Note to new readers

The unrepresentative poster has been reported for TOS violations. Please ignore the bad posts, which will be removed soon. Thanks.

 

Of course, it might take a week . . .

Rumor has it that all of the new moderators are in a five-day orientation, which is being conducted by Bruce.

The orientation is being modeled after a Union Institute colloquium. As I write, they're in the middle of the nude "chanting to the sun" session, after which they will have vegetarian pizza and California wine.

 

PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE TROLL

 

Does not even a thread like this with responses actually acknowledge the troll?

 

Well should we not recognize that there is one amoung us..it would be like not talking about the elephant in the room.

 

I think I got them all. Please let me know if I missed any.
Jack
(and now back to the chanting)

 

I understand and was not being critical, by any means, of Uncle Janko.

I guess any recognition, direct or indirect, gives the troll acknowledgement and that alone feeds his disturbed ego.

I just feel no acknowledgement at all is best. Totally ignore his/her presence.

 

Reminds of a political joke from 1960. Something about having had enough Dick and wanting more Jack.

 

Note to readers: Steve isn't kidding, much. Maybe not these days, but there was a time....

 

I think threads and posts like this are rather counterproductive. Several times now, I have only become aware of a problem poster after the posts have been deleted and all that remains are "PLEASE DO NOT REPLY" posts.

Also, is there any way to suppress the "Welcome to our newest member" line? It hardly seems appropriate in cases such as this.

 

I'm new to the board, so I apologize if this is a question that would perhaps best not be asked here (or anywhere!).

But, what is the rationale or history of trolls on this board. I saw some of the hints earlier this month that someone or some institution was/is angry at this site and may be attempting to disrupt things.

At the risk of starting the inappropriate barage again, I am just curious of the circsumstances behind the attacks.

 

This might offer some insight.

 

Yawn. I agree with DFTT. The ONLY reason I put this up was as a stopgap till the mods whacked the troll. It's unfair to them to expect instantaneous action, and I wanted to warn any new readers for the brief interim till the posts were gone.

Feeding the troll means arguing with the troll. I didn't argue. I reported many of the posts without any comment on the various threads, and simply ignored one of the posts and posted in reply to the last legit post on whatever thread it was.

I'll make a similar thread in the event of another troll attack, and if the mods want to remove my thread after any troll spew is removed, that's perfectly all right [please note that all right is two words] with me.

Cheers,
Janko

 

I'm not sure, as I think about it, that there even are questions that people new to this forum -- or even those who aren't, for that matter -- should ever feel like they can't ask... at least as long as they have to do with education, distance or otherwise. So please don't hesitate... or worry.

Good questions.

First read this, paying particular attention to how this forum was started in order to get away from the idiots at alt.education.distance (AED).

DegreeInfo's enemies are, nearly to the last of them, either people who operate (or in some way make money from) diploma/degree mills or other "institutions" of either questionable educational value, or which flat-out rip people off in one way or another; or those who got their credentials (read: fake degrees) from a degree/diploma mill and, therefore, in order to live with themselves, must rationalize what they've done, and must go out of their way to make their "school" seem legitimate to others; or those who believe that virtually any form of education -- including, and especially that from unaccredited institutions -- is legitimate and worthy of being thought of as being on par with education that's accredited by agencies approved by the US Department of Education (USDE) and/or its Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA); or those who have been thrown out of here for being abusive while trying to make arguments in favor of any of the foregoing.

For the diploma mill operators whose nefarious operations have been talked about here, the sheer number of persons who read these forums and may, therefore, be dissuaded from purchasing a fake degree therefrom, DegreeInfo is a real problem... and can (and has) result(ed) in the loss of many, many thousands of dollars in revenue for them. When you hit an enemy in the pocketbook, mere irritation can blossom into obsession and pathology... which, when mixed with whatever character flaws they had which allowed them to become criminal diploma mill operators in the first place, plus all the immaturity and mean-spiritness that probably attends that, you end-up with highly motivated trolls who sometimes come here and expose themselves for the sociopaths they truly are. Those same people are also the ones who, with cowardice, post vile personal attacks on members here -- anonymously, of course -- in places like AED and certain other fora that are fast becoming notorious hangouts for those disaffected who have been thrown outta' here.

Many of these people are not mentally or emotionally well-balanced... as the hateful, hurtful, incitetive rhetoric of the recent attacker clearly indicates. These sociopathic -- perhaps even psychopathic -- persons are best ignored, as Jimmy advises. However, because there will always be newbies here (or persons who may not be new, but have somehow missed what are the issues), Janko's sensibility that while such trolls should be ignored, someone should at least take a moment to point out, in clear and unambiguous terms, that the posts of such people are not what this place is all about, and that their words here will soon be deleted, has merit, too.

Another sensibility expressed here that also has merit is that subsequent threads that keep us talking about it like this are also probably not a good idea. That said, this one has now become educational and can benefit those who wish to get up to speed on the issues. So I guess there's a silver lining to this cloud after all.

I say all these things, of course, having just returned from Bruce's five-day orientation... and feeling, already, like I'm going to miss the nude sun chanting.

 

Me too. Never cared much for the nonstandard alright.

 

Thanks to everyone for the information, and history lesson; excellent clarification and I am very appreciative.

 

But 'alright' is all right, alright?

 

Good question. How about it administrators, is it possible? Thankfully I didn't see any of the posts discussed here, but from the handle still named on the 'newest member' line it's not hard to imagine content.


To JamesK: Understandable viewpoint that starting threads like this is counterproductive. But at the same time you DO have to wonder if new readers might get the wrong idea from troll intrusions. I am sure it was that concern which led the original poster to start the thread. The regular contributors here care very much about this forum and its intended purpose.

Kit

 

On a forum that I moderate, when we remove a newly joined poster who is revolting for one reason or another, then the welcome to the newest member line reverts to the old newest poster. The revolting poster is removed in all noticable ways.