I think BennyBlown2v was trying to stick up for you 'cause he reported numerous "Rice" posts & pictures that Stark77 kept putting in your thread so it eventually got closed.
What I don't understand is why did my thread get locked when I was following the rules and behaving. It seems to me that the ones posting all that crap should have been more seriously warned and then punished per the sites own rules! But they ignored the rules and the earlier warning and just kept posting things that violated the forums rules and yet nothing happened to them and yet here we are now with my thread being locked. Does that seem fair? And does closing the thread teach those who are ignoring the forum rules anything? Seems to me it's telling them it's not only ok but in fact if they want to they can trash a thread enough and get it closed.
The thread is locked to stop whatever is going on. Feel free to start another thread and if it is getting out of control there is a feature to report a post. Then a moderator or admin can step in fix it before things get too out of hand.
Which is exactly what I did before the thread was locked but I didn't hear back from anyone when I sent a PM to the moderator or anything and then the next thing I know it was locked.
I guess I can start a new build thread and hope that it is not attacked and then locked like my last one
Trust me, we know it sucks when others ruin it for you. I was the original moderator to step in and tell everyone to cut out the nonsense, but that was just by chance, as I was strolling about the other sections that I don't normally moderate, and happened across that thread. Even though 4.6 Tech/Talk have moderators who regularly watch those areas, it's a lot of information to read, so unfortunately sometimes things do get missed until issues arise where locking the thread ends up becoming the best option. We do rely on the members to self-police the forums at times, and I'd say a very good percentage do just that, by reminding others of the terms of service, trying to intervene when arguments/issues arise, as well as reporting posts, or threads that they feel may be of a questionable nature. I can assure you that once something is reported, it's handled promptly because it notifies the entire SN staff, so any one of us are bound to show up. What I'd personally recommend is just to keep doing exactly what you had been doing, by reporting offensive posts, or even possibly adding certain members to your ignore list, if you determine that it's the same members who are causing you headaches everytime.
I can certainly do all that. I do have one last question.
When you place someone on your ignore list, the persons post still stays posted in the thread right?
You just don't see it since they are now being "ignored". Correct?
If that is true then what concerns me is that even though I can "ignore" them, others who are not ignoring them will still see the comments, right?
I guess if someone is feeling that badly about receiving rude or insulting comments from certain members that they feel they have to "ignore" someone, maybe something else needs to happen other than leaving it up the person to have to resort to selecting ignore as a last resort.
If it is true that selecting ignore does not actually keep said "ignored" member from still posting insults, rude images and other bad replies in your thread(s), this brings up at least two important problems that I see:
One, it can get others to decide it would be fun to join in and just make it worse which we clearly saw first hand in my thread.
Second, other members or even unregistered viewers who may be possible future members deciding whether to join or not or post or not may see these ongoing and allowed posted insults and attacks and decide to hold back on joining/posting, which could mean quite a loss for this forum over time between not getting to hear from others as we should and would like, as well as, new or future members deciding in fear of being ridiculed, slammed or something similar to not join/contribute images, information, tech tips and so on which others might have found helpful.
Or worse, simply decide that this forum is not for them and move on. Just something to think about.
You are correct, the posts would still be there, you just wouldn't see them. Reporting the posts you find offensive is probably still a better option, because it allows the staff to assess the situation and intervene as necessary. Anyone who has moderation privileges in 4.6 Tech/Talk (the assigned staff, any Super Moderator, or Admin) can edit, or delete the offensive material. I personally do not have privileges in 4.6, but I do have the ability to give an infraction to any member who violates the TOS, if it's deemed to be necessary.
Infractions often happen behind the scenes with no comment left in the thread by the issuing staff member for that person to knock off whatever they received the infraction for, so I can see your point of someone believing the behavior was permitted, if the offending material remained. If you ever have an issue that you feel hasn't been resolved, report the post, or by all means PM any staff member. The very first place I visit when I log in is the staff forum, and I personally receive probably 2 or 3 PM's a day that are site/moderation related, so I know the other mods do, too. All reported posts show up in our staff forum, so that's probably the quickest way to get our attention, but things need to be reported, or we think it's just business as usual out in the forums if we haven't read a specific thread yet.