Why are foreign members being so problematic recently?
 

Now I am not criticizing ANYONE for not being an American, and we have some really GREAT contributors who are not American (you guys know who you are as do all of the other IMFDB users, you bring quality and hard work to IMFDB and I thank you).

But I've gotten into more 'fights' with foreigner (as in Non-American) members in the last six months. Everything from mistake laden Chinese members to a recent wave of vulgar and vandalizing Brits to sanctimonious Russians (who bitch that we don't let them fill the site with Cyrillic) to whining East Indians. :) (yes that last paragraph was SUPPOSED to be politically incorrect).

I WANT great work from people in other countries, because I like having that information on IMFDB, but so many of them just don't GET IT. Crap pages, fighting with the Mods, bad editing, really ugly screencaps or no screencaps at all, did I mention CRAP PAGES?

The language barrier is one thing, but the attitude is another. I am patient with well meaning members who openly admit that they are struggling with the language but want to be a contributing member. But I am finding that the 'fan boy' mentality (arrogant, know it all, profane, etc.) pollutes all the major cities of the world.

I reiterate that I want good contributing members from all around the world. I am so very disappointed in the quality of many contributions outside of the U.S.

Am I wrong on this? Comments questions and discussions welcome.

Nope you won't get an argument from me. The site needs people who are courteous and make an effort.

This guy Pinko really bitched at me and even wrote up the Black Hawk Down page with dick jokes

Am I the only one who finds it strange that a site admin would complain about this to the forums instead of wielding his authority as a site admin to institute an effective system to deal with this?

Like what? Prevent non Americans from bitching? If you've got ideas on how to make these guys less of assholes, do tell.

Nope POI, you're the only one!

And what effective system do you suggest? These imbeciles sign up, wreak havoc and we end up banning them.

What's worse (other than the dudes who pipe in that there is an "easy fix" but never bother to tell anyone what it is) is the guys who don't technically violate any rules. They make minor mistakes, or create crappy pages, but they never cross the line to merit punitive action.

Kinda like the neighbor who plays his stereo loudly but only for a few minutes each night. Enough to annoy everyone in the neighborhood, but not long enough to merit calling the police on a noise ordinance complaint.

Hmmmm, someone who annoys everyone, but doesn't do anything to merit administrative action. Sounds kinda like you POI ;) LOL

Didn't you know? PersonOfInterest has the anti-asshole ray! :D We just have to use it on these foreign IMFDB users. LOL!

But seriously, I wonder what SOLUTION POI has, other than to bitch that us Mods don't 'do anything about the jerkweeds'. :D

An anti-asshole ray? Wouldn't it turn on him if he tried to use it? ;)

Universal truth: Foreigners are dicks. Except Canadians

I post the same thing in every thread you've posted about this problem. So here it is again, plain and simple as can be. Close registration. Only allow people to register by request. Require them to create something decent in a sandbox and submit it for admin/mod approval. If it gets the go ahead, they are free to join and make edits/create pages/be useful/etc.

You don't call the police for things like that; you give out a free ass whuppin'. Duh :rolleyes:

You DO REALIZE that it takes a ton of time to 'vett' every single person who wants to be a member? I certainly don't want to waste my time do that. In government positions or openings on the Supreme Court, all those people are PAID to screen applicants. That's what you're missing here. Being PAID to waste hours and hours of our lives each day, which is something IMFDB MODS are not (paid that is) That's the 'solution' created by someone who doesn't think things all the way through.

Your post did make me think, but these 'changes' are BEYOND my power as a mere Mod. Bunni is the overall wiki sysop on the site and he alone can do this. Remember how banks and other place have you READ a contract and click the 'agree box' before being allowed to sign up (like on news sites). It won't stop vandals from being dicks (that is BEFORE we ban them), but it may help with forcing new members (with no malice in their intent) to actually READ the rules before posting erroneous stuff. Of course, there is NO WAY to avoid malicious intent. They can just be the 'model citizen' until they decide to become raving assholes. Something you're familiar with ;) lOL

Hey I have Canadian relatives...Trust me when I say that Canadians can be the biggest Dicks on the face of the Earth....Then Again they are FRENCH Canadians.

Well it says something about that branch of the family when it is sugested that someplace way back in the roots of the family tree some Squaw was feeling especially cold and snuggled up to a frenchman. The majority of the family reacts in absolute horror. Sort of makes me glad I'm dateing a native american woman right now.

Unlike those assholes, I care about the well being of the site and have made constructive edits. Please don't lump me with them.

Another thing I'd like to add. Do we really need this website open to anybody and everybody? It seems new releases are dealt with fairly quickly, all the great gun movies have been done already, and all that's left are foreign films and non-action movies with one or two incidental appearances of firearms. (Like a scene with police officers or a hunting rifle on a wall.) Yes we need foreigners if we want to be thorough with foreign films. But unless somebody can really wow us with a sudden influx of 80 million complete screencapped captioned bollywood action film pages, there really is no benefit to allowing 60 trolls in for every one dude from Pakistan or Guatemala who pops in to add a single photo and leave.

Put up a list of criteria for new pages, make it clear what a page should look like, and let it be known that your first contribution needs to be a near complete screencapped and captioned page. Wanna reg just to make a few grammatical edits and add a photo or two? Too bad, you're not worth the risk, don't bother applying. If somebody is interested in becoming a contributing member, they'll understand and won't have a problem with it. Any application that isn't a certain length and doesn't include a certain number of pictures would be automatically discarded by the system before ever having the chance to bug anyone.

If this sounds like too much work, just increase the number of admins. I nominate...everyone on this board who is a senior member and is not me.

Also yes it's hypocritical of me to suggest this when I haven't created any pages myself. I acknowledge this and will get around to doing something about it when I can.

The only group that have French roots that AREN"T douchebags are the Cajuns, who were formed when all the badasses in France got the hell out of France because there weren't any dangerous animals for them to kill and then deep fry

This may be the only time that I agree with POI

well.... his eventual EXPANSION and explanation of his point in detailed helped a lot in understanding his suggestion. Usually he pops in, makes a weird comment and then leaves! ;) LOL

1234 lol, true

The CAT SHIT ONE page really bugs me. The fact that I think the show is retarded is irrelevant. I've SEEN that animation TWO YEARS AGO when the preliminary art was being posted on the web. But all I ask is proof that this is a real show that has been picked up by SOMEONE. All we need is proof that the show has been broadcast somewhere IN ASIA on television or cable, (NOT on the internet or YOUTUBE) and none of our Asian members can even provide proof of this. The last member from Asia gave us a link to a page, which unless you read the language you can't understand ANYTHING ON IT, which purported to show a video, which was BLOCKED in the Western Hemisphere.

Again, this proves that many of our foreign members, though trying to be helpful, are CLUELESS!

I personally feel that CAT SHIT ONE deserves to go just for it's name. I'd love to incinerate the page and all non real weapon related content.

Maybe we should make sure new members actually speak english. Is there any way to do this that isn't difficult/inconvenient?

We have openly declaired this to be an American English speaking site. It seems that people just don't get the message. Oh well It's stated in the rules and they should have read them.

Interesting, you didn't hear the complaints from the Russians that we were being "Nazis" for not allowing long discussion written in CYRILLIC on imfdb. One of them actually argued with us, proclaiming that there have been 'no spammers writing in Cyrillic on the site' and that we're being unreasonable for wanting all the messages in a language most of us can actually understand. :eek:

To put it bluntly...No, no, and HELL no. This isn't just a web site; it is a Wiki. The entire idea of Wikis is that they're intended to be open to as many people as possible, in order to take advantage of the collective knowledge of everyone online who cares about the topic.

Also, just because we've had a few problems with "foreigners" lately does not mean that we're going to block them all out. You are encouraging a ridiculous (dare I say retarded) over-reaction to a minor problem, which would only introduce a host of new problems for those of us who are Admins. And as for increasing the number of Admins; in order to become an Admin, a person has to have contributed a substantial body of work (all matching our quality criteria) before they can be nominated.

We don't need to start implementing Soviet-style bureaucratic control every time we have a couple users who give us problems. And personally, I'd prefer that people stop suggesting this kind of shit whenever we do.

Being open to everybody doesn't work too well. It's made wikipedia into a mishmash clusterfuck of unreliable information, which is why they're starting to crack down on their users. Blocking ip addresses linked to Scientologists, deleting the massive catalog of homemade nude photos, policing edits of religious fanatics to the point that those people ran away and made their own wiki in some dark exiled corner of the internet, not exactly things that are in the spirit of being free and open, but necessary to ensure the integrity and reliability of the site.

Also, imfdb is a much smaller site, with a very specific focus. It's simply not necessary to have the website open to every single person on the planet. My idea might even reduce the workload of the admins. If the application process is automated in some way to screen out obviously poor applications, the number that are actually viewed by human beings would be minimal. Additionally, with a better ratio of good contributors, there would be a reduced amount of poor or malicious submissions.

I have to disagree with this suggestion. If it was a rule in place when I registered, I wouldn't be here.

Also remember ..... pretty much only PersonOfInterest is the only one who keeps on bringing this up. Apparently he thinks that we are some sort of leviathan website with tons of paid staff with the manhours to institute draconian rules and punishments. Be aware of where the 'idea' comes from ;)

Well I wish my wife thought I had the biggest d...

You wish you had French Canadians in your pants?:eek:

French Canadian strippers………hell ya!

females of course.

I read the discussion. Now I don't speak russian but i know a Russian Hottie who can be talked into translating for me. Still I don't want to put apon the dear so I would prefer to just delete anything not in English. Yeah it's extreme but it works when you don't have alot of time to translate everything said.


I have an aquaintance who made the mistake of marrying a stripper. He forgot the rule about fun to party with...not so fun to live with. Then again he got a psycho one.

Still if i get a shance I'd love to share a few with you guys IRL.

Neither would I, and again the question is do we even need anymore new people if they're only going to make a few minor edits.

It's my solution to your problem. I wouldn't have even said anything if you hadn't brought it up. You came to the forums with a complaint, I answered with the best solution I could think of. I only champion this cause in threads you post.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Block the trolls out before they can get in and you'll reduce your workload. And this website already bans people, that's not my suggestion. My idea would probably decrease the number of bans. That's not draconian at all, considering the admins already have (and wield) the power to ban.

One of my friends was in a relationship with a girl who did porn behind his back. She was Russian.

Block them. And if they insist, release the banhammer.

Blocking them is pretty much the same thing as banning them. We have the choice of how long a Block is in place. Usually an INFINITE block is considered a permanent BAN. Sometimes members who are douchebags get a temporary ban. It's funny, SOME of them learn their lesson, behave and do well, some come back after a temporary as bad or WORSE. Those guys get the permanent Banhammer rather quickly.

It's the guys who, out of the blue, create an account and then create havoc on purpose who are hard to filter out.

Which (a real world example) is why terrorism is hard to stop when we have free flow of travel between countries. We can't stop EVERYONE from traveling EVER, but that certainly would eliminate any attacks from foreign travelers to any country. But it's not a solution that is tenable.

That's pretty much what he did about her.

Running a website and running a country are not all on par with each other.

And it's a impractical THEN as it is NOW. In the future, FIGHT the urge to respond to my rants. :D

Sure. Except it's not an OUNCE of prevention. It's three hundred TONS of "prevention" versus a Pound of "Cure". It's hundreds and hundreds of extra MANHOURS. A point which you doggedly refuse to see.

We're in the future now. Get somebody to figure out a way to automate the filtering process.

You have a gift to see things, not as metaphors, like most of us, but as really ridiculously simplistic black & white views of the world.

Reminds me of the guy who says to a corporate CEO, "if you don't want to have to fire employees who steal company property, then simply don't hire people who would do such a thing!" Wooooooo! Amazing that the rest of humanity never thought of such a thing!