Solo chat

[Drew a swallow]

Can I make a request that you limit the chat room to registered users only, please, David? I ask this for obvious reasons. All non-trolls I'm sure would want this too.

Drew.

[Sonar]

Can I make a request that you limit the chat room to registered users only, please, David? I ask this for obvious reasons. All non-trolls I'm sure would want this too.

Drew.

Yep. Me for example. The chat has never been my favorite in the first place but now it's just disturbing - if not disgusting - what goes on there.
By the way: Thank you David for putting so much work into moz-solo.

Cheers
Sonar

[girlunafraid]

Can I make a request that you limit the chat room to registered users only, please, David? I ask this for obvious reasons. All non-trolls I'm sure would want this too.

Drew.

Sadly, it's just as easy for the Trolls to have a registered name, thus enabling them to post inappropriate pics. Chatroom moderation might work, with the offenders having their IP blocked. I don't think DT is especially worried about this, it might ruin free speech or some bollocks. :mad:

[davidt]

I've been a bit busy with other things but I'll take a look.

[lucky lisp]

Can I make a request that you limit the chat room to registered users only, please, David? I ask this for obvious reasons. All non-trolls I'm sure would want this too.

Drew.

This does need addressing ,decent people are being driven away cos of some of the ,disguting ,disturbed trolls

[Reggie Pepper]

Firstly I would like to say well done to David Tseng for providing us with the site and chatroom, it is a generous gift of his time and money. Sadly though others are incapable of acknowlodging they are here as your guests of David Tseng and abuse his generosity , Drew has made a vaild point and I too would like to call for the end of unregistered names, Which are abused in a variety of ways, ie distasteful postings/pornograpic postings/threatning postings/racist postings and oftentimes created to confuse such as -Reggie Pepper i.e. proper registered names but with the Hypen. This wouldn't stop abuses, of course not but it would filter some out and at the least stop people with a good name being imitated by a troll.

David could I suggest a $10 fee to register as well? a nominal sum to support the site that would also deter repeated re-registering, I mean if it cost $10 per act of trollery all of the trolls here would be bancrupted in a week plus you would have C/C detail and IP addresses? could you maybe put that to a vote???

On a seperate point it has to be said that their is one particular very active submitter that is a troll of the first order, I am sure you are aware of who I mean... If not I can email you.

Thanks again,

Reggie

[Reggie-Kray]

I fully support the idea of compulsory registration for the chat. It is standard practice on every other website I know of, so I don't see why this one should be any different, or why as a result of it that people who have been using the chat for years as registered members are either being frightened off or drawn into the almost constant trolling and personal attacks that are happening there. As for the suggestion of a one-off payment to support the site and filter out trolls at the same time, well, I'd be happy to do that also if need be, but perhaps as has been suggested, it should be put to a vote. Either way, it's about time something was done to improve things.
Krayism x

[Madame Barso]

Here here, I fully support Drew's proposition for only registered users being able to use the chat room. I've been using the chat for around 18 months now on and off and have made many very good friends... due to the trolling that goes on in there a few of them have been scared off, which is no surprise with the stuff that is said and done, this is a huge shame and I don't want any of the fabulous people left to have to leave. I really do hope you are able to help us out with this.

Thanks in advance
MB

[Walkers Crisp]

Hello,

As a regular chat user I absolutely support Drew's suggestion -
and I'd be happy to donate a 10 USD "register fee" if the chat gets cleaned up.

Love
Crisp

P.S. I adore this site. Thanks David for giving us this platform. Top!

[mand]

Yay!! Solo'ists of the world - unite and take over!! (well,the sane ones at least!)

[CheekyLass]

Dear David,

Any changes made to address the problem of trolls ruining chat for others would be much appreciated. If you can implement a way of cutting down on the trolling by only allowing for registered chatters then I am all for it too!

As always, you do a fantastic job by providing us with a place to show our love for Morrissey.

Cheers,
~ CheekyLass

[Dave]

What about trolls that register? Like girlunafraid said, this is easy to do.

By the way though, it's great to see all the names on this thread. I recognize them from chat. I used to be in there a lot as mouthful of pie. I don't see Mr Smith, Urban, Nadine, Tina, Marisela, Broccoli Spears, Colleen, Robby, or Lon, amongst others, but I miss them too. Chat used to be a lot of fun sometimes.

I get my fill of Robby here though. ;)

Sometimes the trolls were funny though. remember Lon's Bucktoothed Sister? "Lon! Mama said fer you to get off the computer and go to bed!" I'm sorry, but that made me laugh. Brocolli was a lot of fun, but I never see her anywhere. The Abba cameltoe pics were classic.

I don't go there anymore, but I guess I'm missing out on lots of porn and trolling, so I'll check it out now.

[andy_fozzy]

I don't use the chat very often, but why don't we have mods there?

With the ability to instantly sling trolls out.

As we know, I'd love to be a mod here, so maybe it would shut me up....????

:)

[Sonar]

This sucks! Been there for 5 minutes and it happened again. Maybe we should just leave the chat whenever that idiot is around... I guess he wants us to read the shit he posts so if we refuse to he probably gets bored and stops.
Okay, it's official: I'm naive:o

[Dave]

I went there last night and it was friendly with no trolling. Maybe it depends what time you go there or something. There is already a solution though. You can create a chatroom within the chat and not tell the problem person the name of it. Then everyone chats without the unwanted guest being able to read your messages or bother you. It's a little inconvenient because you can't see when new people enter the main chatroom.


There is a box where you can type the name of the chatroom you wish to enter. This is made for people to chat in private without having to "send reds". You just name your chatroom something like "notrolls" and then private message the name of your chatroom to the others you want to invite. Everyone types in "notrolls" in the box and clicks enter, and it's just like regular chat.
The troll is left seeing all the names of the people in the room, but can't communicate with them or read what they are posting. It takes a little effort though, and it's not as convenient as just entering the chatroom and chatting.

Maybe whoever is posting the porn will get tired of it if people don't respond.

I haven't been there much except for last night so I don't know how bad it is, and with all the people complaining I guess it must be a problem. If people are willing to pay to chat there must be a problem.

If I pay to chat it better be some real good chat! :p

[Drew a swallow]

Just wanted to let all the 'right ones' know that I won't be coming into chat ever again. I made a further complaint to the oh so wonderful leader of this site to ask him if he was going to do anything about the paedophilic/death threat comments about my daughter. This was his astounding response to me -

"I've been spending hours researching it. What do you want me to do?
Install a new chatroom in 1 day? How do I even know who you are?

I find the items disgusting, but this is a chatroom, the person who says
these things are responsible.

You can do something. I see a couple options:
1. report to police. I will supply whatever evidence I can for the
appropriate request.
2. Don't go in the chatroom."

I'll leave you all to draw your own conclussions on that. I'll miss a lot of you from here. So goodbye, in no particular order to - Madame Barso, Reggie Pepper, Reggie Kray, Babydoll, Karen, Twinkle, Tinkerbell, Smiler, Elle Kari, Cheeky Lass, Lucky Lisp, Jackie, Laura, Sweetness, Walkers, Eva, Hugh, Lynne...Sorry if I've forgotten anyone.

Keep the home fires burning.

Drew.

[davidt]

You left out your 'complaint' -
---

Are you EVER going to do something about this?

Drew a swallow

--
then you pasted in some transcript of the chat, most of which is just people chatting and no evidence of any threats.

I already told you I was aware of the problem and working on a solution. How would you feel if you were spending hours working on something only to have someone (who doesn't actually pay anything for the service) send a message like that?

[Sonar]

Just wanted to let all the 'right ones' know that I won't be coming into chat ever again. I made a further complaint to the oh so wonderful leader of this site to ask him if he was going to do anything about the paedophilic/death threat comments about my daughter. This was his astounding response to me -

"I've been spending hours researching it. What do you want me to do?
Install a new chatroom in 1 day? How do I even know who you are?

I find the items disgusting, but this is a chatroom, the person who says
these things are responsible.

You can do something. I see a couple options:
1. report to police. I will supply whatever evidence I can for the
appropriate request.
2. Don't go in the chatroom."

I'll leave you all to draw your own conclussions on that. I'll miss a lot of you from here. So goodbye, in no particular order to - Madame Barso, Reggie Pepper, Reggie Kray, Babydoll, Karen, Twinkle, Tinkerbell, Smiler, Elle Kari, Cheeky Lass, Lucky Lisp, Jackie, Laura, Sweetness, Walkers, Eva, Hugh, Lynne...Sorry if I've forgotten anyone.

Keep the home fires burning.

Drew.

Drew,

Call me tactless but I find David's response very profound. It would take some time to install a new chatroom and he's probably got other things to do. But he offered his help when it comes to report this sick person to the police (what is the best thing you can do anyway).
Then again it's easy for me to say these things cause it's not my daughter. Otherwise I'd probably go mad or something so I totally understand you're incredibly furious and touchy and want him to do something... as opposed to nothing really.
I'm so sorry this shit happened.

Take care
Sonar

[realitybites]

I don't go into the chat room any longer for the exact reasons stated. But all chat rooms have trolls (psychopaths). If I want to hangout with psychopaths, I'll go into a chat room. Nobody is forced to go into Solo's chat room. If you choose to chat, you take the risk of being insulted--willingly.

David is not responsible for any of the content in that chat room.

Don't go in the chat room Drew. Once you are away for a while, you will wonder why the heck you ever continued to go in there. Take some responsibility for your actions.

[Drew a swallow]

I really didn't want to come back here, but I feel I have to defend myself. I was NOT innitially blaming David for anything! I merely asked if he was going to do something about the hideous things that were being said about my daughter. I defy anyone NOT to feel totally appalled if it was their own child. It seems to me that Mand and I decided to stand up to the trolls, and now its been kicked back in our faces. Mand and I have had lots of support from the 'right ones' in here. I've had lots of people say that they were astonished by Mr Tsengs tactless reply to me. I was only asking if he was going to do something about it. I didn't expect him to say to me 'how do I even know who you are?' Thats irrelevant. The point was that I was bringing yet more abuse of my daughter to his attention. After all, isn't that why the email address chatmoderator@morrissey-solo.com exists?

Oh and as for the 'take responsibility for your own actions' comment, well thats a stark reminder of how heartless some of you lot can be around here!

Livid from England!

Me.

[davidt]

I have already written in this thread that I would look into it and in the last reply (which you posted to the board) I told you that had been researching it for hours.

I don't mind you sending transcripts, that is welcome. Just the tone of your last email asking if I was EVER going to do anything was uncalled for.

[BobbyDazzler]

Davidt, Just close the chat down and bring it back when you get round to it. The trolls will move to pastures new and the regulars won't get upset by any more shit that gets posted in there.

[Morrissey the 23rd]

Part of the problem is that the trolls are regulars too. There are trolls who have posted or been mentioned on this thread for example.

Trolls are not unique to Morrissey solo. You'll find them in chatrooms all over the internet, although it must be said that Morrissey solo chat has much more than the average and that there are reasons for that, which I will mostly side-step in this post.

It is easy to post things in a chatroom under a guise that would not be said to somebody's face. This often results in very volatile conversations and emotions running high. I believe that it is best to ignore anybody who is being...a prick.

True, there are some trolls who come into the room in numerous names and the ignore option in Morrissey solo chatroom is flawed/limited. This is one of the improvements I'd like from David. To be able to block any number of people you wish.

It is a fact that the majority of people do not use the 'ignore' option. Worse still, they react and respond to the trolls.

Trolls thrive on causing conflict and getting attention. They also love others joining in to defend the victim too, so I believe it is best not to defend anybody in the room for that reason. Trolls come to the room for a verbal fight behind their anonymity, from the safety of their bedroom, behind software to hide who they are. There posts are often more hurtful than name calling and cursing, such as the posts made to Drew and Mand. The same person wouldn't say the same things to them in person.

It's worth noting that trolling is reduced as tour dates nearer. The trolls would rather you forget what they posted in their verbal fights with you, to reduce the risk of any physical fight at the venues.

I'm known to some in the Morrissey world as, The scottish dog guy. Blame Angela from MorrisseyTour.com for that tag. What has that got to do with this? Well, I have a dog. One of the basic premises in training a dog is that behaviours that are reinforced will not only continue but will increase in frequency and intensity. A very successful reward is the giving of attention. For example, dogs learn that coming to their owner with a sticks and stones results in being petted and played with. Dogs that were given a lot of attention when they first started that behaviour will bring you a ball for hours.

Trolls come into the chatroom with the intention of upsetting people in order to get the attention that they their mothers deprived them of. Their behaviour is immediately reinforced when the people in the room react to them. Their behaviour of trolling is reinforced.

My suggestion is not to pet the trolls. If you deprive them of the attention that they so desperately crave, their behaviour has no choice but to change. Remove the incentive and you remove the troll.

It isn't easy. I know. Somebody with the brain that has the need to troll is easy to beat in argument or discussion and it is tempting to take them on in a verbal. The problem is by doing so is that you are reinforcing the 'bad' behaviour. You need to ignore the troll. It helps just to imagine the sad fuck at his pc going more nuts because the much needed attention isn't being given. You know they lack brain. Why do you need to prove it to yourself?

The kind of posts directed at Drew and Mand were vile to the extreme and I can only begin to imagine how they felt and how difficult it would be to ignore. My fair share of vile posts have been received and I don't ignore them all as I should.

A lesson to all regarding access to personal photos should be learned by all. Password protect access and be careful who you give them to. Note, photos of me posted by girlunafraid then subsequently by others were taken by her and out of my control. Grim O'Grady did little to control and they both should be aware I have some photos of my own!

David was appalled by the posts made to Mand and Drew and they resulted in him planning, even before Drews' request, to have only registered users being able to enter the chatroom. As girlunafraid rightly said, it is easy for a troll to register, so this wont solve the issue on it's own. Girlunafraid also suggested blocking the offending users IP. This is something I believe David has begun to do when known. Users of the newer board will have noticed the change from the previous one. However, trolls will use software to surf anonymously and hide their IP. They would be incredibly foolish not to. I suspect that dealing with this issue is one of the further changes that David has planned when he posted that he will look into it.

My belief is that David had his reasons for the chatroom being the way it was and this is one of the areas I have decided to side-step in this post.

Based on conversations I've had with people on tour and observations from using the chatroom, if these changes had been made years ago, many more apostles and new blood would use the chatroom. My fear is the damage that has been done to the reputation of the chat, is not one that will recover quickly and many have been lost never to return. Each person who doesn't come to the room because of the trolling is a loss and that saddens me. It is also a fact of life that trolling will occur in internet chatrooms.

I doubt there have ever been more than a handful of major trolls at any one time in the history of Morrissey solo chat but the damage giving them animosity has been huge. They must be proud, unlike their mothers.

The scottish dog guy

[Oh my god, it's Robby!]

trolls are not real

[mauve21]

I'm just remembering back to the days of the 'Guestbook', which
became a quagmire of nastiness.
It was unfortunate that David had to close it down
and I expected that eventually the trolls
would get sick of being ignored or trolling each other.
However, that did not happen.
Anyone who had anything clean to say was made to feel
dirty by just being on the guestbook.
It would be a real shame if the chat room had to be closed as well.
I just don't understand why troublemakers can't have their
own troublemaking place to go to and leave us all alone!