What does it take it get asked "Not to Participate on Fluther"?

Andrew explained some of his views in another thread (scroll down to ‘em).

You can probably extrapolate from there.

That said, it would seem to me, in my unlearned opinion, that some folks get carried away with self promotion, asking ridiculous questions for which there really isn’t an “answer” that can be provided… or providing ridiculous quips, multiple times in a thread, over & over, that just sucks the life and interest out of a topic. They merely seek attention, negative or positive… and as such, aren’t really contributing to discussion in a positive way.

Too bad, really. Contrary & complimentary perspectives are what many seek here. But those few just won’t shut their yaps.

I’m reminded of a Robert Benchley quote, that I often try to remember (and almost as often fail) to employ:

Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.

@rob; beautifully said. I would add that there are some new members who are related and who joke back and forth, some newcomers who are hostile, defensive, rude and nonsensical, and some who seem to be snorting something.

To beg for points is silly. And how many other words are there to replace “cool,” awesome,” “f*cking.” They are not offensive but boring and bring nothing new to the dialogue. Saying “hahahaha” does not make a remark humorous or original. Our Mother tongue is rich with possibity and variety.

Whereas, that lovely quote from Benchley lightens my day (which will consist of trying to reteach my very old mother to use a washer and dryer.)

I too love that quote.

This is a fair question. Andrew did indeed address the issue quite eloquently in his reply to this question. I’d like to expand a little on his comments.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, there has been a recent influx of new users to Fluther. This has caused a dramatic change to the collective. Most of the new users are wonderful and fit in with the collective swimmingly. But, as in any sufficiently large group, there were a few bad apples, who were bringing down the overall quality of the site.

At its very core, Fluther is a community of users. The quality of the site is indivisible from the quality of the users. We’re are currently working on some new ways to programatically diminish the influence of bad users on the broader community. But, in the short term, we wanted to prune the bad apples from the Fluther tree. Our biggest fear was that these few troublemakers might cause us to lose Fluther’s greatest asset: YOU. The members of the collective who make the site so great!

So, for the first time, and after much deliberation, Andrew, Ben, and I sent and email to these users explaining that we thought they weren’t a good fit for the collective. In all of the cases, there was no particular, single act that triggered the decision. They all had exhibited a pattern of behavior that, in our judgment, was antisocial, inflammatory, or disruptive in their interactions with other members of the Fluther community. We decided that the amount of harm that these users were doing would probably not be offset by any positive contribution they might make in the future.

If you have any questions, concerns or feedback about this decision, all the usual lines of communication are open: feel free to reply to this post or talk about it in the chat room. You can also send us private messages via the feedback form.

Not that it matters, but I would like to say that in the examples that I am aware of, I agree with your decision completely. I’m sure you did not come to the decision easily or frivolously. I appreciate the care that you take to maintain the atmosphere of the community here. thanks.