VEGANGELICA

Banning someone for one incidence of name-calling is excessive, I agree; however, I don't feel that calling some member a "troll" in public helps create a community where people will feel comfortable sharing their opinions, so I can understand why that other forum has put a stop to it.

I feel that name-calling, including labeling people as "trolls" on the boards, should not be allowed at MB. If a member decides he feels someone is a troll and starts labeling her as such, then I'd like a mod to delete his comment (he can always report his opinions to the mods in private), and remind him to refrain from name-calling (this would simply be a warning). If he did this *again*, then he would get an infraction. If he persists in using name-calling because he can't or won't control himself, then he'd get a second infraction. Third infraction would lead to a temporary 'hiatus' (temp. ban) of a week or whatever the mods usually would do after 3 infractions.

The word "trolling" is used in the rules, which say that "trolling" is not allowed, but this mention of trolling in the rules does not mean that people can or should go around accusing each other of being trolls on the boards.

I feel that accusing someone of being a troll is a type of flaming and is a much harsher indictment than saying you feel a person is trolling. If I say to someone, "You are a troll; you're worthless here on the boards, and all you do is stir up trouble," that is different than saying, "You do a lot of great things here, but sometimes I feel you are trolling people and trying to get a rise out of them."

I see at MB that people sometimes use the word "troll" to mock and devalue other members. This is the reason I feel MB members (who include mods) should not be allowed to call someone a troll on the boards when they want to disparage that person's opinions.

What mods say in private while discussing if a person is trolling is your business, but when those accusations spill out into posts about a member, I feel that just adds to the creation of a hostile environment.

Here is our community's first rule, for reference:

• While debating and discussion is fine, we will not tolerate rudeness, insulting posts, personal attacks, trolling, purposeless inflammatory posts or members deliberately provoking another member into committing any of these acts.

^ This is the one sentence that is supposed to prevent escalating hostilities on the site. It's open to a lot of different interpretations and can be context-specific and subjective. I recommend that mods and the community decide roughly what they feel constitutes "rudeness, insulting posts, personal attacks, trolling, purposeless inflammatory posts, or members deliberately provoking another member into committing any of these acts," because at present it isn't clear where the lines are.

For example, currently we don't have any rule specifically against name-calling. Usually I see mods calling people out for using name-calling.

Is calling someone a troll an example of name-calling? If not, why not?

There is no rule that we like each other here, but I interpret the intention of the first rule at MB as meaning that we should be civil with each other when we disagree. For me, that means criticize ideas but don't call people derogatory names because of their ideas.

You can always still say them in your mind even if you don't say them to the person directly. That's what I do!

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