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Over the course of many years @dhamma-dhatu has engaged and continues to engage in serial abuse of this sites rules. His behavior has been brought up time and time again by many different people and he's been suspended again and again, yet his behavior persists. He is prolific in violating rules regarding rude behavior. He is fertile in violating rules against disparagement of teachers, schools, and viewpoints. He has routinely held himself up as a teacher by belittling others. He engages again and again in seeding questions to promote his own views; to put himself forth as a teacher. Notably, he has a long history of being kicked off other Buddhist sites for his behavior and contempt for others.

Recently, he's been on a binge trying very very hard to engage in needless conflict. He's taken to esoteric copying of my own posts on another forum for which he's been kicked off.

I fear this site and its users have suffered greatly from this behavior and will continue to suffer in the future if it is allowed to continue. What's worse is @dhamma-dhatu, notwithstanding all the above, often posts extremely helpful and wonderful answers. I've learned a lot from him - in many ways from his negative example as well - and for some of his answers I'm extremely grateful.

What has been done has been done, but the purpose of this post is a question for the future: can this site continue to be a net positive by allowing a serial abuser to continue abusing this sites rules? In some cases, new users are learning from his example and mimicking the seeded questions. Other new users are being told to not trust their teachers and to discontinue efforts they've been making over a course of months. A simple request for the actual words of the Buddha and sutta references is met with attempts to generate conflict. We know we've lost users due to his behavior and it not being dealt with. People are turned off from the site after witnessing it again and again and it being allowed to continue. People will leave again in the future if it isn't dealt with.

I think it is time for the moderators to put an end to the serial abuse by this user.

This is obviously related.

UPDATE: @dhamma-dhatu continues to harass and belittle Mahayana and obsess about rebirth in a question that has nothing to do with the topic. I again repeat my request that moderators take action.

UPDATE 2:

New justification for his actions

Mocking the Mahayana

UPDATE 3: It might be the case that @dhamma-datu has spammed a new user account. He is confused duplicating another answer and then deleting it.

UPDATE 4: He's now taken to passive aggression in order to attempt to generate conflict.

UPDATE 5: @dhamma-datu continues his campaign of deliberately trying to create conflict into this week. He's posting an answer - verbatim - from another website from which he has been banned. He isn't doing this out of a genuine desire to be helpful. This is manifest. He's doing this out of a desire to continue and try to cause conflict. He cannot help himself and it is time for moderators to step in and stop this.

UPDATE 6:

https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/a/50017/13375 DD continues to abuse by giving answers purportedly from Mahayana perspective which he is openly contemptuous of.

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    thank you for posting your opinion and trying to make this site better. your inquiry is being discussed by the moderators and we will let you know where we stand on this.
    – Andriy Volkov Mod
    Commented Dec 5, 2023 at 2:47
  • It would seem the moderators have decided to stay silent and let serial abuse, harassment, and flouting of the rules continue. So much worse for the site.
    – user13375
    Commented Dec 16, 2023 at 18:17

2 Answers 2

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After only a short time here I agree that the user in question does have the tendency noted here and seems extremely vengeful to boot. Given his obvious love of using the site to propagate his opinions, and his obvious troubles with extreme anger and conceit, it might be beneficial to his and others' welfare to give him a break from the site. It might make him think about his actions and reassess the incredibly high opinion he holds of himself. Such overestimation is not in his own benefit or others'. Maybe he can return with a little more humility, which would be all to his own good.

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  • Welcome to the site by the way. For someone who's been here only a short time, you seem quite experienced with how it functions.
    – ChrisW Mod
    Commented Jun 10 at 17:57
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    Sadly, his disparaging of the Sangha and other teachers is there for all to see like here and there. The trails will only get longer with time.
    – Desmon
    Commented Jun 19 at 8:06
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Good day, thanks for the follow up. Both you and tbe user in question were issued notices and have been suspended for a short period of time. The moderator team is closely watching the situation, ready to take action as required, up to and including suspending the offender(s) again.

If possible, we would prefer to de-escalate the conflict rather than take side with either party. Thank you for your support.

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  • This is not about me. Were it about me I would be the only one reporting this serial abuse but in actuality I am far from the only one. You have suspended me for engaging in too many comments. I will refrain from doing this in the future per the moderators wish. If you wish me to also refrain from reporting here the continued abuse and harassment by DD I will also so refrain, but the moderators should be explicit in specifying.
    – user13375
    Commented Dec 16, 2023 at 18:37
  • Please continue to raise your concerns via flags.
    – Andriy Volkov Mod
    Commented Dec 16, 2023 at 18:54
  • Understood and thank you for clarifying. Unfortunately, I am going to have to part ways at this point from the site. I do not wish to continue participating in a site that allows continued harassment of multiple users by one account over and over. I wish to thank you Andriy, and Ruben, and ChrisW for many great interactions where I learned quite a bit and wish you all the best.
    – user13375
    Commented Dec 16, 2023 at 19:00
  • Can one of you please delete my account? It is 24 hours past due for deletion. Thank you.
    – user13375
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 21:43
  • @YesheTenley I see a message "scheduled to be deleted yesterday". I don't know why it hasn't taken effect, whether it's waiting for (their) manual verification or for them to them run a batch job, or something like that. I don't see any obvious UI option for me to expedite it, and I've never needed to confirm it in the past. I suppose it will happen in due course; would you message again in like a week, please, if it's still bothering you then?
    – ChrisW Mod
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 23:48
  • The UI lets me cancel deletion. Maybe that's like an "Are you sure?" message.
    – ChrisW Mod
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 23:57
  • You have suspended me for engaging in too many comments To be clear, he suspended both of you, for a week. I agreed with that because the rate at which stuff was happening that needed moderating, was exceeding my capacity to handle it, and so the little suspension was to "cool down". If you find it unrewarding to chat with him in comments, maybe that's normal and the thing is to flag instead. I didn't understand your flags about "copying from another site" when you posted them, maybe we should have chatted about that (however this site's chat room isn't frequented). Oh well. May you be well!
    – ChrisW Mod
    Commented Dec 19, 2023 at 0:13
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    The pattern is beyond clear. This user has been harassing others for years. It has resulted in many users leaving the site. I have attempted to avoid him and to disengage from him to no avail. At this point I am resolving myself by leaving the site. I will let you know in a week if it does not delete. Thank you.
    – user13375
    Commented Dec 19, 2023 at 2:40
  • @Tobedeleted Thanks for your concern. I continue to discuss some of these specifics with other moderators, albeit not soon enough for you. Unlike some times in the past I hadn't been closely following all your latest "conversations" included now-deleted comments, so I'm catching-up to some extent.
    – ChrisW Mod
    Commented Dec 19, 2023 at 5:03
  • I see this: "You recently requested deletion of your profile. Due to your number of votes and/or your reputation, this deletion requires final approval from a developer before it is completed. Once approved, your profile will be deleted immediately - you do not need to schedule your profile for deletion again." @ChrisW I suppose you are 'a developer' ?
    – user13375
    Commented Dec 19, 2023 at 18:24
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    As for "soon enough" well this was opened weeks ago and the problematic behavior in question has appeared on this site for years with numerous others all testifying to the abuse by DD. The simple fact is the mods are too hesitant to do anything about it and/OR believe DD is a net gain for the site despite the repeated abuse. I disagree.
    – user13375
    Commented Dec 19, 2023 at 18:26
  • @Tobedeleted I suppose you are 'a developer'? No I presume that's a stack exchange employee, like I said the only UI that I have would be to cancel deletion. And stack exchange employees may be slow or (increasingly) understaffed, which is why I suggested it might take time. I can escalate it but they tend not to reply to me in any hurry either.
    – ChrisW Mod
    Commented Dec 19, 2023 at 19:52
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    @Tobedeleted The simple fact is the mods are too hesitant to do anything about it The several mods may have different mutually-contradictory views. Two things we agree on at least, are deleting or editing-away unwanted comments, remarks, asides, etc., so they don't remain for posterity. Another is to suspend the account for at least a short time, sometimes a longer time, "to cool down" when it's involved in, allows itself to become involved in, participates in, a quarrel.
    – ChrisW Mod
    Commented Dec 19, 2023 at 20:06
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    Thus enabling serial abuse and serial harassment over many years to numerous users. Thus enabling a new user to post a question about his 6-month journey in a new meditation technique being told not to trust their teachers and to discontinue efforts by a serial abuser of the rules who has managed to rack up 40k in reputation. I get that one or more of the mods feels DDs contributions outweigh the negatives of this enabling. I disagree and would appreciate if you can escalate up stack exchange to the best of your ability to get this account deleted. Thank you.
    – user13375
    Commented Dec 19, 2023 at 20:26

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