Even worse, when they have conflicting rules. I think I’ve mentioned this once or twice in the past (but I’m not going to look for it), but here’s a very recent example.
Here, JC says that if you report something and the mods don’t act on it, it’s probably okay. That’s how I’ve always operated. I rarely report anything, so when I do and nobody says anything, I work on the assumption that it’s me overreacting.
But that directly conflicts with a statement we got from Bone and Colibri in this exchange between them and HD:
Which is it? If you report a post and nothing happens, then it’s probably not breaking the rules or if you report a post and nothing happens then it doesn’t mean anything?
My using financial considerations to get you “kicked off” is exactly the same arguments you use to kick poor people off health insurance: We can no longer afford your existence.
You don’t like a cost-benefit analysis being run on your worth to this society? Welcome to true conservative principles, properly applied.
Not feasible. It is a “solution” in much the same way “Just don’t die” is a solution to those who fear death. Those who you label “troll”(rightfully or not) are merely fellow posters to those who come here-you cannot attach the word “TROLL!” to their names, and you cannot telepathically convey this information to all who post. In fact, at this time you can only label people as trolls in The BBQ Pit, which means that only a pitifully small people will get your message.
Yes, but all you have to do if you are disturbed on the internet is CLOSE THE FUCKING WINDOW. You have that choice. Get a clue. No one has POWER over you unless you give it to them. Holy crap.
No, your cite is human nature. Each person chooses how to respond or not. Every mob is made up of individuals-- an internet mob is the easiest one to exit: just hit the “X” on the corner of the window. (IRL you can’t always get away from a physical mob.)
Think about who is really driving the bus that is YOU. You have choice. Just like me. I am choosing to leave you with those thoughts to ponder.
If this is so easy for you to figure out, so obvious to you, why do you think it is that so many millions upon millions of people struggle to do the same?
The main attraction of a message board is that it’s interactive. If you see something you disagree with, it’s sometimes hard to resist the urge to interact, even if it’s sort of trollish. I have almost no one on “ignore”, except a couple of posters that are a total waste of time.
The problem with ignoring trolls is that trolls don’t notice those who fail to respond, they only notice those who do respond. There are, say, 100 active daily posters here on the Straight Dope. Even if fully half of them decide to ignore a troll, that still leaves 50 who might respond or do respond to the troll, and that’s all that troll sees - the replies to his posts.
What you are proposing, ThelmaLou, only works if, say, 98-100% of people all individually decide to ignore a troll, and such unanimity is virtually impossible to achieve.
(Didn’t see these pists until after I posted my previous quote of TL)
Au contraire mon frere! Nowhere has there been a more extreme weaponization of “being a dick” than on the internet. Anonymity and connectivity breeds assholes faster than a pair of cousins drinkin’ moonshine in the fields of Missoura
That’s the thing, tho. Years ago, a suspension meant that the poster in question had better shape up, because just one more infraction meant bye-bye, gonzo, see ya, zero tolerance.
At some point the mods started giving them SECOND suspensions, instead of permabans. I have zero idea why that practice started, what the rationale was for all of a sudden giving them a lot more rope than previous.
Thanks for this input. The question was for TL but ok. Why do you think so many millions of people, many of whom are incredibly smart and accomplished in their own right, seem to lack such basic life tools? Or do you think those who develop issues of one sort or another with internet-related activities all share a similar character flaw?
Because the human urge to correct is so strong. When you see something inaccurate or wrong, you have this burning desire to correct it, even if it’s trolling.
Plus, it’s a Prisoner’s Dilemma. Even if you don’t respond to the troll, it is very likely that one or more of the other 3,000 Dopers will respond. And the moment they do, the troll has gotten his attention, so you might as well not hold back any longer.
So us here Dopers are a special bunch then, huh? We are super-pedants so we have the superpower to correct nitpicks, but we’re also super-ignorers, so we feel nothing from the trolls’ puny attempts at manipulation!
I cut them slack that it is a hard job and some segment will always have something to complain about when judgements are made.
For the nothing it is worth I think the tendency to err on cutting the hard Right trolls (and no they are not just on this side) extra slack is appropriate. Rooms full of posters agreeing with each other is boring.
I do wish they did a better job keeping threads from getting derailed though, whether by trolling or not. A recent example is how Damuri Ajashi was able (with the help of really only one poster taking the bait) take a thread on one subject iand make it one in which anyone interested in discussing the subject was driven out by mostly two posters yammering on in the derailment. Yes request for some mod direction was made. No response from them and from mod comments this thread who knows what that means. Now maybe that discussion had run its course or not, but multiple off topic posts in a row made finding out impossible.
It’s the back and forth off the actual subject of the discussion by an intentional derailer and a willing chump that kills the utility, not the trolls per se. Mod direction to open a separate thread for those derailments (not shutting them off) would be appreciated.