Remove GIF option from sports comments!!
You get a vote from me for BANNING GIFs, and from just about everyone (other than trolls) who uses the sports comment boards. We should not have to be subjected to uncensored sexually explicit, homophobic, and just plain grotesque images when trying to follow and comment on our favorite teams. MUTE alone is NOT a viable solution.
There are a small number of posters who are abusive and repeatedly violate Yahoo's Terms of Use. We know that Yahoo knows who these people are, along with all their multiple identities and aliases. We notice when they are repeatedly temporarily banned, but Yahoo always allows them to come back later to continue their depravity. Mute is close to worthless when these trolls can create 10 new identities at the click of a button. By enabling these violators, Yahoo is driving away normal users.
Giving them the added weapon of GIFs is just the latest Yahoo mistake. They are now taking abuse to a new level, causing many long time posters to leave. One group of Dodger fans has even fled to the Canadian version of Yahoo to escape the onlslaught. (This version of Yahoo does not offer a mute option, but it is at least free of GIFs.) When I went to that site today, I found that one determined abuser (several different IDs, but all the same guy) has posted nearly 800 nonsense spamming messages to try to prevent normal people from using that board. If you report these messages, he just adds more. Please go take a look at the Dodgers/Diamondbacks game on 7/15/16 at ca.sports.yahoo.com/mlb to see an example of how bad this troll problem has gotten.
The way I see it, Yahoo has several options to solve this problem:
1) Remove the GIF option from the new Yahoo sports conversations format, or give users a way to block it.
2) Allow users to use the old Yahoo sports format if they choose, as was done with e-mail classic.
3) Make a greater effort to permanently ban (or at least ban for one season) the worst abusers.
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4 comments
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Big D
commented
The above commenter just sums up what the problems are and what needs to be done on the Yahoo sports comments boards. I only wish that posting here actually had/has some influence on how Yahoo runs its product. I sense that this does no good at all.
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Anonymous
commented
All the inappropriate comments and gif's in the sports conversations are posted by trolls whom are actually Yahoo employees who think it is funny to be able to control the sites with their childish behavior.
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Anonymous
commented
''unmoderated forum'' - Brent hit the nail right square on the head.
Years ago, the Huffington Post used moderators to ''approve'' messages on all of their boards (2008 Primaries). But that ran into problems too when certain moderators (of a large group of moderators) refused to ''approve'' (and then delete) messages that they didn't politically agree with. It was within HuffPo guidelines, but some of these moderators didn't care. They had their own rules, apparently. That's one reason why I left there and came to Yahoo.
But there may be another way to moderate the Gifs. When we search and click on the Gifs, I've noticed more often than not that Yahoo searches Tumblr. My suggestion to Yahoo would be that Yahoo create another (internal) site where Yahoo moderators choose and house the Tumblr Gifs that aren't so offensive in an ''uncensored sexually explicit, homophobic, and just plain grotesque'' way - and then have us only search that site - instead of Tumblr's uncensored site.
The advantage that the present search 'Gif' option has is that it's a central location, and central locations are easier to moderate. Properly moderate the 'Gif' central location and you moderate the trolls and the many Yahoo threads.
The images would be harder to moderate since it's open to the internet. Don't know what to do about that one...
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Brent Hamilton
commented
The new "conversation" section for games has degenerated to a trolling ground for preteens with gifs. If you want an example, pick your favorite Cubs, Dodgers or Giants game. Allowing gifs on an unmoderated forum is just asking for trouble. It drives discussions to other sites. Muting is only a temporary solution, given the number of accounts trolls like to use.