# Should "whooshing" be considered trolling? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 28, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643 "2005-07-28T20:34:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/1 "2005-07-28T20:34:53Z")
In a serious thread (I shant name a thread or poster) I think we’ve all seen cases of whooshing where the woosher offends some member who doesn’t realise they’re being whooshed. How is this any different than trolling? Wooshing, in some cases, can be used as a cover for an action that would otherwise be considered trolling. Not in all cases, but in cases where the whoosh derails the thread or otherwise causes bad feelings or confusion among those in the thread, or those that didn’t get the whoosh. Like I said, no link for now. I think we can discuss the idea without examining any particular offenses. I have never seen any cases where a member was called out for a whoosh, yet trolling seems to be a hot topic lately. What are the basic differences between whooshing and trolling and should whooshing be allowed? is it woosh, or whoosh? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/2 "2005-07-28T20:38:14Z")
The difference is a whoosh is an attempt at humor, whereas a troll is an attempt to piss people off. ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/3 "2005-07-28T20:39:33Z")
Do you mean if someone is making an obvious joke and some dumb ass doesn’t get it? If so, I would say that the issue is with the dumb ass, not the person making the joke. If, on the other hand, you mean a poster that makes statements that can be taken more than one way and when called simply stated in all innocence that they meant the 'good" way, then I could see it as light trolling. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/4 "2005-07-28T20:43:56Z")
It’s whoosh. (Or whoooooooooooooooooooooooosh.) How is it trolling? The first person makes an odd or facetious remark, expecting the generally literate and potentially hip SDMB audience to catch the reference. Some member of the audience misses the allusion and responds in anger or seriousness. If the original poster did nothing but post obscure references for the purpose of mocking everyone who failed to understand them, you would have a point, but the fact that most whooshes are recognized by the SDMB, at large, indicates that it was simply a communication flaw, not an attempt to agitate. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/5 "2005-07-28T20:52:04Z")
I know you didn’t want to discuss specifics, but I’m still going to have to ask for a cite, as I honestly can’t imagine what you’re talking about. I can’t think of any time I’ve ever seen a deliberate “whoosh,” and I’m not entirely certain what one would look like. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/6 "2005-07-28T20:52:37Z")
Because trolling is always deliberate; deliberateness is a required attribute of trolling. Whooshing is never deliberate; unintentionality is, likewise, a required attribute of the whoosh. ---
**Author:** ![Greathouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greathouse/32/2992_2.png) [@Greathouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greathouse)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/7 "2005-07-28T21:00:02Z")
So, someone couldn’t play out a stupid argument and watch everyone get their tits twisted about and then at the end of it yell “WHOOSH!!!”. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/8 "2005-07-28T21:13:31Z")
> [@Greathouse](#): > > So, someone couldn’t play out a stupid argument and watch everyone get their tits twisted about and then at the end of it yell “WHOOSH!!!”. Nope. A whoosh is normally a one post deal. 1)joke post 2)replies to joke post as if it were serious 3)whoosh Carrying on an argument and then claiming “whoosh” at the end would be pretty transparent. Purposefully carrying a whoosh for a prolonged period could be considered trolling. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/9 "2005-07-28T21:15:45Z")
Nice Doppler effect, **tom~**. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/10 "2005-07-28T21:18:52Z")
This thread didn’t have to get very long before I started to reflect, on reading the repeated uses of the word “whoosh,” what a funny-looking word it is. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/11 "2005-07-28T22:08:01Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > This thread didn’t have to get very long before I started to reflect, on reading the repeated uses of the word “whoosh,” what a funny-looking word it is. I find most words start to look weird if they’re repeated frequently enough. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/12 "2005-07-28T22:12:59Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > I find most words start to look weird if they’re repeated frequently enough. **EddyTeddyFreddy EddyTeddyFreddy EddyTeddyFreddy EddyTeddyFreddy EddyTeddyFreddy EddyTeddyFreddy EddyTeddyFreddy** Yep…you’re right! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/13 "2005-07-28T22:19:20Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > **EddyTeddyFreddy > EddyTeddyFreddy > EddyTeddyFreddy > EddyTeddyFreddy > EddyTeddyFreddy > EddyTeddyFreddy > EddyTeddyFreddy** > > Yep…you’re right! 😃 Sheesh, my user name looks silly all by itself. 😉 Much worse than: **silenus silenus silenus silenus silenus silenus silenus silenus silenus silenus silenus silenus** Naw, nothing silly about that, merely oddly… unsettling. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/14 "2005-07-28T23:32:26Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > **silenus silenus silenus > silenus silenus silenus > silenus silenus silenus > silenus silenus silenus** You hear that a lot, down by the pond during amphibian mating season. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/15 "2005-07-29T00:26:45Z")
If whooshing were trolling I think 99% of us would have been banned by now. I remember in a “Dubya Bashing” thread (a somewhat rare phenomenon at the SDMB[sup]1[/sup]) I posted something like “Dubya doesn’t like the works of George Eliot. Dubya doesn’t think he’s a good writer.” A few postings later someone said “Hey Wolf, George Eliot was a woman.” Yes I _knew_ that and as others have said, you _think_ you can post something like that because of the hip SDMB crowd. Besides being hip, sometimes we forget another Doper characteristic - the eagerness for the chance to correct another Doper in a display of Message Board “one-ups-man-ship”. My point is that quite often, a whoosh is unintentional. [sup]1[/sup] Before someone accuses me of failing to notice the preponderance of SDMB Bush-Bashing threads, the remark I made was a joke. As we all know, there are a plethora of Bush-Bashing threads here at the SDMB. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2005, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/16 "2005-07-29T03:16:43Z")
Going by one particular situation that I am aware of, deliberate whooshing is not allowed. There is a particular poster (we’ll call him Mr G because that’s not his name) who is famous for having a mind so open that sceptics around here tend to believe his brains have fallen out. Mr G’s position was (and as far as I know is) essentially that any crackpot nonsense is true unless you can prove it isn’t. Another poster (we’ll call him Mr S, for the same reason) ran a long running and deliberate whoosh by posting (with hilarious mock sincerity) certain crackpot nonsense that directly contradicted the crackpot nonsense Mr G believed. This left Mr G on the horns of a dilemma for obvious reasons. Personally, I thought that the mindfuck being perpertrated on Mr G was one of the funniest (and cleverest) judo throw rebuttals I’d ever seen. Plus I thought Mr G a jerk who deserved everything he got. The mods disagreed and told Mr S to knock it off, that he was effectively trolling because he was telling an untruth (he knew he was spouting crackpot nonsense) and he knew Mr G was too much of an idiot to get the whoosh. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2005, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/17 "2005-07-29T03:59:55Z")
Deliberate posting of crackpot nonsense that is designed to _mislead_ other Dopers is against the rules, especially if it is long-running (as you have described). Being sarcastic or throwing in a bit of humor is not. I’ve always thought of _trolling_ as trying to bait people. That’s consistent with the fishing metaphor. When I am whooshed, I feel a little sheepish, but never pissed or frustrated – if I even find out about it. With a troll, I have a variety of reactions. Eventually, I either realize what is happening or someone gives me a nudge and I stop the feeding. Generally speaking, they become repetitious and boring. (fixed coding–Veb) ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/18 "2005-07-29T04:04:43Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > If whooshing were trolling… beggars would ride. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/19 "2005-07-29T04:12:14Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally Posted by wolf\_meister > > If whooshing were trolling… > > beggars would ride. Huh, you missed a better one: Then bridges would rise. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2005, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643/20 "2005-07-29T07:38:49Z")
> [@Binarydrone](#): > > Do you mean if someone is making an obvious joke and some dumb ass doesn’t get it? If so, I would say that the issue is with the dumb ass, not the person making the joke. [Jim Carrey in The Cable Guy] Soooo, what are ya sayin’?[/JCiTCG] I pray to Og at least some get that joke. 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-whooshing-be-considered-trolling/314643.md?page=2)