What do you think about superunmoderated forums?

I would like a unmoderated forum where you have to register your address and a photo, this would have to be verified by the forum owners after that anything goes. Then we could see who really had the guts to stand by their convictions!

 

It was an entirely different environment in the 80s and 90s. Regular internet users were a much smaller and less diverse population, the technology was slower and more limited and the rest of the world took pretty much zero notice. The same principles in the modern environment are an entirely different prospect. I’m sure it can kind of work within smaller self-selecting communities but anything with a wider public access and attention would be a disaster.

 

Why do superunmoderated forums no longer exist as they did in the 1990's?

 

I thought it was because cowardly trolls who hid behind anonymity completely ruined them. What is more cowardly than poison pen letters?

 

hahah mine too! I even got their vp on the phone over their biased moderation with cited examples. About two weeks later they shut er down.

 

Im with no moderation unless threats are being made. No need.

 

You want to insult people with no repercussions, I would agree with you if you were prepared to drop your invisibility cloak.

 

That is similar to my own recollection. I wasn't an active participant but I knew others who were and they used to send me links to some of things that were posted. I can recall wondering how anyone could get away with things that would never be allowed in face to face conversations.

Then when I did start participating in forums I soon discovered the difference between good and bad moderation. Even bad moderation was better than none at all. Personally I greatly prefer good moderation since it is fair to all sides and keeps out the trash, quite literally.

 

Would you be happy to take the legal and moral responsibility for hosting an completely unmoderated forum though?

 

yep... no biggie

 

Bingo. Forums are best when the mods/admin apply a uniform set of standards at all times under all circumstances.

 

And when you're charged with hosting child pornography, terrorist material and pirated content?

 

Then find one.

 

Exactly. IMHO, moderation makes forums possible to actually converse without insults and slurs.

 

I guess you missed the threat part I wrote earlier.

 

None of the things I listed necessarily involve actual threats being made though. Once you’re moderating all these things, you’re on the path to the same kind of moderation that exists on many forums like this one today. You certainly don’t have “no moderation” as you initially suggested. Indeed, you’re following the same logical path early forum owners had to as more people made use of the technology for different things, including many morally and legally questionable ones.

 

dude, there are multiple forums I am a member of with the 0 moderation I mentioned. Obviously, you arent going to let child porn and threats of bodily harm on your site. we are talking about whether I get banned for calling you an idiot or not. Here the moderation is nutty over the top. I got infracted for saying. "for a second there, I thought you were serious" Also infracted for saying "Thats a lie". None of that moderation is needed. None.

 

Interesting, in the UK calling a man a liar is about as insulting as you can be, it is certainly fighting talk.

 

I agree that moderation on some sites can go too far and be inconsistent (though that’s also the free choice of the people running those sites). The key point is that you’re not suggesting anything special, you’re not actually talking about “no moderation”. You’re just suggesting the lines should be drawn in slightly different places.

And yes, there are already sites with rules similar to what you’re talking about and some which go much further than even you’re asking for (to the point of wilful criminality) but all of that is entirely different to the days the OP was referring to, when the technology in use didn’t even allow owners to simply remove single posts or block specific users but also when the people using them typically didn’t make such things necessary anyway.

 

I cut my teeth on the old Yahoo stock message boards. In the late 90's/early 2000's, there was still a fair amount of actual stock chatter, but eventually some of the bigger boards (CSCO, HAL, MSFT, etc) were overrun by multi-ID'd partisan trolls that would spend hours verbally bludgeoning one another. It was a virtual paradise! Alas, gradually, Yahoo tightened the screws and began TOS'ing accounts for what would have been fair play just a few years earlier. They finally shut the old format in mid-2016, replacing it with some sort of "conversation" garbage format.

I left there for a board that allegedly has a dedicated flame forum that is variably moderated with mods not necessarily interpreting the "rules" consistently or fairly. As such, I am currently serving a sentence at banned camp for explaining to a mod his true nature and character. Maybe I caught him at a moment when he was not very receptive to constructive criticism?

In any event, I am in search of a similar flame-friendly forum so, if anyone has recommendations, I am open to hear them. Thanks

 

to be clear, by no moderation I mean anything goes except obvious things of criminal nature such as threats if violence.

 

Such sites quickly become a black hole for trolls and fit only for those very frustrated with their lives.

 

Anonymous Speech should be protected.

 

Not just trolls

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Sad but true.