Look what happens in a private forum for subscribers only. Scenario Forums are locked to participants only, they have subscriptions. The last scenario had a very few people that were not interested in a discussion, but simply wanted to instigate. That created a caustic environment for those who simply wanted to participate in the scenario. Just going Private for paying customers will not solve that problem, so you simply take as much as you can take and at some point start chopping off heads. Paying for a subscription does not automatically improve ones ability to play well with others. In fact, sometimes it has the opposite affect of letting them think they now own a portion of the company and have the absolute right to do what ever they want no matter what the impact.
These are the problems, not the public or private board, not the discussions and debates, not things that normal, respectful people can manage to participate in without creating a cesspool out of every thing. You cannot code away ignorance and griefers. You just patiently hope they get better and eventually just rid yourself of the problem.
I would not open a troll forum to discuss any matter further than the reason it made it become a troll thread. I would open a subscriber only forum to MOVE the bad and the ugly away from the public section.
As stated earlier, I did not think about if I want to let any thread go any further after it has been moved to the "Troll section" for derogatory or any other reasons, that should be on HTC to decide.
I do not intend to justify any abusive behaviour nor threads against the rules, other than self agreed to.
That's what private forums can be used for.
Trolls are trolls and will ever be around and return. You can't keep em at bay in a public forum. So far so good.
But to enable me to ignore them or even better,
to let myself decide if I still want to have a look at them or not you have to get them off the public section. This way you create a barrier which keeps you to your legal obligations as well as entiteling me to decide if I want to have a look at it or not. They should be sweeped off the public section for new customer protection and against bad advertising for HTC.
I even believe it would make maintenance a bit easier for HTC as well, as you could automate the process of how a thread gets moved and set parameters to lock it or even ban the author causing trouble.
That would take away the personal vendettas some think are necessary to have with HTC staff as well as the necessity to monitor this part of the web even through the weekends.
