AOL has a system of warnings, whereby if someone says a rude word like "pee-pee" in a chat or instant message session, you can click a button and warn them. If someone accrues enough warnings, they get temporarily or even permanently banned from AOL (why this is considered a punishment, I'm not too sure, but anyhoozle I digress...)
Perhaps each user of this fine website could have a similar facility for other users to send them warnings if they do something wrong, with the total being added up and used for punishment. In order to customise this for the halfbakery, the appropriate graphic would be slapping the user with a wet fish. Or a wet croissant, which is also nasty.
A possible refinement would be to require all halfbakery users to connect to their PC a piece of hardware containing a wet fish and a firm spring before they could post an idea on the site.
Additionally, to punish the user further, the warnings could be displayed in a long-winded form every time they log on or view a page, as a series of random insults. For each warning you received, you would have to scroll past a questioning of your intellectual mettle, manhood/womanliness, physical attractiveness, etc, before you could post a new pant-pole idea. So someone with a large number of warnings may have to read several thousand words about how they enjoy the company of goats. Not to mention the time spent waiting for this to load.
As a final torture, the more warnings you got, the lighter the colour of text on the webpage would be, making it increasingly hard to read the halfbakery. This would save banning evil users from the bakery, as they would be unable to read it.
I don't know, this is probably a stupid idea (being as it's stolen from AOL and all), so warn away!-- pottedstu, Jul 05 2002 how about just ignoring them? http://www.halfbake...tupid_20_22ideas_22 [mihali, Jul 05 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004] Yes, anything! I'd almost use AOL myself if it would rid the world of these null-witted imbeciles.-- angel, Jul 05 2002 As a potential victim of people like waugs and unabubba, I would be a bit nervous about a wet fish on my monitor, and the PDA version would be a trifle inconvenient (a sardine, maybe ?), but if it lowers the overall drivel content I too will vote for it.-- 8th of 7, Jul 05 2002 Mush as I agree with your sentiments, isn't this a 'punish all people who do x' idea?-- -alx, Jul 05 2002 -alx: Technically, no. It's a "give people the means to punish people who do X" idea. It's not actually punishing them. The difference , if you will, between "Special Gun For Shooting Roadhogs" (which I think would fit within the halfbakery remit) and "Shoot All Roadhogs" (which wouldn't).
I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong <Ducks smartly to avoid salvo of wet fish>-- 8th of 7, Jul 05 2002 That sounds suspiciously like the "guns don't kill people, people do" argument...-- -alx, Jul 05 2002 Jeez, why all this "warning" and "marked-for-deletion" claptrap? If they're trolls, just boot their sorry asses out of here.
(Wet fish for you.)-- DrCurry, Jul 05 2002 -alx: Correct, but that is very deep moral and ethical water. You can get into a long argument about the difference between a weapon (i.e. gun) as opposed to a tool (i.e. knife) which has many legitimate non-weapon uses but is capable of abuse at the behest of a directing human mind. I don't think that this is the right forum for that discussion. In hindshight I regret sugesting the "Roadhog gun" analogy. Suggesting a method of punishment or retribution is not the same as suggesting it be used against certian individuals. C.F. the flame war that erupted over my "Brain swap punishment" idea ....
Have you got a better idea ? If so, please post it.-- 8th of 7, Jul 05 2002 I have no better idea. If a user consistently abuses the site then the current system sees them off. If an idea is inappropriate, the current system sees it off.
As much as anything else, what would there be to prevent a group of trolls (for they seem to appear in packs) - or just one user with multiple accounts - from targeting a user out of spite?-- -alx, Jul 05 2002 -alx: Entropy ?-- 8th of 7, Jul 05 2002 -alx: um, yes this is a rant/punish all people idea, and not totally practical. I will probably delete it once I am able to get some beer tonight and calm down. But until then, let us rant on!-- pottedstu, Jul 05 2002 this problem crops up every once in while, and after a few days it clears right up. the trick is to ignore all these stupid trolls, "ideas", and multiple personality disorder cases. i know it can be difficult to keep a witty response to yourself, but be the bigger person and don't feed the trolls! jutta has dealt with this before, by blocking users, but the best thing we can do to help her is to let these stupid "ideas" fall to the bottom of the pile where they belong.
see link.-- mihali, Jul 05 2002 random, halfbakery