Reporting death threats and vile comments

[Annatartywife]

I have been using this site for many years and totally accept that many people will take moral offence at some of my experiences and also will be critical of my writing style: I accept all that.

However an anonymous comment has been made on one of my experiences which quite frankly is vile and tantamount to a death wish/threat.

How has this passed any alleged moderation?

I have sent feedback to the admins of the site and expect a response and the removal of this comment at the least.

Has anyone else received such a threat and if so what was done about it?

Aso on the topic why are so many vile and racist comments allowed too??

 

[where_is_RUTH]

I have been using this site for many years and totally accept that many people will take moral offence at some of my experiences and also will be critical of my writing style: I accept all that.

However an anonymous comment has been made on one of my experiences which quite frankly is vile and tantamount to a death wish/threat.

How has this passed any alleged moderation?

I have sent feedback to the admins of the site and expect a response and the removal of this comment at the least.

Has anyone else received such a threat and if so what was done about it?

Aso on the topic why are so many vile and racist comments allowed too??

That's quite an extensive story collection you've written there.

Nope, don't understand the abuse you've received. Forward it to moderators, and post in on a thread (shining a light on fucktards sometimes works, providing they're not after the publicity)

 

[tomlitilia]

I've never had any direct threats saying the person will kill me. But I've had a few along the line of "whoever wrote this should be found dead in an alley." I usually leave them. But if you want yo, you can remove comments yourself. Go to your Works page. Click the comments icon for the story, and click the trash can next to comments you want to remove.

 

[Annatartywife]

Many thanks for that practical piece of advice tomlitilia.

I shall remove myself.

Just find it weird that the moderators and admins take such pride in ensuring all experiences/stories added are grammatically correct, not allowing any sub-standard writing to be added.

Yet there are absolutely disgustingly vile comments and in particular racist abuse and rape threats strewn all over the place with no impunity whatsoever.

That is the one area that needs improving on the site for me.

All for free speech but not when it crosses into racial hatred incitement or threats of violence.
Zero tolerance on that.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm sorry you have had such a comment.

The simplest thing to do is delete it yourself. US Free Speech rights mean that anonymous can legally say anything about your writing with no fear of any redress by you.

 

[NotWise]

The site only recently started moderating comments, and that seemed to be only to block spam. Generally, the author is responsible for moderating the comments on their own stories.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Wow, and not a single story in the Loving Wives category!

Any comments of that nature should be delete by you. I delete all comments that are personal attacks or appear to be personal attacks...

Such as...

"I hope you and your wife die from aids."

"You should just kill yourself, your story sucks and so does your wife it appears."

"Die cuckold, die."

I've gotten them all... and my stories aren't even about real people. They are fiction. Pure fiction.

ETA: By the way, your profile picture is adorable, thanks for sharing.

ETA: One other thing, you could turn off anonymous comments also. I know that some anon comments are good, but the bad ones always appear to be by that infamous anonymous person. Just a suggestion.

 

[rjordan]

I'm sorry you have had such a comment.

The simplest thing to do is delete it yourself. US Free Speech rights mean that anonymous can legally say anything about your writing with no fear of any redress by you.

It's not because anonymous has a legal right to say anything they want here. They don't. There are restrictions on free speech rights. It's because the burden of a UK citizen trying to sue an anonymous user (who could be anywhere in the world) is far too high to make it worthwhile. Same with all the copyright violations where someone steals a Lit author's stories and posts them as their own. It's not legal, but there is no way for an individual to enforce the copyright.

The best way to deal with it here is to monitor the comments, and delete without comment any that violate your own standards. Don't engage, just delete.

My standards for deletion are similar to Zeb Carter's. I delete any personal attacks, but allow any criticism good or bad about the story.

rj

 

[ElectricBlue]

Just find it weird that the moderators and admins take such pride in ensuring all experiences/stories added are grammatically correct, not allowing any sub-standard writing to be added.

Comments are NOT moderated, other than what appears to be a spam link detector instituted a couple of months ago. This is most likely a text-bot, not a human being, looking for links in the text.

The site has given every author the ability to delete comments received on their stories. The site also has a reporting function for offensive comments.

It is up to all authors, as members of the Lit community, to monitor comments received and to delete offensive content if they see it. Readers should report such commentary when they see it, but there aren't vast numbers of people checking all comments. It's up to us help keep the site to acceptable standards, one person cannot do it alone.

 

[lovecraft68]

As bad as the General Board is, and its bad, any direct threats of violence will get you one warning, then a ban. No matter who you are. Recently one of the very long time posters and one of laurel's little toadies got themselves banned for doing it.

The difference of course is on the boards people have accounts than can be banned where as in this instance we are talking about anonymous.

Yet another benefit of eliminating anonymous here, period.

But...of course that's just stupid

 

[ElectricBlue]

The difference of course is on the boards people have accounts than can be banned where as in this instance we are talking about anonymous.

Yet another benefit of eliminating anonymous here, period.

But...of course that's just stupid

This goes around the buoy every time. I for one would never shut down anon comments, simply because they can be as intelligent as any other.

The site allows authors to shut down anon if they want to. There's no need for a global ban, when the site allows individuals to make their own decisions how they police comments. This is one feature of the site that works okay for me - I wouldn't want it "fixed" just because others don't know how to use the settings the site gives them.

Anyway, I thought you were all in favour of open commentary LC? You've often said with pride that you keep every comment, however inane, and for a while there you disparaged folk who did delete the garbage. Why the sudden change of heart?

 

[Annatartywife]

Much appreciated suggestions and help. I hadn't worked out how to delete comments via the my works thingy.

Will monitor them more closely now. As I have said not about genuine criticism but just the very vile stuff.
Thanks again for all the help Much appreciated

 

[SimonDoom]

Yet another benefit of eliminating anonymous here, period.

But...of course that's just stupid

Not stupid. But a really terrible idea.

Eliminating anonymous comments would mean dramatically reducing the total number of comments, period. Readers would have fewer options to give feedback, and authors would get less feedback.

The simple response for a person who dislikes an anonymous comment is to delete the comment. Problem solved.

But if you eliminate anonymous comments, there is no solution to the cost/problem that results. You have fewer comments, and there's no way to recover them.

I get far more positive anonymous comments than negative anonymous comments. I think most people do. At least half my comments are anonymous comments.

The cost of eliminating anonymous comments far, far outweighs the benefit. The advocates for eliminating anonymous comments never confront this point, because there's no good argument against it.

 

[lovecraft68]

This goes around the buoy every time. I for one would never shut down anon comments, simply because they can be as intelligent as any other.

The site allows authors to shut down anon if they want to. There's no need for a global ban, when the site allows individuals to make their own decisions how they police comments. This is one feature of the site that works okay for me - I wouldn't want it "fixed" just because others don't know how to use the settings the site gives them.

Anyway, I thought you were all in favour of open commentary LC? You've often said with pride that you keep every comment, however inane, and for a while there you disparaged folk who did delete the garbage. Why the sudden change of heart?

I do keep every comment, they don't bother me.

As for others there is a difference between being thin skinned and not being able to take some dick calling you a name and telling you you're the worst author ever to people having to deal with threats of death, violence and rape.Those don't faze me either, but I get why many people would be disturbed. Some things you just shouldn't have to deal with.

As for anon, the majority are good comments. The risk is how many good anon will leave if the only way they could read and comment and vote is to create a fake name with a toss away e-mail.

Most likely some, but I'd be willing to bet most of the good bite the bullet and become Joeylovesboobs99.

But in the good anon you will lose category that would be evened out by how many people will no longer leave this site because they are tired of being abused(readers as much as authors in the comments of LW)

This falls under you wouldn't know unless you tried and the site is not about to try it. End of the day my feeling has always been they enjoy the abuse. Hell, Laurel actually pays compliments to the best trolls in the GB so why would she care about whether or not the authors and readers who keep the site going don't like it.

In closing you should really put me on ignore if you're so sick of my shit. It would save the boards from your veiled smirking cracks and my far more direct responses.

Just think, it would give you more time to worry about the stats and numbers that mean so much more to you than what a pit this place is at times. But hey as long as you have your H and 4.7 who cares what other people deal with?

 

[ElectricBlue]

In closing you should really put me on ignore if you're so sick of my shit. It would save the boards from your veiled smirking cracks and my far more direct responses.

Just think, it would give you more time to worry about the stats and numbers that mean so much more to you than what a pit this place is at times. But hey as long as you have your H and 4.7 who cares what other people deal with?

LC, you know we're actually better natured than it appears here, from time to time. I just think you pour shit on the site a wee bit too much sometimes, despite it being a pretty good launch platform for your own publishing efforts. I wonder where Lovecraft would be, if you hadn't got your Lit following first, is all. Not quite as successful, maybe? Perhaps I'm more gracious to a free publishing platform - and there's nothing wrong with a little garden of poppies, we all know that.

And I agree, some anon crap is crap, but the tools are in place for authors to manage their exposure to it, so I can't see why you're saying, get rid of anon. I didn't know you'd joined the nanny state, so your post surprised me.

Mind you, I don't go to either the GB or LW, so that's a side of Lit that I don't see. But it's pretty simple, if folk can't handle a place, don't go there; but that doesn't mean lock everyone else out.

 

[SimonDoom]

Most likely some, but I'd be willing to bet most of the good bite the bullet and become Joeylovesboobs99.

?

This is the 64 dollar question. And there's no reason whatsoever to believe you're right about this. All evidence and logic are to the contrary. Make it harder to post comments, and people won't post comments. I'm a pretty candid guy and I've posted anonymous comments as well as non-anonymous comments. Take away the anonymous option and I'll post less.

My calculus is this: I don't want to lose one positive anonymous comment to get rid of ten negative anonymous comments. Because I can always hit "delete" on the negative shit, but I can never get back the positive comment that was never made because of an across-the-board policy against anonymous comments.

 

[KeithD]

Naw, I don't see a need to cut off anonymous comments. Having the ability to delete comments is enough for me, and better than the other sites I post to give an author.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I think the Secret Service has the saying that those who threaten don’t shoot and those who shoot don’t threaten. There should be one way for such idle wankers to find anybody, so long as you haven’t ID’d yourself. In any case, consider what lives such poor creatures must live, down in Momma’s basement, that they can only find worth by attempting to bully somebody else on an anonymous website. That they are writing such trash shows their true character.

Peace.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I think the Secret Service has the saying that those who threaten don’t shoot and those who shoot don’t threaten.

Maybe that works for presidential protection (though I'd suggest that Jodie Foster probably considered John Hinckley's years of stalking to be threatening!) but it's definitely not true in other contexts. Domestic homicide etc. is very often preceded by threats.

 

[kurrginatorX]

I'm sorry you have had such a comment.

The simplest thing to do is delete it yourself. US Free Speech rights mean that anonymous can legally say anything about your writing with no fear of any redress by you.

Which works, to some degree, but my experience has been that once I delete a comment I then open myself up to diatribe of a new kind in the form of "Why the fuck did you delete my comment?" Yeah. I have deleted those as well, which then opens me up to the person stating that s/he will give anything I write one star just to fuck with my ratings. I do not allow anonymous comments, which forces the persons making these obscene comments to actually put a name with their comment, but at least then you have an account number you can supply the admins with. I hindsight, I wish I had never deleted the "I'm going to give you one star" comments as this is something I could have forwarded to admin. My overall ratings would be significantly higher today. Oh, well.

 

[KeithD]

Which works, to some degree, but my experience has been that once I delete a comment I then open myself up to diatribe of a new kind in the form of "Why the fuck did you delete my comment?" Yeah. I have deleted those as well, which then opens me up to the person stating that s/he will give anything I write one star just to fuck with my ratings. I do not allow anonymous comments, which forces the persons making these obscene comments to actually put a name with their comment, but at least then you have an account number you can supply the admins with. I hindsight, I wish I had never deleted the "I'm going to give you one star" comments as this is something I could have forwarded to admin. My overall ratings would be significantly higher today. Oh, well.

On the rare occasion I've gotten the follow-up comment, I've just erased that one too and that's always been the end of it--in my experience. Yes, they might be irritated enough to attack other stories and/or attack your file with ratings, but they are likely to do that anyway. I just continue taking their steam away. My view is that they really do want to cow you into leaving their comments. Thanks to the Web site policies, I can deny them that.

 

[SimonDoom]

Which works, to some degree, but my experience has been that once I delete a comment I then open myself up to diatribe of a new kind in the form of "Why the fuck did you delete my comment?" Yeah. I have deleted those as well, which then opens me up to the person stating that s/he will give anything I write one star just to fuck with my ratings. I do not allow anonymous comments, which forces the persons making these obscene comments to actually put a name with their comment, but at least then you have an account number you can supply the admins with. I hindsight, I wish I had never deleted the "I'm going to give you one star" comments as this is something I could have forwarded to admin. My overall ratings would be significantly higher today. Oh, well.

I do not block anonymous comments and have never deleted a single comment. But I've found that over time the site administrator has deleted nearly every single really obnoxious comment I've ever received, even though I've never requested it to be done. It may be too unpleasant for some people to do so, and I don't mean to be dismissive of people's reactions to really vile comments, but my recommendation is to adopt a thick skin and ignore bad comments rather than delete them.

 

[KeithD]

It's not a question of thick skin. It's a question of being read or not. You post here to be read, not to be attacked for what you write within the rules here that some want to harass off the site. Again, when you feel you are obligated to leave every comment on your stories, whatever they are, you are being controlled by those wanting to attack you or your story or your choice of what to write that is accepted here. It's your story and the Web site gives you control over what comments are on it. Do as you please with those comments and what will keep your readers who want to read in that category with you.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's not a question of thick skin. It's a question of being read or not. You post here to be read, not to be attacked for what you write within the rules here that some want to harass off the site. Again, when you feel you are obligated to leave every comment on your stories, whatever they are, you are being controlled by those wanting to attack you or your story or your choice of what to write that is accepted here. It's your story and the Web site gives you control over what comments are on it. Do as you please with those comments and what will keep your readers who want to read in that category with you.

I don't feel obligated to leave nasty comments up. I personally see no need to get rid of them. To me they are a reminder of the real world of audience reaction -- some people react to stories in an extreme way. If some authors want to delete them, that's fine, but another way of responding is just to ignore them. I'm just voicing my view that that's an option.

 

[kurrginatorX]

It's not a question of thick skin. It's a question of being read or not. You post here to be read, not to be attacked for what you write within the rules here that some want to harass off the site. Again, when you feel you are obligated to leave every comment on your stories, whatever they are, you are being controlled by those wanting to attack you or your story or your choice of what to write that is accepted here. It's your story and the Web site gives you control over what comments are on it. Do as you please with those comments and what will keep your readers who want to read in that category with you.

Not only this, but I feel that negative comments--not constructive criticism, but actual attacks--can lead to creating a negative aura around the story. Some might read the diatribe and say, "hey, I never thought about it in those terms," which is why I wipe those away. A person's opinion should not be swayed by another's comments on the story, but the story itself.