erinja:I'm pretty sure that's what spreecamper meant when he said "make quietly". That is, to stop the flame wars because no one is reading them.

Its meant metaphoric. In German its 'jemanden ruhigstellen' - maybe: to tranquilize somebody or to cool down somebody. I.e. to embrace somebody from the back side does let regarding person no space to beat around its body parts to hurt person who does the embracing. It also protects other non-involved persons to get hurt. I have seen it in real done by some civil policemen. That way they remove trouble makers out of i.e. some folk festival.

spreecamper:

erinja:I'm pretty sure that's what spreecamper meant when he said "make quietly". That is, to stop the flame wars because no one is reading them.

Its meant metaphoric. In German its 'jemanden ruhigstellen' - maybe: to tranquilize somebody or to cool down somebody. I.e. to embrace somebody from the back side does let regarding person no space to beat around its body parts to hurt person who does the embracing. It also protects other non-involved persons to get hurt. I have seen it in real done by some civil policemen. That way they remove trouble makers out of i.e. some folk festival.

Bonvolu reafiŝi ĉi tiun en Esperanto, ĉar mi ne tute komprenas tion, kion vi intencas diri.

orthohawk:
... on Delphi forums (where I have my own forum about Esperanto, in case anyone wants to come over)

Is it necessary to form an account in order to read posts in the Delphi forums?
I ask this because having gone to the Delphi forums and clicking on the links you provided I got the message that the page(s) could not be found.

kaŝperanto:

spreecamper:

erinja:I'm pretty sure that's what spreecamper meant when he said "make quietly". That is, to stop the flame wars because no one is reading them.

Its meant metaphoric. In German its 'jemanden ruhigstellen' - maybe: to tranquilize somebody or to cool down somebody. I.e. to embrace somebody from the back side does let regarding person no space to beat around its body parts to hurt person who does the embracing. It also protects other non-involved persons to get hurt. I have seen it in real done by some civil policemen. That way they remove trouble makers out of i.e. some folk festival.

Bonvolu reafiŝi ĉi tiun en Esperanto, ĉar mi ne tute komprenas tion, kion vi intencas diri.

The guard will set 'Bear Hug from the Rear with Arms Pinned' to cool down somebody who did freak out inside huge mass of persons. Often that offense technique will be applied to drunken persons who do freak out. I don't know how to name the state to which bear huged person will forced. Is it 'to cool down' or 'to force somebody non-actively'? Of course there excists techniques to defend against such 'Bear Hug from the Rear with Arms Pinned' attacks. I.e. that Krav-Maga technique. But drunken persons are not capable to defend that way. Krav-Maga is Israeli self-defense system.

Bemused:

orthohawk:
... on Delphi forums (where I have my own forum about Esperanto, in case anyone wants to come over)

Is it necessary to form an account in order to read posts in the Delphi forums?
I ask this because having gone to the Delphi forums and clicking on the links you provided I got the message that the page(s) could not be found.

Really? which link? I'll go check it. usually it just takes thee to that forum's start page or to a page where you can form an account. wht thee got is usually the result of having been locked out of a forum.

erinja:This is one of our biggest problems on the lernu forums. A starts verbally abusing B; B responds rudely, 'gloves off', and it turns into a flame war. A and B are both breaking lernu's rules, and they both risk getting their messages deleted and possibly their accounts.

Yeah, right. There are people who have had over a hundred of their posts deleted because of attacks on other Lernu users and are still doing the same thing they always did.

This is precisely the problem at Lernu - fight back when people attack you, falsely accuse you of something, or spread lies and misinformation about something, and then if you report this to the administrator (erinja), nothing happens to the troublemaker. People fight back because YOU DO NOTHING TO STOP THE BULLIES!

erinja:Then they both complain to me with "but the other one started it", or "but the other one has insulted me many times on another thread before I said anything here", etc.

But to you it doesn't matter who the instigator was, does it? I think the question of who started being rude, violating the rules, etc. is EXTREMELY relevant. But by all means, please continue to treat people who fight back the same way as the people who started the fight ...

erinja:Don't take off the gloves just because someone else was rude first. Report the message.

Doesn't change anything. A handful of people are responsible for 99% of the vicious attacks and insults against other Lernu users and you, erinja, can't tell the difference between bullies and their targets.

Frankly, I think you personally are ruining the only active Esperanto forum on the Internet and are driving away people because all of your threats are empty and you can't tell the difference between freedom of expression and bullying.

voxclamantes:This is one of our biggest problems on the lernu forums...

Here's my opinion: people are always going to be rude, and there's never going to be complete justice, some people are always going to get away with things they shouldn't, that's life. You can't expect Erinja to be a referee for all the little squabbles that go on. She seems to do her best to moderate in accordance with the rules, but of course she's going to miss things and make mistakes, she's human, just like we all are.

I like your username by the way (although technically it should probably be something like vocesclamantes or voxclamans or voxclamantium or voxclamantis ), but it also seems to reflect how you see Erinja as some kind of God who can dispense justice. You may be crying from the depths, as the psalm goes, but sometimes you can waste time crying over spilt milk. Tell the person that you disagree with (or find offensive etc.) why you disagree with them and just let it be, go do something else or look at another thread! After all, all religions teach forgiveness, and for good reason. It's a forum, there are much bigger problems in the world than someone being rude on the internet!

voxclamantes:... can't tell the difference between bullies and their targets.

Same job like police has to solve at some street violence outbreak. But different to street violence some online forum moderator can not place itselves between involved counterparties to stop further violence outbreaks. Maybe to lock the thread could be better solution for that matter than to delete regarding thread. To lock some thread would be more like friendly but consequent 'Bear Hug from the Rear with Arms Pinned' to the whole thread. To delete some thread could be understood like to bring to dump somebody. Maybe it also could make sense to unlock that thread automatically after i.e. 24 hours or different. So everybody has some time to cool down and get it more easy. If some new outrage will happen then the lock-unlock procedure will continue as long as necessary.

Unfortunately, my postings have been among those that Erinja has deleted and they reflect a certain disregard for the idea of "let's agree to disagree". I aim at framing my comments to those that would be acceptable in an academic debate and I avoid attacks against persons, trying to remain discussing ideas. Though I think Erinja's intentions are good and I respect her as a mediator, there have been times when I wanted to answer some ideas expressed here and my answer was deleted or not published. I wish that that hadn't been the case.

there are much bigger problems in the world than someone being rude on the internet!

There are?!