I think it was because the names are similar enough to a poster who also just happens to be disabled.
I doubt it. Because a real disabled person probably wouldn’t lead off that way. I bet there are several here who’ve never asked such things at all, let alone all in conjunction together.
“If, hypothetically, a genuinely disabled person came here and asked for advice about a genuine concern they had about devotees, would that person just be written off as a troll now?”
But why would they ask us? What the bleep would would we bring to the conversation to add value? (Ambivalid excepted, of course, and any other Dopers with relevent first-hand experience)
Yeah, I did think the volunteering of supposedly personal information was weird.
I agree, but as I said earlier (in this or one of the other related threads), I didn’t see a lot of skepticism. I saw suspicion and cynicism - which are not the same thing.
Skepticism is about drawing conclusions well supported by evidence - that seems nearly the opposite of what happened here.
Why wouldn’t they ask us? Even if we have nothing to offer, that doesn’t mean someone won’t (perhaps mistakenly) ask the question.
No, that’s philosophical skepticism. Being skeptical is just not being prone to buy into bullshit.
Ever hear the saying “Fool men once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me?”. If you treat each incident as independent, you’ll be constantly fooled.
It seems to me like you are saying “I do not have sufficient evidence to know that this particular Nigerian prince does not really have a billion dollars in an account that he cannot access.”
We have regular posters here who ask questions that would get better answers on more specialized boards, but this is where they hang out, so they ask here. We also get first-time posters who ask questions that could probably get better answers on more specialized boards, but maybe they did a Google search and SDMB was among the top results. This particular first thread happens to be a question that would be much better answered in a forum dedicated to issues encountered by wheel-chair users. I suspect that most people who use the internet and use wheelchairs know about such forums.
My skepticism was heightened when the troll defended itself. If my first thread on a message board was met with snark and a pitting, I would quietly disappear.
Has anyone actually done so honestly?
Yeah, most people wouldn’t do that. And of course none of it pointed to a real person, so it didn’t even help.
They’re not the same, but they’re related. This is a message board and it’s fair to be suspicious of people who show up out of the blue with unusual and attention-seeking stories. I don’t want to see people get driven off by uninformed suspicion - I’m surprised that some of our legit posters have put up with that kind of scrutiny - and I would say I overreacted for that reason, but people here have seen enough fakers that they know who to take a second look at.
Call it a hunch, then. But it’s a hunch that came from experience.
Maybe if you’re drunk.
The best thing to do on the Internet is to be a skeptical asshole. I love that umkay seems to be the gift that keeps on giving even if the troll was a separate person. The fun lives on.
That being said the mspaint photo was not my personal favorite point in the thread. Marley championing that we all give umkay 2.0 a chance was my favorite bit.
I hope in the future the administration and moderators here will remember the axiom, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and a valid ip address is about the weakest evidence there is in supporting a claim
Yes, people come here and ask questions they would be better off asking elsewhere. Why wouldn’t that happen?
I would offer my license plate number and try to write with a cartoonish accent.
Learn to read, please.
Thing is we have disabled people on this forum, and nobody thinks they’re trolls. Three names immediately jump to mind, but they don’t join the forum with such ridiculous BS stories. Hell, etv78 might be faking the wheelchair thing, but I doubt it.
My brave battle with priapism has been accepted as well.
OK, but how was it bullshit? Maybe if I’d been more involved in the umkay incident, I’d have the same gut feeling that others did.
And if you don’t retain an open mind, you can jump to the wrong conclusion. Of course, nobody wants to be fooled twice, but until you know it’s an attempt at fooling you again, what do you do?
Of course not. This is not a particularly useful analogy for me. In the world, there are zero Nigerian princes trying to give away money. The number of disabled people with some kind of relationship quandary is very probably not zero.
I meant, has anyone at the SDMB honestly asked, as a wheelchair bound person, for opinions about how to deal with devotees?
I’ve no idea, Is there something special about this precise variety of misplaced question?
I’ve met him. The wheelchair is real.
Or not stupid. Especially when combined with your first post in this thread. But whatever, your white knight hill to die on. Shrug.