News: Internet Trolls Are Really Horrible People

I've read some great posts and wonderful advice on this thread. Meanwhile, enablers continue to enable. One thing I do not like on this site is the quote function. Because of it I continue to see the words of people I actually put on ignore years ago. I know about the scroll function, but the quotes are often by people I hate to skip over.

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@edgarblythe,

I think some bunch of people don't know that when you reply to a poster, as opposed to replying to all, it means that if you want to see what that poster said, even days later, all you have to do is click the little green letters

@suchandsuchposter

and you'll see their whole post. There is no earthly reason to quote the whole damned thing.

Some people try to parse a post down to a long series of things to quibble with/blast all to hell - and that gets tiring to boring very fast. (I can see answering a point or two though, and individually quoting those couple of sentences. ) I'm not calling that trolling, but the site becomes more and more like a feed lot with a lot of mooing going on, while staring at the steers again and again.

Along with that, many people quote someone that many others have on ignore, which gets annoying to the people ignoring... as Edgarblythe just pointed out.

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I certainly agree with the notion of ignoring the fools.

I am sure, however, that we all have our own ideas of who is and who is not a fool.

Me...I ignore almost nobody...even when I think them to be a fool. Like I said, I have only one person on ignore...and I read the posts of everyone else.

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I ignore nobody, never have and never will!
It's far more fun decking them.. Smile

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/motta-punch_zpsab916650.jpg~original

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@IRFRANK,

IRFRANK wrote:

The relative safety of internet anonymity allows a fair amount of chest pounding. How much pleasure one gains is hard to measure. It does seem many just want to see how long they can string a thread along, or another poster. We all have our reasons.

Exactamente. Yes, we all have our reasons. However, I believe that this thread was started based on some printed input that made a judgement about the reason, oftentimes? In fact, based on the anonymity, it might be puerile to expect everyone else to act ethically. Sort of like picking one's nose at a red light (a la a Seinfeld episode).

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@Frank Apisa,

Frank Apisa wrote:

Perhaps, Joe, but here in A2K...for the most part, a person being called a troll...is just someone who disagrees with the caller's opinions...and will not simply give it.

If one refuses to be bullied...and refuses to simply concede in the interests of allowing someone else to "win"...they often are termed "troll." In circumstances just a tiny bit different they might be labelled "determined" or "resolute."

Anyway, in a forum like A2K...there either are no trolls...or everyone is a troll...because persistence, determination, and resoluteness dominate the personalities here.

And frankly, if the need to call others "bullies" in a forum like this arises too often...perhaps A2K is a kitchen with too much heat for the caller.

Just maybe!

So, based on only the strong survive, and if the kitchen is too hot, get out of the kitchen, you are offering a more realistic assessment of human nature?

The point perhaps being that there was a time, after the Black Death, villages in Europe had young men terrorize women whose husband went to market, or the elderly with no kin; sort of like those with little conscience and the strong/young may be the best survivors. We've come far in our instincts?

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@edgarblythe,

That's a problem, and i really don't know what to do. I usually just scroll past them. I do find that, over time, the true trolls get quoted less and less often as people begin to ignore them.

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

It has already been mentioned that one member's troll can be another's wise man. (Reading the thread helps.) But that is meaningless in the context of what people can do. Ignoring those one considers trolls is the best way for people to deal with this, if they think it is a problem. If most members are not trolls, then it will be no skin off their noses. For those whose condemnation as trolls is more universal, it will just mean that no one, or very few members, will interact with them. Problem solved.

Sounds like, in my opinion, as an explanation of why ghettos were needed in Europe. The dismissal of the thought that "one member's troll can be another's wise man" is just that, in my opinion, a dismissal. In effect, being labelled with the "troll" stigma is just democracy in action.

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In my opinion, I have seen threads that minus any trolls, the thread is just a "mutual admiration society." And, I do believe some like it that way. It maintains their preferred "entourage" of those that defer to their "knowledge."

In other words, not being a troll does not mean that one is "sugar and spice, and everything nice." Amongst the non-troll population, in my opinion, there are some that are self-absorbed schmucks with a "good act."

Being a minority, one might be able to see the forest for the trees, a little better?

But, in keeping with my personal policy of not being an ingrate, let's have a moment of gratitude to Joe Nation for starting this thread. Oh yes, let's thank all the trolls that are present for their participation.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Quote:

….tactic of alleging that someone is angry...itself a form of trolling, because it is not about the topic, it's about personalities…. pathetically puerile.

There's just a whole lot of truth to that, S.; as I had mentioned I'm increasingly seeing such action as hopeless, as almost any hasty or emotional reaction of any sort, determined as I am to reform long-engrained habit

Of course anything one does or says in a forum of this kind will be assailed. For instance I had been attacked by several others for providing as a response to someone's q what I supposed were helpful links from Google. So as a sort of experiment, in response to one OP I referred the participant to Google without providing a link to a specific article

…..whereupon I was instantly batterfanged for not providing a link

Thus in effect why react to anyone at all for any reason whatever. The surreptitious gloat one might derive from such dubious activity only invites attack from all quarters, possibly in the long run detracting from one's longevity and certainly from the immediate more productive kinds of activity

Quote:

No one here can see you and they can't hear you.

Precisely why the "angry" poster or Troll is attracted to an Internet forum like this one in the first place, for the anonymity it affords

Quote:

In the end, what it most underlines is the lack of a sense of proportion. There is nothing important about what people do here,…... for a complete stranger to assume….some kind of emotional power…….

Amen! I often speculate why anyone might attach such importance to the opinion of some complete stranger at an obscure website. In my own case I guess it's a kind of obsession, fruitless waste of effort, expenditure of valuable hours when yardwork beckons

Believe it or not S. I submit this posting in the most complete innocence; passing thoughts on the scene, as it were, no offense intended. I do in fact find many of your OP's and initial responses far superior to anything of which, out of laziness I suppose, I'm usually capable or willing

…altho there are those who would denominate an irreproachably scrupulous response a troll offering the worst kind of bait

1 Reply

@Joe Nation,

Willing to manipulate and deceive others
Egotism and self obsession
The Lack of remorse and empathy
Pleasure in the suffering of others.

Isn't it a shame that we can not be part of the internet world without coming across these people? In our "normal" lives, we can choose whom we associate with, talk with and even if we found someone with these traits they wouldn't get the time of day from us..

Honestly, tell the truth. How many of you "honestly" waited out first, watched, read, before putting that "Troll" on ignore. Or, never put them on ignore, preferring to watch and note no one answering them and therefore, watching them leave the building, as the trolling lost it's fun for them !

I wonder if these people also have an addictive personality. And sometimes more than one personality.

I'm not talking about "real people" that have honest sicknesses either, rather deliberately a "sick mind" ...

Why there was one new one, here recently wasn't there? Seems to have disappeared, here is hoping that remains the case because I can't use the ignore button my curiosity gets the better of me;)

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@dalehileman,

Translation: You don't get it.

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@Romeo Fabulini,

You get decked all the time but you don't notice. It's like shooting a dinosaur, it's dead but it's still stumbling around for five minutes until the message finally gets through. Or in your case never does.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

Mate, your profile says you're from the Titanics home town.
That figgers because you're the Titanic and I'm the iceberg that keeps sinking you.. Smile

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/ExIS/sos-titanic.gif~original

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@Romeo Fabulini,

Still stumbling about.

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Frank said in part :

Quote:

Anyway, in a forum like A2K...there either are no trolls...or everyone is a troll...because persistence, determination, and resoluteness dominate the personalities here.

So you say, hmmm, not logic, not thoughtful reparte, not writing one's position clearly, just persistence in holding some argument, determined not to be persuaded to rethink anything, resolute in staying the course once it's been set.......sounds more like a Tea Party Convention being held on lawn chairs down at the VFW than A2K.

Quote:

And frankly, if the need to call others "bullies" in a forum like this arises too often...perhaps A2K is a kitchen with too much heat for the caller.

There are bullies here. Do you want me to say you are not one? You are not one. But you do enable them, just as Setanta has admitted he does from time to time.
The bullies are the ones who mostly offer more heat, to use your metaphor, than light. I prefer light mostly because the heat, if offered in person, would be, rather than information or answers to questions, just so much hot air.

Joe(If I need some balloons blown up, I'll PM them.)Nation

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Quote:

Reading the thread helps.

Right. I'll remember that. Neutral

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@Foofie,

Quote:

Being a minority, one might be able to see the forest for the trees, a little better?

Being a majority definitely causes a vision problem.

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@Joe Nation,

Joe Nation wrote:

Frank said in part :
Quote:
Anyway, in a forum like A2K...there either are no trolls...or everyone is a troll...because persistence, determination, and resoluteness dominate the personalities here.

So you say, hmmm, not logic, not thoughtful reparte, not writing one's position clearly, just persistence in holding some argument, determined not to be persuaded to rethink anything, resolute in staying the course once it's been set.......sounds more like a Tea Party Convention being held on lawn chairs down at the VFW than A2K.

Not to anyone who has been awake.

And when did you start supposing that logic/thoughtful repartee were mutually exclusive of persistence and determination?

Quote:

Quote:
And frankly, if the need to call others "bullies" in a forum like this arises too often...perhaps A2K is a kitchen with too much heat for the caller.

There are bullies here. Do you want me to say you are not one? You are not one. But you do enable them, just as Setanta has admitted he does from time to time.

So, I assume you are asking me not to be persistent and determined?

Why?

Quote:

The bullies are the ones who mostly offer more heat, to use your metaphor, than light. I prefer light mostly because the heat, if offered in person, would be, rather than information or answers to questions, just so much hot air.

Actually, you seem to prefer being the village wit more than either light or heat in discussions

. But that is your preference...and you are free to indulge it...just as others are free to indulge theirs.

Okay?

2 Replies

Lower your voice, frank, please. Smile

1 Reply

News: Internet Trolls Are Really Horrible People

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