Let's see.  What is the best course of action in case a customer complains about her problem not being resolved and asking for specific action?

a.) Apologize and do what the customer asked.

b.) Further insult the customer and tell her that her not being satisfied with the answer is "borderline harassment". 

The choice is obvious: b.  At least that is what Rose A. wants me to believe.

Congratulations, CBS, Rose. A is your hero.  The problem is obviously not the trolls - it is me.

I think those people who have told me to just give up and move to another site are right.

Below is my correspondence with Rose.A.  Note that the original request was about the customer support received and a request for implementing self-protection features.  The actual warnings have been taken care of.  But the rest of the message was not, and I still have not received a response from the admins on it.

Also note that I have received help and support from the moderators who have forwarded my issues to the proper places and have apologized and sympathized with me.  However, this isn't their job, and I should be able to get through regular help channels without being accused of harassment myself.

Discussion Thread
 Response (Rose A.)     01/23/2009 02:27 PM
Thank you for your email.

Please understand that disagreements, differences of opinion and rivalries will exist on a Sports message board. For a stalking allegation to be considered, certain factors must be present: threats of violence, knowledge of your information not publicly available. If you feel physically threatened by another individual on our boards, please contact your local authorities.

Please bear in mind that this is a free form of entertainment provided by our web site. We have answered your questions and requests, we have also taken care of the issues that you had brought to our attention. If you take a look at your warnings page, you will notice your requests were processed as they were being received. Please also note, that the form of communication that you have been sending us, are now starting to borderline harassment towards us.

Have a great weekend and please continue to enjoy the message boards.
 
 Customer     01/23/2009 01:25 PM
Dear Rose,

The issue is not solved. There are several further actions to be taken. I was looking for the following actions:

1. An apology for having been subjected to sexual harassment on your site.

2. An acknowledgement that sexual harassment is not something CBS supports and will do something about it.

3. An indication that the problem has been noted and the suggestion for implementing an ignore list and profanity filter has been forwarded to your development team.

4. A personal apology from you for the condescending treatment I have received.

I want you to forward this communication to a supervisor.

Best regards.
 
 Response (Rose A.)     01/23/2009 12:59 PM
Thank you for your correspondence and your interest in our Community.

We have investigated the issue raised in your prior correspondence and have determined that no further action is required. Therefore, this case has been closed and this matter considered resolved. Any further claims regarding this matter will be archived, but no further action will be taken.

Have a great day.
 
 Customer     01/23/2009 12:43 PM
This is not solved. Don't mark it solved. I want a response. And I will find the right person.

You should be apologizing, not upsetting me more.
 
 Customer     01/23/2009 11:12 AM
How is this solved exactly? I have not received a response.

Thank you for your attention.

Best Regards.
 
 Customer     01/22/2009 06:27 PM

Feedback: I have been sexually harassed on this site now for two days by different trolls. The admin response is late, condescending and inappropriate. I have lost my warning privileges because of bogus warnings by the trolls, and I cannot warn them now for the sexually explicit content. Ironically, they have followed me and posted their filth on the feedback message board, where I posted in hopes of getting some admin response. None. Just more trolls.

Please do something and implement features to be able to block trolls, and remove the ridiculous warning system. I am appalled and feel horrible, and I have been mistreated by your admin staff.

Regards,

I have been harassed on this site for two days now.  It all started with trolls attacking Jason Wells and me going to his defense.  Then because I am female, I was picked as a main target for the attack of the trolls.  I was told every sexually offensive thing imaginable, I was called ugly and used every possible swear word on me.

The posts were there for hours.  Pages of warnings have been issued.  By me and others.  Nothing happened.  The trolls continued to post.  I have received two bogus warnings - and now I cannot warn any more.  There is no "Warn" link.  No admin was around to overrule my warnings.

I have sent four help requests.  No response.  I posted on the Feedback forum.  No response - except for the trolls, who found me, posted more sexually offensive material, and threatened to gang-rape me. 

And here comes the kicker.  Finally Golf Guy shows up and responds on the thread - and leaves the sexually offensive material there.  So finally I got my response - CBS supports this.  They are involved.  They want the trolls.  They don't want me.

Well, I won't be able to post a blog tomorrow, because I received two more bogus warnings, and no admin will overrule them, so I better get this off my chest today.

CBS, you are an enabler of online harrassment.  You are a troll heaven.  You have an entire system in place to enable trolling.  You don't let us block offensive users.  You don't have a profanity filter.  (Standard features on every site).  And why?  I am told, because it would take away from the experience.  I was puzzled by that, but now it is clear.  It is the trolling experience we don't want to take away. 

Regulars are leaving in droves.  The College Basketball Board, once a safe heaven of friendly discussion about basketball and witty banter, is in shambles, idiotic threads and idiotic posters rule.  We have attempted today to discuss who should be the new #1 in college basketball, and we had an enjoyable experience until the troll showed up and we all had to leave. 

CBS, if that is what you want, only trolls on your site - you got it. Congratulations .

The most maddening about this?  It is incredibly easy to solve.  Give us an ignore list, and put in a profanity filter.

Do away with the idiotic warning system , it just encourages trolling, it is not proactive, it is reactive and it just causes a lot of frustration for users and a lot of admin work for CBS. 

I have run my own community site and our admin issues related to harassment went from about 200 e-mails per week to 2 after I have implemented an ignore list and a profanity filter.  You are wasting your own money and are providing a frustrating user experience.

Some of this is criminal.  Cyber stalking is not only disgusting but there are laws against it.  Even if it isn't, it is grossly negligent on CBS's part to leave us exposed to this kind of utter filth when the solutions are mind-numbingly simple and tried and true. 

CBS, get your act together and clean up the filth.  The decent people are leaving in droves.  You only got trolls left.