Fallacy; The Troll's True Vulnerability

Yet you refuse to ban the trolls, why?

 

i think members who issue false or baseless accusations towards other members should be issued infractions

I also think members that are quick to call out new posters as trolls and or "site their bs meter" is going off, to then find out later in the post that the OP was legitimate should also be issued infractions.

the point to all of this is, trolls should be certainly discouraged, but so should also posting accusations without at least having to think about if you are wrong there is some kind of negative impact.

 

A common demoninator of both trolls and spammers is patience - actually lack of patience.

Within their first ten posts if not a lot sooner, their intent will be very obvious.

 

Too bad trolls can't be enrolled in a "12 step troll program", call it "TA" (trolls anonimous)

DBCassidy

 

Sadly, as a forum matures, some members go rogue. They thrive on the lively debates and drop bait to entice responses. Newbies often bite, unaware of what's happening. There hasn't been a termed coined for that yet either, because the identifier of "troll" is defined as an outsider joining to stir trouble. When a well-known member does it, that really becomes a problem.

The sign to watch for is the "invitation" post, something that clearly isn't correct or constructive. There's often a strong opinion included too. But because that person has been around for years and typically have thousands of posts, no one calls them on it.

That became a huge problem on the big GM forum awhile back. Finally, the moderators declared a clean-up campaign. It was better to callout the activity of those well-known members rather than allow the reputation of the forum fall apart. It was fruitful effort. They watched their posts for intent. The "provoke" is easy to spot when you're looking for it. That worked well. Some popular names quickly vanished, never to return.

Being constructive is the key. Arguing for argument sake isn't productive. What is the purpose of the discussion? Do they simply contradict or is there actual substance to replies? Will that information benefit other members or it is a desperate attempt to keep a thread active? And of course, what does it have to do with Prius?

 

I guess most of you know LinkedIn is the social media for professionals - an online resume, roldex, porfolio, etc. It's pointless to have a hollow profile and folly to behave badly if you value your career.

One of the worst instances of trolling happened on LinkedIn this week in one of their groups - they have business groups, hobby groups....this was in a pet group.

The thread: "Has Michael Vick been punished enough?" Many of us have not been up to speed before replying - I said: "If he was truly sorry - he's paid his debt" Turns out there is evidence Vick was probably faking it...if I was aware of it I'd say he got off light.

Before I had an opportunity to do anything, three animal activists piled on in the most wrathful way - it's pretty apparent they would probably wished Vick executed, then damned forever - period. I politely asked for links to support Vick faking it and instead of do so just hated on. Seriously, I think they were worse than anything here in or outside of Fred's House of Politics.

Cyber-bullying aside, I don't understand this going on at LinkedIn. It's an online business environment. It's very easy to have your account suspended for spamming. One of the trollers had a non-existant profile - no profession, location, any meaningful business information....suprized LinkedIn allows that.

For anyone looking to advance their career, trolling on LinkedIn is simply stupid, but the ones doing it obviously not professional.

 

Violentacrez Fired: Michael Brutsch Loses Job After Reddit Troll Identity Exposed By Gawker

While I feel for people that lose their jobs in this economy, I take exception for the ones let go that did not try, or were nasty - particularly exposed trollers.

I honestly hope more trollers are exposed and humbled.

Michael should have thought about his mortgage and disabled wife when he thought he was an invincible troll.

 

Trolls need to be on personal "ignore user" list as their claims of "free speech" reminds me of:

From a "Clockwork Orange," what a troll aspires to achieve . . . a captive audience.

Fortunately, we each have personal "Ignore" user lists:

Once on the list:

• All of their posts in all threads "disappear" saving significant screen-estate and slow-link delays.

Unlike a "Clockwork Orange," the "Ignore" option gives us each the ability to 'change the channel' or 'turn up the squelch.' Lacking evidence of being noticed, these abusers may choose to 'turn up their volume' to the point where moderators have to act. "Ignore User" provides a way to filter out the worst abusers until they 'cross the line' or decide their posting style isn't working and wander off to find new victims.

The historical practice I learned in USENET was to post <PLOINK> so the abuser knew someone had filtered their posts out of existence. Being ignored is one of the best ways to handle them.

BTW, SPAM is something else. The best way to handle is hit the "report" tag and share your observation with the moderator. Please be careful and if you aren't sure, say so. Our moderators are very skilled at willowing out the unskilled from the SPAMish sociopaths.

Bob Wilson

ps. Reposted from a thread started after having to 'Ignore' a poster. As part of the sticky, it will be easily found in the future.

 

Well,,, not entirely. lol

 

Well skilled enough. Ultimately, SPAMers, trolls, and other net-detritus become self-limiting. They teach us that everything posted is not worth reading. So various mechanisms exist so we can voluntarily pick-and-choose the forums and messages of merit. Our time in this life has value and we are free to choose where we spend our voluntary time.

Bob Wilson

 

I have to admit, I've been impressed by how this one, simple step raises the IQ of PriusChat threads:

As the image shows:

1. Click on the 'username' of the poor poster and a popup shows.
2. Click on "Ignore" in the pop-up and they instantly are added to your list.

In the past, ignoring a user still left some detritus, a thread would have an 'empty' posting of the ignored user. But the new software not only cuts those out but even if you've 'quoted' their text, wipes out rendering of the quote. I have to go back and use traditional English quotes to identify the problem.

I'll offer this as a 'future suggestion'. Just as our 'signature block' includes "Likes Received," I'm wondering if a count of either "Ignores" issued or "Ignores received" might provide some benefit? Of the two, "Ignores received" as a compliment to "Likes" would provide a balanced view. But there is a risks of a 'feud' and it may be what we're seeing today is good enough.

Compared to the old "friends", what we have now is much improved.

One last characteristic of trolls, they have an amazing inability to see themselves as others see them. They are 'blind to the beam in their eye' yet quite enthused about describing 'the mote' in another's eye. After a reasonable number of attempts to 'reason with them' you just have to recognize 'that is how they are.'

Within limits, folks are free to post pretty much anything right up to the limits of what moderators enforce. But there is a 'gray area' when for whatever reason, you just have to 'turn them off' and "Ignore" does that very nicely.

Bob Wilson

 

It's OK to post images, but if the image is just an image of text, why not just post the text?!

 

No problem with adding text and I've updated the post. However, I think photos (or a screen shot) adds a lot that would take 1,000 words to accurately describe. Was there something specific about the photo that caused some grief?

I've also added some observations about our local 'trollettes'. The ones needing "Ignore" are oblivious to suggestions and criticisms. They are selectively 'deaf' (or in our case, 'blind') to what they cause others. This is not just two people having a personality conflict, Lord knows I can be difficult, just ask my wife. But if after a couple of attempts nothing works to bring them into civil discourse, you just have to 'turn them off.' . . . 'dust off the sandals'.

After a suitable, cooling off time, turn them on again and see if they are tolerable. If not, just silently turn them off again and have a happy.

Bob Wilson

 

Rokeby I looked at guidelines within PC chat and it is evident I'm following the rules. Now you are not a moderator but seem to have an opinion on the size of the pictures and opinions of people, and controlling all aspects.

I strongly believe people with divergent opinions and different communications style can coexist on PC. Cyber Bullying in all forms should never be tolerated.



View attachment 50808 View attachment 50808 View attachment 50809

 

Nothing to do with against the guidelines, it is just annoying. Your post above with 2 oversized images makes me scroll my monitor vertically twice. My monitor at home with double the vertical resolution would require me to scroll once, but that means your one post takes up the entire vertical resolution of a 23inch monitor. Posting pictures as thumbnails that grow bigger when/if the user clicks on them is a much better solution. To do so, instead of putting them inline, just attach them to the message. Then they appear at the end of the post as thumbnails and when I click them a div overlays the main body of the HTML and shows me the pictures taking up most of the screen and sizing them appropriately.Or just attach using a thumbnail service.

When people get annoyed, it automatically starts going into the human noise filter. If your message has a good quality message, it will be lost because the noise floor has been raised so high that the signal slips away. Think of it like commercials. People got so annoyed from watching them that almost everyone uses a DVR or other device to completely skip over them. So because they became so intrusive and annoying, they cut their viewership from lots to almost nothing. Now they do product placement in shows which has so much signal that the noise is tolerable. On the forum, when you see a wall of images, you might read 1 and then just scroll all the way to the bottom and ignore everything inbetween even if there was a gold nugget of info in the middle. It is just human nature.

Obviously this doesn't apply to threads where pictures are the life blood like posting pictures of clean cars, rims, modifications, and that sort of thing.

 

2K1 Toaster. Respectively we will have to agree to disagree. The software allows for thumbnail or full image posters choice.

Now back to car talk and MPG shall we.

 

Or use "ignore" and have a happy. Network sociopaths do not care what you think and certainly have no respect for others. Relief is just a couple of clicks away:


Bob Wilson

 

Ignorance in action. Sad day on this thread.