seems to be working. Zero spam registrations since activating it. Just in case anyone is now unable to register, you can contact me at alanfox@free.fr
Wrong thread guys? Admins, can you move?
[Moved several posts from “Algorithmic …” to “Wagner’s …”, and move this and two other posts from “Algorithmic …” to here (“Moderation Issues”). NR]
I started out on the right thread. I think.
My fault. Pushed the wrong button on the tablet. Fat fingers.
I just noticed Joe Felsenstein and HeKS have been blocked by the spam plugin and I have “white-listed” them so they should be able to log in now. Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience.
Alan Fox,
I’m surprised. Have not noticed any blockage. I do notice that when I submit a comment the system goes into an infinite loop of some sort and never comes back and shows me the comment. But if I open another tab and bring TSZ up, there is the comment.
That’s odd then. The spam plugin had you down in the “allow request” list that is meant to prevent false positives by giving you an opportunity to flag an admin. Regulars should automatically get white-listed but that doesn’t help if someone posts from a different ip address.
Anyway, I’m pleased and relieved you weren’t blocked.
Alan Fox,
I use various IP numbers — my home connection, my work connection, connection via my cell phone. Sometimes I connect with my laptop from other parts of the university. Or from an airplane or an airport. Awfully tedious if you have to “white-list” me once for each.
Joe Felsenstein,
Not really as the plugin automatically whitelists IP’s from registered users. It only blocks (or should only block) new IP addresses it doesn’t “like” giving the opportunity to whoever is logging in to have another attempt using a “captcha” and to request an admin to unblock that IP. I noticed there were 10 requests in the “allow” list and unblocked the 3 genuine ones. Prior to having the plugin, we were getting around 200 spam registrations a day and had over 65,000 spam user accounts. It’s dropped to 1 or 2 a day now.
One more needs moving from the complexity thread. The one that began the misplaced series.
[Done (I think). I didn’t look far enough back. NR]
I just noticed two of our posters, Erik and Kantian Naturalist, appear to have been blocked by the plugin meant to stop spam logins. I hope I’ve released you and apologies for any inconvenience.
If either of you (or anyone else who can’t log in or register) are still having problems you can email me at alanfox@free.fr and I’m sure I will be able to sort it out.
I’m wondering whether on balance it might be better to put up with a horde of spam registrations rather than cause inconvenience to valued customers.
We aardvarks always win our races by a nose. 🙂
I didn’t mean to suggest that Gregory had done the ‘outting’; I know you had revealed yourself earlier. What troubled me was his insistence on weaponizing his knowledge of it and his astonishing venom about it. I could almost see the spittle flying from his tooth bared scowl.
I agree that what was promised was probably not true but I didn’t want to go pushing buttons to find out. I was mostly concerned that if the bug had afflicted me then it was also afflicting others who might not have the self control to avoid start pushing buttons.
[Test edit from keiths]
Alan Fox or some powerful moderator, could you use your godlike powers to “unsticky” the Algorithmic Specified Complexity post so it relinquishes its top position to the post I put up, which points to a Panda’s Thumb post Tom English and I just made. Tom is in agreement with me on unstickying that ASC post. I have not asked RichardHughes but hope he is OK with this.
Absolutely. Thanks Joe.
Aardvark,
It isn’t just you. I tried and was actually able to edit your comment above.
Moderators,
This is a serious problem that needs to be fixed right away.
Keith
I recently changed your status to give you more options when authoring threads.and I suspect that is why you find you have editing permissions. Most regulars have author status and several, like yourself, who often publish OPs have editor status.
I’ve added a plugin to allow private messaging between registered users of this site. It is accessed simply by clicking on the “messages” icon in the menu bar.
I’m hoping it may prove useful and may be easier and quicker to catch an admin’s attention than via email.
Alan,
Thanks, Alan. But does that explain Aardvark’s observation? Or was that fixed long ago?
I think so. I reset the role editor plugin back to default after trying to change permissions to prevent the deleting of comments which had some unexpected side effects. 🙁
So Alan, how can I start a thread to discuss keiths paper? He oddly has suddenly become quiet on the issue.
I’ve changed your role to “author” so you should now be able to use the editor on the dashboard to compose and publish OPs. If you have problems you can PM me.
I’ve moved the above comments to the newer thread as the links work correctly.
Alan Fox,
Ok thanks, so I have saved a draft of a message on my dashboard. Is there something else I am supposed to do to make it a post?
There should be a big blue “publish” button somewhere around the top right of the editor on the dashboard. If you don’t see it, assuming you are happy with the post, I’ll publish it for you. There may still be an issue with user roles and I’ll check that as soon as I get chance.
Here’s a good photo for the OP of the ‘Moderation Issues’ thread:
When Penguins Attack
keiths,
That’s one scary penguin!
Now we know what the penguin on the right side of the banner has been seeing all these years.
The pseudonymous poster ‘Kantian Naturalist’ admitted his real name at TSZ himself when he promoted his recent book here. He also voluntarily admitted he is a Jewish agnostic/atheist. Is this really such an anti-freedom of expression penguin-dome of anti-theist skeptics to forbid candidly acknowledging that?
What’s your second name and your postal address, please?
Rule is no outing. No exceptions.