Ah! I understand now.
The odd cat has been known to chew inappropriately. Better yank those teeth as well.
Whom am I kidding? All cats are odd.
I guess I kinda like trolls. I just get really claustrophobic if I start feeling any hive mind action going on around me. When some one bucks the norm, is overly colorful in their storytelling and yarn spinning, is contraversial, is blunt and frank or rude or whatever…I find it refreshing, interesting and fun.
When someone starts a tall tale in MPSIMS that is almost certainly balogna, I find it interesting to see which posters will contribute honestly and which ones will think they are so smart and sharp by calling the poor schmuck out right in the thread. And which ones will just sit back and enjoy reading the thread.
I also like a good trainwreck. Because it really pulls out some great posts from some of the smarter and well spoken members of the board. It is great when storyteller0910 rises up to his full height and straightens everybody out in the middle of a monumental trainwreck with some wise words of tough love! Mmm…love that.
If the trolling gets out of control to the point where the troll is spamming mad threads with nonsense, then we could ban them under the ‘don’t be a jerk rule’. Right?
And as far as racists go, if someone can pose racist views without disrupting threads and being a jerk about it, why not allow them to go ahead and express their views? Anything else smacks of censorship to me.
Good point. We went with a different option for our cat, though, and had her jaw permanently wired shut. The vet gave us a discount rate since we also had him implant an esophageal tap. (The force-feeding tube has a quick connect nozzle, which is really nice—you can’t hear the shrieks anymore since her vocal chords are gone, but you can tell she’s not too happy so the quicker the better.)
OK, I guess there’s still some room for discussion on that subject.
Sweet!
hides under a bridge
Me too. I do get a certain joy out of a thread like that. Mostly, even when I address the OP, I’m not really concerned with them. But if I address it as if it were sincere, I get to talk a lot (which y’all may have noticed I’m fond of) and dollars to donuts even if the OP is trolling, there are lurkers out there who sincerely believe what the OP is spewing. It’s those lurkers I sort of hope to plant the seeds of sanity in, not the troll. And if I don’t plant the seeds? Eh, who cares. It’s my time I’m wasting, and I’ve got nothing better to do with it at the moment. I consider it my “journaling” time - They always say it doesn’t matter what you write, just write something each day, right? So I’m writing, and keeping my brain more-or-less active, my vocabulary decent and my typing skills sharp.
'Sides, they nearly always spawn a hijack or two that I do find really interesting, but not so much so that I want to start a thread of its own. I don’t like starting threads, because then I feel beholden to nanny them. In that thread , I am curious about other people’s thoughts on “racist” vs. “bigot”, and if **Liberal **learned unorthodox meanings or if I did, or if it’s one of those “soda” vs. “pop” things.
We can still discuss how to fillet a cat, though, right?
Sure thing! Call my cellphone number and I’ll give you some hints while I’m driving my Hummer downtown.
Of course you see them. What else will they wear during the winter when they are marching at halftime shows?
Oh. You don’t mean band socks. Never mind.
Well, do you want the efficient method, or the entertaining?
I think a lot of dopers secretly like trolls, though they are embarrassed to admit it. They like a good pile-on when they are assured of plenty of backup. They get a voyeuristic thrill out of watching the drama. Sometimes they can’t help getting drawn in even when it’s clear that nothing but trolling going on; sometimes they like to point and laugh at others who have been drawn in.
Some might guess from my participation in the pit that I’m the same way, but they’d be wrong. I don’t mind getting into a heated argument, but it doesn’t matter much to me if I have backup or if I’m on my own. I don’t care if the topic is sensational or the thread fills up with emotion and drama. The fact is that I dislike dishonesty, and trolls and sock are inherently dishonest.
Anyway, page views for trolling are not a positive thing. This is a board where reasoned arguments and factual responses are supposed to be valued. That doesn’t happen when some bored cretin is getting off from everyone’s prurient interest in their manufactured drama.
Sapo, I’ve warmed to you a little bit after taking an initial dislike to you. But you are wrong here, and I think you know my thoughts on rubbernecking.
I have to agree with Whynot. A troll breaks up the homogeny if nothing else. When I browse a thread and see all commentors neatly fitting into a uniform packet of harmonious accord, it’s vanilla. It’s plain white rice. There’s no spice or bitterness to make the thread memorable. No commentor stands out. They’re all lookalikes.
But when somebody lowers a hook into the water with a nice plump worm and the nitpickers immediately push each other out of the way to swallow not just the hook, but floater, bob, and line all the way up to the pole, that’s interesting. A wreck is about to take place. Turbulence and violence occur where there is stillness. The applecart gets upset, and those who try to fix it back into place wind up overcompensating and turning it into an applesauce cart.
I loathe them. I don’t like people pulling my strings because it makes me feel stupid. I don’t like giving people sincere feedback only to find they were full of shit, because it makes me feel manipulated. I don’t like reading other people being taken in by what seems to me to be obvious trolling, because it makes me embarrassed for them and it makes me wonder if they’re just not all that smart – i.e: just like me, either they’re being made to look stupid or they are stupid.
I think tolerating trolling undermines the social fabric of the boards. There’s no way to tell whether you should post sincere sympathy for the guy whose dog got run over by the crosstown bus, or whether you should just sit back and be entertained by the story. (“Heart-tugging yet warm; bring popcorn!”) People assume the basic honesty of the people they interact with, and allowing gross insincerity makes people uncertain, it makes them second-guess both the veracity of the speaker and the value of their own response. I realize we can’t know the truthfulness of every person who posts here, but we should be able to assume at least a basic level of validity – that we are real people posting real opinions. Allowing huge steaming piles of horseshit because they are allegedly entertaining IMO undermines that. It also rachets up the “signal-to-noise” ratio for no good reason.
I’m kind of surprised to see opinions to the effect that trolls are a good thing because they stir the shit, cause bitterness, and prompt trainwrecks. The day that’s what this forum is about is the day I’m out of here. No great loss I’m sure, but if TPTB are looking for a way to get me to hit the bricks, that would be it.
Maybe there should be a troll forum.
Generally, I agree with Jodi. I think we should be able to assume a basic level of honesty from OPs – if we can’t do that why bother replying at all?
Ouch! I laughed 'til my boobs hurt!
Well, we’ve had two instances of purported trolling lately right? justanoldvet and copperwidow I think. I dont really see the harm in the former. It was a tall tale, but I didn’t perceive any intent to deceive or harm. The honesty of the story was not the heart of the matter. As for the latter instance, I think that kind of shit-stirring does everything Jodi says it does. It’s v-uncool.
As an aside, I nominate this picture as our troll-banning standard.
We’re of one mind then. The compulsion some people feel to act like a tool when they are anonymous is disappointing. It’s interesting too, but I’m not a psychologist. I’m just an observer of human nature. I assume that if this is how they act when they are unseen, they are probably dishonest in other ways too when the feel they won’t be caught or held accountable. It makes me believe they aren’t very worthy human beings, and that I don’t want anything to do with them.
Stop trying to make me blush. 
We agree. I think that all confirmed trolls should be outed, and that there is no room for them here (there is plenty of room for them elsewhere, as long as their rules accommodate them).
Still, my response was in the lines of how I think TPTB see them, not the users. By virtue of the sheer volume of posts, the mods have to be mostly reactive rather than proactive. This is why we are encouraged to report things. It makes their job easier.
A thread or poster that is not generating reports is likely to be let loose. There is a difference between a fool being silly in the town square and an elephant rampaging through the porcelain district.
Our two most recent recreational trolls have been well liked. Their stories generate sympathy. Some people might be disappointed if they are discovered to be fakes, but without positive confirmation that they are, they must be accepted as the real deal. Most people do, and this is why they go unreported.
It would be a shame to push away different personalities in this time when people complain that the board is getting stale.
Not so in the case of our most recent shit-stirring troll. His story generates only discomfort and heartache. There is no need for that. People is sick and tired of that and they report like all get out. Those are dealt with in no time.
In the eyes of the administration, page views are page views. The short term gain is evident and measurable. The long term loss is fussy and obscured by many variables. This is the reasoning behind my theory that benign trolls are tolerated. There is an immediate gain with no associated cost. Troublesome trolls generate too much work for the gain they bring, those are kicked out.
I’m just annoyed the thread was closed before I could make my “you’re not making sense, copperwindow. Can I please speak to silverwindow or goldwindow?” quip.
That’s what I live for, y’see.
What a shame.