Originally Posted by CameraGuy

There was NO abuse.

There were NO troublemakers!

Originally Posted by Dovster

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=359978

Some Very Sick FlyerTalkers

We have some very sick FlyerTalkers -- in fact, I would call them emotional cripples.

I doubt there are very many of them -- the evidence indicates that it is about 5 or 6 -- but the high point of their pathetic little lives is to strike out, anonymously, to bring a little rain upon somebody else's parade.

Apparently working in concert (very possibly the only time they have managed to make contact with other human beings), and deprived of the anonymous reputation feature, they get their virtual jollies by rushing to give one-star ratings to threads started by people they don't like.

It doesn't matter how harmless the thread or what its subject matter is, these sickies rush to click to demonstrate their unhappiness.

Recently, this has extended even further -- now they are not only giving one-star ratings to threads started by these folks but also to threads wishing them happy birthdays!

I can not for the life of me imagine being so desperate for a feeling of accomplishment in your life as to be satisfied by this kind of petty achievement.

Ever since the thread ratings began, I have been aware of this sick little group's actions but never said anything. Today, I learned about the birthday threads.

A F/Te who has quite a bit more decency than these sickies could possibly envision, wrote to a number of people, including me, urging them to give high marks to one person's birthday thread to balance out the insult this group had inflicted.

I then discovered a second birthday thread that had gotten the same treatment. Fortunately, it, too, was balanced out by high ratings given by more mature individuals.

(In neither case, incidentally, did a single member of this group express his/her displeasure by posting on the thread. Obviously, that would have required identifying themselves and deprived them of the ability to hide in the dark -- a favorite activity of all cockroaches.)

Originally Posted by Randy Petersen

Let me see who posted a one-star and see if it is a true common fault among certain members. I'm really not one to play Big Brother on FlyerTalk, but if called to investigate something like this, then play that role temporarily I can.

Frankly, I'd rather get rid of a few of these members than get rid of the ratings feature. It can serve a purpose, hopefully a positive one.

Thanks for the heads up.

Originally Posted by Randy Petersen

What I found out is that the energy, time and patience to follow every single thread rating was an impossible aspiration. It could not be accomplished just listening to a few "report post" type complaints but a through and fair review, of which I simply did not have the time then and possibly not now.

At the end of the day, I think I decided it wasn't worthy the goals of FT to try and satisfy the barrage of "you missed a thread markdown by XXXX" or the "I truly thought it was only a one star thread ..." I think you all get the picture. Who knows, we may see it's revival one day, though I'd feel comfortable it being something that the TalkBoard decides on.

As I recall, and I could be wrong, we simply went with the feature because it was a default in vBulletin when we moved from UBB. We didn't think or put into place any guidelines and as a result were unprepared for the actions of any member to use the feature for anything other than apparently what it was intended for in development from VBulletin.

We lived quite well without it in the early days of FT and it seems than we can live peacefully without it right now - except for the dialog about why it doesn't work on FT.

We have an 'ignore user' feature than functions the very same way. Guess what - most of the antagonizers do not use the feature.