lurking collector

Haven't seen any yet from lurking collector, but will watch out

I just locked the thread he started about taking money from any account with a person's ssn - at any bank - anywhere. I responded back and locked it - I see no value in leaving it up.

Couldn't we just delete the thread? I think it's an eye sore on the community.

I think posts like that are a valuable resource; surely we have had guests stumble onto this site who have little or no contact with a CA. These "noobs" can learn of the abuse doled out by some collectors and the horror of PDLs, among other things.

True, but what if they take it as advice and heed the words of these trolls?

That's why Moderators are here - to respond to posts like that with reasonable, sensible, TRUTHFUL posts - and then lock the thread. So a newcomer can see what kind of trash is dished out by a collector, followed up by truth.

Ok, I see your point.

I have an idea I'd like to bounce off everyones heads.
Since we have pretty much all agreed that we are locking/keeping the troll topics perhaps we should make a different forum to move them to. That way people will see them in the collection and keep it from taking up space in the area which we need to keep clear in order to facilitate high quality interactions with guests and other members.

What does everyone think?

Either that, or mark them as troll threads in the title.....

Possibly Uncle, however there are many people out there that doesn't know what a forum troll is.

I know. That's why I've just been deleting them.

I don't see any reason to keep a troll thread/post if it's only a single post, and besides, there are times when (such as Rosemary Church) it is all I can do just to keep up with it, so instead of taking the time to lock it, or even delete the content, I delete the entire post. Am I going about this the wrong way, as it was my understanding to just delete them. :? :shock:

there's a difference in what we're talking about here - I'd like to clarify it so everyone understands:

TROLL = someone (a REAL PERSON) who comes here and posts trash like "why don't you pay your bills" and "I work for a collection agency and I can have you arrested", etc. These are the posts that should be left intact, but followed up with a statement by a Mod that indicates the truth of the situation - i.e., you can't be arrested for defaulting on a payday loan etc.

SPAM (or SPAMBOT) = a COMPUTER PROGRAM - not a real person - that hits message boards and posts repeatedly - and it's always the same identical message, or close to it. Like Rosemary Church's messages always say "hi, I noticed you were looking for a loan..." or something similar, and then tries to get you to contact via e-mail or hit a link in the message. These are SPAM and should be deleted immediately.

Gotcha!