Ignorant newbies

[draggar]

Don't worry, I don't mean all newbies, just the ignorant ones who think they already know it all. I don't mind the ones who come in and want to learn and admit that they don't know much - those are actually the ones who become valuable members of the community because THEY LEARN.

I'm active on a domaining and web development forum and you can set your watch to the newbies who sign up and act like they know more than the people who have been doing it for years, including the pioneers.

You can tell who they are.

They list 10,000 horrible domains in one post and won't accept any offers below $5,000 for each one. I mean, it's like buying a used Kia Rio and expecting to be able to sell it for $500,000. It ain't gonna happen.

They then try to defend their prices "Oh but red house mortgage insurance polices for New York City" has xx,xxx searches a month so my redhousemortgageinsurancefornewyorkcity.info can easily sell for $100,000!!!

The next step is that they get into an insulting match - you can usually guess their age by their posting style then claim "years" of experience. Really? Then why is your entire portfolio full of domains registered over the past week? Oh, I'm sorry that all your previous seven-figure sales were private (yeah, right, very few that large are).

Then, they throw insults at the people who know the industry inside and out - even those who started it back in the very late 1980's and 1990's.

Then,. they offer a "super deal" - they'll take $10 off each domain (at $5,000 each).

Typically they'll also make their listing look like something that belongs in an eBay auction back in 2002 or an AOL message in the mid 1990's.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I believe those are actually noobs as opposed to newbs. On the forums that I admin at, we get our fair share of newbies, and we do get some trouble from them; but at least the newbs are open to advice and actually listen when told to read the rules. The noobs just ignore all warnings and go their own merry sweet way; that is, til the banstick is applied. Temp bans are handed out, until eventually, their rulebreaking, personal attacks, spamming and, occasionally, trolling earns them a perma ban.

[draggar]

The tough part is that the forum I'm a mod on is paid - everyone who can post has a paid subscription so when you try to remind them of the rules you get the whole SC "I'm going to sue", "I'm going to demand a refund" etc..

It's also funny when people threaten to sue because we won't delete or edit out a closed thread. What are you going to sue us over? Information YOU posted voluntarily on the internet?

[Lace Neil Singer]

My supermod had a noob threaten to sue her; she just laughed. We both did. Sue for what, may you ask? Why, the noob was suing over her justified banning cuz she spammed the board and didn't stop when warned several times. XXD Yeah; cuz trying to sue someone you don't know where they live or even their proper name is so not going to get you laughed out of a lawyer's office. XD

[Rapscallion]

Worst I've had was someone writing up a somewhat inaccurate claim on PFB on. They got into a fair slanging match with other people on that site (regular commentators), though I have to admit that I registered to point out a few salient facts.

These days I tend to take the view that we've got a good idea about what works and why it does, and if people want to play within the rules of the sandpit, we're happy for them to do so. If they can't, tough. I'll admit there's some people I'd have preferred to have kept around, but generally speaking if someone doesn't like it and goes off in a huff, we don't miss them.

It's especially delicious when people realise that as they're not paying for the service (through adverts or anything else), there's no hold they have over us.

Rapscallion

[Hobbs]

Raps, do you mean, someone posted about CS.com or your work?

[MadMike]

Raps, do you mean, someone posted about CS.com or your work?

If he's talking about what I think he's talking about, it was about CS. We had a member who seemed OK at first, but then just had some kind of meltdown and started flaming people left and right. We warned her several times, but she wouldn't let up and we ended up banning her. She even tried to sneak back in twice that we know up.

Then after she got banned, she went and wrote a complaint letter on PFB about it. Several of the regulars on CS posted replies, and they weren't very sympathetic towards her.

[Hobbs]

If he's talking about what I think he's talking about, it was about CS. We had a member who seemed OK at first, but then just had some kind of meltdown and started flaming people left and right. We warned her several times, but she wouldn't let up and we ended up banning her. She even tried to sneak back in twice that we know up.

Then after she got banned, she went and wrote a complaint letter on PFB about it. Several of the regulars on CS posted replies, and they weren't very sympathetic towards her.

Ah, so me if I had gone full-on crazy *twitch* What...?

Reminds me of the problem-member I mentioned back on CS. For anyone that remembers, he got banned finally (the officers and I finally just got fed up) and even the game mods came in to tell him to get out.

[smileyeagle1021]

Hobbs, all of us can remember problem members on CS. I can remember several, from the one who would post visitor messages on my page bragging about how he had just prank called my work, to the one who stalked me through CS (and later in real life as well), and of course several others that most people are aware of (like that girl who claimed someone ambushed her at the library where she worked... that was a fun one).

[Rapscallion]

If he's talking about what I think he's talking about, it was about CS. We had a member who seemed OK at first, but then just had some kind of meltdown and started flaming people left and right. We warned her several times, but she wouldn't let up and we ended up banning her. She even tried to sneak back in twice that we know up.

I seem to remember (can't be bothered checking) that she was even banned before by Mr Slugger and that I decided on an amnesty on the grounds that the databases were lost and if she didn't shit in the rose bed this time then she could try it again.

Needless to say, things didn't go well.

Rapscallion

[Hobbs]

I should iterate, I think, because I meant someone on another forum that I had complained about in the Off-Topic section. Namely, the advice section where I asked Mods for help.

Was this a recent member, or a "back in the day" member?

[Lace Neil Singer]

I seem to remember (can't be bothered checking) that she was even banned before by Mr Slugger and that I decided on an amnesty on the grounds that the databases were lost and if she didn't shit in the rose bed this time then she could try it again.

Needless to say, things didn't go well.

Rapscallion

It's funny how that nearly always doesn't work, isn't it? Out of all the second chances I and fellow forum staff have handed out for various reasons, only TWO out of the whole bunch have actually taken their chance and worked on being a decent forum member. The others threw their second chance back in our faces and ended up being rebanned. -.- Guess it's true that once a noob, always a noob; at least, in the vast majority of cases.