Trolls, or trolling behaviour ...how do we deal with these isues as an online community?

Hmmm, do you post online somewhere telling all those that happen to call your phone number not to call you ever again unless they get prior permission to call you?

You could have handled this PM issue in a manner reminiscent of a normal human being. That's not a possibility for you though is it, High Seas?



Do tell.

As already mentioned, try reading the previous pages BEFORE posting any more idiotic commentary - look up page 6 (SIX):

I'm not interested in any more opinions by persons too lazy to look up previous pages, so don't bother addressing me unless and until you get a clue on whatever you're talking about - thank you, and give my regards to Jespah.

precisely why she should NOT have done it right out in the open...

...and for the LAST time, if you read ALL the pages on this thread, you'll find out that Rama hardly ever posted without signing with his address...

I've tried to be polite to you for Jespah's sake, but really I can't solve your incoherence problems - check with a medic. G'bye.

i have been reading right along, tyvm... why do you feel that gives you the right to post his name and address?

(nice edit, btw...)

I have by far written more words in PM's than I have onsite....but that's just my nature.

Region - she shouldn't have done it at all - but I would have been really freaked out to get a pm from a person I don't even know containing the personal information of another person I don't even know.

It's over and I don't want to talk about it anymore except to say that I don't want to receive pm's from High Seas containing anything.
I have no idea why she thought I'd want this information - but the fact that this is how she interacts with me - virtually the first time we've ever interacted that I can remember- makes me wary of interacting with her at all - much less by pm.

What she did was meanspirited, infantile and petty and I have no wish to interact with her again. If I can't say 'I like this person's use of language' without being taunted about it - she can keep her interaction to herself or give it to someone else- private, public - whatever. I'm not interested in her sort of interaction.

I don't mind pm's by people who have something positive to say to me - not at all.

i prefer really derogatory and vile PM's

i have too much positivity in my life

You're just begging for it, feller.

well then you won't have to worry about getting one from me...there you go...one less thing in life to worry about.

'dja get that link to the porn site I sent ya?

First of all, I don't see it as solely "my" problem. The worst of the trollish behaviour I've seen here hasn't been directed toward me, personally. But it has concerned me enough to believe it warranted discussion by the forum community. I see the airing of such issues, bringing them out in the open, as a very healthy thing. Even if immediate "solutions" cannot be found. (I'm a realist.) It is the acknowledgment that such behaviour is actually happening here & the discussion of it within the broad community that's the important thing to me.



You may have hit one something by your school analogy, Thomas. It works for me, anyway.
The most damaging school bullying I've witnessed has actually not been of the physical variety, but more of the psychological variety ... the persistent, systematic undermining of the victim's self esteem by the school bully or (often) group of bullies. (Not that much different to the intentions of a particularly nasty cyber bully, or troll, really.)

As teachers we are constantly "working on" the perpetrators of such bullying. We have no choice really. Where would that leave the victims of the bullying, saying nothing of the bullies themselves, if we didn't? You work on the premise that everyone, even the worst bully, must have some redeeming features there, somewhere. And often they do.

Possibly a life-long work habit of interacting with bullies in such ways has influenced how I interact with people in general? (Actually I do believe that most people have redeeming qualities.) So perhaps that's how come I find myself interacting with trolls (in my "lovely" way ) when some sort of reasoned interaction is actually possible?



But I do, you see.
Because the good threads are the reason why I come here. (Not the only reason, of course. I also really like a number of A2Kers I've gotten to know over the years.) But if the thread discussions that keep me interested are being ruined by systematic destructive behaviour, well there's less enjoyment of the experience & less reason to be here. Simple as that for me, really.



No, they're not. And cyber bullies are not children, either. Agreed.
It honestly didn't occur to me till reading some posts to this thread that what I might consider offensive posting behaviour might actually be entertainment to some others. (As I said in an earlier post, I seem to be a bit of a slow learner about such cyber issues. Duh) That it might actually be part of then fun for them. I get it now.



I think you might be right about this, Thomas. It is definitely something that I'm seriously thinking about.

Well, that's something. Speaking of bloody trolls...

That's so wrong.

Bullying often takes the form of ongoing nasty and derogatory comments or innuendo and following someone around to deliver said comments.

This is what you said:



And what you "see" remains factually wrong.

The thumbs up is NOT "only reactive to the thumbs down" and the thumbs down is not JUST "essentially an internet equivalent of putting one's fingers in one's ears and saying "la-la-la-la, i can't hear you."

I agree that it may often be USED that way, though.

Interesting thread, MsO....

Lots of sensible comments - and a renewed appreciation (by me) of the benefits of "ignore" for the crap!

Well, I, and I am utterly confident that I speak for many here, hope that this thought remains ONLY a thought.

PMs r limited in the number of words that u can use, whereas I have never encountered
any limit on the size of posts in the forum.
Indeed, posters ofen quote long printed articles here.





David