[wp-forums] What's with all the Bozo's?

[esmi at quirm dot net]

on 16/05/2014 10:02 Josh Lobe said the following:
> I've looked back through prior posts... and didn't notice anything
> immediately obvious.
> I mean... a couple of these folk seem like genuine people.

Did you check deleted posts as well?

> What's the threshold for a bozo?
> I mean, I'm sure harassment, solicitation, etc... qualifies.
> What about a genuine b-fest?  A vented frustration towards a developer;
> or WP in general?

There is no hard & fast answer because the gamut of "I'd really like to 
keep an eye on this poster" is too wide.

If it's b-fest or venting frustration in a negative or aggressive way, 
I, personally, would probably bozo the poster but also try to join the 
topic and see if I can get the bozo'd poster to try some deep breathing 
and a short, self-imposed", time out to cool the emotional temperature. 
I'd then keep an eye on the topic and see if the discussion showed any 
signs of improvement. If the bozo'd poster did calm down (and some do), 
I'd probably remove the bozo flag and leave the topic to continue 
normally. Problem is - some posters don't come back again for days or 
weeks and the bozo tag ends up being permanent.

> I don't want to bozo anyone... don't have the authority, anyways.
> I'm just wondering if there isn't a 'glitch' somewhere in the system...

I don't think there is but then I'm of the opinion that, if you stick 20 
people in a small room, at least one of them will be a problem to the 
other 19. Applying that vague 5-10% rule to a database that currently 
contains almost 7.5 million users and you're going to get quite a few 
"bozos". :-)

Mel
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