The amount of trolling, flaming and spamming on this website is amazing

We do need improved moderation. There have been an increasing number of complaints like yours lately, I've noticed. e.g. this one and more, easy to search for if you want to find them.

I think that one of the solutions is adding the "Mark as (offensive, spam, etc.)" option next to shouts, so users can mark the offensive ones, and moderators could review and delete them, if necessary. If one user, for example, posts 10 offensive shouts, he gets banned from shouting for a certain amount of time.
Last.fm does need better moderation and more international moderators.

Yep shoutbox content has pretty much degenerated into stupidity with all the flaming.

Yes the Pantera shout box is a perfect example of this. I can't believe groups like "Glad to See Dimebag Gone", "Good Riddance to Heath Ledger", and "Against Overrated Dead Musicians" haven't even been shut down. Some mods say that making these kinds of groups constitutes free speech, but do you honestly believe that these people start these kinds of groups for any reason other than to upset others?

I am so used to thumbs up / thumbs down on other sites, I look for it automatically here.

Sometimes, users write great mini-reviews of songs / albums that sum up my thoughts exactly. Instead of c+p and marking it [2], I'd much rather click on a thumbs up. And of course thumb down those I disagree with. I like YouTube's default hide for posts that have been thumbed down by other users.

I think a thumbs up, thumbs down voting system for comments would be great. It would allow for quality control without censorship. I also feel that a tighter banning system is in order, there are a lot of trolls who simply keep coming back here after being banned.

What if someone is hiding his/her IP? If other people are using the same one, then other, normal users would get banned too ;).

adamzZz said:
What if someone is hiding his/her IP? If other people are using the same one, then other, normal users would get banned too ;).

Yes, that's a danger, such as a sibling using the same computer, but sometimes if that's what it takes to get prolific asshats, I personally don't really care.

I was going to make a thread pertaining to this same thing myself.

There are plenty of forums, music sharing sites, etc., all over the web that are free and open to great discussion, community, etc., but that don't have "anything goes" policies.

I'm against censorship myself, however I believe there must be certain limits. I don't understand how it's permissible for people to be openly racist, hateful and to purport violence against certain groups. Lots of great sites includes clauses such as "hate speech, commission of violence, etc. will absolutely not be tolerated" and I don't see how such a clause makes those places oppressive or a bad place to be.

I just can't fathom how it's okay to come on this site and see people whose shouts (or even profile pages) say stuff like "Heil Hitler!" and "kill stupid niggers" and stuff like that. And the fact that there's no direct way to report offensive or possibly even dangerous content is really a shame.

Hell, no large site such as Facebook or MySpace is WITHOUT the restrictions on public hate and without ways to report inappropriate content.

I understand that as certain artists themselves purport racist or hateful ideology, it will in some ways be an intrinsic part of this site, but that doesn't mean that users should be allowed to flaunt their ignorant and hateful ways.

If people want to hang Nazi flags and wank off over "Mein Kampf" in the privacy of their own bedroom, let them. That's none of my concern. But as soon as they begin to impose that on other people - things that are inherently hateful, violent and oppressive -- then I have a problem with it. Almost any major social networking site has clauses about such things and, what's more, almost any free, democratic, reasonable country in the Americas and Europe has laws that prevent people from going around doing the Nazi salute and saying "Heil Hitler". In fact, in some places you can be arrested for that on grounds of public propagation of violence and hatred. That being as it is, I don't think it's too much to ask to see a little more moderation and control over people's reckless and unabashed display of very disturbing and possibly physically harmful views.

[post removed by moderator: please, don't cross-post. A staff member has replied to your thread in the label support forum, informing you how you can have your tracks removed.]

DFA1979 said:
meld0n said:
If people want to hang Nazi flags and wank off over "Mein Kampf" in the privacy of their own bedroom, let them. That's none of my concern. But as soon as they begin to impose that on other people - things that are inherently hateful, violent and oppressive -- then I have a problem with it. Actually that's almost exactly the policy that's used here. People can say (almost) whatever they want on their own profile, as long as they keep it to themself. The line is crossed when they try to impose it on others - if somebody wants a picture of Hitler and some quotes from Stalin in their 'about me' then that's fine. If they go around sending them in shoutbox messages or PMs to users they consider 'inferior' for whatever reason, then that's very different and is certainly not allowed on the site (even more so if they're making threats).Mmm, you're not understanding me. By virtue of this being a public social networking site with profiles and pages that are openly accessible to all, posting something on your own profile page is NOT private. That's like me painting a Swastika with "Die, Jews, N—ers, and all Non-Whites!" underneath it on a public wall and when someone goes to the local gov't to get it removed, they are told "Oh, that's a reasonable expression of personal opinion. They're not imposing it on you; just don't walk by that area". That makes no sense. Similarly, if I hang a Nazi flag INSIDE my house, no one can do anything about it. But as soon as its in my window or on my flagpole, it's a public imposition and action can be taken against me.

The Internet poses many interesting conundrums in this vein, but I don't think it's very wise to have the definition of "imposing on" to be that these people have to go out of their way to attack someone. By nature, the ideology, historical figures and activities that are tacitly or actively encouraged by these individuals are violent and threatening to particular groups of people. If that isn't reason enough to disallow public (this includes profile pages) display of these ideologies, then there will never be one.

rickskin said:
squiggins said:
People can type what they want to type. I don't see why it's important to install a voting system or anything like that.
Thank you for your sane comment.OK, imagine I was a Coldplay fan (I'm not). Let's say I want to discuss their music with other Coldplay fans - say, on their shoutbox. A quick look at the 20 shouts visible on their profile (at the time of writing) reveals 4 spam links to other sites/groups, and 7 troll/flame posts.

Britney Spears: 6 spam, 3 troll/flame
U2: 6 spam, 2 troll/flame
Muse: 0 spam. 15 troll wars :/
Radiohead: 2 spam, 13 troll wars :/

Granted I picked a lot of bigger/popular bands, so more people are likely to be drawn to comment on these, but how can you claim that there's not a problem?

Users who engage in this sort of nonsense should either be banned, or be flagged to other users as morons. It shouldn't be so utterly impossible to have a sensible musical discussion on a social music site.