Can we do something about the Trollfinder General wannabes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Should dh go on a trip" has the appearance of a troll. The story kept changing as posters questioned the OP's information. No response since last night when folks started to question the veracity of the post.

I think you are correct that the original poster of that thread is trolling. That poster is also the author of a few other controversial threads and the details offered in the various threads are inconsistent.

Jeff, DCUM users are very good at smelling a proverbial rat. I will continue to report suspected trolling but I'm not going to censor myself from mentioning when I see an obvious troll post. People get upset, share details, and I think it generally contributes to a crappier site. Not scientific, but in my experience nearly all of the times I've suspected troll enough to say it, (and usually this is from truly inconsistent info, or a slightly changed attitude that doesn't seem like a change of heart so much as a recasting of the situation to get more sympathy or to be more provocative) I call it out. I really appreciate when other people do. There are certainly threads where one or two posters cry troll simply when they disagree with someone or when the opinion shared seems unlikely, but most are pretty judicious about the troll calls. Why would anyone want to change this effective self-policing? If "you're a troll" calls are annoying, they can be ignored as easily or easier than the troll posts themselves.

5:24 here. Totally agree. I don't call "troll" without evidence. I saw this thread yesterday and thought the "dh has to go on a trip" was the perfect example of others recognizing the "proverbial rat." And the simple cries of "TROLL!" can easily be scrolled over.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Should dh go on a trip" has the appearance of a troll. The story kept changing as posters questioned the OP's information. No response since last night when folks started to question the veracity of the post.

I think you are correct that the original poster of that thread is trolling. That poster is also the author of a few other controversial threads and the details offered in the various threads are inconsistent.

Jeff, DCUM users are very good at smelling a proverbial rat. I will continue to report suspected trolling but I'm not going to censor myself from mentioning when I see an obvious troll post. People get upset, share details, and I think it generally contributes to a crappier site. Not scientific, but in my experience nearly all of the times I've suspected troll enough to say it, (and usually this is from truly inconsistent info, or a slightly changed attitude that doesn't seem like a change of heart so much as a recasting of the situation to get more sympathy or to be more provocative) I call it out. I really appreciate when other people do. There are certainly threads where one or two posters cry troll simply when they disagree with someone or when the opinion shared seems unlikely, but most are pretty judicious about the troll calls. Why would anyone want to change this effective self-policing? If "you're a troll" calls are annoying, they can be ignored as easily or easier than the troll posts themselves.

I really am not sure what is difficult to understand about my position, but I'll try to clarify it:

1) Nobody other than maybe an actual troll believes their posts calling out a troll are wrong or injudicious. All of DCUM's troll hunters believe that are correct and appropriate in each and every case. Unfortunately, many of you are wrong. How would you feel if you posted on this website to seek advice or merely have an interesting discussion and the thread was diverted by claims that you are a troll? That happens to users and many of them cease to be DCUM users as a result.

2) I am unlikely to see your posts claiming that a particular poster is a troll. Therefore, I cannot take actions to discourage the troll.

3) If a "you are a troll" post is easy to skip, why isn't a thread that you believe is started by a troll equally easy to skip? The fact is, many times these "you are a troll" posts end up hijacking the thread.

4) Many posters on DCUM will alter details in their posts when posting about particularly private subjects (based on their own definitions of "particularly" and "private" which frequently bear no relationship to my definitions of the terms). Hence, spotting an inconsistency is often not an indication that the poster is a troll.

I am in no way suggesting that trolls be tolerated or condoned. I am simply asking that when you suspect a troll, instead of clicking "reply", you click "report". I have been, and will continue to, remove posts that call out posters as trolls if/when I notice such posts.

[Anonymous]

Agree that sometimes people change things to protect the innocent. I have people who I work with that also frequent this site. I will post on here and say "my 3 year old DS" but maybe typing to fast I will say "she" for my daughter.

If someone says "ha! troll!" It's not because I've made up the story, but because I'm trying not to be outted in my office by keeping personal details somewhat underwraps (this actually happened when asking for real advice here before).

It's annoying to have people call "troll" on every post for every minor inconsistancy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Should dh go on a trip" has the appearance of a troll. The story kept changing as posters questioned the OP's information. No response since last night when folks started to question the veracity of the post.

I think you are correct that the original poster of that thread is trolling. That poster is also the author of a few other controversial threads and the details offered in the various threads are inconsistent.

Jeff, DCUM users are very good at smelling a proverbial rat. I will continue to report suspected trolling but I'm not going to censor myself from mentioning when I see an obvious troll post. People get upset, share details, and I think it generally contributes to a crappier site. Not scientific, but in my experience nearly all of the times I've suspected troll enough to say it, (and usually this is from truly inconsistent info, or a slightly changed attitude that doesn't seem like a change of heart so much as a recasting of the situation to get more sympathy or to be more provocative) I call it out. I really appreciate when other people do. There are certainly threads where one or two posters cry troll simply when they disagree with someone or when the opinion shared seems unlikely, but most are pretty judicious about the troll calls. Why would anyone want to change this effective self-policing? If "you're a troll" calls are annoying, they can be ignored as easily or easier than the troll posts themselves.

Good lord. PP, it seems as if you spend more time on DCUM than Jeff - and it's his job. This is not a criticism of him, but just a suggestion that you get a life. At a minimum, a hobby or two - preferably one that doesn't involve reading anonymous posts and drawing your extensive knowledge of posting histories to "police" this forum. It's a big world out there. Some human contact would do you good - you appear to be WAY to invested in DCUM.

[Anonymous]

[
No one is able to show evidence on an anonymous board. Even if you have tight IPs for every poster, you still can't know for sure that you aren't looking at a shared computer with one or several users. (That said, I cop to my posts and yes, it's me whose posts you're responding to.) The idea of expecting users to have evidence when they don't even have the tools you do for extrapolating someone's identity is kind of unfair.


You are confusing "evidence" and "proof". While it is possible that multiple users of the same computer can post in a way that it gives the appearance of a troll, it is quite unlikely. But, even if such activity were to trick me into wrongly believing that the multiple users were a single troll, at least my mistake would still be based on evidence. But, to carry your argument to its next logical step, even on a non-anonmyous board nobody can show proof because users can share usernames and passwords.

I am not expecting you to show evidence before calling out a troll. I am asking you not to call out trolls. If you suspect a troll, report them to me. I can use the tools at my disposal to make an evidence-based decision. No matter how well-intentioned your efforts, or how sure you feel about your conclusions, it is very disruptive to have such a high number of threads being interrupted with someone crying "troll". You and I have the same goal of stopping trolls. I would just rather you play a cooperative rather than disruptive roll in doing so.

I'm just catching up with this thread and wanted to thank you, Jeff, for your clarifications to my post yesterday. I see your point and can easily change my habits to channel the cooperative role.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Should dh go on a trip" has the appearance of a troll. The story kept changing as posters questioned the OP's information. No response since last night when folks started to question the veracity of the post.

I think you are correct that the original poster of that thread is trolling. That poster is also the author of a few other controversial threads and the details offered in the various threads are inconsistent.

Jeff, DCUM users are very good at smelling a proverbial rat. I will continue to report suspected trolling but I'm not going to censor myself from mentioning when I see an obvious troll post. People get upset, share details, and I think it generally contributes to a crappier site. Not scientific, but in my experience nearly all of the times I've suspected troll enough to say it, (and usually this is from truly inconsistent info, or a slightly changed attitude that doesn't seem like a change of heart so much as a recasting of the situation to get more sympathy or to be more provocative) I call it out. I really appreciate when other people do. There are certainly threads where one or two posters cry troll simply when they disagree with someone or when the opinion shared seems unlikely, but most are pretty judicious about the troll calls. Why would anyone want to change this effective self-policing? If "you're a troll" calls are annoying, they can be ignored as easily or easier than the troll posts themselves.

Good lord. PP, it seems as if you spend more time on DCUM than Jeff - and it's his job. This is not a criticism of him, but just a suggestion that you get a life. At a minimum, a hobby or two - preferably one that doesn't involve reading anonymous posts and drawing your extensive knowledge of posting histories to "police" this forum. It's a big world out there. Some human contact would do you good - you appear to be WAY to invested in DCUM.

Seriously PP, stuff it. Your theories on my social life are as bad as you are rude. Go away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:9:42 again. Jeff, as a request, when you delete posts, could you please add a short sentence explaining why you are deleting? That would save a lot of stress and misunderstanding about the sudden removal of posts.

So this way does lie madness - I do have to say.