# Why does the SDMB condone cyber bullying? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 21, 2015, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576 "2015-03-21T07:28:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576/302 "2015-04-01T01:24:09Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > **Moderator Note** > What other people choose to do and allow on other message boards is beyond the control of the SDMB. Feel free to discuss it on their board or take the issue up with their board’s administration. Don’t post about it here in ATMB. > > This applies to everyone else in this thread as well. Complaints about what happens on another message board do not belong here in ATMB. > [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Yes, this bears repeating. Perhaps more loudly and clearly… > > **DrDeth is a frequent contributor to the snark threads on the Giraffe Boards.** :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576/303 "2015-04-01T02:15:06Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Bwahahahaha! > > Seriously? That’s the best you can do? “Look it up?” If that’s the kind of cutting, incisive debating that you’ve been doing in the “Stupid Liberal Ideas” thread, then I understand why you’re all traumatized. Hint: “Not being able to coherently explain one’s position”!=“bullying” > > And regarding the apology: Heh, no. > > As an aside; if the answer to ALL of a person’s problems with so-called bullying can resolved by “Don’t read that single thread or two on that single message board on the whole of the entire internet which is just one activity in the ENTIRE WORLD”, then that person needs to put on one’s big boy/girl pants and learn to grow a skin. Fenris, let me educate you since you apparently can’t be bothered to educate yourself. A bully is defined as: a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates those perceived to be smaller or weaker. It is a pattern of behavior repeated over time. That definition fits the majority of people in that thread who responded to me, and in other threads as well. Not a single one of them has ever tried to prove me wrong on anything. It’s simply, “Clothahump is stupid” as a response to my posts, like 5 year olds picking on someone in a sandbox. Sometimes I have a bad day and it annoys me. Most of the time, though, I just laugh at them like I laugh at the monkeys in the zoo throwing shit right, left and sideways. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576/304 "2015-04-01T02:27:05Z")
I was never a super popular kid in school, but I wasn’t really ever bullied either. I did notice something in those early school years: The bullied kids would often actually seek out the attention of their tormentors. They’d keep going back for more as if any attention at all - no matter how negative - was better than none. Now, it’s not my goal to compare **Clothahump** to a child desperate for the attention of his bullies. But I’ve made similar observations on this board in my time here. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576/305 "2015-04-01T02:36:13Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > A bully is defined as: a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person… Where did you get this definition? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576/306 "2015-04-01T02:57:20Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Fenris, let me educate you since you apparently can’t be bothered to educate yourself. > > A bully is defined as: a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person So you’re calling yourself a bully? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576/307 "2015-04-01T03:14:05Z")
**ENOUGH!** EVERYONE, take the personal jabs and snark to The BBQ Pit. **[/Moderating]** ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576/308 "2015-04-01T03:50:06Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > I was never a super popular kid in school, but I wasn’t really ever bullied either. I did notice something in those early school years: The bullied kids would often actually seek out the attention of their tormentors. They’d keep going back for more as if any attention at all - no matter how negative - was better than none. . . . I don’t think this is the usual pattern. The bullies prey on their victims. They lie in wait for them. The victims would be pleased as punch to be left alone, and, in my experience, they never sought out their tormentors. I’m not saying you’re wrong… But, holy Jeeze, it goes exactly opposite every experience I’ve ever had. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576/309 "2015-04-01T05:25:18Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > I was never a super popular kid in school, but I wasn’t really ever bullied either. I did notice something in those early school years: The bullied kids would often actually seek out the attention of their tormentors. They’d keep going back for more as if any attention at all - no matter how negative - was better than none. That may be true in some cases, but it’s far from the most common experience. I was bullied in elementary school, and I didn’t seek out being tormented. I was smart and had some minor emotional development issues, and wasn’t great with social dynamics. I had a baseball cap I wore all the time - had to take it off inside, but wore it all the time on my own time. Except when the bullies took it to play “keep away” to provoke me to cry. Etc. I didn’t go looking for people to take my hat, or do anything to prompt them, often would go off on my own precisely because I felt unliked and did not want to have problems. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576/310 "2015-04-01T06:01:02Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > That depends on if you’re doing it “for sport”. :dubious: I accept the dubious characterization: like I said the reference pit thread wasn’t egregious, so there’s room for disagreement about shades of gray. > [@](#): > > If you’re looking for “investigation, empathy and acknowledgment of reasonable social expectation”, you ain’t gonna find it in the Pit. I disagree here: investigation occurs all the time. Police and gun control rants are 2 examples. Trolls have been outed in the pit, via careful internet sleuthing. Also, there’s a fair amount of Devil’s advocacy and defenses of the difficult-to-defend on this board, and the pit is no exception. So on the contrary, I find that sort of stuff in the pit all the time. > [@](#): > > Flaming people and calling them out is allowed. Certainly. As is the occasional hand wringing. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576/311 "2015-04-01T15:58:12Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > If you don’t like the other place then why are you always posting over there? I dont. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576/312 "2015-04-01T17:05:16Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I dont. Quit trying to bait people into catching a warning here by sharing evidence of how often you post over there in the “Behind Your Back” forum. Because it would be easy for somebody to forget the mod’s instructions and link to a search showing all 211 of your posts in that forum but to do so would go against mod instructions, which you know. Stop being so transparent in your machinations. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576/313 "2015-04-01T17:12:13Z")
**Moderator Action** The SDMB aspects of this discussion seem to have run their course. In order to prevent any more snark and cross-board nonsense (of which we’ve had far too much in this thread) I think it’s best just to close this now. If anyone has a compelling reason to re-open it, feel free to PM me and we’ll discuss it. Thread closed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sdmb-condone-cyber-bullying/715576.md?page=15)