Among forum drama which honestly is quite fun to be apart of, how do you handle members publicly arguing on your forum? Do you delete posts and and give them warnings, do you allow public arguing?
(This doesn't count the debate board where debating is kind of wanted. 😛 )
I never delete posts, however I will remove them. If a topic gets out of hand with members arguing back and forth, I send them all warnings. Then, I lock and move the topic. If it happens a lot, with the same members, they get an official warning and depending on the issue they may be banned indefinitely..
If they are arguing about with reason as in backing up their thoughts with facts I just let the topic carry on. However if insults are exchanged or vulgar language is involved then I lock the thread and send warnings.
I agree with Sharon. On my forum, if it's really out of hand and it isn't in a debate thread, the posts get deleted and each of the members get warned and the thread is locked.
Arguing and debating is one thing. Trolling is something all the more different. When name calling and offensive stereotyping comes into play, than its time to consider a list of alternatives with the members and the thread its taking place in.
I would delete all posts relating to the argument, and send all parties who were involved a PM warning of sorts. Depends how bad it is, though. Official warnings or even a temp ban could be on the cards if they took it way too far.
It depends on a level of arguing. If it is simply a discussion with no bashing I let it go on for a bit. Just because people need to get it out of their systems either way and if it is public at least we know what is being said.
If it is blatant bashing of other members or something we archive it, then PM them and just discuss it with them. 🙂 I usually message both parties of the argument because I think it is unfair to only message the person who 'started' it or something.
Nine out of ten times, arguing on a forum is bad. Generally, it runs off visitors and turns them away from joining a forum. Any arguing should be done via PM and not publicly on a forum. Though, that being said, I think that arguing in general can be avoided. While arguing through a private message avoids the audience, things can still get pretty bad. Not all forum software allows for staff to check PMs and would have to base moderating decisions from he said she said.
