I’m just curious and not arguing.
Is this a real equation? I imagine many people are in it for the yocks. Does that mean they are all trolls?
If that’s the case then I would have to say the trolling here is suffocating lately. Just saying.
I am referring to the elections thread about Rex Tillerson in which I got a warning btw.
What is a “yocks”?
The phrase I’m familiar with is “in it for the yucks” meaning you aren’t really invested in the outcome but you’re there to be amused. Without a link to the thread in question it’s not clear whether what you wrote could be interpreted as trolling or not, but in the right context it certainly could be.
Right. What thread was this in? Without a link, no one could really give an opinion, except possibly the mod who gave you the warning.
OK, I found the note from Bone. It was not a warning.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19856780&postcount=156
If a mod gives you a warning, he or she will clearly state so.
The weird part for me was this line:
I was like, oh boy, I don’t remember being in this thread, but he’s insulting me, he’s WRONG, and I was RIGHT!
Then I realized he meant LongHornDave.
I might should cut down on the caffeine.
It was not a warning. It was a note.
I try to interpret charitably before pulling the trigger on warnings in general. In the way it was written, it could appear to be an accusation of trolling. If I believed it was an actual accusation of trolling I would have issued a warning. As it stands, it’s a friendly reminder of one of the rules of that forum.
This is tremendously appreciated.
Remember I’m not arguing the point at all.
I’m not sophisticated about citing or quoting threads. I did say which thread it was though. I think we know what is meant by “yocks” don’t we, without going to the dictionary?
Sorry, I didn’t mean to say it was a warning. It was a reminder, but that doesn’t mean that I am not curious about what the distinction is between “in it for the (laughs)” and trolling.
Reason is that I have noticed many many posts that seem to be pushing towards absurdity, so that one could reasonable assume it was to get a response rather than out of intellectual honesty or fighting ignorance. If that’s trolling then isn’t that a problem in a place where trolling is bad?
If you’re being the devils advocate are you trolling? If you’re exercising your rhetorical chops for the practice are you trolling? What is the working def of trolling anyway?
It’s not sophisticated at all. Copy and paste. For a thread url, highlight it, press ctrl and c or right click and select Copy Link. If you want to link to a specific post, right click on the post number and copy. For a quote, click the quote button, highlight the quote, ctrl-c or right click and select Copy Text.
In your new reply, just press ctrl and v, and it drops your link or quote right in, then other members can click it and go directly to the thread or post.
You didn’t get a mod note for trolling. You got a mod note for saying something that could be interpreted as accusing another poster of trolling.
Whether or not the posts you think may be trolling actually are or not doesn’t matter with regard to your mod note. It’s always against the rules to accuse someone of trolling, even if they are.
What is trolling in real life? In fishing it refers to dragging bait across in front of a predator fish hoping it will strike the bait and be reeled in. Bonus points for a spectacular strike where the target fish leaps from the sea thrashing wildly. the one thing nobody is trying to do is actually feed the target fish anything good or useful.
IANA mod but ISTM …
If a poster is putting out what looks like rhetorical bait with what looks like the intent of having other posters “strike” it to their detriment, well that’s trolling. Which is simply one particular subtype of being a jerk.
The critical thing here is not the maybe-trolling poster’s intent, but the appearance of that intent. The easy cases are easy. The hard cases are hard. Asking for a bright line distinction is unrealistic.
Especially since even if there was a practical way to define that bright line, it’d just encourage certain people to play “rules chicken” with it. “Rules chicken” being, IMO, another subtype of jerkish behavior.
As a bottom line that I operate under, there’s never a need for me as a non-mod to try to discern the motives of some poster. Especially I have no reason to comment on them. I take them at their word, and either disengage or click report if they cross my personal jerk threshold. There’s never a need for me to comment on how a post compares to my personal jerk threshold.
I know why I got a mod note.
To round this off, what you should do is report the post(s) to the Mods. Optionally, you may follow this step with a new entry on the “troll” in question in the Pit. There’s a convenient Omnibus thread for the purpose.
Well trolling as a human behavior, that we associate with the net is fairly new. As new as the net anyway.
Trolling is a no no, so much so that you cannot accuse someone of doing it. I reckon that is a special form of bad behavior, and may want definition at some point. If it’s that bad and all.
Now there has not been an attempt to answer my questions about certain acts being trolling or not. Just pointing that out.
My concern is that by some common sense definitions I have observed dozens of trolling behaviors in the last month. It’s a little oppressive. Maybe I haven’t been here long enough to resort to using my ignore function etc. and I will in the future or just stay away for awhile.
But if trolling is a cardinal sin it would seem to be a problem if it’s a silent epidemic.
Devil’s advocacy is best labeled as such, right off the bat. If you’re going to argue a position you don’t actually believe, it might not be trolling, if you’re presenting real arguments, with real basis, that some reasonable person out there might believe.
e.g., I’m pro-choice, but if someone makes a bad pro-choice argument, and I say, “Well, I’m on your side, but that isn’t actually what the opposition believes,” I’m not trolling, but standing up for truth and reality.
Same with exercising your chops: that’s lots of fun, but if you use it to support, say, the idea that the Apollo Program was a hoax, then that’s awful close to trolling. It’s not only not what you believe, but not even what you can support with any kind of sanity.
(I used to have fun pretending to believe in the Flat Earth. Yes, I always noted, clearly, that it wasn’t what I really believed, but was just having fun. I stopped this, because it was indistinguishable from trolling.)
(That said, I believe in defending the contention that P.D.Q. Bach was an historical personage. Sherlock Holmes, too. Some game-playing with truth is still within the boundaries!)
Seriously, if you have a concern about a post, and you aren’t sure if it’s trolling or not, use the button on that post and report it. You have space to write a comment. Tell the mod what you think might be happening and ask them what they think. They may or may not answer you if you report it that way.
Option 2 - if you’re seeing a behavioral pattern, send a PM to a mod with some examples, and ask them what they think. It’s easier for them (I believe) to answer a PM directly, so you should get an answer. You can see which mods are assigned to each forum by looking at the bottom of the forum page.
IME, when I have asked a direct question, the mods have been very responsive.
So about as new now as TV was in the 60’s.
The times I have thought it it was as political disagreement. I have not been tempted to report it because all politics now is beyond truth, and all issues must be contested and blameable on an “other.” I consider that this might be “unreportable trolling” and I don’t know really what to do to be honest. Does that mean it’s any less “trolling”?
So I am concerned that trolling is not actually something that will be controllable at all in the future. Trolling, as frowned on as it may be, may be the style of the future and just beyond the purview of anyone.
It might be the cost of having free speech IOW.
I’m not a fan of not being able to mention it, because it can be a useful heads up. I find that, when I point it out elsewhere, people are more likely to stop feeding the troll. And sometimes I even get a thanks for pointing it out. Sure, we could post it in the Pit, but the people actually getting trolled aren’t likely to go check.
But, anyways, to answer the OP’s question: Trolling (at least, the bad kind) is posting disingenuously in order to get a reaction. One common phrase among trolls is that they “do it for the lulz,” which is not that dissimilar to “in it for the yucks” or “yocks.”
So, hearing it by itself, I would think it was saying trolling–unless there was further context. Such context might be something like that the thread is a game, or if it’s clarifying that they didn’t mean to come off as irrationally angry.
Now the one I think definitely is trolling is saying you’re just hear to “tweak” or “push buttons” or stuff like that.