How to notify MIRT about a potential MI, troll

[uppityperson]

Last edited Fri May 29, 2015, 02:54 PM - Edit history (1)

If you see a troll, a MI, or serve on a jury and think MIRT should get notice you have a couple options to let them know.

1. If a post is hidden by 4/3 or more of a jury and the poster has under 100 posts, MIRT will get notice. If a post is not hidden, they will not. If the vote is Leave, MIRT will NOT get notice.

Simply writing in the comments things like this and leaving will not necessarily get notice to MIRT unless enough others vote to hide or someone sends a team member a pm.
"If it's a troll leaving then the troll will be dealt with by MIRT."

2. Send a MIR team member a message. There is always a link to the current team in Announcements forum.

Thank you.

ETA, MIRT takes care of those under 100 posts so for those worried about trying to get rid of long term DUers, that is up to Admin.

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Well said!

[NYC_SKP]

5. I concur! Well said!

I have friends on MIRT!

[arcane1]

9. I've said it before: Serving on MIRT renewed my faith in DU

[Kelvin Mace]

2. Okay

could you translate the abbreviations for those of us playing the home game?

[arcane1]

7. Sure! MIRT = Malicious Intruder Removal Team

The trash taker-outers

[Kelvin Mace]

12. Thanks!

[Rhiannon12866]

15. Here's more information, if you're interested:

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/?com=modsystem#mirteam

[uppityperson]

11. Sure, sorry. Here you go, with links! Malicious Intruder Removal Team =MIRT

MIRT is Malicious Intruder Removal Team, part of DU's moderating system.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=modsystem

The Malicious Intruder Removal Team (MIR Team) is made up of discussion forum members who volunteer to serve. Their role is to keep the discussion forum clear of conservative trolls, spammers, and other undesireables. MIR Team members cannot serve for more than 90 days at a time. Members must meet certain criteria before they are permitted to serve on the MIR Team. For more information see the Malicious Intruder Removal Team section below.v

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=modsystem#mirteam

About the MIR Team

The Malicious Intruder Removal Team (MIR Team) is empowered to revoke the posting privileges of people who show up at DU with the intent to disrupt. This includes but is not limited to conservative trolls, spammers, and the like.

The DU Administrators have deliberately selected the phrase "malicious intruder" instead of the more common term "disruptor," because we feel the term "disruptor" has become so broadly applied that it has become essentially meaningless. For reference:

ma·li·cious adj. Characterized by malice; intending or intended to do harm.
in·trud·er n. One who intrudes; one who thrusts himself in, or enters without right, or without leave or welcome; a trespasser.
The MIR Team does not have blanket authority to enforce DU's Terms of Service wherever violations may occur -- that is the role of the Administrators. The narrowly-focused job of the MIR Team is to protect our members by removing malicious intruders.


...(more details at link)

[Kelvin Mace]

13. Thanks for the links

[Hekate]

3. KnR

[hrmjustin]

4. Pleasure serving on mirt and with you.

[arcane1]

6. Alerting!

[greatauntoftriplets]

10. Hiding! Send it to MIRT!!111

[Rhiannon12866]

8. Excellent summary! Thank you!

MIRT can't do the job without the help of members and juries. If you want MIRT to see something offensive - vote to hide the post!

[Omaha Steve]

14. I'm alerting on this

[onehandle]

16. They haven't caught up with me yet. nt

[leveymg]

17. Guess the 5th Amendment protection against Double-jeopardy doesn't apply to DU jury decisions?

Last edited Fri May 29, 2015, 04:12 PM - Edit history (1)

There are already too many frivolous alerts and cases of clear Jury System Abuse. Doesn't this recommended practice of alerting MIRT despite the fact that a post has survived a Jury decision only exacerbate that problem?

I admit that there may be extraordinary cases where Admin should be brought it, even if a post survives, but do we really want to give MIRT the power to override a DU jury?

[uppityperson]

19. MIRT can not override a DU jury. They are different things though work together at times.

Even Admin can not override a DU jury and they are most powerful of all.

Jurors rule on Community Standards.
Hosts rule on Statement of Purpose of a group or forum.
MIRT takes care of Malicious Intruders, spammers, frequent flyer zombie trolls, conservative trolls, new members.
Admin is part of MIRT, oversees, ocassionally reviews Host and MIRT decisions and deal with long term members.

Instead of utilizing a single group of all-powerful moderators whose job is to handle every aspect of forum moderation (deleting posts, locking threads, banning troublemakers, etc.), we recruit different groups of people to handle different pieces of the system.

DU Juries are made up of discussion forum members who have opted to allow themselves to be selected at random whenever a Jury is needed. Juries handle potential violations of Democratic Underground's Community Standards. For more information see the DU Juries section below.

Forum and Group Hosts are discussion forum members who volunteer to serve in a particular forum or group. Their role is to deal with posts which may violate a particular forum or group's Statement of Purpose. Forum hosts cannot serve for more than 90 days at a time. Group hosts may serve indefinitely. Members must meet certain criteria before they are permitted to serve as Hosts. For more information see the Forum and Group Hosts section below.

The Malicious Intruder Removal Team (MIR Team) is made up of discussion forum members who volunteer to serve. Their role is to keep the discussion forum clear of conservative trolls, spammers, and other undesireables. MIR Team members cannot serve for more than 90 days at a time. Members must meet certain criteria before they are permitted to serve on the MIR Team. For more information see the Malicious Intruder Removal Team section below.

The DU Administrators oversee the operation of the website. They enforce the website Terms of Service, occasionally review decisions made by the MIR Team or Forum Hosts, and deal with long-term members who cause problems. There are three Administrators and they can be contacted here.

[Gormy Cuss]

28. Here's the problem: the jury system does not have a direct call button for MIRT.

That MIRT only is notified when the jury hides the post suggests that by design jurors aren't to consider whether the post was made by a troll or MI.

I've served on enough juries to see that in practice jurors DO want this functionality.

[uppityperson]

29. Jurors rule on Community Standards, MIRT on trolls. Jurors aren't to consider

whether or not the poster is a troll but instead whether or not that particular post meets community standards and we've all seen newbies and old time DUers post sketchy stuff. If you are a juror and think they are a MI, troll, but the post is not enough to hide, then don't hide the post but please do send a pm to one of the team members.

Commenting, if you don't hide, "not enough to hide but will leave to MIRT to deal with" without notifying MIRT by a pm basically says MIRT is clarivoyant. Which I don't think is true. Not that I've noticed at any rate.

If the post is not bad enough to hide, don't hide. But don't assume MIRT will take note of the poster or post unless they are notified.

I agree that it would be nice to have the ability to directly contact MIRT, which is why Admin posts the list of team members in Announcements forum, though you have to look them up individually on your own. It's a pain to have to do that, hoping that the individual is online also.

[Gormy Cuss]

31. Right, thus jurors shouldn't base their votes on whether MIRT should look at the poster

and yet based on some comments I've seen some may be doing just that, voting to hide proactively because the poster smells funny. I've also seen alerts calling the poster a troll and asking jurors to hide so that MIRT would be alerted.

A MIRT alert button would be a more direct way to handle it.

[jeff47]

30. They indirectly do. It's the hide button.

A hidden post can trigger a notification to MIRT.

[hrmjustin]

20. We can't overturn a jury verdict.

We only ban trolls under 100 posts.

[d_legendary1]

18. I had no idea what MIRT was until I read this.

Rec. and thanks for the info.

[McCamy Taylor]

21. But I hate to "narc."

I don't have anyone on ignore, either.

[uppityperson]

22. There is a frequent flyer who blasts through with really nasty crap

think of all the slurs you can and she has posted more and worse. There is one who posts death threats also. If you get pulled for jury duty on one of those and leave it, you are saying it is ok to call people those words, to threaten someone and wish them to die in grusome says. An alternative is to not serve on juries, if you aren't able to judge something like that.

[7962]

25. Seems as though someone like that would be dropped for good.

I dont care what I disagree about, I'm not going to wish you dead! Thats ridiculous.

[uppityperson]

26. They change ip addresses, been banned thousands of times

They need new hobbies.

[jeff47]

32. Google, yahoo, MSN, etc. will hand out infinite email addresses.

And they produce enough "legitimate" members that the domain can't be blocked.

Your IP address comes from your ISP, and likely changes frequently. Banning the troll's IP only works until they get a new IP. And at that point, a "legitimate" member may get the old IP.

There really isn't a way to keep someone out forever. The only thing to do is "pull the weeds" constantly.

[lpbk2713]

23. I tend to think the same way.

If a poster is bad enough they will eventually get their due without my intervention.

[jeff47]

33. Then go into your profile and turn off jury service. (nt)

[MADem]

35. Then don't "intervene" at all. If you don't want to use your judgment, no one is forcing you to do

that. And that means no one is forcing you to serve on juries, either.

If you vote to not hide every time you serve on a jury, you ARE intervening, even if you don't realize it.

[7962]

24. +1

[demmiblue]

27. What the hell, targeting us Michiganders...

though I am a troll because I do live under the bridge (the Mackinac Bridge).

[Jackpine Radical]

34. Eeder a Yooper er sumpn dam closta wun, eh?

[ismnotwasm]

36. K&R

[Babel_17]

37. Thanks, just quoted it

[uppityperson]

38. Wow, how did you find this archived thread? This is funny. And you are welcome

[Babel_17]

39. I used the site search and this thread was near the top

Just like you said should happen, MIRT took care of a low count poster who was trolling for laughs.

MIRT's response was funny.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1604244

[uppityperson]

40. (T)HANKS

That was a great reason for a weird troll.