Personal insults

[SamHH]

Why are personal insults to other posters so prevalent and apparently allowed? Some threads get very heated and two or three posters get into a real slanging match, but below this level, lots of the time personal insults seem to be used and tolerated as a normal way of responding.

For example, in the thread about the royal family in the news forum, the OP gets called a , an idiot, a nonentity and terminally dimwitted. I'm not posting to complain about that thread in particular, but it's seems this is very much the norm and counter-productive to having a proper discussion or debate. I know I could just not read these forums, and partly this is what I do, but is this really the kind of posting Pistonheads wants to have?

[Mr Will]

If you spot a thread where things are getting out of hand then please do hit the report button so that the mods can keep an eye on things. Even if action isn't required straight away they can keep tabs on a thread that they might otherwise have missed.

[Rollcage]

Insulting ,Yes .Personal ,No .

Lots of keyboard warriors round here ,but unless you do know the poster IN REAL LIFE it's not personal .It wouldn't bother me - if someone doesn't have the intellect to form a rational arguement and has to resort to name calling then so be it . Most of it is just to get a response anyway.

[SamHH]

Mr Will said:

If you spot a thread where things are getting out of hand then please do hit the report button so that the mods can keep an eye on things. Even if action isn't required straight away they can keep tabs on a thread that they might otherwise have missed.

Sure, but it's not just threads where things are getting out of hand; it seems that even in threads where the discussion is not particularly heated, at least not by PH standards, personal insults are just the normal way of responding to a viewpoint that you don't agree with. I'd say at least a third of the threads in the non-specialist forums follow this pattern. I can't believe this is what Pistonheads wants, yet it's so often apparently tolerated and when, as in the royal family thread it's the moderators doing the insulting, it seems like that is the case.

I realise it's a hard problem to solve and that people will complain about over-moderation when threads get locked and people get banned, but it's not hard to see why people don't feel like contributing when personal attacks are almost guaranteed to result.

[anonymous-user]

That thread was started by noners, I doubt he's very offended.

[ridds]

This place is becoming a fking joke in all honesty.

I started a thread about phone contracts and more than 50% of the replies have been about how to spell loose and too and by the end of it I'm called uneducated and a retard.

I've just removed all my comments from it now and people can carry on their discussion without me.

Now I'm all for the banning of text speak etc but when I'm posting from a phone for example I really can't be bothered to go back over and proof read the lot for a few little mistakes.

The sooner something is done about it the better as this place is rapidly going downhill.

[pc.iow]

Due to my big gob I had a 7 day ban from the lounge, so off I go looking at general gassing and thought the 'atmosphere' in there to be as hostile, if not more than the old P&P.
At least the lounge is mostly tounge-in-cheak.A reflection of your society maybe?

[lawrence567]

I started a post earlier on about fancy dress and asking for ifeas and had one of the resident warriors hurling abuse at me for no reason what so ever, i got a 30 day ban for swearing on the P&P yet this person is allowed to abuse me with personal abuse & nothing happens?
This website never ceases to amaze me with its stupidity.

[V8mate]

You got a ban for swearing?

Everyone swears.



Did you avoid the swear filter?

[FamilyGuy]

I was just about to start a thread about this because I'd just read this thread

One guy posted (Extracts from every post he made):-

FFS, shut up.

Tw*t

Dick head.
You are obviously thick. I don't like thickies.

Yeah, shut up.

haven't you got someone else's kids to babysit?

You total utter spacker

you utter loser who has spent many years raising another man's children

You stupid long-term-baby-sitting dhead.

I realise you have what one might charitably call "sub optimal" intelligence, but you'll have to really synapse those overworked little neurones

Such a pleasant chap, and so gifted with language too. But there's no humour here, it's just playground name-calling and this guy has 25,000+ posts. Surely time to bin his account. OK , he'll start another but there'll be no "grandee" status of xxx months and 25K+ posts.

Edited by FamilyGuy on Friday 3rd July 17:55

[Nolar Dog]

Mr Will said:

If you spot a thread where things are getting out of hand then please do hit the report button so that the mods can keep an eye on things.

And then people have a go at you for reporting stuff.

[Scraggles]

find it easier to hit the report button if needed, often swear, but assume the swear word filter blanks it out, not see the point of maksing letters to get past the filter

[adycav]

FamilyGuy said:

I was just about to start a thread about this because I'd just read this thread

Having read that I get the impression that it's all a bit tongue in cheek, perhaps some in-joke banter between the protagonists. I might be wrong though.

[Dan_1981]

adycav said:

FamilyGuy said:

I was just about to start a thread about this because I'd just read this thread

Having read that I get the impression that it's all a bit tongue in cheek, perhaps some in-joke banter between the protagonists. I might be wrong though.

I think you're right that in this thread it does seem quite tongue in cheek, but i also get the impresion that some people do still get away with alot more than others.....

[Famous Graham]

Nolar Dog said:

Mr Will said:

If you spot a thread where things are getting out of hand then please do hit the report button so that the mods can keep an eye on things.

And then people have a go at you for reporting stuff.

How would they know unless you were daft enough to post about doing so?

A lot of people report threads, not just those who are 'targeted' in the thread concerned. Plus mods often see stuff without a report being needed. So to assume that the 'victim' is the one that got a thread closed or deleted is just plain daft.

[deevlash]

FamilyGuy said:

I was just about to start a thread about this because I'd just read this thread

One guy posted (Extracts from every post he made):-

FFS, shut up.

Tw*t

Dick head.
You are obviously thick. I don't like thickies.

Yeah, shut up.

haven't you got someone else's kids to babysit?

You total utter spacker

you utter loser who has spent many years raising another man's children

You stupid long-term-baby-sitting dhead.

I realise you have what one might charitably call "sub optimal" intelligence, but you'll have to really synapse those overworked little neurones

Such a pleasant chap, and so gifted with language too. But there's no humour here, it's just playground name-calling and this guy has 25,000+ posts. Surely time to bin his account. OK , he'll start another but there'll be no "grandee" status of xxx months and 25K+ posts.

Edited by FamilyGuy on Friday 3rd July 17:55

you wouldnt be the first person to find his posts offensive bilge.

[FamilyGuy]

adycav said:

FamilyGuy said:

I was just about to start a thread about this because I'd just read this thread

Having read that I get the impression that it's all a bit tongue in cheek, perhaps some in-joke banter between the protagonists. I might be wrong though.

Maybe - but the very first post from the guy was What are you whinging about, you useless b*stard? Sorry, I seemed to have missed that gem out from my original post. I can't see any humour in it

[pc.iow]

Famous Graham said:

Nolar Dog said:

Mr Will said:

If you spot a thread where things are getting out of hand then please do hit the report button so that the mods can keep an eye on things.

And then people have a go at you for reporting stuff.

How would they know unless you were daft enough to post about doing so?

A lot of people report threads, not just those who are 'targeted' in the thread concerned. Plus mods often see stuff without a report being needed. So to assume that the 'victim' is the one that got a thread closed or deleted is just plain daft.

Exactly!
I was going to reply to one of your admissions of grassing, when I realised I had been banned. That and the fact I have a life that doesn’t involve shouting GAY on a car forum.

[10 Pence Short]

pc.iow said:

Famous Graham said:

Nolar Dog said:

Mr Will said:

If you spot a thread where things are getting out of hand then please do hit the report button so that the mods can keep an eye on things.

And then people have a go at you for reporting stuff.

How would they know unless you were daft enough to post about doing so?

A lot of people report threads, not just those who are 'targeted' in the thread concerned. Plus mods often see stuff without a report being needed. So to assume that the 'victim' is the one that got a thread closed or deleted is just plain daft.

Exactly!
I was going to reply to one of your admissions of grassing, when I realised I had been banned. That and the fact I have a life that doesn’t involve shouting GAY on a car forum.

I thought everyone on PH had to be gay, or at least a little Bi, these days?

Apart from me, obviously. I'm more hetro than a petrol powered pencil sharpener.

[ray_von]

Just wait until some
Tw*t

Dick head.

total utter spacker

utter loser

stupid dhead.

sends private e-mails then you know it's personal