Part A. You are the editor of a respected online publication with a small forums section. A rogue user, “Gascap23,” has begun to visit the forums regularly, and he doesn’t get along with other readers/users. Gascap23 often will flame other people’s posts and generally create discord. A few readers have complained to you about him. Do you banish him from the site?

Part B. Another rogue user, “Tasha,” begins to behave in a similar way, but generally restricts her hostility for the products of one particular company (an advertiser on the site). As the moderator, you receive an email from a representative from the company, complaining about Tasha and asking that she be banned. The representative notes that their company is a supporter of the site, both financially and otherwise. (Several of their engineers frequent the boards and answer technical reader questions in an objective manner.) Do you banish Tasha?


Note: this scenario, based on real-life experiences, was developed for the 2007 ASBPE Editorial Conference. Visit www.asbpe.org/about/code.htm to read about the group's Code of Ethics.

In either case, I would ask our web editor to issue the person a warning. If the annoying behavior continued, I would probably ban them for a period of time, maybe a week. If they still don't get the message, then they're done.

I do not have a problem with the advertiser pointing out the bad behavior, but I would treat it the same way as if it was an individual reader complaining about them.

You should have clear rules on what is acceptable and not acceptable on the site.

I don't think you can just kick somebody off because they "annoy" other users.

Some of the best users are annoying. If they start using foul/abusive/inappropiate language or make defamatory remarks about other users or third parties, that is a completely different issue.

Again, set out your house rules clearly on the forum and you shouldn't have to worry about this.

quote:

Originally posted by Editor:
Some of the best users are annoying.

Great point. Often times, the people who stir up things are our best posters. They post a lot and they also get other people to come back or post their own responses.