For those of you who missed it

[Patrick]

Mck is now gone.  He went over the top with a new story, this time so far out that it was obvious he was BSing, which casts doubt on pretty much everything else he's posted.  Along with his posts, I also removed any threads with references to him.

[HappyInBrazil]

... in response to For those of you who missed it, posted by Patrick on Aug 28, 2002

n/t

[Patrick]

... in response to Do you have any thoughts on how to preve..., posted by HappyInBrazil on Aug 29, 2002

Unfortunately, to prevent it in the future would require banning some real people to be sure that all the fakes are not allowed in.  From what others said, Mck was real and they confirmed that he met his girlfriend at Mexican Matchmakers in Mexico.  His stories were out there, and I doubted him on several occassions, but it wasn't until his last post that I was certain he was BSing everyone.

I already have some things in place to help prevent it, and in fact, there's a couple of trolls who have tried up to 15 different times to get back in and been turned away.  I'm not going to say what the system is, but it's fairly effective, at least for repeat trolls.

The brand new trolls are the real challenge.  At what point do we label someone a troll?  Is Lex a troll because he's so concerned about travel to Colombia, or is he just someone who thinks he's educating people about the dangers and probably thinking the board exists to make people believe it's safe to travel there to keep "the business" going?  Not long after this board started someone accused me of being nearly all the personalities here and running it to convince men it was safe to travel to Colombia where my "mafia connections" were waiting to kidnap them.  Paranoia runs deep in the MOB business, but does paranoia and arrogance make someone a troll?

The problem with trolls is that it's very difficult to define them.  I prefer to keep the forum open to all the people who wish to post and to allow both positive and negative opinions to be expressed.  If we have nothing but supporters here than it'll be more like an agency advertisement than a real discussion area.

[HappyInBrazil]

... in response to Re: Do you have any thoughts on how to p..., posted by Patrick on Aug 29, 2002

I don't see the issue being whether the person is real or not, I see the issue being the impact it has on people having constructive information and opinion sharing.  If this isn't the place for "I married a transvestite alien nymphomaniac" daily reports, then the issue is more, that this kind of post is not appropriate for this forum.

This gets back to an old idea, Is it possible that some threads can just be marked as "Will not be archived"?

I think troll or not, another area that needs to be address is setting a limit on insults and personal attacks.  This really would only affect the people that can't control themselves or cannot distinguish between conversation and verbal assault.  I'm not saying limit the opinions and discussion, I'm saying allow them to take place without being stifled by limiting a few people from shouting them down or name calling to derail conversations.  It might affect some people if they were warned to limit the number of times they insult someone to 15 per page, but what would be the downside?

As far as the concern about having nothing but supporters, what harm will be done by letting the pendulum swing the other way a little?  I think even the people that are "supporters" acknowledge that this is not a choice for everyone and there are issues involved.  I see real potential in making this a little more think tank and a little less cat fight.

Are the goals of this forum to provide a safe place to discuss and support issues surrounding relationships with people from other countries, or to provide a free for all forum for any "real" person?  Which of these goals comes closest to the idea you have in mind for this place?

[Pete E]

... in response to Re: Do you have any thoughts on how to p..., posted by Patrick on Aug 29, 2002

Patrick,
I think its a good idea to give people alot of freedom to post and ban with reluctance,which I think is what you have done.
It seems the things that will get people banned are untrue posts(hard to determine sometimes),Purposely trying to harm another person or relationship or repeated and prolonged negative behavior,particularly in the absence of anything possitive to contribute.
Civility would be a good idea here.Its not neccesary to go from disagreements to insults.
I think Lex is encountering negative feedback not only because people disagree with his conclusions but because he is pretty negative to anybody who does.But I think he falls far short of being banned so far and I would just encourage him not to react so negatively,and others to be less negative to him. He seems to think he is getting heat because we don't want to consider another point of view.There may be some truth in that but I think his argumentative style of reaction is the main problem.
We certainly don't want to have only one point of view here,dissention from normal thinking should be encouraged,just to get us to check out our opinions if for nothing else.It would be good if we all could be a little more polite about it.I worry sometimes the impression a visitor might get if they read some our our argumentative threads,as in recently.I think this board does have alot of value to offer and we should try to keep our image a little cleaner for people to take the time to discover that.

Pete

[Hoda]

... in response to For those of you who missed it, posted by Patrick on Aug 28, 2002


make no mistake about it! I have a gut feeling, that he's already established another identity for posting. He knew it was just a matter of time, before "mck" was going to get the ax.

We haven't heard the last from him.....lol

[wizard]

... in response to He'll be back......, posted by Hoda on Aug 28, 2002

[Andean Condor]

... in response to For those of you who missed it, posted by Patrick on Aug 28, 2002

Hey Patrick!
Help the board out by at least allowing us the pleasure of reading Mck's last post... It would help put a cement slab on the ongoing drama that has had many of us hooked like a soap opera for so long...  If you can't reinstate the message, could ya at least paraphrase?  Pretty please... ;-)

-Andeancondor

[wizard]

... in response to Patrick... don't leave us in the dark!, posted by Andean Condor on Aug 28, 2002

Mike went on a rant saying that his novia chased him around the house with a knife, cornered him in the kitchen and stabbed him 4 or 5 times in the chest... He then went on to to say that oh, BTW, she shot him in the leg too... WAY OVER THE TOP... My opinion, his entire story was nothing more than a fabrication from the start...

The latest chapter of PLANT JERRY SPRINGER, episode "Mike vs the Mexicana"... No cliffhangers here...

Thanks Patrick...

[papa suave]

... in response to just for you..., posted by wizard on Aug 28, 2002

I wonder if they had sex afterwards?

[Fuzzy]

... in response to Re: just for you..., posted by papa suave on Aug 29, 2002

naw he went and got the red head to punish her...

[Michael B]

... in response to Re: just for you..., posted by papa suave on Aug 29, 2002

No way, he said that she shot him five times. Why, he almost missed a days work at QuickieMart.

[Pete E]

... in response to just for you..., posted by wizard on Aug 28, 2002

Sounds over the top alright.But if she was as crazy as it seemed thats what we could expect her to do.
Most likely it was all BS.And it got alot of attention away from real stories.
Back to the real world.

Pete

[Hoda]

... in response to just for you..., posted by wizard on Aug 28, 2002


about his ladies brother, was actually a woman seeking a sex change...lol! I was also waiting for the part, when mck comes home & finds his wife in bed with his "ex"...LMAO!!!

[papa suave]

... in response to You missed the part...., posted by Hoda on Aug 28, 2002

...or in bed with her "brother." That would have about killed me.