I’ll pretend for a second that I believe this and you’re sincere.
Try rebutting a little less incessantly. You don’t need to make 9/10s of every thread you’re in about you the second you experience a perceived slight.
Oh, and also try rebutting a little bit more maturely - perhaps even intelligently. Arguing like a third grader doesn’t really rise to the level of “responding appropriately”.
Thank you. We may end up friends.
I’d love to. I’ve tried to. But mature and restrained counterposts do NOT work with a group of vulgar, mean spirited, bitter, trolls. Their power comes from controlling the perceptions of their target and being relentless in framing the ‘reality’. They are the types who would research you in real life and get your spouse fired and kids beat up. They are not good people. And you won’t get them to back off and go seek an easier target, sadly, if you are an easy target.
Addressing this to octopus in this thread goes beyond parody, and into performance art.
Regards,
Shodan
I think I am gonna go in the kitchen fry that bacon.
I’m a wierdo who draws a hard line between friends and sociable acquaintences - at no time in my life have I had more than two people who I considered to rate the label “friend”. (Usually it’s just one.)
Sociable acquaintance would be a good goal to shoot for, though.
Define “work”. What would you define as a successful outcome, and do your current tactics achieve it?
If you seriously think that anybody on this message board would hunt you down in real life for not being enough of an asshole online, then I’m not sure I exist in the same reality as you. And frankly I’m glad I don’t.
I ask a mile but I’ll take an inch.
No idea. It might not be possible to dissuade the sociopathic.
Your italicized reason is not their motivation. Their motivation is bitterness at life, loneliness, the desire to belong to an in-group, and boredom. They are also engaged at a long running meta-game.
You want an inch, you gotta earn it. Good luck though!
You’ve engaged in your charming way with me, you know. Which means that I can reasonably infer that you assume me to be:
Of these:
Not really. I’m pretty sanguine about everything but my nonexistent romantic life, and have many hobbies that I enjoy (actually enough that I don’t have time for all of them!)
Well, lonely romantically. Socially, my calendar is pretty damned full. More evenings than not I’m hanging out with somebody.
Not even slightly. I am far from a joiner. All my hobbies are solitary. (Well, except for board games, but even those don’t scale up to a whole group.)
BINGO! WE HAVE A WINNER! (I pretty much only post here when I’m at work.)
Ha! Yeah, right! Like I plan anything more than a week ahead. The only “long running meta-game” I have is that I want to write at least another four fiction novels before I kick the bucket. It’s not looking likely at the pace I’m going, but we’ll see.
I’m pretty damned confident that nobody else here is any more interested in stalking you than I am.
Non existent romantic life?
Well, we could make this ask Dr. octopus instead of octopus bingo for awhile.
How to get romance. I don’t know enough about you for specific advice but I’ll tell you what worked for me.
Be a sincere listener, don’t be afraid to have your own interests and life, spend some time each day doing some exercise and/or other form of personal improvement. Seek behaviors and traits in potential romantic partners that signal loyalty, stability, and maturity.
Oh, I do all that; it just doesn’t help. Do you suppose it matters that I never speak to women ever in my daily life? Regardless.
Now, back to you. (Nice distraction, by the way. I totally fell for it.) You seem to be laboring under the impression that all the people out here are all horrific nightmare stalker people who will “research you in real life and get your spouse fired and kids beat up” if you act weak - if you don’t be enough of an asshole online. (Yep, that italicized bit - I got it directly from your own words.) This is allegedly why you knowingly behave in the awful manner you do.
So, two questions:
Dr. octopus can help. First you got to change your daily habits so that you can increase potential interactions. Gym is good. But don’t be a creep. It takes time to meet people.
Finding romance is hard so that will take a few sessions.
But you had more questions! Not just romance.
Perhaps my interpretation isn’t 100% accurate. I’d still disagree that in this day and age we shouldn’t be cautious with real life info because it has been used to hurt people. You might be comfortable posting a photo and your real life address here but I wouldn’t.
Yep, bacon was a good idea.
Sorry, you suggested that I attend a gym, which means I must now hate you forever.
I never asked you about romance, of course.
I’m pretty reluctant to put my personal info online too, but that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about your assertion that if you seem “weak” HERE, at the Straight Dope Message Board, the members of this message board will hunt you down and draw and quarter you with actual horses (or whatever).
In my experience, this message board, of all places on the internet, it pretty damned civil. And that’s even with assholes like me saying “fuck” all the time. (Fuck fuck fuck.) I for one am utterly unconcerned that anybody on this message board will cyberstalk me.
Not even you, and you are in the running for “most unhinged-acting” of all the posters here.
Do you consider spamming up a thread with personal insults against the people you disagree with to be debating?
No I don’t. I disagree that it’s spam. For that please refer above to Beckdawrek or Drunky. But it’s the Pit and it’s not a forum designed for debate. As long as the Pit exists I’ll respond to people who attack me as I wish.
Now, if people are civil to me, as you are, I’m civil to them regardless if I disagree with you or not. But if you lie about me, encourage others at other forums to pile on me, call me names, insult my family, then I don’t owe you any particular response. I don’t owe you civility at that point.
Let’s say I civilly ask one of my attackers in this thread a question, such as Giraffe or Drunky or Sunny a question. Do you think each of them would afford me the same courtesy? To your credit and to a few others you have. Which I am happy to see.
Sorry about the gym recommendation.
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Mr. octopus, my ghostliness has been demoted. My custodial reach is now limited to some of the most bitter blog posts from the Atheism Plus community, if you are familiar with that movement. And they’re all dated. I am not allowed to touch anything current. It feels like the entire atmosphere here has been enveloped by 10,000 ashtrays. I would prefer to not even reveal my new title.
I beg of you, Mr. octopus, look at THIS LINK. The good part begins at the 43rd comment. You know what? This topic seems right up your alley for being entertained, so go ahead and read it all.
Take note of the proprietors of the 43rd and the 58th comment respectively. These monsters used to run the FRDB forum formerly known as IIDB. They came back to the forum of which I was a member (archives during this time are not available) and unleashed this overbearing morally righteous polemic on what had happened, detailing some specific paradigm for how groups with larger followings methodically mob smaller targets or whatever. There was no link that I saw at the time. I mistakenly thought they were taking up for the feminism side but no matter since I didn’t say that. From how they were making their case, I knew enough what to do.
I did what is known here as flouncing. I flounced, I flopped around so terribly. I called them bullying hypocrites who were only differentiating themselves morally from their foe by the size of their online backing. I accused them of allowing discussions on FRDB where users dogpiled on members of the public who shot unarmed black males. I left for good and when I came back a year or two later some changing of the guard occurred and the archives were gone, so I won that round.
I am so sorry to again be appearing to you out of a bubble bath, very undignified.
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I believe that a few posts up you said that I (and pretty much everyone else here you interchange with) are motivated by bitterness at life, loneliness, the desire to belong to an in-group, and boredom, and they are also engaged at a long running meta-game. In your opinion, am I morally obligated to cuss you out incessantly for hundreds of posts for these lies and slander?
Also, if you don’t want to be insulted, what the hell are you doing in the pit? If you’re in the pit because you want opportunities to exchange sophomoric insults (and you seem be borderline saying that), then I would classify that as trolling.
Oh, and this being the pit (and a pit thread about you, to boot), I feel obligated to point out that your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries. Just saying.
Shall I fetchez la vache?
Fetchez la vache!* ((SPROING))*
I don’t care how you want to classify anything. I can choose to respond, in the Pit, to people who attack me in the Pit as I wish. Labeling a defense “trolling” is intellectually dishonest and victim blaming.
And it’s* completely absurd* to suggest that one can avoid gossip and personal attacks by not being present where they occur. :smack:
You claim to want to debate.
You claim that the pit isn’t a place for debate.
You claim that insulting people is okay in the pit (if you’re the one doing it)
You claim that insulting people is a horrible offense worthy of taking massive dumps anywhere (if anybody does it to you).
You’re no victim, and you’re also intellectually dishonest (specifically, blatantly hypocritical).
What you don’t know can’t hurt you. Also, are you operating under the completely absurd delusion that people insult you randomly for no reason when you’re not there? Sorry sucker, you’re not that important. When I don’t see your posts as a helpful reminder I don’t even remember you exist.