Hi all,

I am just wondering whether or not SkS needs a "bore hole" like RC has.  For example, I have noticed that trolls have started frequenting SkS as its popularity grows.  Commenter Gilles is now trolling as we speak on the latest Arctic sea ice thread. Moderating takes time and is a thankless task, so perhaps the borehole will save time.

Or, if you have a history of trolling at SkS, perhaps you get flagged and lose free-posting rights, and all your posts go into moderation?  

At least with the borehole, they cannot say they are being censored-- the BS is all there for anyone to read who can stomach it, but at least it is not cluttering up threads and detracting from the science and creating the impression of debate when none exists (at least on certain topics).

Just some ideas....

Gilles is definitely becoming a bore.  I don't much like censorship, but once someone has had a number of polite responses and still keeps up the 'yes but' attitude they should be warned to stop.  After that, everything they post should go in a - publicly available - sin bin.

Beware also of people with names such as Dr. [insert name] PhD.  That is a red flag to me.  Nobody should be allowed to style themselves as such without proofs of entitlement.  Besides: if everyone started listing their credentials there would be no room left on the site for scientific content. ;-)

This may relieve your boredom:

http://www.science20.com/chatter_box/blog/albatross

enjoy! :)

Thanks logicman,  really enjoyed the poem and vid :)  The poem brought back some fond memories of my time spent with the wandering albatrosses.

I get the impression that you've also been fortunate enough to see a wandering  albatross flying up close?

Anyhow, back to the present, yes a "sin bin" sounds good to me.

Trolls!  Aaaargh!

Time to let off some steam with this whimsical reductio ad absurdum:

Cometh the science, cometh the troll.

Scientist:  Not all swans are white.

Troll:  EVERYBODY knows that all swans are white.  It is a well known FACT.  Nobody ever believed in black swans until scientist were paid by the British government to dip a swan in black ink and say they found it like that in Australia.  I mean - ha ha - Australia is hot, so white swans reflect heat and black swans die from heat stroke common sense tells you that its true.

Go on TROLL!  PROVE that black swans exist I dare you.  No fake photos.  No bogus "scientific" proof.  Give me a breeding pair of black swans its called an EXPERIMENT which you may have heard of and if in 30 years time evry single one of their young is black then Ill believe you but haha it isn't going to happen cause you cant produce any evidence cause there isnt any.

All people who claim that black swans exists are LIARS being paid trillions of dollars to deceive the public for the benefit of their paymasters the illuminati council so as to destroy democracy and establish a NEW WORLD ORDER with a one world government under permanent non-elected hereditary oligarchists who self-select from among their numbers in the form of a feudal system as it was in the Middle Ages and nationalize everything especially coal and oil and put huge taxes on everything especially coal and oil and destroy jobs and private enterprize and stuff and send us all back to the stone age.