Feel free to email me to discuss any moderation issues. We've made some good progress from email in this thread.mailto:wejo@letsrun.com
This thread went off the rails a bit with 1 particular poster hijacking it and trying to make it about one moderator so we have locked it.
Before I give my takeaways, if you have concerns about moderating, or posts, please report them or email me directly. We make it very easy to be heard at LetsRun.com and reach us. But if you sidetrack threads by discussing moderation, those posts will be removed and can lead to temporary bans as they ruin the discussion for everyone else.
But some takeaways. 1) Dealing with the problematic posters/troublemakers isn't easy but we need to make sure in dealing with them we do not go too far and harm the experience for other posters 2) The filters often flag people by accident. Exempt SC members from the filters at the very least. 3) Consider creating a toggle so people don't have to see "this post was deleted in a thread". In the posts where the trouble makers try and takeover, these notifications start to ruin the experience. 4) Consider moving some posts out of the main forum. 5) Look at limiting how often people can post in a thread. 6) Try and get a better handle on the use of VPNs by people posting, reporting posts, upvoting, etc. 7) I will actively monitor all of malmo's moderating and posts for the next week and give him feedback. We already actively communicate but some of your points and emails were helpful.
If this is accurate, it begs the question as to why law enforcement is not involved. I am not familiar with US law, but I imagine there is some form of restraining order that can be placed on Dahl preventing him from posting here. Notwithstanding the use of VPNs and associated anonymity, criminal sanction may be a sufficient deterrent.
I've been looking into it. Its actually easier than you think.
Did you find out how to do it and accidentally deleted the answer?
If this is accurate, it begs the question as to why law enforcement is not involved. I am not familiar with US law, but I imagine there is some form of restraining order that can be placed on Dahl preventing him from posting here. Notwithstanding the use of VPNs and associated anonymity, criminal sanction may be a sufficient deterrent.
Isn’t it obvious? They can’t. He’s behind too many VPNs and personas that you can’t ever definitively say it was him, even if you know.
Just like Kobbs knows he can be as offensive and racist as he wants, whoever is making the Deno posts can be as dumb and repetitive as they want, Jamin can clog it up with more poor me incel garbage or Russian propaganda, and on and on. They can’t actually stop it.
Generally the bar for a restraining order or similar ‘injunction’ is not particularly high. They don’t need to necessarily prove he posted illegal content. This is why I said “Notwithstanding the use of VPNs and associated anonymity, criminal sanction may be a sufficient deterrent” as it relates to a restraining order and the consequences that flow from its breach.
ive been ordainedby God to coach others. I plan on doing that the rest of my life on letsrun and at our junior college. None of my posts are meant to offend, they are intended to educate
...all of you are welcome to learn from me, but first you need to open your ears and respect and acknowledge my intelligence from the beginning. My days of proving myself are long long long gone and over. I proved myself many years ago when I got all of my graduate advanced degrees.
Through God's grace, we've been gifted Dahl's infinite wisdom.
Posters here seem to take this for granted. It's truly a gift from God.
Here’s a problem that I would like a certain nod to address directly and not passive aggressively: this mod deleting any post he doesn’t like and then banning that poster
You all need to retire that mod, though he is helping me with my goal of wanting to visit here less.
This site has far bigger problems than 1 guy writing "Coach Dahl" at the end of every post.
Lordy. It is long past time to shift moderator Mr Malmo out to pasture.
The racism, sexism, anti-semitism, anti-Mormonism, anti-whateverism etc., etc., etc., has become so pervasive on this site that I now have to do the double shoulder look-behind before accessing the message board in a public place or at home (I wouldn’t dare access this site from work). The Brojos should be embarrassed that they ever let this place get to this point. This used to be a really good place to discuss running. But hey, clicks are clicks right Brojos?
Individual users like Steve the Addict or the430miler are simple and easy to block because they use registered names. Ive blocked them both and that has resolved all issues for me with those posters.
Malmo however is a different story. He antagonizes and targets others and then instates blocks. This totally ruins any chance of positive user experience on this site. Seniority does not always rule.
Weldon, why dont you actually listen to your user base for once and correct this issue with the 1 sole moderator who is tarnishing the forum experience and forum quality for all of us?
You dancing around this issue is making you lose visitors by the day and its why professional runners roll their eyes anytime this site is mentioned.
You are going to have to choose between being overly-kind to an elder and still having a business. Make the right choice.
Instead of having one ongoing thread about moderation or tips to improve the forum, we should have a thread once a month discussing the forum for a few days. Have a nice discussion, then we'll lock the thread and do the same thing next month.
As always, we say the best way to get immediate feedback is to email us, but we're even reachable by phone.
This thread will be open at least through Friday. My email is
From my big-picture perspective (which is biased because i spend a lot of time dealing with bans etc) the things that bug me the most are: 1)The true troublemakers 2) The people who personally attack other posters and/or moderators 3) Spammers (but I'm putting those in the true troublemakers category)
But I see the same people creating problems, attacking each other, etc.
It really brings down the level of discussion. Disagree with someone's ideas, not them personally, is the way I see it.
Ultimately, I don’t know why you posted this. Will you make changes based on these comments?
I see no reason why you cant just let Malmo post here, just not be a site mod.
Really Weldon. We are exaggerating. Ole' Mal really is making people hit the exit doors, even faster than a devout Christian sprints for the exit sign during the 1973 screening of The Exorcist.
He cuts down others and is cutting down the sites reputation and credibility at an exponential pace.
we try and consolidate threads on political figures. But i've had people email me and complain we are defending Trump so i think threads from both sides are getting deleted.
Political comments by unregistered users drag this place down. Your 250,000 post Trump thread is your baby, wejo and rojo, and you wonder why this site has lost its focus and charm. Get rid of your baby.
It's my baby? what do you mean? I personally totally 100% ignore it. It's just a place for people to vent. Wonder if we should delete it every week and start anew. But for historical reasons, might be curious to leave it up. Maybe we do that monthly as well.
I'm not pretending to be Walter Cronkite but I personally believe people should be able to post about running without revealing who they are.
Sir,
If this is what you honestly believe, then you and I do NOT come from the same type of moral upbringing or cultural values.
This thread is a PERFECT example why very few people want anything to do with this website and how the founders(s) are apathetic and refuse to require registration and dont care about the sport.
Users with negative intention who come from bad families would have to spend an hour researching how to register, as would spambots.
I have a mental handicap called autism, and that handicap prevents me from understanding any type of sarcasm or hints or unspoken words that are not direct.
The reason that registration needs to be required is that it would mandate that everyone go through a process before being able to post, and that process would include providing your real legal name. This would make everyone responsible for the things they post, and it would also 100% completely eliminate bad-eggs on here that derail threads and make fun of other users like Greg or Jamin or Adultsintheroom. It would eliminate personal harrassment entirely.
About 99.999% of the time when 1 specific user on here tries to harrass me, I dont even understand what they are saying or what they mean, nor can I even pick up on the fact they are trying to make fun of my post about training, racing, etc. It usually takes a 3rd party administrator on here to email me and inform me that user was attempting to me fun of me. Registration would stop all of this, and it will immediately stop all unwanted soliciting and advertisements.
My personal understanding is that the site founders, wherever that is, do not desire anyone to be harrassed. Its not what they want for the site. Its just what their system currently allows because it's outdated. I spend alot of time think back to my childhood growing up in oklahoma. Some of the things people write on here about others, I cant think of anytime in my life where it "did something for me" or gave me some sort of "inner pleasure" writing something negative about another person. What im saying to you is that I dont understand what people who do this are GETTING OR GAINING from doing that.
All I know is that in addition to coaching and helping and mentoring others, I travel all around the world to run in different track and road races. Nobody else on here does that, especially not at my age. Im juggling a very very fine line with breaking 1:50 800 meters at 39 years old. All of my runs are done from 3am to 6am and I haven't missed a single day of running in 2,001 days. I also prick my fingers and measure my blood lactate levels. Thats how elite and dedicated I am.
When I read the material on this site, it's beyond obvious that NOBODY on here currently runs or is currently involved in the sport in any fashion. Its just a bunch of weird, bad-egg criminal people who shouldn't be on here. Hardloper and Skuj have both been very kind and loving towards me and obviously have a very very GOOD mom and dad. Both of those users have parents that done an EXCELLENT job raising them. Thats why they are so loving and kind and polite towards me.
When I look at what I am now as a runner, everything that ive built around this sport, the entire empire ive created out of passion alone, the comments on this forum simply do not make any sense to me. It does not make sense why any sane person would make negative comments towards me or hardloper of skuj, all 3 of which are beautifully innocent and gentle people with beautiful innocent intentions and beautiful innocent natures.
I do not believe the forum section should should continue to exist at all without requiring registration.
Aside from those 3 people mentioned above, Everyone else on here seems to be just old trash talking creeps who dont run, and just like yacking about Parker Valbys body.
I've been posting here for 21 years. My name is Barrett Dahl. I post here because its my duty to educate others. I also know that ive been ordained by God to coach others. I plan on doing that the rest of my life on letsrun and at our junior college. None of my posts are meant to offend, they are intended to educate. There are a couple posters here who have brought me into their mansion in Colorado made me part of their family. You know who you are. Im permanently part of the lrc community, and all of you are welcome to learn from me, but first you need to open your ears and respect and acknowledge my intelligence from the beginning. My days of proving myself are long long long gone and over. I proved myself many years ago when I got all of my graduate advanced degrees.
I would strongly prefer registration be required to post, but i dont own this business. Im absolutely not going to stop what im doing on here, because all of my knowledge would be left idle and not available for uneducated youth to absorb.
Coach dahl
This guy is literally wiping his dirty diaper in your face, wejo. I mean, he knows he is so protected by the owners that despite being BY FAR the biggest issue on this board, he has the audacity to make a lengthy post questioning your "moral upbringing," claiming to be "ordained by God" to post on this board, and claiming the he is the one being harassed. He knows there will be zero repercussions. Earlier today he was posting porn links; I guess they must be "God-approved" websites. And it is a fallacy that he only does this when banned - he has made a series of spam/porn links and then posted under his 430miler name within minutes. He is going to do it either way so you might as well ban him permanently.
As for blaming a specific moderator for deleting posts, this is just ridiculous. I've been on this site since at least 2004 and I can only name two moderators, malmo and John Wesley Harding. Both have stated their position as mods. I didn't even know JWH was a mod until maybe a year ago. Reality is, nobody knows who the moderators are or even how many there are. Are there 5? 50? 100? Nobody knows. The only reason people target malmo is because he is the only one most people know. Does he delete more posts than other mods? Maybe, maybe not. But if he does delete more, it is probably because he is retired and has more time available to read the board and will inevitably see more "delete-worthy" posts. There is no way of knowing if malmo, JWH, rojo, wejo, or some other mod deleted a post. Heck, the post may have been so offensive that 50 posters reported it and it was auto deleted.
1. Malmos overmoderation and personal vendettas are bringing the site down far more than ads or other spam.
2. Jamin King starts about 50 non running related threads per day, all of which stay up. Why is this tolerated?
3. The430miler singing his name with Coach Dahl, albeit annoying, is easy to overlook and its much less annoying than seeing 30 different "post was removed" tabs. The best way to handle Dahl is to ignore him, down vote, whatever. But when Malmo (and that's who is doing it) removes them and Dahl posts 30 more, even your A.I. cannot handle that load and it puts a serious strain on the other moderators and irritating asf to keep seeing posts removed tabs. Ive also noticed with Dahls posts that he never reposts the same material if the 1st is left up and he also never posts any other responses in that same thread.
As another user indicated, several annoying people on here arent going anywhere anytime soon. The eternal attempt to silence others like Armstronglivs, the430miler, Glitter Bomb Turbo, whoever; just seems redundant and annoying to the rest of the community. At some point, you need to just let a dead dog die and stop fighting these individuals just because they have egos or unpopular opinion.
The up/down vote function in general is a net-negative for this site, but you likely arent going spare that function, just like you very likely wont address any of our other concerns.
Someone reached out to me at World XC and said Jamin can't post on the forums. but you think he is posting 50 times a day.
Up vote down vote i personally don't pay much attention to as I think some people manipulate it and the goal isn't to be a popularity contest per se.
1. Malmos overmoderation and personal vendettas are bringing the site down far more than ads or other spam.
2. Jamin King starts about 50 non running related threads per day, all of which stay up. Why is this tolerated?
3. The430miler singing his name with Coach Dahl, albeit annoying, is easy to overlook and its much less annoying than seeing 30 different "post was removed" tabs. The best way to handle Dahl is to ignore him, down vote, whatever. But when Malmo (and that's who is doing it) removes them and Dahl posts 30 more, even your A.I. cannot handle that load and it puts a serious strain on the other moderators and irritating asf to keep seeing posts removed tabs. Ive also noticed with Dahls posts that he never reposts the same material if the 1st is left up and he also never posts any other responses in that same thread.
As another user indicated, several annoying people on here arent going anywhere anytime soon. The eternal attempt to silence others like Armstronglivs, the430miler, Glitter Bomb Turbo, whoever; just seems redundant and annoying to the rest of the community. At some point, you need to just let a dead dog die and stop fighting these individuals just because they have egos or unpopular opinion.
The up/down vote function in general is a net-negative for this site, but you likely arent going spare that function, just like you very likely wont address any of our other concerns.
Someone reached out to me at World XC and said Jamin can't post on the forums. but you think he is posting 50 times a day.
Up vote down vote i personally don't pay much attention to as I think some people manipulate it and the goal isn't to be a popularity contest per se.
Wejo, stop responding to Dahl spam. The poster you just responded to is one of Dahl's many sockpuppets. The fact that you can't recognize that, is a problem.
1. Malmos overmoderation and personal vendettas are bringing the site down far more than ads or other spam.
2. Jamin King starts about 50 non running related threads per day, all of which stay up. Why is this tolerated?
3. The430miler singing his name with Coach Dahl, albeit annoying, is easy to overlook and its much less annoying than seeing 30 different "post was removed" tabs. The best way to handle Dahl is to ignore him, down vote, whatever. But when Malmo (and that's who is doing it) removes them and Dahl posts 30 more, even your A.I. cannot handle that load and it puts a serious strain on the other moderators and irritating asf to keep seeing posts removed tabs. Ive also noticed with Dahls posts that he never reposts the same material if the 1st is left up and he also never posts any other responses in that same thread.
As another user indicated, several annoying people on here arent going anywhere anytime soon. The eternal attempt to silence others like Armstronglivs, the430miler, Glitter Bomb Turbo, whoever; just seems redundant and annoying to the rest of the community. At some point, you need to just let a dead dog die and stop fighting these individuals just because they have egos or unpopular opinion.
The up/down vote function in general is a net-negative for this site, but you likely arent going spare that function, just like you very likely wont address any of our other concerns.
End of thread.
I could see this post was currently banned.
Was a mod overreacting as many have been alleging? I click on the ban reason and I see the same ip address has been posting a link to legit pornographic spam. Why even pretend you are acting in good faith?
I just clicked a thread titled, Bekele running Boston, his first marathon on American soil to find it was deleted for the reason "pornographic content".
That would be wild if it were the case. Here is a way to improve: Give the actual reason for thread deletions. If the reason can't be found in the list of reportable offenses, don't delete the thread.
1) you can't have a screen name with someone else name in it so we should delete your post.
2) That is the thread where the 1st post had the pornographic content in it. It was a fake thread by one of the trouble makers trying to ruin the boards. That is the stuff I am talking about that we deal with all the time.
Was a mod overreacting as many have been alleging? I click on the ban reason and I see the same ip address has been posting a link to legit pornographic spam. Why even pretend you are acting in good faith?
Because he's Dahl. It's what he does, and always will do. Why do you keep responding to him?
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