Actually, I’ve read in several threads posts from moderators saying, in essence: “Just notify us, don’t post a troll warning in the thread, they may just be incredibly stupid people.”
Some assholish posts annoy me and I ignore them. Some threads are so obviously attempts at humor from witless saps that I pity them and hope they “find Jesus.” (Sorry for the witless humor there)
Some people, I love to mock.
Mock, mock, mock…
It’s fun. Especially when wearing a smock.
Smock, smock, smock…
Gives me an amazingly erotic pleasure. Yeah, I’m one sick son of a Rhonda.
Thanks Hama for opening this up. I’ve though about this subject for the past couple of days. You said what I wanted to in a less biting manner than I would have chosen.
It’s interesting that you see the same people over and over again feeding the trolls. It’s like they wait, hoping for new trolls and then JUMP at the chance to poke at any new troll. Can you imagine a troll thread with nothing but the troll’s own posts? How nice would that be? Frankly, I think the folks who feed the trolls LIKE the trolls and enjoy taunting them as it’s EASY. Why not taunt something that will be around the boards awhile and can/will fight back? Wouldn’t that be more fun?
And elf6c guess what, the silly statements about pie or that Ralph Wiggum quote AREN’T FUNNY, AREN’T AMUSING and merely make you a feeder of trolls.
I would suggest that if people have beefs with particular posters regarding troll feeding, that we call them out and get to the bottom of this, or email them and deal with it privately. This thread will accomplish nothing otherwise.
The trouble is that it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between a flat-out “troll”, and the merely “stupid” or “clueless”. Sometimes the merely “stupid” and “clueless” start pointless and annoying threads here and there, but that doesn’t make them trolls, and if we all personally implement a policy of not posting to the pointless and annoying, then this whole message board will have to shut down for lack of business.
I second what we’ve always been told–if you think you’ve spotted a sock puppet, meaning a banned poster returning under another name, or some other obnoxious post that makes you wanna puke all over your keyboard, all you have to do is hit the perfectly marvelous “Report this post to moderator” button and an e-mail will be sent.
And may I say that no matter how much last spring’s vBulletin upgrade cost the Reader, it was well worth it for this feature alone. Listen, all you Newbies, previously Granny would have to go and find the mod’s e-mail address and then load up Juno WebMail in another window, which was a bigass nuisance. But now, with one click, away it goes!
Thanks World I thought I did that? I thought that’s what this thread was about. Discussing the merits of cutting this out. Elf6c brought up the issue of the ‘pie’ and ‘cat food’ statements…I weighed in. That about sums it up. If you’re attemopting to chastise me (I’m really not sure) you need to be a bit more clear…I’m thick-headed today.
Re Arnold’s comment…he posted while I was crafting (lol) my post so if I had seen it, I don’t think I would have written that 1st post.
Not chastising you at all. I’ve noticed that several posters have complained about “several posters” feeding trolls. I think the op should address that as complaining won’t solve the problem.
If you think the poster is only trying to irritate people then don’t answer at all. If you think the poster is sincere answer as you would a regular poster with that question. It’s not that difficult!
What about posters like Bjorn and Justhink? Seriously. It can be really hard to tell whether someone is just trying to get a rise out of you, or whether he’s struggling to express something that isn’t coming out quite right.
I don’t think either Bjorn or Justhink qualify as “trolls”, just as people whose thoughts don’t always emerge onto the computer screen intact.
For the love of St Joseph in a rickshaw Arnold, if its “just as valid” for you to say "“If they get no reaction most of them will eventually give up.” then why am I being asked for a cite for my assertion?
Look at todays example.
he started a thread about how Muslims started the fires in Sydney, and when that didn’t kick off the way he wanted, he opened the “god hates fags” thread, and then the thread about how many alter-ego’s he has had.
so there is my cite for him not getting the reaction he wanted, and then coming back with something worse.
But I feel that you didn’t get the thrust of my comment, which was intended to say, “If I don’t sense a definite intent to troll from the word go, but the post still causes a mild reaction on the trollometer, then I will give the poster the benefit of the doubt, and presume combined sincerity and ignorance until and unless it’s proved otherwise.”
I’m saying that my statement is just as valid as yours, absent a cite on your part or my part. I don’t think either of us will be able to provide a cite either way.
I saw some of those threads. Each of them had several posters answering and making fun of him / calling him a troll / etc… I say that this example proves my point rather than yours.
Nope. Your cite has the facts but your interpretation of them are wrong. As has already been explained, there is no such thing as ‘not getting the reaction he wanted’ other than being ignored.
He got what he wanted in every occasion. People responded. He got attention. That’s all a troll craves, pathetic creatures that they are. Regardless of what they said, every response said to him; “good boy, more please.” So he obliged, going further each time.
But let’s turn this around. Do you think that if people had from the start responded how you imagine he wanted, he wouldn’t have kept coming back with worse? I can’t believe you’re really suggesting that. Trolls have to get worse, it’s what they do, as long as they are fed.
