# Where are all these idiots coming from? (non-sensible newbies to SDMB) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 2, 2003, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037 "2003-06-02T01:02:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/41 "2003-06-02T10:14:06Z")
I’ll second that sentiment, for **i like bacon** too. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/42 "2003-06-02T10:47:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Troy McClure SF \* > \*\*I don’t buy the “School is out” thing either. That comment’s thrown around any time in March, April, May, June, July, August, or December, and the rest of the time, people will say, “Man, I guess school got out early/late.” I’m not annoyed by “Hi Opal” but “School’s out” is getting up there. I get tired of people automatically blaming everything on young’uns. > \*\* I don’t buy it either, there are a number of bright teenagers using the internet, visiting this board and others. And _I_ started posting during spring break a couple of years back as well, but only because the teaching staff got off the same week as the kids. I’m actually convinced that the average troll is in their 20s, but perhaps only because as a 20-something myself most of the idiots I know in reality are also in their 20s. I wonder when it is that you begin to think that people younger than your peer group are automatically idiots unless proven otherwise… ---
**Author:** ![presidebt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c37758/32.png) [@presidebt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/presidebt)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/43 "2003-06-02T11:54:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elfkin477 \* > \*\* I wonder when it is that you begin to think that people younger than your peer group are automatically idiots unless proven otherwise… \*\* I don’t think many people come to this conclusion, but a lot people do come to the conclusion that they themselves were pretty stupid in their youth, ergo, a lot of young people are just as stupid. It happened to me. And I think the generalization is fair. When I was a teen and earlier twentysomething, I never understood the saying _youth is wasted on the young_ though I understand it perfectly now. I thought I wasn’t wasting my youth, but in fact, I was. Not really wasting, but certainly giving myself cause for a mild (and healthy) degree of regret. Part of the problem is that young people tend to be naive–a state generally caused by inexperience. Couple that with the “voice of authorty” coming from every direction in our culture, it’s sometimes hard to tell what the truth is and when you (the universal you) think you find it, you tend cling to it in the same manner a young lover is much more likely to cling to their lover than an older one. I guess this is a long-winded way of saying I think there is a kernel of truth in this stereotype. The important thing is to remember it’s a _kernel_ of truth and not an absolute. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/44 "2003-06-02T12:43:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Troy McClure SF \* > \*\*…but at the very least, I’ve never been pitted. \*\* Oh, now you’ve done it! You’ve been around long enough to know better than to throw down the gauntlet like that! (No, I won’t pit you - not my style - but you can bet somebody will. :D) ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/45 "2003-06-02T13:37:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by macabresoul \* > \*\*Members: 35,659 > > 5% of that is 1782.95 people. That is a massive overload of trolls. I agree there are lots of idiots but damn, I could probably count them on my fingers. More like .001% of the people here are idiots. They come and go, what are ya gonna do… \*\* I meant 5% of the newbies not 5% of all the board members. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by White Lightning \* > \*\ ***Lobsang** , you’ve been making a lot of noise about this lately, you’re always first in line to slag on the ‘stupid newbies,’ but despite your 3200 posts you don’t seem substantively much different from any of them. What’s the point of this thread? > \*\* :eek: A lot of noise??? This thread is the only thing I have ever said about it! (I have given **SSA** a few posts bu that isn’t noise about new members) “but despite your 3200 posts you don’t seem substantively much different from any of them” Thankyou for your kind comments. “What’s the point of this thread?” The point was… > [@](#): > > This makes me wonder - is there a link to the SDMB in some place that idiots frequent? > > How is the SDMB attracting these people so regularly? > > Or is it just one person re-registering again and again? > > Or is it just me, imagining things? to ask a few questions. \*\* White Lightning \*\* I may post in threads where newbies are being flamed often, but the things I say are no-where near as harsh as what the majority of dopers are saying to them. And often my post is actually sincere advice. ---
**Author:** ![porcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac91a4/32.png) [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/46 "2003-06-02T13:48:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*That name’s banned, but I swear late last night I saw a post from the same person under the new name he wanted (or a variety of it) … \*\* You did, but it disappeared it almost record time. Thank you, mods and administrators. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/47 "2003-06-02T13:55:25Z")
**Everyone** - In hindsight perhaps ‘idiots’ was a tad too harsh. I didn’t mean to imply stupidity. I meant **people who misbehave** here in general, and should have said that, but couldn’t think of any other word than ‘idiot’. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/48 "2003-06-02T13:56:06Z")
In the BBS days of the eighties, we called them ‘twits.’ ---
**Author:** ![racekarl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6bbea6/32.png) [@racekarl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racekarl)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/49 "2003-06-02T14:22:39Z")
So I hope everyone will excuse me for ignoring the hijack and returning to the OP’s question: My guess is that it may have something to do with Scylla’s [the horror of blimps](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=160851&highlight=blimps) pit thread from a few months back. That link has been all around the internet, I’ve had it emailed to me and seen it on message boards that would seem to have very little overlap in terms of user interests, etc. So perhaps a lot of people saw the link and registered at SDMB to stir up some muck for the hell of it since they’d stumbled across it ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/50 "2003-06-02T14:25:08Z")
**dantheman** , you’ve gotten me all nostalgic for twitting a ruggie. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/51 "2003-06-02T14:31:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lno \* > \*\ ***dantheman** , you’ve gotten me all nostalgic for twitting a ruggie. \*\* Hadn’t heard that term till I went to this [Citadel site](http://uncensored.citadel.org/citadel/citaglossary.php) that 'splained it. Signed, a former twit 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/52 "2003-06-02T17:10:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by \*\*Early Out \*\*\* > (No, I won’t pit you - not my style - but you can bet somebody will.) Actually that’s sort of against the rules now. The mods finally got tired of all the _faux_ pittings. Well, I guess fewer people buy into the “school’s out” theory of trolling than I though. Neat. **racekarl** , **Lobsang** , I’m sorry, I thought it was fairly obvious that they’re not coming from anywhere in particular. The ‘Horror of Blimps’ has spread around the internet, true, and I’m sure it goes unattributed more often than not, and rarely carries a link to the SDMB. Where do the idiot newbies come from? Might as well ask where the respectful posters who have been here for 7 months came from. New posters come to the board from a variety of places and I’m sure the idiots among them constitute a pretty faithful cross-section of the larger whole. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/53 "2003-06-02T22:28:40Z")
**White Lightning** your explanation makes sense under normal circumstances, and under normal circumstances I wouldn’t have asked. But it seemed strange that for a long time we’d have one misbehaver a month, and then all of a sudden we get a new one every time one fades away. It seemed a little too regular, so I wondered if there is a questionable place where the SDMB is linked to, or weither someone is re-registering. (I am not re-asking there. Just explaining myself) ---
**Author:** ![ratty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ccd318/32.png) [@ratty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratty)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/54 "2003-06-02T23:26:09Z")
Well, I know there are a few miscreants who just keep re-registering and causing trouble. **Lynn Bodoni** has mentioned it a few times when shutting down threads by these people. **Eukte/KingNifty** is one who’s been around a while in various guises, and so has **The Grapist**. (I think he was also **The Hamburglar**.) These people are basically professional trolls and they seem to pop up on a fairly regular basis, causing annoyance all around and more work for the mods. You can usually spot them pretty quickly if you’re familar with their MO, but some have flown under radar for as many as 100 or so posts before inevitably being caught. Old habits die hard, I guess. Summer does seem to be a traditonal time for the loonies to come out of the woodwork around here. I don’t personally buy the “school’s out” hypothesis, but an adjunct to this might be true: what with vacations and all, people seem to have more free time in summer. Free time leads to boredom, and the solution to boredom for some people is to start causing trouble. (This seems to apply to all age groups. I’ve seen crime statistics which state that summer is a busy season for police departments. Sorry no cite on this, just a vague memory of something I read years ago, so of course it could be totally wrong.) Then there are the random whackos who show up pretty regularly but are otherwise totally unpredictable. This seems to be merely a side-effect of the internet in general and free message boards in particular. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/55 "2003-06-02T23:43:05Z")
For you newbies, [here is a list](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=658085&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending&pagenumber=1) of threads through the ages with “newbie” in the title. There are some that aren’t relevant to this discussion, like the one about newbie Diplomacy and another about a newbie C++ programmer, but most of them are by newcomers to this board. It’s interesting to read them because you see how others dealt with what you’re dealing with now. And there are some interesting names I noticed starting these threads: people like **Geobabe** and **xploder** and yours truly. We were all brand new here once. So you newer folk might wanna take a look at one or more of these threads for your own amusement and/or information. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/56 "2003-06-02T23:49:39Z")
I think I am going insane. I am sure someone named **Atomic Badger Curling** (a newbie) posted in this thread, then I replied. And he had his own thread in MPSIMS! Now all that has gone! I am sure I am not reading cached pages as there are new posts after the ones we posted ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/57 "2003-06-02T23:59:29Z")
Only one explanation, **Lobsang** … 😉 shh ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/58 "2003-06-03T00:01:00Z")
I’d bet my left reproductive sac that **Atomic Badger Curling** was another incarnation of our beloved **SSA**. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2003, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/59 "2003-06-03T00:03:33Z")
We’re not supposed to talk about that kind of thing. You’d think someone with 4,000 posts would know that. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037/60 "2003-06-03T00:19:38Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Arnold Winkelried_ > \*\*Bannings / Banned Users > If you have a question about bannings / banned users, the staff prefer that you e-mail a staff member (administrator or moderator) rather than asking publicly on the board. From the [FAQ](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=106617). I broke no rule that I’m aware of. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-these-idiots-coming-from-non-sensible-newbies-to-sdmb/179037.md?page=4)