The Mindset of a "Vandal"
Introduction:
Some of you may not be familiar with what the term vandal is. I am a supervisor on the website Wikianswers, which is basically like being an admin. To us vandals are not only those who break the rules, but those who intentionally damage the quality of the information on our website. In this post I will share the information I have gained about those people who make their sole purpose on the Internet to ruin a website's quality and give the Administrators and Moderators a head ache, and just flat out anger the regular members. This post will also give a little bit of information on how to deal with these members, I may be expanding on that section in the future as I think of new ideas and have more time to type them up and post them here.
The Cause:
What would cause someone to wish to intentionally decrease the quality of their posts in order to make a sad attempt at making a website poor quality? Most likely it is because they have felt excluded. Once a member of your website knows that they can not contribute HQP, and that they have given up on your website and your community they will begin making LQP. These users can damage the quality of your website very badly, as they no longer care about your website, or their account, therefore they have nothing to loose by getting banned. The best way to prevent about this type of vandal is to ensure that they can feel welcome in your website, and that there's something for them to contribute to, and feel that they are a nice addition to your website's community. However, some vandals have never even been to your website, yet wish to destroy it. These types of vandals could have problems at home, and somehow feel that if they make LQP they will somehow be punishing those who have been harming them. I can't say that I've had a lot of experience with these types, but there have been a few. There really is no way to defend against this, my best advice would be to hit the ban button.
The Aftermath of a Vandal:
After you have banned a user who has been making LQP, it's time for you, or another staff member to play "Cyber Janitor". It may be a daunting task, but if you care about your website and it's quality then you must clean up, or delete all posts or contributions by that user. Also be sure that the vandal does not re-register (most forums and websites already prevent against that.)
Thank you for reading a little collection of my thoughts on this topic. Please leave your comments in the replies, or any requests for other posts by me.
I understand this exactly. I currently manage counterstrikesoruce.com by myself and sometimes I get "vandals" that post about fake information and amongst other spam things throughout all the sections.
I have to spend hours clearing threads, posts and bans. However an IP ban stops for multiple registering but there are always people willing to just start it over again.
* Good thread.
(10-09-2010, 06:28 AM)Sam Wrote: [ -> ]I understand this exactly. I currently manage counterstrikesoruce.com by myself and sometimes I get "vandals" that post about fake information and amongst other spam things throughout all the sections.
I have to spend hours clearing threads, posts and bans. However an IP ban stops for multiple registering but there are always people willing to just start it over again.
* Good thread.
That confirms one of my ideas I have posted. They are probably vandalizing because they are getting "pwned" at counter strike and vandalizing your forum gives them some kind of revenge.
I usually destroy things because I find peoples reactions to it funny and unnecessary, and if you've never done it yourself then you'd never understand.
Making assumptions as to why people do it is pointless, there's no one reason someone does anything, there is hundreds of different possibilities as to why someone is "vandalizing" something.
(10-09-2010, 06:41 AM)Sickshot Wrote: [ -> ]I usually destroy things because I find peoples reactions to it funny and unnecessary, and if you've never done it yourself then you'd never understand.
Making assumptions as to why people do it is pointless, there's no one reason someone does anything, there is hundreds of different possibilities as to why someone is "vandalizing" something.
Actually there is a category for those kinds of people, however I didn't include it. That is the category of idiots.
To enforce my earlier point, I just logged onto the site again and I had 76 new posts of a gang of around 3 members spamming the forums to advertise selling medication and pills.
(10-09-2010, 02:19 PM)Thomas® Wrote: [ -> ]Actually there is a category for those kinds of people, however I didn't include it. That is the category of idiots.
(10-09-2010, 06:41 AM)Sickshot Wrote: [ -> ]I usually destroy things because I find peoples reactions to it funny and unnecessary, and
if you've never done it yourself then you'd never understand.
Making assumptions as to why people do it is pointless, there's no one reason someone does anything, there is hundreds of different possibilities as to why someone is "vandalizing" something.
No need to flame people, please follow the rules.
I was just explaining my point of view as to why people "vandalize" things, not all of them feel excluded, and hardly any at all do it for attention. Most of the time they do it because they see a misuse or abuse of power and want revenge.
(10-09-2010, 04:30 PM)Sickshot Wrote: [ -> ] (10-09-2010, 06:41 AM)Sickshot Wrote: [ -> ]I usually destroy things because I find peoples reactions to it funny and unnecessary, and
if you've never done it yourself then you'd never understand.
Making assumptions as to why people do it is pointless, there's no one reason someone does anything, there is hundreds of different possibilities as to why someone is "vandalizing" something.
No need to flame people, please follow the rules.
I was just explaining my point of view as to why people "vandalize" things, not all of them feel excluded, and hardly any at all do it for attention. Most of the time they do it because they see a misuse or abuse of power and want revenge.
I'm not flamming anyone, I'm just stating that people who vandalize simply for fun are idiots.
(10-09-2010, 05:22 PM)Thomas® Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not flamming anyone, I'm just stating that people who vandalize simply for fun are idiots.
Very valid point.
Thomas is not flaming, he has a valid point.