Reply to Can we do something about the Trollfinder General wannabes?

Forum Index » Website Feedback

Reply to "Can we do something about the Trollfinder General wannabes?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote]
If you are not able to show evidence -- and you concede that you are not -- then, on what basis do you feel justified in calling another poster a troll? I agree with you that the quality of posts posts is important. I guess we disagree in that I do not find a post that consists, in its entirety, of "troll" to be of much quality. This is particularly aggravating when the person making the claim is incorrect. If you believe that a poster is a troll, please use the "report" button to bring it to my attention. Don't simply disrupt the thread with accusations. If, for some reason, you don't want to report the post, please move on to another thread. [/quote]

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.

But, you ask a good and very fair question about why I feel justified in calling someone a troll. There are two ways I would answer the question. Why do I think I have the right to call someone out and why would I think someone is a troll and feel validated enough by my instincts to call them out. The first...well, one of the things I like about this place is, for the most part, it is a pretty self policing community. That's no longer a trait of the internet, and I miss it. In the olden days, if you posted stupid on the internet, people called you out and you either defended or you shut up. This place had that vibe for a long time. Now, maybe times have changed and now we need to protect everybody from something they don't want to read (including the trolling types) or maybe people think they can control every thread and how the internet responds to them. I don't know, and how the internet has changed in the last 15 years is probably a far more boring topic for you than for me, so I will mercifully spare you.

As for the second way I'd answer the question, I spot a troll from their own inconsistencies. They post something. People respond. The the story changes, negating all the responses. People respond. Then it changes again. And, every time it changes, the previous posters are made to look like idiots and often insulted by the OP. When I see that, yes, I want to call that person out. I also want to call out anyone who posts impossible to believe scenarios, especially if they involve vulnerable people or otherwise invoke sympathy with a fake post.

No, we don't disagree about posts that just say "troll". (Sorry about the double negative.) I find those posts of low, well, no, quality. What I was responding to was OP's suggestion that all accusations of troll be deleted on sight without "evidence". If someone can call out a troll with details from their posts (and that's not evidence), I think the accusation should be allowed to stay and the accused should have to put up or shut up. Of course, this is just my own big fat opinion and you should, obviously, do what you do.

I'm sorry to go on about this. Honestly, I respect what you do and like this place and felt I owed you a thoughtful response to your question.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics