Yeah, people who constantly have to proclaim about how they don’t give a fuck usually give lots of fucks.
Now where have I heard that line before…
I’ve seen it work once … on a much smaller board that started out with very strict language rules.
[Moderating]
Jim, stop saying “fuck you” to other posters. It’s against board rules.
No warning issued.
[/Moderating]
Just ignore it. There are trolls on this board who have never ever actually broken a rule, but who I don’t respond to. There are other trolls who I don’t even read except to gain context for an especially good riposte. There are other trolls on my ignore list who I don’t read even with an exceptional riposte.
There are those who enjoy engaging them, arguing with them, and pounding them into the ground. Whatever. That’s not me, but if they’re having fun, I don’t see why I should care.
I don’t get the injunction not to feed trolls. I mean, obviously I know the troll is a troll. But so what ? If I’m enjoying myself witting it out or 'splaining shit to an oblivious and uncaring silent crowd that may or may not exist, why the fuck should **you **care ? It’s win-win. The troll thinks he’s trolled me and gets a chubby, I’m in awe of my own devastating humour and get a chubby. Chubbies all around, to the everlasting delight of our gently misted public.
Unproductive, sure, but then so’s masturbation, and I know for fact that’s fun. Even to some onlookers.
Trolling threads are usually more interesting than this. At least at the beginning.
I think you just hit on the reason trolls make people angry. We don’t want them to enjoy themselves. We want them to stop believing or saying [whatever], but more than that we want them punished. We want to punch their dicks. And we can’t and that makes us madder.
To DNFTTers it’s obvious that the only way to punish them–the closest we can get to a dick punch–is if everyone everywhere just ignored them. That’s understandable, but entirely futile, and they know it. It will be impossible to get everyone on board in any situation. And trolls only need a very tiny amount of feeding to keep on trollin’. Hell, some of them can survive for years on their bile reserves alone. It’s a pipedream to think trolls can ever be eradicated–or even temporarily silenced–by cutting off their food supply.
Which is to say, JimNightshade, I get your frustration with both trolls and those who feed them. You’re convinced you have the answer…but I don’t believe that it’s actually an answer. DNFTT is a nice sentiment, but so deeply flawed as to be useless.
.
I don’t agree with this. I have seen a message board where DNFTT actually works. But it’s a pretty small board and the people all know each other. On larger message boards, it’s harder to do.
As for the OP, I’m not sure what it’s about, but Hi Jim! Is it Friday already?
What’s your beef with the apostrophe, anyway? Do you consider it a second-class punctuation mark?
I like trolls. They’re entertaining.
Troll can’t hear you. Talk into his ELBOOOOW.
Me too. Geese and swans are pretty nasty creatures, but they are interesting to observe. Sometimes I like to fling handfuls of breadcrumbs to them just so I can watch them go about their business. It’s the same with a good troll.
I look at it this way, the troll responders could easily be facing some other very righteous frustration in real life, yet are mature enough to refrain from letting loose the lip out of propriety, perhaps toward parent, boss, spouse or even life itself. They log on and stumble into some stupid trolling post. I can give this person a pass for taking the opportunity to vent their spleen in a better way.
As for those who simply cannot resist, just have to wade in, I think those posters have maybe some issues with maybe needing to be right? Whatever the issue, I feel it’s good for them to work some of it out on the trolls, giving the rest of us a little break. The more often they manifest their need to fight every fight the more likely they may actually notice it, I’d hope.
And I think a case could be made, that there is some educational value in watching the take down or debunking of the stupid de jour, as it were. “Your argument is void because…”, can teach people the right questions to ask when they are being spoon fed some nice tasting nonsense or other.
And lastly, isn’t letting the troll feeders get under your skin, move you to ranting and frothing, only one tiny step removed from letting the trolls get to you such that you simply MUST respond?
Daanngggg, Jim. Who pissed in your Wheaties?
Get some of this and use it liberally.
I decided to activate my troll filter and the OP’s posts disappeared.
Meh. I quit worrying about classifying the idiots into “genuinely stupid” and “troll” a long time ago. In at least a limited sense, posters here are reduced to just the ideas they espouse. Whether they genuinely believe their ideas or not doesn’t make a whole lot of difference in the end. If someone starts spouting bullshit about racism or creationism or whatever, I can speak up in opposition to that bullshit whether it’s sincere or not. Or, if it’s a topic that doesn’t interest me, I can choose to ignore it.
Frankly, most of the time I find the troll-hunting far more tiresome than the actual trolls. “He’s a troll because he said X in 2013 and Y in 2012 and joined in 2008 when Z was doing Q…” blah, blah, blah. Even if this person isn’t sincere in their professed belief, someone else is, and they might just come across this conversation one day.
Now, the exception I’d make to all this is when someone is trying to exploit board members in some way - making up a sob story to get sympathy and/or financial support - that kind of thing. That needs to be stamped down, and stamped down hard when it’s discovered. IMHO, of course.
Fair enough - I have calmed down anyway.
I have this fabulous cactus in my yard that I suspect you would love to make love with, if it wasn’t for the fact that you’re kind of a decent fella.
Peace.
Like you never woke up after a long night and accidentally pissed in your cornflakes? Right…
Its ok though, I am all good again. Pay attention to responders after this pots 
C’mon folks. Them Cacti ain’t gonna fuck themselves, ya know.