# Charlie Wayne, are you trolling or just stupid? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 26, 2020, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020 "2020-01-26T22:07:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/41 "2020-01-27T18:33:05Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > This attitude is how you all got rolled by umkay for so long. Playing nice and only calling them out in the Pit lets them merrily trolly troll troll for far longer than instant and public shaming within the original thread would. Pitchforks and torches! Tar and feathers! I mean getting taken in by someone is the worst thing in the world! In general, I’d rather be “rolled” on an anonymous message board than falsely accuse someone of bad intentions. Especially when the alleged bad intentions can’t hurt me. ---
**Author:** ![road\_lobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@road\_lobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/road_lobo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/42 "2020-01-27T19:07:05Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > On the contrary, driving through Eastern Washington and seeing farm country some of those big farms have small mansions on them. A modern farmer may be well-educated in agricultural sciences and may have a business degree as well, and can make a fortune off their land. It’s a business and like any business can lay golden or rotten eggs depending on luck and/or smart decisions. It’s still fucking tedious. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/43 "2020-01-27T20:01:06Z")
> [@road\_lobo](#): > > It’s still fucking tedious. Yeah I sure wouldn’t want to do it, regardless of how much I might make. I respect those that do though and are successful at it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/44 "2020-01-29T15:17:43Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > Why is it so implausible that somebody could have a sock account for eight years? Because socks only get easier to detect over time. The more often you use your sock, the more chances you have to slip up and leave evidence behind. Plus it’s human nature to get sloppier over time when you’ve not been caught before. You get overconfident that you are undetectable. For example, you forget to log into your VPN or proxy, you mix up your accounts, you forget a tell that you’ve been consciously removing, you just don’t get all the way into character, etc. All are more likely to happen the more you post. For what it’s worth, I don’t even see his post that got him a Warning as trolling. It just reads like someone who is socially clueless. He doesn’t get how to admit when he’s wrong, feeling a need to defend himself. There’s also just the lack of reactions to his annoying stuff. A troll who gets few reactions tends to modify their approach to get more reactions. A non-troll will either stay the same or actually start trying to be less annoying. I haven’t seen CW modify his approach at all–that post in 2014 reads exactly as if he could have posted it today. Trolls bringing back old socks aren’t usually that consistent. It’s hard to get back into a character you’ve previously abandoned. (And, per the other thread, I don’t think revealing this stuff makes socking more likely, because deliberate attempts to avoid these things are themselves a good tell.) ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/45 "2020-01-29T15:58:54Z")
Originally posted in the how to find friends thread: _Have you ever considered starting a kind of … oh gosh … I don’t know what they are called - but I know there are people who like to meet regularly and discuss books. Usually classic type books. Are these groups called “Book Clubs”?_ Now he’s just trolling. I mean, still trolling. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/46 "2020-01-29T18:05:35Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > He’s the SDMB version of Emily Litella. Oh. I thought that title went to **Acey** or that **dougiemonty** wierdo. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/47 "2020-01-30T00:35:26Z")
And he started an IMHO thread: > [@Boeing vs Apple - Can you explain the current trend?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boeing-vs-apple-can-you-explain-the-current-trend/847162/1): > > While reading the news today, I see that Boeing has posted its first annual loss in two decades while Apple has posted its highest revenues ever. [links] > Can this be explained simply by saying that more and more … people prefer to call someone instead of going to see them? So I asked “Charlie, are you really as naive as you present yourself? I think it’s obvious that the two products have nothing to do with each other”. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/48 "2020-01-30T06:18:49Z")
Myself, I think he’s posting as performance art. I assume he finds his performance amusing. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/49 "2020-01-30T23:07:39Z")
There is no possible way a post like [this one](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18962150&postcount=8) is anything other than “Clueless Old Man” shtick. IMO this is one of his lazier ones: Thread: “Your favorite movie countdowns” > [@Your favorite movie countdowns](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-movie-countdowns/741217/8): > > There was a good one in Goldfinger as well. > > Most of them are cheesy as Hell. But so what? What can you expect from a movie made in 1963? > > Another topic that you might like to start are those so-called “explanations” the bad guy gives to the hero before killing them and the time it takes to deliver that explanation results in the hero finding a way to escape their fate. > > Goldfinger contains another excellent example. I just love that film. It was so well done for a film made in 1963. > > “My name is Bond … James Bond.” > > “I’d like a vodka martini - shaken - not stirred.” ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/50 "2020-01-30T23:11:27Z")
> [@digs](#): > > And he started an IMHO thread: > So I asked “Charlie, are you really as naive as you present yourself? I think it’s obvious that the two products have nothing to do with each other”. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s sworn off [a certain beer](https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/01/30/coronavirus-is-not-the-corona-beer-virus-what-people-are-googling/#3d284ca05884). ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/51 "2020-01-31T15:09:35Z")
I haven’t put much stock in those who argue that he’s a troll, but his latest thread is making it harder to argue against them: **[what’s so bad about socks?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=889341)** ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/52 "2020-01-31T21:16:31Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > I haven’t put much stock in those who argue that he’s a troll, but his latest thread is making it harder to argue against them: **[what’s so bad about socks?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=889341)** Yeah that has got to be a performance. He’s trying too hard to be cute now. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/53 "2020-01-31T21:26:23Z")
I just find all this a bit weird. He makes _very_ extensive posts with a “clueless old man” type persona. If it’s all fake, the ratio of the effort he’s putting into the portrayal vs the amount of annoyance he’s causing is very high, if the objective is to troll. I mean, there’s a recent thread about car insurance where people have responded to his apparent cluelessness by explaining various issues - but it’s useful content, it’s certainly helped me understand some substantive factual issues better. I don’t see any way in which this persona has detracted from that thread - I certainly don’t feel I have been “trolled”, or that it particularly _matters_ whether the persona is real or fake in that thread. ---
**Author:** ![splatterpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@splatterpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/splatterpunk)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/54 "2020-02-01T02:04:22Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > … I don’t see any way in which this persona has detracted from that thread - I certainly don’t feel I have been “trolled”, or that it particularly _matters_ whether the persona is real or fake in that thread. That’s the beauty of it! ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/55 "2020-02-01T05:27:10Z")
In which case… as somebody upthread mentioned, perhaps “performance art” is a better descriptor than trolling. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/56 "2020-02-01T10:42:09Z")
That says more about performance art than trolling, IMO. Unless it is consensual and open, all performance art is trolling: to the extent it has a point, it is still trolling with a point. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/57 "2020-02-01T15:04:49Z")
Naw, he lost me completely with the “aw shucks” clueless bulkshit over in the thread about e-readers where he 1.) claimed to have worked closely with computers for decades, then 2.) claimed he had no idea what this newfangled invention might be, until 3.) Googling it, at which point he completely botched the entire purpose of a Kindle. Throwing in an “Oh Ehm Gee!” for added wide-eyed naivete was a nice flourish: > [@Why haven't E-readers advanced like other tech?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-e-readers-advanced-like-other-tech/846842/25): > > OMG! I have been working with PCs and Mainframe computers ever since 1968 but … yet … I had to Google “what is an E reader” to understand your post. > > I have heard of “Kindle” and “Kindle Readers” and had some vague idea they were a device that would take a printed page and read it so that people could close their eyes and listen to a human voice speak the English text. > > I’m sorry. But I was never excited or attracted to the idea of getting such a device. Even if someone offered it to me for free, I would decline because I would not want to have to spend a lot of time learning how to use it. It’s almost always a pain to learn how to use some new tech. I think that is why seniors tend to avoid answering machines or other new kinds of tech (I know answering machines are not really “new tech”). But it often takes time to learn how to use them plus people often seem to feel they are made to feel foolish when young children get to use these things - seemingly with no problems - yet when adults or seniors try to learn how to use them, they experience plenty of difficulties. > > I try to welcome new tech - but only if I can see some useful component to it. I just can’t seem to muster up the energy to get interested in many new tech devices. > > For example, when telephone answering machines first came out circa 1979, I bought one for $500 and felt like a complete idiot because I soon learned there were perfectly good machines available for less than $100. The slick sales person who sold me the $500 machine gave me a real hard sale about how wonderful this machine performed. I think they repeated the phrase, “built like a real Mac Truck” several times. I never realized that I had no interest in a telephone answering machine that was built like a Mac Truck. I would have been perfectly happy with a machine that was built like a transistor radio. After that experience, I tended to avoid new tech - except for new PCs. > > So, to answer your question, I would just say that IMO, a large segment of the population just has little need or little interest in a machine that will read English text for them. Another primary reason may be that people feel they just have no need for a machine to read to them because they can read English text perfectly well by themselves. They just do not perceive any need for such a machine. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/58 "2020-02-01T16:53:20Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Naw, he lost me completely with the “aw shucks” clueless bulkshit over in the thread about e-readers where he 1.) claimed to have worked closely with computers for decades, then 2.) claimed he had no idea what this newfangled invention might be, until 3.) Googling it, at which point he completely botched the entire purpose of a Kindle. > > Throwing in an “Oh Ehm Gee!” for added wide-eyed naivete was a nice flourish: I missed this _performance_ the first time around. I have no words (although I might wish for a machine that might read them to me in a human voice). This guy is our own [KenM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_M). [More KenM](https://gizmodo.com/ken-m-is-the-most-epic-troll-on-the-internet-1739028329). ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/59 "2020-02-01T16:56:41Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > This guy is our own [KenM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_M). Seems about right. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020/60 "2020-02-01T17:01:35Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Some of us have our money on **Drunky Smurf** , who was suspended last month and hasn’t returned since his suspension ended. Didn’t Drunky have episodes of barely-coherent presumably drunken posting, or am I thinking of ten other people? If so, it seems unlikely that he’s Charlie, in a lot of posting we haven’t seen anything like that from him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-wayne-are-you-trolling-or-just-stupid/847020.md?page=4)