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I don't flag shit here. My posts could very well be flag-worthy. I think the most effective way to show your disapproval is to say it in the thread and explain why the post is bad. — L'éléphant

To clarify.
I am not in the business of post quality control.
I wouldn't know where to start, even if I wanted to. That is the job of the mods.
I don't flag any old shit and for sure my posts could be flagged for that too. ( I tried once to flag my own but the system wouldn't let me...so I deleted it! )

That isn't my concern.

My main flagging experience came after a prolonged effort by myself and others doing exactly what you suggest, to no avail. This was some time ago.

The mods aren't all-seeing, especially in threads of little interest to them.
Flagging a single post is unlikely to meet with any action. Perhaps a deletion.
However, a consistent pattern of trolling and nasty behaviour needs to dealt with, in my opinion.
And that is only apparent after posters in different threads use the flag function and PM.

I have nothing but admiration for excellent posters with knowledge and experience who correct any misinformation and misrepresentation.
In fact, it could be argued that there is a need for trolls.
All the better to set things straight.

After any flagging, I am either told that it isn't warranted or that action will be taken.
For example, the mods are now aware and will monitor the behaviour.

As for any obvious:

place is going downhill fast at the moment.
— Wayfarer — Amity

Then, the mods should already be aware...
That's why I asked @Wayfarer :

That's easy to say Wayfarer - can you point to a particular problem?
It's not easy to fix if only a general complaint. — Amity

Thanks for giving me the chance to explain further.
We all have different strategies.
As a matter of interest, the person whose posts I and others engaged with and flagged is still around.
Still being monitored.
I no longer engage. Haven't done since that time. But others do.

Thanks for listening.

I mentioned it to one of the mods/admins. Taking a break to concentrate on professional development for a while.

Thanks for the reply. Best wishes. Enjoy your break :smile:

Okay, well put.

In fact, it could be argued that there is a need for trolls.
All the better to set things straight. — Amity

This is a philosophical stance. Good catch.

I am dissapoint

I came in here browsing while having coffee and this one resonated with me

place is going downhill fast at the moment. — Wayfarer

While I realize things in America are pretty shitty I never thought I would be blamed for another person's lack of education or intelligence. Yesterday I had it happen twice in a single thread. A thread about intelligence. One of them was outright rude and abusive while the other was apologetic about how they sounded.

You see what I mean? Multiple people arguing about the semantic meaning intelligence but not the meaning of the thing, the meaning of the bloody words, and hostile to bettering their approach through education because it's too much damned work.

I am not kidding, I threw up. I got up, walked around for a minute, and the wave of nausea hit me while standing in my kitchen. I barely made it to the trash.

How the fuck have we fallen so far as a people?

How can one come to a place started by a man who argued against assumed meaning and taught the man who taught the father of science and be confronted by people so entitled and arrogant they they think knowledge is an assault on their privilege?

I just can't bear it.

I'm incredibly overworked and came here to decompress and now I want to offer my services to write an algorithm to prevent morons from posting just because I'm so sad right now.

I want to offer my services to write an algorithm to prevent morons from posting — SkyLeach

I'm interested.

Yeah... I have a design for how to build it but it's a really complex program and I don't have time. I'm working about 120-160 hours a week right now (long story).

Essentially it's like an IDE linter but uses semantic and sentiment analysis and NN heuristics to identify logical fallacies (especially direct and passive ad hom) as well as other warnings and flags and then requires that the writer pass the linting test before posting. Also the linter would need a process-based Kubernetes cloud to run the training data. I also don't have the training data yet, but I suppose the post history from the bbforum backend to this site could work well.

Good luck.

I'm incredibly overworked and came here to decompress and now I want to offer my services to write an algorithm to prevent morons from posting just because I'm so sad right now. — SkyLeach

Think you are too late mate, they are all around us. They come talking sweetly and seduce the minds of the smart and brave so that they become blathering idiots. Don't trust anyone, anyone of the posters here might suck up your intellect. :wink:

Imagine a world in which everyone is a moron according to someone else. :chin:

Imagine coming to a philosophy forum in a world where even common-man wisdom like...

to assume is to make an "ass" out of "u" and "me"

has been forgotten.

or... imagine the world of "Cars" where every junker on blocks thinks it's a racecar just because its horsepower is close (relatively) to the horsepower of a racecar...

we don't really have to imagine, however. We can just watch "The Walking Dead" because even though the dead are destroying society and the world the people who aren't dead are still screwing up by the numbers because they have their heads up their asses

But hey, it's cool right? We don't need to stop hoards of junkers or entitled kids or zombies from destroying the things we love. We can just ... IDK... believe it's all gonna be OK because mamma said we were special when we were kids and everyone deserves to take our toys and break them.

Imagine a world in which everyone is a moron according to someone else. — Noble Dust

In the future, anyone who is famous for as long as fifteen minutes will become a national treasure.

Simple grammar, spelling, paragraph, formatting and length checks can spot most morons. That's what we used to use, a certain number of such mistakes would cause the post to report itself to the moderators. Factoring in the age of the account and the number of posts they make per day helps too.

Given the state of AI language processing today, if you can write code that actually understands posts well enough to identify the types of arguments/fallacies being made the majority of the time, you'll be wealthy beyond your dreams.

Given the state of AI language processing today, if you can write code that actually understands posts well enough to identify the types of arguments/fallacies being made the majority of the time, you'll be wealthy beyond your dreams. — Paul

There has been a lot of growth in this space (because of funding and interest). See some of what is on github.

Yes, if you can create what I'm talking about and secure the IP and run a business you could probably turn it into good money. There is a lot more time and effort around that than it sounds, however.

Let's just say that conn artists have made anyone trying to get funding for this kind of venture require things I don't personally have, one of which is personal wealth and the other is the time that comes from that wealth.

It's not so much what is possible as what is probable.

I want to offer my services to write an algorithm to prevent morons from posting — SkyLeach