Randy, Please Help!!
 

As skofarrell has asked, I'm cross-posting this topic from OMNI where a number of members are once again fed up with doc's attacks on the forum.

He has bumped up almost 50 threads this morning, all consisting of his merely talking to himself with posts, in may cases, very remotely related to the thread.

More and more people are fed up with the rude, anti-social behavior, and we ask that you please do something, anything to stop it before it erupts in yet another war with doc at the center of it. No one (save doc, apparently) enjoys these board-wide hostilities, and he's trying to start another one.

Thanks for anything you can do.

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...ML/014918.html

I agree with robb.

Thanks, Randy.

I also agree 100%. I think it's time to bite the bullet and do something about this situation-- hurt feelings/ bruised egos notwithstanding.

I beg to differ. The posts in question generally link to a new article on the same topic as the thread or a closely related one. The alternative to adding to an existing thread would be starting a new one. That would fragment the posts on a topic. It would also bring exactly the same number of threads to the top of the list, except that they would be newly created threads rather than old ones bumped up.

(The topic of Doc's posting in general is a separate issue which has been discussed at length elsewhere. My view on that are no secret, but that's not what was brought up here. If someone wants to start yet another "let's complain about all of Doc's posts" thread, there is no need to disguise it.)

It is not just doc that has done this. There are at least 2 other OMNI posters who do the same thing on a regular basis, just not as frequently as doc.

Yes they are annoying, but I just skip over most of them.

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Too late is tomorrow's life; live for today.

Martial (1st century), Epigrams, I, 15

Hmmm, closely related like the thread questioning the idea that men benefit from marriage at the expense of women is closely related to an article about how it's ok for men to cry?

Or closely related like the thread about the University Interscholastic League conducting steroid testing and the new article describing how men in Canada have poor body image?

Maybe you're referring to the thread about farting in cars and how closely related it was to the article about getting out of speeding tickets.

At any rate, that's not really the issue. The issue is the assualt on the boards in whatever form it takes. Posting 50 threads to which almost no one responds, totally disregarding the conversations that were going on beforehand is the issue. Being rude, behaving insensitively, and persisting in anti-social behavior for the sheer joy of being anti-social and watching people get upset is the issue.

The only thing I can think of that is disguised is the bizarre rules that the poster invents to try to continue the same disruptived behavior while being able to protest that he's following some kind of rule that is suposed to make it okay. Surely, he'll read this post and decide tomorrow to post 39 posts instead of 47 and protest that how can I be mad since he didn't post almost 50 threads! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif Talk about your disguises.

I didn't look at all his threads. I opened ones where the topic seemed interesting. One on SCO Linux comes to mind, and a few others. Of those, most of the new posts were on topic or pretty close. Of the others - given that Doc presumably wanted to post whatever it was somewhere, would you have preferred a new thread to adding to an old one? (Remember, that's what this thread is about, not Doc's posts in general.)

If you have a problem with Doc's posting as much as he does, or the topics he posts on, say so - but let's keep this thread on topic! Otherwise, it becomes an example of exactly what its originating post complained about.

I think this is overblown as no TOS rules have been violated.

If people keep complaining about people's posting behavior in Omni, I would not be surprised if Randy were to remove it from FT. Omni takes up enormous bandwith and really has nothing to do whatsoever with freqent flyer travel. Randy gives FTers this forum as a gift.

If you all keep rocking the boat, Omni could vanish. Is that what you want?

Please re-read the original post as you are the one who keeps pulling it off topic. The same post would be here if there were 50 new posts this morning.

Did you read the number of people who have asked Randy to implement a change to the TOS as a result of this behavior?

I pray that doc stops rocking the boat, but it doesn't seem that he ever will. He has posted a number of times that he expects OMNI to be closed as a result of the ongoing wars that he starts, so I guess you need to ask him that question.

At some point, it was my understanding that he was going to participate in some kind of peace process, but I've never seen him make the slightest effort towards thinking of someone else, so I wouldn't hold my breath. It will be very sad if his continuing attacks on OMNI result in its closure.

How sad that the same FlyerTalkers keep harping and harping and harping about doc. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Why can't we just get along? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif

Please see also:

www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/Forum44/HTML/013053.html

If you don't like the way a particular member posts to FlyerTalk, ignore that member. Ignore their posts.

Why keep crying to our gracious host again and again and again? It's not like Randy hasn't made perfectly clear his feelings toward doc and his posts. Numerous times he has told us to get along.

So why do so many FlyerTalkers adamantly refuse to follow Randy's explicit instructions?

Even the OMNI moderators have now joined the fray, demanding that FlyerTalkers not reply to threads they alone deem too "old" to warrant a legitimate reply. They even threaten FlyerTalkers with suspension and banishment for refusing to follow their whimsical additions to the FlyerTalk TOS. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

Today, skofarrell admits that replying to old threads does not violate the FT TOS. Presumably the threats to cancel FlyerTalkers' accounts for replying to threads he deems too old to warrant a reply will likewise cease.

Perhaps the OMNI moderators can now see their way to closing the thinly-veiled anti-doc threads as they appear instead of allowing them to continue all day (long enough to garner 49 replies). Or have the OMNI moderators chosen sides?

This OMNI Moderator has a life. In case you're interested, I spent a good 10 hours today at work, and this evening at an ice cream social for my 2 youngest kids elementary school, then on to an orientation for my 6th grader's first year at middle school. I then spent from 9-11:30 catching up on my Tivo recorded episodes of the Restaurant.

FWIW, I did not "admit" that Doc's activities do not violate the TOS, it has been my stance all along. I've asked him and other members to refrain from updating year old posts in an effort to keep everyone on OMNI happy. As you've seen, I've been largely been unsuccessful at that task. Any "threats" were for not for "whimsical additions to the TOS", but for not following the moderator's instructions, and for the vigilante efforts of the self elected Doc police.

I'm sure that there would be more happiness with a bunch of locked threads.

FWIW, I find it very easy to skip over the posts that Doc makes that don't interest me. I wish other would do the same.

The thread of ~49 posts, has been closed. It would have been closed earlier, but as I mentioned, I had more interesting stuff to do this evening.

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Sean
aka: skofarrell
Moderator, OMNI & American Express

[This message has been edited by skofarrell (edited 08-11-2003).]

EDIT: wrong forum

[This message has been edited by nhila (edited 08-11-2003).]

I started the latest thread in OMNI, however I did not start it as an anti doc thread as he is not the only person doing this...but yes, he is the main offender.

I would hate to see OMNI close and I really don't want to rock the boat but I have seen other forums be overtaken by a couple of avid posters who post nothing of interest. In the end the good posters stay away and the forums become a wasteland.

I don't know what the solution is. I am not sure there is a solution but when a large number of people share the same concern then surely it's time to think of one.

You know the old saying...when ten people tell you you're drunk, you better go lie down. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Phoebe

Sure I did, but the fact is, for the time being, no TOS violations have occured. I'm also one of those people who gets annoyed by the persistent rehashing of old news. So I skip those posts. I also get annoyed by some of the sophomoric posts which encourage FTers to come up with their best put down lines about ugly women, for example. Some posters both men and women think it's hilarious while a minority of us think it is degrading. So I am learning to just skip them too. If I can pick and choose, why can't others skip the meaningless old news stories. While they are boring, they don't insult a group of people as a form of meaningless entertainment.

There have been good suggestions in Omni about the old post problem. My favorite is the following: Perhaps instead of focusing on the removal of an FTer, why not focus on something positive like adding a column which tells FTers the date the post was started. If it's old, those who dislike old news can skip it.