I am so sick of Encylo-fucking-pedia Browns running around trying to find out if new posters are old posters that have been banned. Yeah, that’s great, you found them. That is what they were going for in the first place, the attention.
It appears to me that if someone pisses you off, you search through their old posts and by some obscure quote comments, you link them with someone who got kicked off. WTF!?! Who died and made you the SDMB Nazis?
There are only 2 reasons that anyone who was banned would even want to come back 1.) They’ve realized that they’ve scewed up, and actually enjoy the “company” of the people on this board, and want to reform their behavior or 2.) They are trolls who are craving attention and want to be the next great SDMB scandal. Congrats all you Angela Lansburys out there, you’ve done it, and given them what they wanted.
I do not doubt your intellectual prowess, nor do side with the trolls. But I also believe that people are innocent until proven guilty. Maybe I’m way out of line here, but I am willing to believe that every new poster that comes to this board is, in fact, just that. A New Fucking Poster. I don’t believe I’m the only one who feels this way, so I’d like to hear what people who support this opionion have to say, and what all you Junior Detectives have to say about this as well.
Well, if the trolls wouldn’t make it so easy… Oh, and some people find it FUN, by the way.
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Look, MENSA-boy. When an obvious PATTERN develops, when you get the sense of deja fucking vu over someone, instead of just saying, “Are you ________?”, some people have the audacity to get some evidence.
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And when they do that, why would they deny they were who they were, and in the case of Mark Serlin, even start threads saying he was being harrassed?
:putz
The only troll who reformed in this manner was Mike Masterson / Silo, and he came right out and said who he was and apologized. Now, I don’t like how other posters here give him shit and won’t let him be (not to say he’s perfect, but he does not deserve th treatment he’s gotten from some people here IMHO), and in fact, anyone who has seen this treatment of him would NOT want to come clean, as it seemingly would do them no good.
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Now, I know you hate people getting evidence and all, so I won’t look up the number of people who have said they didn’t know that a certain person was someone they loathed. So, this “outing” attention is usually (and again, history proves this to be accurate if you want to look up the evidence) a final flurry before they vanish or get banned.
Mission accomplished.
And what have you done lately to make this board a nicer and more troll-free place?
Right…
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Well, guess what? ALL PEOPLE DID WAS POST EVIDENCE! You don’t feel convinced of the evidence? Fine, don’t be. I don’t recall anyone making you agree with anything here.
Now, what evidence do you have that Prismo is NOT Serlin, aside from his protesting (too much)?
Right…
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Not out of line. Naive is a better word. Easily duped.
You know, gullible is not in any dictionary, dude? Amazing fact that one…
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Well, I am not a Junior Detective, but I appreciate anyone who exposes trolls as being trolls before I personally have a run-in with them. And when I felt someone was labelled a troll unfairly, I made my dissenting opinion known and acted accordingly.
I suggest you simply do the same…
Yer pal,
Satan
I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Three months, two weeks, four days, 14 hours, 24 minutes and 31 seconds.
4384 cigarettes not smoked, saving $548.00.
Life saved: 2 weeks, 1 day, 5 hours, 20 minutes.
I am all about the eradication of ingnorance just as much as the next guy. The problem arises when you hound someone (like PRISM02) to the point where he has to defend himself ALL the time.
You’re right. I have done no troll busting, nor ever intend to until I really understand what a troll is. It appears to me that PRISM02 is genuinely trying to be an upstanding Citizen of Doperville. He may have been that Serlin character, he may not have. If so he is trying to hide from it, and wants to genuinely be a different person.
Yes, I prefer to go through life giving people the benefit of the doubt, because I am afraid of the other extreme. Which is accusing people of things, that really don’t matter, or just aren’t true. I really despise people who jump the gun like that, and I try my hardest not to be one of them.
My point here is that some people spend entirely too much time chasing down people they THINK are someone else, or have upset them in the past. What it comes down to is really a matter of your attitude. Some people do not respon well to a little ribbing, I do. It’s not a big deal. I’m just pointing out that it is being done a little too much and some good, decent, enlightened posters may get pounced for nothing, and that would be a waste. Of course, you never know, unless you do some digging.
3.) They enjoy screwing with the emotions of the posters to this board- note ‘lindsay’, who enjoyed mocking those of us who actually mourned Wally’s passing; Mark Serlin, who enjoyed making sweeping, derisive statements about groups of people (women, the overweight, etc.) so as to get them all riled up; Phaedrus, who enjoyed claiming he understood everything and refusing to provide any evidence.
These are ‘tar-baby’ trolls- that is, people who present themselves as rational and normal, and thus entice other people to treat them as friends and debating partners. Then, once a normal poster is thus engrossed in the debate or discussion, the tar-baby warps the discussion and debate, pulling the normal posters into a morass of delusion and disgust.
Quite frankly, I think all of us would be a lot better off if such tar-babies were identified well before they began going psycho. That would prevent them from being able to drag too many people down with them. Phaedrus survived so long as he did because every time one poster finally realized the guy was a complete fruitcake and stopped interacting with Phaedrus, a new (and unaware) poster would wander into a discussion and pick up the debate.
Therefore, I think stating “Hey, folks, this may be Serlin again, and here’s why I think so” is perfectly appropriate.
Don’t think so? Fine. Next time you get involved with a discussion with a poster who gets all psychotic on your ass- say, by claiming that a poster you like has been involved in a car crash and is in critical condition; or by establishing themselves as well-versed in porn-shop running and then starts to point out how gays always went for the pedophilic materials- don’t come whining to us that we didn’t warn you about him/her.
I was unaware of that John. Thank you for enlightening me. Again let me state that a warning is fine, but as for hounding them, not only could you be hounding the wrong person for the wrong reason, but you’re also giving that person more attention than they deserve. I’m not advocating that we stop doing our research, I’m just saying we should present our findings and leave it at that.
Damn, that kind of sounded like a kindergarten teacher, didn’t it?
ChrisP, obviously you have no idea not only the devastation Serlin caused, but his M.O. upon his numerous returns - the troll doth protest too much, until someone (alas, someone like you) believes he’s not, and then he’ll come out in all his colors. It’s sad and pathetic, but the trolls on this board seem unlike most others on the 'net. I’ve only had mild experience, but enough to know to defer to those more experienced and wiser than I in these matters. The proof is in the pan, as t’were.
I’m not so sure that the whole MS fiasco is as severe as you put it, Esprix– I know that various incarnations of MS have shown themselves to be bigoted asswipes, but to go so far as to say:
is giving the pud way too much credit. Yes, he is annoying, and a moron. Devastating? He’s not capable of anything so ominous.
And you’re right Esprix. I have no idea who he was. Which is why, I suppose, that I take the stand that I do. Maybe some of you have been burned by these trolls and spreaders of ignorance, and that is why you take such a vengance against them. I guess I am trying to explain my view of things and mistakenly tried to force it down some throats. My bad.
mouthbreather, good point. Let’s use the term “gross annoyance” instead.
And I see your POV, ChrisP - you just see some newbie being attacked, whereas more experienced people see echoes of someone who should be long gone. Best bet in these circumstances is let 'em duke it out and see what happens - in the end, the truth will out. (I’m still making bets he is who he is accused of being.)
And, of course, I will refrain from making the obvious joke about you shoving things down people’s throats.
Hey, I can’t help it that I’ve fallen desperately in love with your heterosexual self. (But for God’s sake, don’t tell matt_mcl - it’d break the poor dear’s heart. Then again, after that little tryst he had with that trollop Chef Troy, maybe I don’t care anymore. Harumph! ;))
Thank you, by the way, for taking my ribbing so well. I can be a filthy bitch when I want to be, and you’re a sport.
Well, dang, what am I supposed to do with this truckload of Kingsford briquettes and gallon of charcoal starter for Murder She Wrote? I can’t use it? Poo.
I just wanted to say that the reason that I lurked for so long before posting was because I kept reading posts where people with low post counts were always being jumped on as a troll. I kept seeing references to “Hey, look at his/her post count”. I didn’t want to walk into a discussion, have an opposing view, and then be branded a troll because of a low post count.
It can be very intimidating if you want to start posting here, but go through and read lots of posts first. Sometimes it does come across as a witch hunt.
I posted on the “Sneevil, come here, a word” thread and Aeana said something like, I’m not sure what your motivation is, but if you are truly new to the boards, welcome. So what do people do to get themselves banned (does this count as hijacking a thread?).
Is it more polite to lurk for a while (spiders are good at lurking) before you post? I posted the very first day I found this site.
At the thread for new posters, I asked if someone felt up to compiling an ettiquette handbook for new posters which would include explanations of the acronyms and a glossary of terms. My daughters know some of these things but they aren’t alway around to ask.
Sorry to temporarily hijack here, but I hope someone will start a thread to initiate the newcomers.
Thanks
A lot of your questions can be answered by reading around in the About This Message Board forum. You can also make practice posts in there so you can figure out how to quote or make things bold or italic or do lists before you try them out elsewhere.
On another thread, a moderator mentioned that “outing” posts would no longer be tolerated, that if anyone suspects someone of being a sock puppet or troll to e-mail a moderator.
Is this true? If so, I would suggest someone (a moderator) start a thread somewhere on a forum we actually go to (as opposed to ATMB which is a dessert) so we might avoid an incident in the future.
Yer pal,
Satan
TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
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