The militia is out in full force today.
Why not? Several Dope mods keep an eye on what’s posted on Giraffe’s board and a lotta socks get caught that way. How is this any different?
You’re back!
It’s been so long.
mb
If he was the type of troll that replied, then it would be a bit more distracting, I will admit, but people rebutting or refuting him, or even taking potshots at him, in the Pit, is perfectly acceptable and cathartic, and with the fact that he more or less never replies to any of it means that it goes away fairly quickly, compared to trolls that keep coming back, and replying to all rebutters.
We all have people we encounter in our daily lives that spout nonsense like he does. And we are often times not in a position to rebut or refute; whether that be because they are a boss or favored co-worker, a customer, a family member, an acquaintance, or some random person to who you do not have time to formulate and articulate a reply.
He provides the service of being that person who gish gallops a bunch of word salad nonsense, and gives us a chance to properly articulate why what he said was wrong, which is something that we don’t get to do IRL very often. It also give the opportunity to practice and refine the replies to such idiocy, so that when we are in a position to make a reply IRL, the argument is already formulated.
If nothing else, it’s hard to resist a good game of whack-a-mole.
Not long enough.
You mean people are saying things you disagree with? How horrible for you! Better just occasionally dip your feet in to snipe and snark, rather than actually take some effort to engage and try to see what the fundamental points of disagreement actually are.
I have no cites but I recall reading some posts from Clothahump which were at least neutral and sometimes contributory to the thread at hand. None of these were political threads or course; I believe they were technical in nature.
He is normally a pain in the ass and he and I wouldn’t certainly not be friends IRL, but he mainly stinks up the board only as much as people let him by getting sucked into his vortex of idiocy.
Somebody buy BPC a membership so he can put Clothy on ignore.
If you ban Clothahump, somebody else will take on the mantle of “Clothahump.” It’s just like the Dread Pirate Roberts, but with swaggering ignorance instead of buccaneering.
Of course the mods should take into account what people post on other boards if it is about their behavior here. Part of the mods’ job with trolls involves determining intent, and if someone announces their intent elsewhere, that is relevant. The mods should not cut off a source of information and thus allow someone to get away with trolling
That said, there are caveats. For one thing, posters can lie to make themselves out as better than they are. Plus there’s the possibility that the person is only pretending to be the same poster. I doubt that’s the case here, though, and would be fine if Clothy were banned to make a point about trolling not being acceptable.
As for my own opinion on the guy in question, I don’t really feel the ire. I’ve had him on ignore for a while for the way he talks, and I find that reading everyone calling him out amusing. He’s not like some infuriating posters who actually have good things to say sometimes.
I do echo that people should not take the bait and let him hijack threads. But, other than that, have fun. When you’re angry at Trump stuff, you have this asshole who is so kind as to give you an easy target. He’s doing us a service–a service I tells ya!
Ok, then I’ll give him that nod at least.
Clothy is a partisan. The idea of banning him is bullshit. I mean, so what? He doesn’t agree with the crowd? Bullshit.
Because socking is an offense independent of post content. Identifying a sock simply requires establishing that one real person has signed up for more than one account. To be honest, if they banned socks based on nothing but a unverified Giraffeboard claim, i would be opposed to that as well. They should also check IP addresses and other technical data related to location, in order to independently verify the claim of socking up. I assume that they do this. If they don’t, then anyone could get a new SDMB member banned by claiming on Giraffe to be his sock.
Trolling, on the other hand, requires an assessment of post content. It requires looking at what people post, and evaluating their posts in order to determine whether they are making a genuine effort at communication. If Clothahump makes posts on this board that appear to be trolling, he should be warned. If he keeps doing it, he should be banned.
Also, it’s possible to irritate people in debates, even intentionally, without actually trolling. It’s quite easy to combine a genuine and serious post with an effort to needle someone, and when this sort of thing occurs, especially in the Pit, any attempts to moderate for trolling should be required to clear a pretty high bar of evidence.
Wow - I take everyone off my ignore list and this is the first post I see. WHEE!!
BPC, you are so wrong about me that you’re not even in the same zip code with being correct. But, hey, why let reality get in the way of a good rant, right?
I set up someone to make a complete ass of himself. He bit on the bait and I hooked him. When I pointed out to him (and others) that he had taken the bait, I got suspended for a month. It was totally unjustified, but there it is.
This should be your signature.
FUCK OFF!
(2nd post you see, I hope.)
Personally, I don’t give a shit. This board is stuffed full of completely idiotic and mostly contradictory rules and has nothing much in the way of tools to moderate the, well, tools. The sock ban is stupid, the banhammer is stupid, if they had the sense the gods gave developmentally disabled root vegetables they’d figure out that something like Boxing or Coventry is a much better solution but since Li’l Ed took all the buttons away it’s going to stay stupid. Meh. People get the kind of board they deserve, I guess, and since the stupid rules here allow stupid trolls to troll stupidly for as long as they dance right up to the stupid rule line but not over it it will continue to be equally stupid.
Wow. Another self-proclaimed expert on me who has learned a buzzword and wants to show it off to everyone.
It would be nice if the majority of posters on this board were capable of arguing a point rationally. Instead, they haul out the good old ad hominem, or whatever the current buzzword is that is supposed to trump everything, and then they get offended when it doesn’t work.
Now…a challenge for you. This was a non-angry, useful information post. Do you agree? If not, I’d love to hear your reasoning why.