Muriel, a handful of people are abusing the FF feature...

It is bad. It’s often being used by people who themselves are abusive They are downvoting people who challenge their name calling or bigoted posts. The best solution is not to temporarily ban anyone except in the most extreme cases.

I'm shocked that no one FF'd me to get me suspended for posting this.

I'm not saying no one should ever be suspended or banned. I'm just saying it's clear that a few people have discovered that by giving a DL'er multiple FFs, they get banned automatically.

I'm suggesting do away with automatic bans that aren't vetted by a person.

In general, there doesn't seem to be any need for it. Only if someone is being really offensive (e.g., using slurs) or posting so repetitively that it interferes with the board's function, should anyone be blocked.

To the extent people are just posting stupidity or just being offensive, the board can police itself. We can call people out for that. Yet, you see people rooting for people who disagreed with them or challenged their positions in a principled way to get banned. It's become a tool for people to protect their self esteem or to remain in their bubble.

100% agree with you, OP.

R4 thank you.

I expect find myself suspended tomorrow!

Last time it happened it was for a post in the ridiculous "Chinatown sucks" thread.

There are people on both sides of sensitive issues doing it. Pro-trans and anti-trans. Pro-Israel and anti-Israel. Then those people claim only the other side is doing it, which is not true.

I see a lot of posts I consider to be idiotic or unpleasant, but I very rarely see a post that I think warrants a suspension. We can all skip over the posts of the stupid and unpleasant people. It's just become a tool to insulate people from criticism or challenge.

The website has attracted a lot of nastier posters in the last 10 years, maybe longer. We used to be a community. People didn’t go on the attack like they do now when they differ in opinion. People were “fun bitchy” with each other, not “mean bitchy.” Surely the people who run the website see this.

R6 its not just people on divisive issues.

I've been banned for disagreeing over a movie. Its WAY out of hand.

But, even if people are nastier, who cares? If you post, you should expect that people will criticize or challenge your position, and we are all free to call out the people who are being truly nasty for no reason at all---and people usually do. It's naturally self-policing. I don't want a small minority of people making that decision for the whole board, usually based on the fact that they have been called out on their stupidity or bigotry.

I was timed out for participation in the condi troll threads. Ha! I deserved it. 😂

Oh honey, the truly good posters left DL a long time ago, back when it became possible to track who made which posts. People who really had something to say but needed to be discreet left in [italic]droves.[/italic]

And those folks ain't never comin' back.

[quote] People who really had something to say but needed to be discreet left in droves.

I recall the day Trolldar was introduced. It became so slow and quiet.

How do you know when you’re banned? Is it when you get the notification that you’re not allowed to post at this time? Because I usually just log back in when I get that message and then I can post.

R9 did you say anything critical of Miss Faye Dunaway? 'cause that's a big no-no round here!

[quote]I'm shocked that no one FF'd me to get me suspended for posting this.

The night is young.

But I do agree with the OP.

R14, that’s a different situation. Occasionally, the site requires me to login again, and until I do, it shows the no post allowed message. If you click on Account, it will show you if you are currently logged in or not. If you are logged in and you are getting the no post message then you’re the victim of someone’s attack on you.

I thought I was the only one this was happening to. It never happened to me until recently.

Ok thank you R17

[quote] Ok thank you

Oh fank you. You fixted my Datalounge.

Saturday night FF

Vivian Vance isn't all that.

I've had notifications of WWs on posts I made over a year ago. Does that mean I can be FFed into 48 hours of oblivion for some random post supporting Kamala Harris?

More than a handful

Gay on gay violence is NOT who we are.

[bold]#StopTheBanning[/bold]

(unless it’s of those stupid Tranny Panic losers)

You're part of the problem, r25, if you support banning of the "trans panic" people. We all know that means people who don't agree with you on that issue. There should be no banning related to pro or anti-T issues, period. This is a forum for gay men to discuss the topics of the day and get bitchy.

Lesbians are fine, too. Point is, it's gay and bitchy. Don't ban people for voicing opinions on trans issues that you don't like.

R26 has just admitted to being the problem.

Now r26 will FF me

r28, you didn't even read my comment at r26 if you think I admitted to being part of the problem. It's the insane pro-trans and anti-trans that FF everyone that is part of the problem. r25 basically outed itself as one of those. And if you're FF, it's not because of me.

What would “insane pro-trans” even look like, r30? Most of us just want them left peaceably alone.

Agree with OP. This F&F abuse has gotten totally out of hand. The F&F feature should be removed and red tags brought back.

Right now a lot of us paid up members of DL are regularly unable to use the site due to timeouts.

[quote]The website has attracted a lot of nastier posters in the last 10 years, maybe longer. We used to be a community. People didn’t go on the attack like they do now when they differ in opinion. People were “fun bitchy” with each other, not “mean bitchy.”

Society as a whole has become a lot nastier in the past decade - without a doubt due to Trump making it acceptable and emboldening people to be more nasty and the crazed after effects of the pandemic which left a lot of people completely unhinged and nasty.

There was a whole long thread on this last week, full of kerfuffle. I even got another 2 day time out within it, for zero cause, and now think it’s clear enough who did it. Link below.

Summary of that thread: It’s happening to dozens and dozens of us. There are indeed some bad actors whose hobby is anonymously banning people on Datalounge. And Muriel is the 1 person who founded Datalounge and clearly does not want or care to end up babysitting this joint with trolldar like in the days of old.

So it’s F&F, and in some cases the ban is indeed deserved. And in many other cases bad actors ban you outright for saying their fave celeb is overrated… or for being on the other side of a divisive issue… or (in my case) they develop a weird animosity and they stalk/monitor you to get you banned on the regular… or they do it just ‘cause they decided they feel like banning you and they can.

Otherwise F&F goes away and truly ugly shit quickly infests this place.

If anything, Datalounge is far tamer now. During the Bush Administration and the Clinton/Obama nomination battle, there were genuine differences of opinion. On the Broadway threads, there were people who knew their stuff and did not suffer fools. When TV shows was king, people disagreed about Mad Men, Six Feet Under, and even Battlestar Galactica.. It moved fast and often got vicious.

Society - in its various silos - now sees disagreement in moral terms. If someone doesn’t agree, they either need to be educated or called out. Which isn’t astonishing because of how disgusting the Republican party has been since Reagan and especially the Gingrich era.

I had a two day ban recently for the first time and have no idea why.

I didn’t even know that you can ban someone by pressing the ff symbol. I have to admit I’ve pressed it a few times by mistake when I’ve meant to press WW, usually when I’m posting from my phone. Apologies if I’ve inadvertently contributed to a ban.

While I agree with the OP, unfortunately threads like this just inform the people doing it that their tactics are working and DL will do nothing anyway.

In general, the board seems too tame. There are some people who are nasty just for the sake of being nasty, which is unfortunate, but we can live with it. On the other han, a lot of ignorant and sometimes chauvinistic and bigoted stuff gets posted without challenge

Well, I’m not here kink shame.

I’m so naive that when I got a 2 day ban just over a week ago, I thought it was some internet glitch. Not because of something I posted in a current Dangling Tendrils thread or maybe it was in an Orange Menace thread.

Really Muriel, can’t you just have a tab for f&f like you do for w&w?

Why in the fuck is R40 greyed out? I've got my settings on asbestos eyeballs so he must have been given multiple F&Fs for that post. Inexplicable.

[quote] Why in the fuck is [R40] greyed out?

There’s nothing wrong with what r40 posted. It’s a good example of people being FF’d for no reason. Considering that at this moment it’s showing that it was posted 14 minutes ago, someone is targeting that person.

[quote]... the ff symbol. I have to admit I’ve pressed it a few times by mistake when I’ve meant to press WW, usually when I’m posting from my phone.

I agree, R37, the placement of WW alongside FF might be contributing to the problem. Maybe we need an "are you sure?" prompt after clicking (deliberately or not) FF.

R40 has gone back to normal now. I gave it a W&W so maybe that balanced out the F&Fs. See? What a mess.

R14 you're just suddenly unable to post. No notification or anything. And it always lasts 48 hours.

It happened to me on Thursday for 12 hours and then again on Saturday for 24+ hours. One was for a comment challenging the truthfulness of a pro-Israel poster (12 hours) and the other for challenging the truthfulness of an anti-trans poster (24+ hours). Neither responded but I was banned/unable to post within minutes of making those posts so I am very sure they were the post that got me the timeouts.

I'll take screenshots for everyone of the message you see when you receive a time out. I'm sure my next time out will be just moments away - probably for this post.

The F&F button is being used as censorship with the aim being that the Israel/IDF propagandists and the anti-trans crowd (often the same people according to ignoredar) can post whatever madeup drivel they want on DL and everyone will be too scared to challenge their troll garbage because they will give you an F&F time out. That's a fucking fact.

[quote]Vivian Vance isn't all that. —Will I be FF'd now?

FF? That will get you the death penalty.

[quote] Muriel, a handful of people are abusing the FF feature...

AND they've been passing notes!

R48, bullshit at your attempt to act like it is one sided. The anti-Israel and Trans rights defenders often FF others in an attempt to silence to their opposition, and give their own comments an absurd number of WW as well. Both sides on those sensitive issues do this and it needs to stop. And THAT is the fucking fact.

I truly like DL. But I wish it would be modernized every now and then. In order to make (or not lose) money, I'd propose to make it harder to troll because I think the trolling is what makes DL frustrating if not toxic. My proposal: Mandatory profile set up with user name. WW only, no FF. Flagging inappropriate posts only from users who have a relatively high number of WW-posts already to weed out sock puppet trolls.

Thoughts?

Is trolling such a real problem here? And what do you consider trolling? You could just as easily argue that people get away with too much bigotry and stupidity without challenge and that the board should be more confrontational.

My “fan” couldn’t beg her way out of a paper bag. Something cheap about this thread.

r55 I don't FF people, but you do sound like you have rage issues

This has been a problem it seems in that someone with a [italic]heavily[/italic] invested political identity, silences ANY criticism of the Democratic party/politicians as a personal attack ("treason").

r59 I really do hope things improve for you. This place can be fun - don't let it get under your skin that much.

Lumpen.

I wish we had an "undo" button like on Manvox.

It's easier just to block people like R55.

I think we definitely have a lot more truly nasty trolls here than in the past. Perhaps mentally ill ones.

I posted in a sabrina carpenter thread and said her looks were bizarre to me and i wasn't sure why she was famous and some unhinged troll started shrieking that I was a liar and I always lie about everything. Say what? That screams mental issues.

I feel like if you FF a lot yourself it also gets you a timeout I can’t figure out why I get timed out when I barely post at times, but will FF trolls as I scroll.

R42: I had a similar experience recently but had no idea I was (apparently) on a time-out. No idea what I said that was offensive as I’m pretty mild. Maybe a bitch sometimes but not more than that. Confusing.

I already 55/59 on block. I only have about 8 people on block, and I suspect at least two of them have alts, you can just tell by their writing and type of posts. It’s very unfortunate that so many people are being put on time-outs, even the barely visited Reddit site has multiple posts on the topic.

Oh one last agreement from up thread: I 100% use.DL on my phone and it’s impossible to WW a thread without FFing a thread. It makes me not want to WW because I’m afraid I’ll be FFing at the same time.

Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.

FEAR is a four letter word!

Not sure where to ask this, but has the yearly subscription offer been cancelled? Looks like its only a monthly thing now...?

Looks that way r71. Which is a bit of a pain in the ass for me. I won't use a credit card here so I pay by gift card

I hardly ever use the FF feature. I didn't even know what it meant until recently. Once in a while I will now FF a very racist thread by some crazy person. That's it. I've been in time out several times the past few weeks, so I can assure you it's not from using the FF button too much.

Usually criticizing any politician who the OP thinks is the second coming will get you banned, now.

No soup for you!

I blocked someone for being nasty early in this thread, now I see a lot of people calling out someone whose posts I can’t see. Likely the same awful troll posting everything offensive.

They ending the cunts, rejecting the trolls. They’re canceling the Datalounge elder gays who live here.

R76, the call is coming from inside the house!!

Dump a bucket of pigs blood on the trolls instead of FFing!

I was banned again, this time by the OP of the thread where an AI generated fat girl jumps off a boat. I said you should be FFd for posting AI slop, I wasn't being completely serious. I was banned immediately after he replied to me that I would be banned.

R79, I saw that and, while I actually agree with you about AI slop, you went after the OP over and over and over like a pitbull.

r80 no i didn't, i only had one comment in that entire thread.

[quote] I saw that and, while I actually agree with you about AI slop, you went after the OP over and over and over like a pitbull.

I just looked up that thread and saw the same thing and was going to comment that.

I can’t find fault when someone says someone else should be banned and then it boomerangs.

He said the other poster should be banned?

I said you should get banned for posting AI slop. that was my only comment in the thread. all the other attacks at the retarded OP were other people. He responded "you should be banned for being an asshole", and I was immediately banned.

I believe this is the thread, if people want to validate.

R85. I don't think the ban function should be used at all, except in very exceptional circumstances, but I think you do forfeit your right to complain if you have even suggested someone else should be banned.

I've been under 48 hour FF-related bans twice in the past two or three months: Once by Trump-bots (I refuse to believe we have that many genuine posters who love Trump) for saying something especially nasty about Glorious Leader. Once by the maiden aunt Meghan Markle hating brigade, which I do think is made up of genuine racist, misogynist, classist old biddies of which we have droves.

Watch as I get redlined and banned for that last sentence!

You’re outta here!

I think it’s possible that when people believe they got a time out for a specific reply, it may not have been for that reply. With the example above for the AI fat woman, everyone can check the thread and see and validate that the comment in question has the strikethrough. Some of the other claims on this thread I’m not so sure about. If people would like to post the thread and reply number, we can check to see if it’s marked or not.

I don't know how people can tell they were banned for one or two specific comments, if they post regularly.

The people doing the FFing are crazy. In most cases. Like the people who argue on threads about certain English YA TV shows based on certain YA graphic novels. And when you give crazy people the ability to do this to other, rational people, they will.

[quote]And when you give crazy people the ability to do this to other, rational people, they will.

This is the core of the matter.

The FF and Ignore buttons don't even work half the time. I can't count how many racist trolls I've ignored a dozen times, but who are still visible every time I come back to the thread. Muriel is a fucking whore, and she sucks at her job.

I'm always put on a 48-hour timeout any time I defend THE TRANZ or mock Meghan Markle. So, as a result, I no longer touch those threads with a ten-foot dildo.

R91 because it comes out of nowhere. Actually, it had had happened to me where one person gets snippy all out of proportion. You can back off and say WTF, but then you come back later and it’s a sudden time out. They look for a fight a pick, pick, pick.

has* happened

I highly doubt there's a "Muriel" in the assumed sense any longer. It's a site that hasn't really been updated in 10+ years and it's operating based on the formula (subscriptions) - (maintenance), with the goal of keeping the maintenance amount close to zero. No actual human is really monitoring it and auto-moderation, which is the cheapest way to do it, is easily gamed and deeply flawed. Even Reddit, with all of its problems, handles it better.

R79 / R81, if you posted only once, my apologies, it all read like you were the same person as the “pitbull.”

I know others do that game with the Ignore feature to trace a poster’s total history but I can never be bothered. Again my apologies.

[quote]R94 The FF and Ignore buttons don't even work half the time. I can't count how many racist trolls I've ignored... [italic][bold]Muriel is a fucking whore, and she sucks at her job.[/bold][/italic]

You are dancing VERY close to the flame, young lady!

The FF Button should only be enabled for paying customers. That should cut out some of this spiteful misuse of the FF button.

It only works for paying members. Prime Time is 24-7. Non - members can do nothing but scroll/read.

I did not know that. Thanks.

[quote] [R76], the call is coming from inside the house!!

Wouldn't be funny if it was actually Muriel who was behind these time outs. I don't think it is but if it was it would be hilarious.

I'm not laughing, was banned three times last week

r104 I don't see a reason for FFs/banned, but you do seem quite unstable.

how so?

[quote] Non - members can do nothing but scroll/read.

I didn't know that had changed. Didn't they used to be able to post at certain times?

It’s been PT all time for a very long while now. Why do you think people are talking about the time outs? Because you can never post as a non - member…duh.

I see, news

R108 Just a suggestion--maybe if you didn't say things like "duh" to people and be such a superior asshole, generally, you probably wouldn't get as many FFs from other posters.

A suggestion—don’t telegraph your own passive-aggressiveness via “suggestions.” That will get you innmuch deeper trouble.

People have certainly been much more unjustifiably rude around here the last few years.

I'm an occasional subscriber and was suspended for 24 hours on Saturday. Not sure why, but I guess it was my post about Adam Schiff where the first reply called me ignorant and lazy, and I in turn called him an asshole. I immediately cancelled my subscription. I made a flurry of posts last week that received little or no interest and were quickly buried. I might lurk here sometimes, but I'll never subscribe again.

You’ll never comment again! ;)

Hold me, David!

It's really out of control. I've been here over 5 years and was only recently the recipient of two time outs, back to back. I'm still not really sure what it was. I think one was from the BEARKING half wits, who i am sure to insult when they add that "word" to an OP title (IT'S NOT FUNNY OR WITTY) , or Meghan/Harry sycophants.

I’ve been barred from posting a few times in the past year or so, and it generally coincides with my having said something marginally supportive of trans or telling Harry / Megan racist klan grannies to get a life.

I avoid the trans and the Harry/Megan threads and don't bother to get in back and forth with people who disagree with me, why bother I am not going to change their point of view and don't even engage when when people call me a dumb cunt, like I care about their opinion and I still get time outs. Usually happens when I say something negative about Trump.

Is there a place on our account where we can see for how long we are suspended?

R119, I’ve only seen that feature on Manvox. It’s called the Timeout Counter.

r120 Re: Manvox. Give it up, sweetheart.

[quote] Usually happens when I say something negative about Trump.

Nailed it.

The same Trump diaper-eaters who invented the "Cancel Culture" complaint love to cancel anybody who sees that ignorant, grifting asshole for what he is, and extension, they are.

Oh, come on. There are thousands and thousands of negative c/omments about Trump. Threads upon threads. You think those people are all getting time outs? You're more likely to get FF'ed for saying something to the left of center.

[quote] Oh, come on. There are thousands and thousands of negative c/omments about Trump. Threads upon threads.

I’ve been meaning to write something similar. It’s seems very far-fetched that a reply that just criticizes Trump would be flamed. I think it’s an example of people imagining incorrectly which reply of theirs got struck through. On the other hand, if they would do like the person who posted the AI fat person thread did and give us the thread and reply, it could be verified for sure.

I’ve been the unlucky recipient then

I didn’t know that prime time was 24-7. I just assumed that many of the loon posts were non paying trolls.

It has been for years now R126. At least 2 years it feels like but maybe someone knows exactly how long better than I do.

I’ve been a paying member since then so didn’t know

The site sucked when there was limited prime time. Thats why I got a membership

If non-members could FF? I shudder to think!

Got a time out ban yesterday but only for 2 hours. WTF. Is there a rhyme or reason to this shite? These bans are like Dump's tariffs. On again off again. Totally erratic and arbitrary. Ultimately useless.

Right, i had that last week too