Birthers and/or trolls who join the Fogbow are allowed to post, but they're put in an area where you have the choice whether to read what they post, and whether you wish to respond to their posts.

There's a hidden, secret forum under "President Obama's Eligibility" called "FEMA Camp 7½". It's the perfect solution. FINALLY, the birthers know SOMEBODY who actually DID get throwed in a FEMA Camp.

There are also two special usergroups, "FEMA Campers" and "FEMA Staff & Visitors". To see which usergroups you belong to, go to:

User control panel --> Usergroups

You can't see FEMA Camp 7½ unless you join the usergroup FEMA Staff & Visitors (or unless you are a birther, in which case I'll put you in the FEMA Campers usergroup).

People who join the group FEMA Staff & Visitors can see the FEMA Camp 7½ forum and post in it. They can also start threads in that forum, use polls, and so forth. If you don't mind engaging birthers and trolls, join this group and have at it. the rule against personally insulting other registered members of the forum is not enforced here. However, the four-paragraph rule remains, even in FEMA Camp 7½.

The other group, FEMA Campers, is controlled by me. If a birther or troll joins Fogbow I will assign them to this group and remove them from other groups. A FEMA Camper has read-only access to the rest of the forum, just as guests do. They can't start threads in other areas of the forum. They can't post in other areas of the forum. They can read the other areas of the forum (with the exception of the Sports, Religion, and Introduce Yourself forums), but they can only post and start threads in FEMA Camp 7½.

This means that:

• If you're not a birther and you DON'T want to read posts by the birthers, don't join the usergroup FEMA Staff & Visitors.
  
  
• If you're not a birther and you DO want to read (and/or respond to) posts by any birthers we may have, join the usergroup FEMA Staff & Visitors and participate in the FEMA Camp 7½.
  
  
• If you're a birther and you don't post anything that indicates you're a birther, you can still join the usergroup FEMA Staff & Visitors and read the posts in FEMA Camp 7½. I have no policy against lurkers.
  
  
• If you're a birther or troll, you'll be put in the usergroup FEMA Campers and removed from all other usergroups. Then you'll be able to participate in FEMA Camp 7½ and you'll be able to read any other forum on the board, but you won't be able to pester the people here who don't want to read your birther or troll posts.

There are more than 100 members of the FEMA Staff & Visitors, plus me.

I joined. I do have the mod tools available, but I won't worry 'bout moderatin' it if that's our pleasure, rooster.

You joined, you're a mod, you need to moderate! If you're gonna read (or participate) in all the sekrit birther threads, it won't be a burden, will it?

I know you too well, Bucko.

I wasn't going to force you to join, but now that you're in ... you'll moderate whether I tell you to or not, if you see people trading really nasty insults back and forth. At least I hope so!

Worth a try. But I'd love to be able to read their stuff without the temptation to answer. If Birthers will get read-only access to the rest of the forum without having to join anything, could regular members get read-only access to the Birthers forum? It doesn't seem quite fair if they can automatically read our stuff and we can't read theirs without joining a particular forum.

Foggy

Are you eventually going to move Noz and Michaeln's threads to Birfers? I don't want to make more work for you but I am just asking a question to the group.

As you wish, oh great one.

Bububububut ... you're gonna have to deal with ducktape and the other folks who wanted me to ban silverbull8 on that one. Because if everybody has read-only access, then the threads are going to be on the "View active topics" list and "View new posts" and whatnot. The point is that people who really don't want to read the birther threads shouldn't have to see them at all. The point is to ban the birthers ... except to those who want to see and respond to what they're saying.

I suppose I could create yet another group: "People who don't have the willpower to read a post without responding to it."

But that's gonna mess up the board index page with the list of groups ...

Tell you what. Join the group and then put silverbull8 on "ignore". That would be REALLY screwy!

What the Rooster meant to say was.... he just set up a new science fiction forum. Or is it fantasy? Prolly need a group for each.

People who don't want to read birther stuff already have a tool for that - Ignore. Why set up a special playpen for them?

OMG. This is like walking in the door, having come straight home from rehab and finding that a family member left nice lines of cocaine on the coffee table, with a straw, as my "Congrats on kicking your cocaine habit!" welcome home gift!

... I haz no willpower against birfer-baiting ...

Nonmembers don't have an ignore. We are a public service now

I prefer to think of it as giving them their very own special sandbox to play in.



Sandbox Spektators?

Others will also see at least some of the posts when members quote them. Isolating the birfers to their own sandbox seems like a neat and tidy way of containing them. It also gives them a new game to play. Now they'll have an incentive to see how long they can keep us from figuring out they're birfers.

Great idea! This may be the result:

I think I'm lost and confused. Also test posting to see if I lost posting options.

This is a test of the CalperniaUSA posting system. This is only a test.

Lookit.

I'm TRYING to be nice. I'm TRYING to do what's best for the membership.

Remember me? The grumpy ol' rooster who scared Epectitus on Gretawire? The guy who got compared to cancer on Repubx? The guy who a bunch of people here begged to stop posting such aggressive, insulting stuff on other sites because I was representing the group here? I tell ol' Wifehorn, I can only be nice for so long, and then I have to do something BAD. And I can be incredibly grumpy and nasty and awful, when I choose. I can make the other Grumpy People seem like cuddly little teddy bears.

But here I'm trying to be on my nicest good behavior. I'm trying to do what's right. And this is a recurring problem. We've had others like silverbull8. This is why I spent a bunch of time amending the Rules and the Registration Agreement a couple weeks back, to say we don't allow "useless, discredited or false information". That gives me the right to ban these people without it being an unfair surprise. But that didn't solve the problem.

Number one, I really don't LIKE banning people. It always leaves a bad taste in my mouf. I've banned way more people than Justin ever did on PJ. I'm not proud of that.

Number two, y'all cain't agree on whether to ban anyone anyway. No matter what choice I make, some people are going to be disappointed, maybe even angry, at my decision.

We got a new birther member last week. But I had a nice weekend planned, with limited online access while I was gone. So I went away to go visit my dad for a nice weekend, and when I came back I had one group of people who were begging me to ban the guy, and another group of people who were begging me not to ban him.

Can you remember all the way back to how you felt about silverbull8 last night? Fine. Then here's the deal:

CHOOSE FOR YOURSELF.

If you wanted him banned, don't join the new usergroup. Now he isn't exactly banned, but he's banished as far as you're concerned. You'll never read another post by him. You won't have to read his threads. He's GONE, as far as you know.

If you didn't want him banned, join the new usergroup. Now you can read his threads and read his posts and if you choose to respond (or not), you can do that, too.

I'm giving YOU the choice.

I'm not solving your temptation issues.
You'll have to deal with those on your own.

I'd suggest that you consult the Shrinky Lady (and pay her for the therapy) but look up.
She says she's got temptation issues of her own. She's no help to you now.

If you don't like this solution, por favor suggest a better one. I'm always open to suggestions.

I'll join that group. Can we get our own color?


Of course, that's gonna force us to answer that pesky "what color is batshit" question....

I like the solution. I almost exclusively use the "view new posts" to browse the forum and this works well for me.

This is targeted at the subset of birthers: ctrl-v trolls/spammers. There was a recent outbreak over the weekend .

Me too. I know what threads I've posted in and am interested in keeping up with. 99% of the time I have absolutely no idea which section of the forum these threads call home.

Ditto - I like the solution, too! If y'all want to play with birther trolls, ok by me, just as long as it stays out of public view and doesn't screw up or drag down the board for the rest of us.

Thanks. The post made a lot more sense once I followed the bread crumbs

Thank you Foggy, I think this is a good solution.

Agreed; a great compromise.

I agree banning should only be for extreme cases; with each banning, we inch ever closer to the moderation wall at Taitz's, Apuzzo's, Donofrio's, P&E, etc. that we mock.

I also agree Noz and MichaelN (and a few others(?), IIRC) should be reinstated -- as "birthers."

Good work Foggy - I likes your solution