New Features - Thread Kicker and Digg

[EdS]

Kicking is censorship, pure and simple.

All it takes is some self-righteous, pompous ass to do it.

If I get censored, I'm out of here permanently. Now, the self-righteous, pompous asses will love that, no doubt, but I mean it.

[texasredtop]

I have a feeling I'll be wearing my fingers out unkicking Roy, EdS, JB, Red Dog and a few others.

[Smaug]

I am thinking of starting a new thread just so I can kick myself.



P.S. Where did the new thread link come from? Lumme if I know!

[Lionhead]

- If a user is kicked by a normal user (thread starter), anyone can unkick them.

Okay, so, how will I know if a user is kicked and how would I go about unkicking them?

[Connie Fournier]

Kicking is censorship, pure and simple.

All it takes is some self-righteous, pompous ass to do it.

If I get censored, I'm out of here permanently. Now, the self-righteous, pompous asses will love that, no doubt, but I mean it.

Well, it seemed to me that it is more democratic to allow members to police their own threads than to have a lot of top-down moderation.

But, thanks for the input. Putting hours of work into upgrading the site wouldn't be nearly as fun if I couldn't look forward to hearing how much it sucks when I'm all done.

[Tory_canuck]

I joined digg.

[backhoe]

Kicking is censorship, pure and simple.

All it takes is some self-righteous, pompous ass to do it.

If I get censored, I'm out of here permanently. Now, the self-righteous, pompous asses will love that, no doubt, but I mean it.

Well, it seemed to me that it is more democratic to allow members to police their own threads than to have a lot of top-down moderation.

But, thanks for the input. Putting hours of work into upgrading the site wouldn't be nearly as fun if I couldn't look forward to hearing how much it sucks when I'm all done.

Connie, here's my 2 cents, for whatever, or what little, it is worth-

I'll hold in abeyance any opinion about "kicking"- I can see the potential for good, and ill. we shall see what it brings, and then I'll tell you what I think about it.

Digg?

I've seen it on other sites, and it is dominated by pilers-on, and Leftists.

You won't care for what it will do for this site.

That's my view- but I do appreciate your efforts.

[WestViking]

It seems to me that if you 'kick' someone off a thread, the 'kicked' member cannot post to that thread again.

I reserve comment on the change until we see how it works in practice. It may cut down on thread hijacks, for example. Time will tell.

[Hailey]

I think this is a good move toward greater free speech. The thread starter will have more control over their own thread. If someone comes along and they are stalking them or they are hijacking the thread they can simply kick the person from the thread and that person can go start their own thread.

It will be important for us to adopt forum etiquette that says that, in most circumstances, the thread starter should be allowed to decide who is bumped from their thread.

Any person can be overruled by a mod or admin, and kicking privileges can be lost if they are abused.

I don't know. It will be interesting to see how it will play out and certainly I hope it will be successful. Part of me just wonders if it's going to lead in an elevated number of complaints. I can see people being miffed/agitated that they got kicked and I can see some people use that feature excessively.

[Hailey]

Are there rules about kicking? For instance, let's suppose we start a thread about same-sex marriage? Can we kick obnoxious social liberals out of the thread?

It seems that this threadkicking thing can lead to abuse.

However, it seems very interesting. I'd love to be able to kick off the obnoxious out of threads I start.

I am not sure, Suzanne. When you start a thread do you expect that 100% of people will agree/ I don't. I wouldn't start a thread on abortion and kick people who were pro-choice. I don't have a crystal ball to see how it's going to play out or how my feelings about it will evolve but today...I really can't see myself kicking someone.

[Hailey]

Kicking is censorship, pure and simple.

All it takes is some self-righteous, pompous ass to do it.

If I get censored, I'm out of here permanently. Now, the self-righteous, pompous asses will love that, no doubt, but I mean it.

I share some of your concerns but I think you should give it more of a chance than that. If there is a cluster of people that think that the feature is being mis-used I am sure it's up for discussion.

[Roy Wilson]

I dont think some understands you can only kick someone from a thread YOU started.

[Hailey]

I dont think some understands you can only kick someone from a thread YOU started.

No, I think that's clear. It's very clear. I don't understand that philosophy in the sense that I've never seen the person who starts the thread as the "owner" of the thread. When I've started a thread on, for example, abortion (I've mentioned that subject once or twice on the forum) I don't expect that people who are pro-choice don't have the right to comment. I honestly can't think of an example where I would kick someone. I'm going to think about it further.

Anyway, we'll see how it plays out.

[Connie Fournier]

The kicker hack gives FDers (and not just moderators) something that they can do to police their own forum. Admin will have the last call, and can unkick (or kick) anyone from any thread for any reason, and nobody can override their decision. Kicking privileges can also be taken away from any member who abuses it.

It seems to us like a harmless tool because no content is lost, everyone can read everything, and admin can reverse anything that is done unfairly.

If it doesn't work it can easily be shut off, but I have faith in the maturity of our membership. I don't think you need a bunch of babysitters banning, deleting and locking if you have the tools to police yourselves most of the time.

Maybe I'm naive, but we'll find out soon enough.

[styky]

It seems to me that if you 'kick' someone off a thread, the 'kicked' member cannot post to that thread again.

I reserve comment on the change until we see how it works in practice. It may cut down on thread hijacks, for example. Time will tell.

Leaving them free to start their own thread on the topic of which they will have full control over. So I don't get the problem with free speech some are having. If anything instead it holds your opinion out more prominently.

Connie please know that eventually all your hard work will have pay off and for that we are eternally grateful