Posted on 02/03/2003 5:40:21 AM PST by bushbot
Edited on 02/03/2003 5:51:36 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Lunatic fringe I know you're out there You're in hiding And you hold your meetings We can hear you coming We know what you're after We're wise to you this time We won't let you kill the laughter. Lunatic fringe In the twilight's last gleaming This is open season But you won't get too far We know you've got to blame someone For your own confusion But we're on guard this time Against your final solution We can hear you coming (We can hear you coming) No you're not going to win this time We can hear the footsteps (We can hear the footsteps) Way out along the walkway Lunatic fringe We know you're out there But in these new dark ages There will still be light An eye for an eye; Well before you go under... Can you feel the resistance?
There are one or two individuals who, for whatever reason, enjoy signing up new accounts here every single day to post leftist drivel. Sometimes they are vanities from DemocraticUnderground. Sometimes they are articles from other far-left sources. Sometimes they are nothing but vile doctored images or profanity laced tirades. Sometimes they are from legitimate sources but happen to strike the eye of the poster as being something that would infuriate conservatives.
The posters in question always post the articles, and then don't reply. They then post other articles, again not replying. This was going on for months. Jim would confirm by looking at the IP addresses and other aspects of the user's 'footprint' that it was the returning troll, and we would nuke the accounts. This went on for months.
Then some of the opportunists who wanted to harm the forum started a whispering campaign, complaining about articles being deleted. They would play off of the fact that the trolls' articles were being pulled to complain that there was some sort of agenda of squelching legitimate conservative postings going on by the moderators.
One day I decided to try something new. I decided, instead of letting the trolls get what they want and have their posts up as flame bait, and instead of pulling the threads outright, I would move their post aside and replace it with something that hopefully others would find humorous. I would do this out in the forum for all to see. The original piece would be available through the history link for the curious, who could see if there was some sort of censorship campaign going on. And the freepers could have fun mocking the troll if they so liked.
It so happens that the way I did it the first time was using a screen shot from Caddyshack, where the pastor gets hit by a lightning bolt. Being a bit of a fan of the comic strip "B.C." I captioned the photo with the lightning bolt sound that Johnny Hart used in his strip- ZOT! That is where the term Zot originated.
Now, sometimes we "zot", and sometimes we simply pull it. It depends on a number of factors, including how busy we are at the time. But whenever you see a Zot, you can be sure that the user was a 'newbie' who was doing their hit-and-run posting, and that if you as a well-established freeper thought the article would have made an interesting discussion, then you could probably post the same piece yourself without incident (although the most vile of the stuff probably would get pulled, and Jim reserves the right to remove anyone who he feels is constantly trying to push leftist propaganda on the forum).
Anyway, that is the history and background behind zotting.
Take care, AM
This IMHO, is an OUTSTANDING po;icy. Not only do we get to see the reason for the ZOT, we get to laugh at the adject lunacy of the poster.
Actually, the involvement of the NCC proves that the opposition is a bunch of wild-eyed leftist radicals...
I'd been wondering about the origin of "Zot!".
It so happens that the way I did it the first time was using a screen shot from Caddyshack, where the pastor gets hit by a lightning bolt. Being a bit of a fan of the comic strip "B.C." I captioned the photo with the lightning bolt sound that Johnny Hart used in his strip- ZOT! That is where the term Zot originated.
I like the ZOT. Good idea pulling their dribble. I like Johnny Hart too. He lives up the road a piece from me.... and by the way, if you ever go to the BC Open Pro AM, stay behind Johnny. He's a bit wild with his golf shot... LOL.
Why, thank you..
One day I decided to try something new. I decided, instead of letting the trolls get what they want and have their posts up as flame bait, and instead of pulling the threads outright, I would move their post aside and replace it with something that hopefully others would find humorous.
Hey, I think it's great..
You know, you always wonder why a thread was zapped.. It gave their cries of "censorship" some degree of legitimacy.
I like the "new way" of dealing with such things and I haven't found a single thread that was "Zotted" that I think shouldn't have been, deserved to be and was probably posted knowing it would meet that end.
Your way is a winner and if you personally thought this up all by yourself, then I think you should be rewarded.
Simple solution: place a 48 hour mandatory "lurking period" on all new sign-ups. They can use that time to learn FR customs. It also means that they have something to lose if they get zotted because they'll have to go through the waiting period again.
Heck, you don't even have to be that extreme. simply place a 48 hour initial restriction on starting new threads. Let the newbies post to existing threads if you must (I'd place the 48 hour limit on both threads and posts, but suit yourself).
It's ridiculous to have FR disrupted daily because you won't impose that simple time restriction on newbies.
Have you noticed that ALL of the "prime offenders" join FR and post on the same day? Come on, do I have to spell this out for everyone? The solution is a simple lurking period.
Heck, they might even learn what "Bump" means during their trial period so that they don't have make their first post someone so wasteful of bandwidth as "What does BTT mean"...
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