Why do people troll it up on this website, Jeff?

[Anonymous]

What are your theories about why people so flagrantly troll here?

[Anonymous]

Not Jeff (obviously) but some people just love to debate. They’ll debate anything, and take pleasure in taking a ridiculous stance and upsetting people on purpose with their stance. They’re the same people who post constant annoying argumentative stances on discussion forums all over the internet. I used to frequent the now defunct UrbanBaby and there was almost no moderation and some posters admitted to arguing just for the sake of arguing and upsetting people for fun. And owned that they were the troll on multiple long threads of the past.

They’re just bored and argumentative is the short story.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:What are your theories about why people so flagrantly troll here?

It depends on how you define "troll". That term gets used pretty loosely around here. Some people are simply mentally ill and their behavior here is just a symptom of their illnesses. I sometimes feel like nearly every mentally ill person on the Internet has found their way here. Hence we have the foot fetish poster, the son with his pediatrician poster, and so on. Even "Terp Boy" for whomever remembers him. He seems to be some sort of obsessive compulsive.

Beyond that, I am convinced that some people are addicted to drama. This goes beyond simply being bored. I don't think these folks can live without drama so their posts are simply attempts to get a "hit". But, in addition to these posters there are the ones that are simply bored and trying to entertain themselves.

The mean and angry posters are just mean and angry. They probably can't act that way in real life (or at least not without repurcussions), so they just do it here.

[Anonymous]

Because it's anonymous.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Because it's anonymous.

That's not why they do it. That just makes it easier for them. Something else motivates them.

[Anonymous]

Do you think it’s appropriate to have so many threads where parents bash teachers? I can’t imagine you think that this is a good contribution to your community?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Do you think it’s appropriate to have so many threads where parents bash teachers? I can’t imagine you think that this is a good contribution to your community?

One of my pet peeves is posters who think I read every thread or even every post. I don't. Not even close. I might not even look at some forums for weeks. So, I don't know how many threads we have where parents bash teachers. I do know that I have removed many such threads and many such posts. I have also removed posts from teachers (or at least alleged teachers) that were pretty jerkish.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think it’s appropriate to have so many threads where parents bash teachers? I can’t imagine you think that this is a good contribution to your community?

One of my pet peeves is posters who think I read every thread or even every post. I don't. Not even close. I might not even look at some forums for weeks. So, I don't know how many threads we have where parents bash teachers. I do know that I have removed many such threads and many such posts. I have also removed posts from teachers (or at least alleged teachers) that were pretty jerkish.

To be fair, this is your site. That response does sound like you are abdicating responsibility rather than trying to put in safeguards to prevent that behavior. Pet peeve or not, a lot of the negativity and resentment that exists in schools did start by people having pretty horrendous discussions on here. I’m curious if you think that’s something that helps our community at large. Or, if you just want the visits and clicks, which is fair for a capitalist venture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think it’s appropriate to have so many threads where parents bash teachers? I can’t imagine you think that this is a good contribution to your community?

One of my pet peeves is posters who think I read every thread or even every post. I don't. Not even close. I might not even look at some forums for weeks. So, I don't know how many threads we have where parents bash teachers. I do know that I have removed many such threads and many such posts. I have also removed posts from teachers (or at least alleged teachers) that were pretty jerkish.

To be fair, this is your site. That response does sound like you are abdicating responsibility rather than trying to put in safeguards to prevent that behavior. Pet peeve or not, a lot of the negativity and resentment that exists in schools did start by people having pretty horrendous discussions on here. I’m curious if you think that’s something that helps our community at large. Or, if you just want the visits and clicks, which is fair for a capitalist venture.

Jeff has said this many times before: if there's a post or a thread that is offensive or hateful, report it and he'll consider taking it down. But he can't remove threads he doesn't know about and he's not going to take down threads merely because you disagree with them.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think it’s appropriate to have so many threads where parents bash teachers? I can’t imagine you think that this is a good contribution to your community?

One of my pet peeves is posters who think I read every thread or even every post. I don't. Not even close. I might not even look at some forums for weeks. So, I don't know how many threads we have where parents bash teachers. I do know that I have removed many such threads and many such posts. I have also removed posts from teachers (or at least alleged teachers) that were pretty jerkish.

To be fair, this is your site. That response does sound like you are abdicating responsibility rather than trying to put in safeguards to prevent that behavior. Pet peeve or not, a lot of the negativity and resentment that exists in schools did start by people having pretty horrendous discussions on here. I’m curious if you think that’s something that helps our community at large. Or, if you just want the visits and clicks, which is fair for a capitalist venture.

The safeguard is the button in the bottom right corner of every post that says "report". I am sure that teachers believe that it is unfair that they are blamed for school closures. Similarly, I am not big on DCUM being held responsible for behavior that is happening throughout the country and mostly involving people who have never heard of this website.

If I thought that threads in which parents bash teachers were a great thing, I wouldn't have removed so many of them. In fact, there are are bunch of posters who routinely accuse me of being in the pocket of the teacher's unions.

Also, I should point out that while I don't agree with these parents, in the vast majority of cases, their anger and frustration is authentic. This thread is about trolling. Those parents weren't trolling.