Trolls R Us redux [Now the argument clinic]

[Andy_L]

But what about my Apple stock?

[Tierce]

@naita

So as the thread he started appears to been cornfielded I assume askreddi was a BANNED user trocking?

I reported him when I remembered the weird thread about monetary policy started by Askreddit back in June.

[BigT]

@ASL_v2.0

Look, people, if you keep on pushing whoever it is you’re talking to, he’ll just flame out in a (to him) blaze of self-righteous glory, come back as a sock, and start all over again.

So just put the troll on ignore. And if it does still get banned even though no one can see its posts enough to report and bring about mod action, you’ll at least have trained yourself to ignore trolls on the spot, rather than feed them.

DFTT. But… whatever maintains the buoyancy of your nautical vessel. I certainly gave SlackWit his fair amount of attention.

I prefer that outcome. Putting people on ignore only works if everyone does it, which they won’t. It’s why, despite DNFTT, trolls still plague the Internet.

If they come back as a sock but act the same (or worse), they’re easy to spot and will get banned (especially now that the new mods are on the ball). If they stop trolling to survive as a sock, then the problem goes away.

That said, I did finally put octopus on ignore again. It just takes more to get on my ignore list on Discourse. Back on vBulletin, you could see who posted the hidden post, making it work more like a heads up. So I used it a lot more.

Only three people have gotten annoying enough to get on the new one: azgem and pool are the other ones. I think maybe one of them was banned, but I can’t remember.

[Kron]

Pool was the reason I revived this thread due to post limits on the old one, and he was banned eventually.

[LSLGuy]

Do I remember correctly, or at one time was it considered against the rules to post who was on your ignore list? Something about it seeming a bullying thing to do since the ignoree couldn’t properly defend themselves.

That’s obviously moot in the case of banned posters.

[k9bfriender]

I believe it is okay to do so in the Pit

[kaylasdad99]

Can confirm.

Uhh, from my own knowledge, not from a junior modding kind of thing.

[Morgyn]

I recollect there being a rule stating that you don’t talk about who goes on your ignore list except in the Pit, but I haven’t looked it up lately.

I’ve made multiple references to adding people to my ignore list here in the Pit, and never been modded for it.

[Colibri]

When we first got the ignore list, it was prohibited to mention who was on it. Later it was decided it was OK to mention it in the Pit, since it was basically an insult.

[Andy_L]

Rule changed in Feb 2009 Pit rules have been revised

The rule against telling people they’re on your “ignore” list has been rescinded in the Pit.

[Sunny_Daze]

We could ignore trolls, but there’s a certain catharsis in discussing them with others. I occasionally have been corrected - even disagreed with - so I don’t see it as always being a bad thing.

[Skywatcher]

@Kron

Pool was the reason I revived this thread due to post limits on the old one, and he was banned eventually.

Then socked up and banned again.

[Roderick_Femm]

@BigT

Putting people on ignore only works if everyone does it, which they won’t. It’s why, despite DNFTT, trolls still plague the Internet.

We seem to have two schools of thought on trolls here: one is to ignore them and they will go away, and the other is to try to teach them to mend their ways, while making sure their garbage pronouncements don’t go unchallenged in order to protect the gullible.

You can probably tell which school I belong to. I don’t have to put people on Ignore in a mechanical sense, I do it mentally. In this very thread I will scroll past screens full of posts that are either by or about one of the usual suspects, until they get bored or overwhelmed by too many recipes and toddle on to something else.

[Great_Antibob]

There are 3 schools, and you are conflating 2 of them into one. They are:

1. Ignore
2. Try to teach them
3. There’s no point teaching them, but we want John Q RandomInternetPerson to think this isn’t a totally insane place.

[Gyrate]

“Amongst our weaponry are…”

[Roderick_Femm]

@Great_Antibob

There are 3 schools, and you are conflating 2 of them into one. They are:

1. Ignore
2. Try to teach them
3. There’s no point teaching them, but we want John Q RandomInternetPerson to think this isn’t a totally insane place.

Possibly, but it seems to be at least mostly the same people doing 2 and 3. But I haven’t done an exhaustive survey of their oeuvre. Or you could say that the 2 schools are 1) ignore them and 2) don’t ignore them for any of several reasons.

[Sunny_Daze]

You forgot, playing with the trolls for shits and giggles. Sometimes poking an idiot (in the Pit, of course) is amusing.

ETA: Or what Roderick Femm said.

[carrps]

@Sunny_Daze

ETA: Or what Roderick Femm said.

Yeah. I haven’t actually ignored anyone, but I frequently scroll by some users. A few of them I disregard all their posts. Others have hobby horses that I don’t like to ride so I’ll ignore certain of their posts. I don’t ignore much, though.

[Spice_Weasel]

I usually try to engage them at first, and then give up. But I still like to follow what’s happening with them, so unless a poster actually sends my blood pressure through the roof, I won’t put them on ignore. I believe I’ve only had one person on ignore and I eventually changed my mind. It was a case of bad first impressions.

ETA : Oh, which reminds me, even with that person on ignore, I still read their posts. I have no self-control so it’s a pointless feature for me.

[Kron]

I’ve only had a few posters that were bad enough that I put them on ignore, and it did actually make this place more enjoyable… And every one eventually got themselves banned.