We’ve all seen trolls come and go, be they on this or other forums we frequent.
But there is one over at a pregnant/baby forum I frequent with such unbelieveable vitriol that several of us are up in arms. Their favorite target? A young mother whose nearly 1-year-old daughter drowned in a pool (while being “supervised” by a coworker over for a business meeting). We’ve heard dozens of dead baby jokes, many of them pointed directly at this mother. Last night the troll told her flat out she should stop shirking responsibility and own up to the fact it was HER fault her baby is dead, and that her newborn best watch his back.
This online community has 70+ forums…and two moderators. You can imagine the glee this troll is having running amuck for days before getting caught. More annoying is the troll is deleting accounts (which, there, deletes all posts by that account) and coming back in a new sock puppet form, so they’re hard to trace. The moderator stepped in finally last night–after 2 days of this–and banned that ISP, but not shockingly, the troll is back. We’ve reported them, so maybe something will happen sooner.
I’m getting so pissed I’m wondering if legal action can be taken. The agrieved mother, I should point out, has sunk into a depression. Her baby girl would have been turning 2 on Tuesday. This ain’t helping. If I were her hubby, I’d have this person’s head on a stick.
I’m curious if this could qualify, legally, as harassment. My guess is no–it just qualifies as inhuman assholishness.
I know not to feed a troll, so I’ve just been lurking these last few days. But SHEESH.
My condolences to the mother of the ill fated child. There are probably a lot of opinions out there as to her culpability here. My own opinion is that I do not know enough about it to form an opinion. It does not matter if she was negligent or not, anyone who would take joy in needling her about it is one sick bastard. Unfortunately I doubt there is any such thing as an internet restraining order to keep the sickie away from sites she may go to for what I imagine is much needed support. I would recommend she get some one on one counseling. Where I live it is readily available, even if you can’t afford it. (she may well be getting that already). Best of luck, and may the fleas of ten thousand camels infest the crotch of the sickie, and may their arms grow too short to scratch.
Eh, what a jerk. But, trolls are nothing new and I think that perhaps the aggrieved mother shouldn’t put much thought into it. I mean, she posted on the Internet that her infant drowned. Can she honestly say that she’s surprised at some of the reactions? People are crazy about topics such as that.
I don’t think you can take legal action, 'cause it’s just a random troll and we all know that the Internet is serious business.
I wouldn’t put it past an aquantance or messed up relative being vendictive. For sure it can be a random stranger. You can’t tell her to ignore the person’s remarks, because it hits deep into the her feelings of guilt. Most parents wouldn’t be able to not feel guilty about the death with the birthday coming up. Too bad for the poor mother. I hope they get this guy permenantly removed.
The site can contact the ISP from which he posts and tell them of his behavour. They can check their system to see who it was, and ban him. The site can also get an order to have this persons name and address released, if they keep changing ISPs. They can then take it to the courts.
Oh yeah, they’re changing ISPs to follow this woman around? :dubious: Isn’t that going a bit far to bother some lady on the internet? Might they know her in real life?
I’ve thought that, too…except apparently, this troll (that, or a copycat, which is a distinct possibility) went into a sister forum (forums are organized [differently]) and was harassing a woman who’d lost a son. They are targeting women who’ve lost children, and going for the jugular.
Now it’s gotten weirder. The moderator stepped in and said they’d identified the troll as being this girl (first and last name). Her account was deleted–but she has a revolving ISP, so back she comes to vehemently deny it, saying “I love these boards, I would never do this, blah blah blah.” She has reason to defend herself–apparently death threats were made against some of the [recent] women’s babies and some of the posters are looking into criminal charges.
She’s wondering if someone cloned her ISP address, yadda yadda yadda…God, what a fucking mess. And really, is cloning an ISP possible? Does this exposed troll have a leg to stand on in her defense? Oh, and for the record, the troll popped back in at our board yesterday, making scathing comments about other posters…high-school mean girl (vicious, actually) crap again, this time at some of our frequent posters and not the one who lost her daughter.
Bizarre. It’d be fun for the troll to come over here though…harassing young moms (most are a decade younger than I am, in their early to mid-20s) is one thing, but taking on the Dopers…mmmm-wah ha ha! I’d love to watch you guys shred this person.
No. What would be fun would be taking this piece of trash out into an alley and smashing all its fingers so that it could never abuse a keyboard, again.
However, that would not be just, either, given that the idiot might be suffering its own serious mental or emotional issues.
I would ask that you not post any (more) information regarding the boards so infected. I would prefer that no hot-headed Doper go over looking for an opportunity to “deal out justice” (which would simply be laughingly dismissed by the cretin) and wind up spreading the infection.
You might suggest to the board handlers that they trap and save any future posts so that if someone does attempt to take legal action (or even just go to the idiot’s ISP and get their account quashed) they will have evidence that they can provide when the idiot attempts to delete its account and posts.
(I am not asking that you refrain from posting about the incdents. I would just prefer that information that would lead a poster, here, to those boards not be made more explicit. We have our own share of jerks and fools.)
No no no, **tomndeb[/], I wouldn’t do that (send the troll over here, or Dopers over there)… :eek: I do know better than that. It’s fun to fantasize about, but I definitely wouldn’t do it! Having been around on the SDMB 7 years, I have learned something. Really.
I did write the OP trying to limit info on the infected board so as not to send anyone over there, and if you prefer, you can remove other details in any of my posts to keep that board anonymous (in case I said too much).
I came venting about an asshole, and looking for insights as to how to clean said asshole…not to start a cross-board battle.
Meanwhile, I’m laughing at the “Good Luck Troll Dolls” advertisement on the bottom of the page. Niiiiiiiice.
We had one guy who said something shockingly horrific to a father whose wife had suffered a stillborn pregnancy. It was the only time I’ve ever hit the “report post” button and the poster was quickly banned.
I don’t know what motivates these people. Perhaps, as Tom has suggested he/she has mental problems. Or perhaps they are just kids who are trying to be shocking for the sake of getting a rise out of someone.
In any event, I think that the best reaction to trolls is to simply not react at all. I realize this is tough because people feel the need to defend/protect the targeted poster. But, honestly, I think sending a private message to the mother expressing your support and then flat-out ignoring the offender is the best way to exterminate the pest for good.
Arrrggh…it makes me angry just reading the OP. Some of the things that people will do and say from behind the safe anonymity of the internet just make me ill.
This is a Pit thread in all but place, and a good one at that. :mad:
I actually started out with this as a Pit thread, with the title “______ Message Board needs to grow some serious fucking balls.” I was so frustrated with the crappy moderating/administrative action, and so infuriated by the troll…UGH. But then I realized posting the name of the MB would be bad form, and I didn’t (as tomndeb cautioned against) want to get anyone here over there, or vice versa. So I toned it down and brought the thread here.
The troll has been gone a few days now–I think the mod posting their first and last name has them scrambling their energies into denying it (and really, can you do that?? as a moderator, post someone’s real identity? not that I’m against it here). But I’m still smoldering over some of their comments. Again, in my original draft of this post, I had cut-and-pasted their most infuriating post (believe it or not, I left out the worst details), but decided against it because it probably would send a Doper or five over their with their pitchforks and torches.
Gotta say, this is the most well-spoken troll I’ve ever seen. Most posters over there are young girls who type in a lot of Netspeak, and grammar, punctuation, spelling, and vocabulary are a little…lacking. This troll knew how to use their words–dammit.
Some people are just abominable assholes. I didn’t believe that anyone could be this insanely nasty/evil to anyone’s face–but I suppose this fucking coward wouldn’t be. Geesh, people can seriously suck.
