I have consistently maintained a personal policy not to ban people from any blog, or forum that I've ever owned, unless they are so abusive, they've asked for it. When I was at modblog, I banned only one member. I did it because he was pasting the same insult-filled remarks and other insults and harassing content in comments sections of numerous posts, plus in the chat box I had on that blog.
I do not ban people for expressing an argumentative viewpoint. Vox members that have known me through the years that go back to the modblog days might recall that I frequently disagreed with people. In those days, if they insulted me, I fired right back at them without straying from the subject, or topic.
As for the other blogs I've owned, I never banned a fellow blogger. None gave me any reason to do it regardless of any that disagreed with my statements, or my political and social views.
As for any other restrictions I've ever made, including material posted in my chat boxes, forums, and blog comment sections, they were to clear out spam and block the spammers.
That's it.
The reason why I mention this is because Ken accused me of banning him in a private message. Although, I suspected that he would put himself in the position where I would have first warned him (unless his conduct was so outrageous that it called for direct action), I was willing to give him a chance to prove to me that he is not a troll, but a person expressing his opinions (however twisted they are).
Here's the private message that he sent to me (Pay attention, Ken. The rest of this post is directed to you.):
"rants
don't rant at me,then block me i already
thought of you as a little girl with no sense of decency,now you have
just reinvorced it,..."
I did not block you, Ken. Either you are falsely accusing me of it, perhaps being a drama queen, of something else happened. One visitor got cut off by VOX when he attempted to leave a comment on the same post where you were commenting. You might take that as a clue.
However, I have recently discovered that I cannot seem to visit another blog where content is posted of interest to me, especially where I agree with the blogger's sentiments. I have seen you comments on every blog, except one, that one might casually describe as "liberal" which I have visited these past couple of days. They are usually insulting, belittling, and often harassing. If you honestly think that you can silence any of us through these tacticts, you are sadly mistaken. You are obviously creating greater and multiplying limitations on your ability to openly disagree with people on their blogs by giving them reason to ban you.
At this point, I am ready to ban anybody that treats me, or my visitors, abusively. I might first warn that person and give him or her one more chance, but maybe not. If I ban a person it is because that person gave me the impression that he or she wanted me to do it. As far as I am concerned, trolls and habitually abusive people want to be banned.
When I commented on your blog it was before I realized that your conduct is giving people plenty of reason to call you a troll and to ban you. The remarks that I made were in jest, because I mistakenly believed that you have a healthy sense of humor, instead of a twisted one loaded with hateful contempt. Yet, my second comment there (the one about right-wing conspiracy theory and the Dale character on King of the Hill) disappeared. I didn't throw a tantrum and fire off a private, or a public rant about it when I thought that you deleted it. I handled it as a mature adult does.
As for your attempt to carry our discussion from the blog, to my private message box, I'll paste that part of your message and respond to it in the next post. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you had technical difficulties here, thus was unable to continue the discussion. Therefore, I'll paste that either in a new post, or in the comments section for the post where that discussion began.
Comments
At this point, I am ready to ban anybody that treats me, or my visitors, abusively. I might first warn that person give him or her one more chance, but maybe not. If I ban a person it is because that person gave me the impression that he or she wanted me to do it. As far as I am concerned, trolls and habitually abusive people want to be banned.
I'm the same way - I try to be fair. I commend you and others for giving "ken" a chance. I did so as well but my primary goal on my blog is to create a postitive and welcoming community. I welcome differing opinions but rude comments get deleted and the person gets blocked immediately. I tell conservatives, etc that they can speak their mind but I want them to hit "reply" to me, not my neighbors.
"ken" is exceptionally trollish. I don't think there are too many others as extreme as he is.
I've known some trolls that were actually more extreme than Ken seems to be. Like Ken, they instigate hostilities by insulting people, then they play the victim when the flaming crap they fling is thrown back in their faces and sticks.
Ken is the kind that does not restrict his trolling to the public format. He trolls private message features, too. I suspect, Ken is lost on the concept of laws concerning harassment and libel. I wonder if he is aware that some of his pm harassment targets do not delete their messages and also know how to take screen shots of them with the browser and address bar in view.
"I'm loathe to cast aspersions, but his comments seem to be the product of a drunk person to me, the spelling and grammar are terrible to start off with, but as the abuse continues and he gets more angry, the spelling gets even worse and he makes no sense whatsoever."
My impression was of an angry and barely literate 14 year old kid with the emotional maturity of a child half his age. Obviously, some school subjects were not Ken's favorite. They might include English communication (grammar, parts of speech, punctuation), literature, and history. (He actually compared Barack Obama to Hitler and Nazis, when the Bush/Cheney cartel and their tactics seem to have been taken right out of the Nazi playbook.)
What you said about the possibility of somebody tracking him down reminded me of a movie. I think it was, Jay And Silent Bob's Revenge, or a similar title. Jay and Silent Bob tracked down and beat up every twerp that insulted them on the Internet. Their "list" of the names and addresses covered about as many pages as would fill a fat three-ring binder notebook.
He apparently (sort of) banned himself.
I've been wondering about something. When you blocked him did that prevent him from sending you private messages?
I'd had enough of ken when he harassed one of my neighbor's daughters. She was a 20 year old who had posted about her new tatoo. "ken" showed up, didn't even introduce himself, and told the girl she was fat and should take care of her acne. The blogger's dad (my neighbor) called him out on it and I was totally disgusted. Reading the post it was clear that ken is a drunkard. Explains a lot.
ken just drives people away and overtakes blogs where he comments. Better off without him. :)
ah the lies of the liberal child,first of all the girl your talking about,kirks daughter was not a member of your neighborhood until after kirk trolled me,and the girl in question knew it was a joke,and the fact that her mother knows that and still leaves a comment on my blog every once in a while is proof of that fact,
koa was the first person to troll my page with his ignorant wise ass remarks,and spelling hang ups,and of course after leaving his stupidity at my doorstep,he ran back to his own blog and quikly blocked any chance of a reply,
and snowy blocked me because he at first thought i was one of you liberals only to find out i had a mind that wasn't directed by the herd mentality.
like i said liberal children,demanding their way is the only way.grow up...
I counted members. As I recall, there were 25, now 26 if my memory serves me well. I'm surprised that there aren't hundreds, or thousands.
"Golden Dickhead Spotter", perhaps?
I saw that insane allegation, King Of Ankh! Were you as amused as I at Ken's audacity to criticize your spelling skills?
In Ken's poorly developed mind, he can spell and has mastered every aspect of the English language. That's why he believes that he is such an authority on the subject to deserve the privilege of pointing out your (imagined) spelling errors.
Now, to formulate an agenda to repel trolls. Anybody that can make it happen will deserve the Troll Repellent Award.
I blocked him fairly early on as well, but the putz hasn't bothered me by private message.
Btw, thanks for the neighborhood and friend add, Lil Treva. I appreciate it. =)
If you do ban Ken, you will not be the first conservative to do it. From what I've been told, there were others.