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She's a bottle of water.

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Down a short alley, and right around the corner, welcome to GD.

General Discussion. Gaia's in-between for the people who don't want to compete with the massive walking ego that is ED, and the banality of chatterbox.

At least, that's what it's supposed to be.

Defined as "Talk about anything you like that is suitable for the general public."

Now, that's a pretty general description, and our wonderful users seem to have taken liberties with defining what exactly belongs in GD.

Apparently, many of these liberties mean the same thing. They mean that GD is chatterbox 2, the sequel. Better, faster, improved with more explosions and a healthy dose of T&A. I mean, of course, because Gaia needs more T&A. Apparently, we're lacking.

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I mean, what else could be the reason for all the posts of this nature in GD? With a name like General Discussion, you'd expect to find discussion, wouldn't you? Well, yoiu still can. They're there, hidden in with all the trolls and spammers and the horriblly confused as to what a "discussion" actually entails.

Posting "I've shat myself! Shat myself! Discuss." DOES NOT BELONG IN GD. Yet, you can find posts and threads of this caliber on every page of GD. Apparently, the masses of GD are hungering for more "Am I hot?" and "Masturbation is teh roxxors" threads.

Would I lie to you about this?

[******** have been removed to protect the stupid.

Now, if you pay real close attention, you'll notice that much of the filth, the useless crap, the spam, the bullshit, is posted by a select few. Trolls, to be exact. Posting incoherent, nonsensical babble, masturbatory fantasies, inapropriate signatures, and more pedantic bullshit than any one person can handle.

Now, I'm not the kind of b*****d to say things without having embarrasing evidence to back it up.

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I am a completely different kind of b*****d.

The kind who hates trolls. Especially trolls who really have no idea what they're doing. If you're going to make an a** out of yourself, might as well do a good job.

Snappy titles and interesting spellings do not make one a good troll.

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This s**t qualifies for chatterbox at base standards.

Of course, there's also the trolls who decide to see just how many people they can freak out or piss off, rather than posting inane babble.

Warning: Following evidence contains pretty graphic sexual themes.. Be warned, read at your own damn risk.

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Now, does this really sound like PG-13 material, much less like GD worthy discussion?

I don't think so.

So, what do we do about it? To its benefit, GD does have some pretty effective moderators assigned to it. Zahir seems to do a pretty good job at keeping up with the forum, but no one is perfect. Which could explain some of the spam posts that have been sitting there for over three hours.

In fact, the moderator staff for GD is probably sufficient, or would be, if people would stop feeding the ******** trolls and spammers. All the wonderful screenshots you see here come from threads with several pages. They continue to exist because the trolls have found ample breeding ground, lack of punishment, and users who generally tend to respond exactly how they want them to. The flaming, the spam, and the enouragement all create a troll-happy environment. So, who's turning the GD into the second coming of chatterbox?

Is it just the users who encourage the trolls? The users who feel that flaming the trolls is an effective way of stopping them?

The answer is easy.

Of course it is.

It's not ineffective moderation, because the Moderators are only as effective as you enable them to be. Reporting posts, not responding to these beliggerent jackasses, maintaining actual ******** DISCUSSIONS in GD...

But, that's just too ******** hard now, isn't it? Apparently the GD users like being surrounded by bullshit and masturbation, but they're too ******** lazy to drag their goddamn asses to chatterbox, and spam away like the average 7 year old delinquent.

Once again, it's time to send the riot cops in, fists hammering on sheilds, and tazers set for incapacitate.

Of course, the mods don't have tazers.

Just a system of tools that rely heavily on users who give a ********, to do something about it.

So, where does that leave the mods?

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