Editing our posts and blocking members in discussions we've started

Hi Pagal,Honestly, I don’t know what you’re talking about. But something rather odd about what you’re saying: your account doesn’t show any reports from you... On the other hand, you’ve been reported by other members about ten times since your account was created. Go figure...For 22 years, we’ve been told that moderation was better before... Stop it, please...Best regards,François

Hi Christelle,It was me (the founder of VoyageForum for those who didn’t know) who deleted the messages in question. Is it really better than before...? And it’s also me who trains the new moderators... Stop judging the moderation team based on a few incidents you’ve seen on the forum, when over 6 million messages have been moderated on the site over more than 20 years... If you see an infraction in your city, are you going to immediately judge the police for not intervening? Should the police see everything and intervene for every little infraction? Do you think we need a "perfect" and omnipresent police force monitoring every citizen all the time? At the same time, some complain that moderation isn’t strict enough, while others say it’s too strict... Best regards,François

No worries François, don’t get upset about this. It’s not every day I give a compliment 😄.

Hi again Christelle,If hundreds of people regularly gave you their little opinions on your work when you know you're doing your best with the resources you have and all the differing opinions (do we keep this message or remove it? do we close this account or leave it open? etc.), you probably wouldn't keep all your cool either... Do you think the person who posted the messages you're thanking us for removing is thinking that the moderation team did the right thing by deleting them? Definitely not... And they'll surely complain about being a "victim" of censorship... No matter what we choose to do with moderation, there will always be unsatisfied people and "victims" of the so-called "bad" moderation... while others thank us for the same actions.Best regards,François

Hi again Pagal,If it's so easy, then why not give us a few links to those posts or use the "Report" buttons? And in return, isn't it very easy to say "you're doing a bad job, but I won't tell you exactly where"...? Reports can't be sent with just one click without providing a reason (you have to write text before submitting the report)... Shows how hard it can be to be publicly appreciated by everyone... Best regards,François

1/ Because I don’t have time for this.2/ It’s as easy to write a reason as it is to click a button.

You do have time, though, to explain why you think the moderation is bad or didn’t catch everything. It’s true that it’s so much quicker to just click the “Report” link when you see a discussion going off the rails instead of complaining about it years later... Maybe it’s just harder to admit that not everyone who reads you actually likes you...

Hi Bruno,It’s definitely true that makes things easier for now... just like it’s easier to spot violations in a small village compared to a very large city. It’s also a matter of "luck," since there aren’t moderators online 24/7 (I could’ve not been working this weekend). Plus, moderators can’t read hundreds of messages in detail every day.So, if you see a post that doesn’t belong on the forum, don’t assume a moderator has seen it—or even approved it. That’s actually why we ask members to help us by reporting posts that seem inappropriate.I’ll admit, I’m tired of repeating all this for over 20 years... especially for long-time members.Best regards,François

No, no connection—I don’t have time to dig up the addresses. We were talking about the situation. That’s what we were discussing.Not being liked by everyone who reads me (which is normal) and being reported for an inappropriate message are two very different things. It sounds like you’re quite proud to tell me that some people might not like me, but sorry, I don’t see the connection...
Also, none of the messages you say were reported ever sparked a forum discussion like the ones we have about trolls.

Of course, no connection... My point is that while you want certain members to leave the site (oh, that poor moderation that lets everything slide...), others have wanted exactly the same thing about you, at least in some discussions.

Hello Pagal,
I just wrote you a long message and once again the page crashed almost at the end and everything was erased.
No matter what you say, you’ll always be wrong... Don’t waste your energy on that.
Have you been reported? I’m not surprised. You’re a brilliant guy in real life. You’re an ethnologist—qualified—, highly educated—at a high level—, very cultured, especially when it comes to anything related to India. Your interventions bother some people because of your knowledge, when you set the record straight on mistakes or nonsense that’s said, or the fake profiles that challenge you to provoke a reaction, to test how you’ll respond... that’s all. These days, being educated, cultured, intellectual, thoughtful is seen as a "flaw." You’ve never been insulting or condescending. So what are they blaming you for? Your bluntness, like me.Getting back to the so-called "troll"—there’s another word that should be used—I reported last year the guy with multiple nationalities, multiple aliases, sometimes a man, sometimes a woman, sometimes young, sometimes old. But *I* was the one who got scolded; *I* was the troublemaker because I made "too many" reports. Of course, every time this guy came back with a new identity, I reported him.I know this person in real life; I won’t describe his behavior here. It has a name. He claimed that at least 50%, if not more, of the members didn’t really exist—that it was VoyageForum’s admin creating multiple profiles to inflate the member count. Did he want to prove it to me? Or to himself? Or... something else... He even often wrote to himself, in a way, starting fake dialogues between two of his aliases. I could elaborate... I’d reported that too. But *I* wasn’t believed: *I* was the one causing trouble, *I* was the one losing it...As soon as VF reopened, he contacted me with the alias of a Belgian who seemed to know me, even though I’d never seen him, never interacted with him here on VF. In his last message before the forum closed, he was a "German who didn’t speak French well," or so he apologized. He’s recognizable a mile away by his style, his way of expressing himself, the recurring themes...He’s back now and intervening in tons of discussions with different aliases, even starting dialogues between two of his own profiles again. Oh, he’s active, all right! More power to him, as long as he doesn’t stir up trouble or sabotage a travel journal or any discussion. But he has his "favorites"—the ones he knows will react.As soon as he creates a new alias, I spot him immediately. He’s a special "case." He uses a VPN to hide his IP and create all kinds of aliases, nationalities... I know his real first name, his last name, the city he lives in... I’m not just talking nonsense. No, sorry, even if what I’m saying sounds very strange, I’m not paranoid... All I want is for the India forum to restart in a healthy, pleasant, intellectual way. It had really reached a high level of idea and culture exchanges. Not just trivial stuff and requests for hotels, taxis, and the like...For now, the guy is keeping a low profile... making more or less vague comments. As long as he doesn’t disrupt discussions, someone who also recognized him told me, it’s not a big deal.Personally, I’ve decided to ignore him, to pretend I haven’t noticed... But I’m afraid he’ll start "prodding" me again to get a rise out of me. He’s waiting for me to lose my cool and say something that’ll get me kicked off VF, like he did with Marcomarco...His ex-girlfriend told him he writes terribly, that his travel journals are heavy and uninteresting, that he’d never write like me. He didn’t like that at all...

Thanks Jean-Marie for your kind message. Anyway, you can’t reason with someone who doesn’t want to listen. Putting reports about frank and lively debates on the same level as trolls who create dozens of accounts to constantly disrupt discussions and harass people with private messages—that’s being in bad faith and refusing to see the problem. The evidence exists, but we don’t have time for that since it wasn’t the goal...What the Creator didn’t understand is that we love this forum, and our comments are only meant to improve it—otherwise, we wouldn’t have come back. The issue of "trolling" was a real problem here that drove some people away. It’s no coincidence that sites trying to fill the void left by VF (and failing) even made it their guiding principle, because it had become unbearable.

I had just written you a very detailed and thorough reply, and just as I was about to click on preview, it vanished—this happens every time the message is a bit on the long side.
Several of us have "reported" this to Mr. Bouchet (with a T, stop putting an R there) ;)I was telling you that I found in my archives the personal response Mr. Bouchet gave to my reports. I’d like to post it here, but I don’t want to get into endless arguments again. Basically, he said I was ranting and was a **** (the mojibake was fixed). He blamed me for making repeated reports, even though he had asked me a few months earlier to report every time our troll came back under a new disguise. There was a time when the troll was creating an incredible number of new aliases, and yes, I reported each one. But no, it was wrong—it was *me* who was ranting. We could have proven I was right, but it would have taken professionals, a lawyer, IT experts, a lot of time, energy, and money. I didn’t want to get into that. I preferred to stop writing, withdraw from the forum, like so many others.
Mr. Bouchet reproached me for being the only one making reports. And for good reason—people don’t want to get involved in drama. Reporting takes a lot of courage, on VF as in life. People don’t want trouble, so they pretend not to see or hear anything. Solenne40/Christelle, the social worker, won’t contradict me on that.Yes, we love this forum, yes, we love the exchanges with interesting and passionate people, yes, I love writing here. I know not everyone likes my writing style. People don’t have to read me, no need to crucify me. I also sensed a judgment about that in Mr. Bouchet’s message. Yet, over 67,000 page views on my travel journal... I’m not a bad contributor. I kept being read throughout all these years the forum was closed, and I didn’t even know it. So many people like what I write, and I’m happy to actively contribute to this forum’s dynamic. Happy to share with my readers.
When I saw him back after I’d barely written three words, I exclaimed: Oh no! He’s not starting again! But I wasn’t going to report him right after coming back, right after the forum reopened. I’ve already spotted him under several aliases. So I stopped writing immediately. I won’t make any more reports, I won’t make waves. I’ve decided to ignore him no matter what he writes. Just don’t want to go through that circus again. I just want to share my experiences in a friendly way.

So we’re told we *have* to report stuff, but when we do, we’re just overreacting. This mixed message isn’t going to make things any clearer...

No big deal... I’ll just let the river flow and chill in my hammock