[SFM in KY]

I was talking to someone recently about the recent "outbreak" of trollism here that led them to give me a link to something I didn't realize existed ...

The site is an "anonymous" BB where the sole purpose seems to be trashing people, often in the most foul-mouthed language available. Opened my senior-citizen age eyes ... and I worked a number of years as a police dispatcher and even more years in a psych hospital, so I'm not very easily taken aback.

The pattern seems to be surfing the internet for websites or classified ads and then attacking the owners/animals as being overpriced, useless, backyard breeders ... anything and everything they can think of ... with anonymous posts. Anyone can post, using any name or nickname, no registration so no ISP tracking and say anything they want to.

Reminded me of a feeding frenzy in shark waters!

Either that ... or for some reason I have this vision of a clique of grade school kids out in the school yard yelling insults at the kid they're picking on ...

I cannot imagine what pleasure anyone would get out of this kind of thing ... it isn't apparantly even people they know!

I guess you live long enough and you see everything! And the other thing is apparantly these aren't kids ... they're so-called adults!

Am I just being naive? Did everyone but me know BBs like these were around?

 

[Cyngbaeld]

I didn't. Course I've been hiding in the hills for a while. Didn't even know the war was still on. My friends say I ought to watch the news once in a while. I say why? Looks like same ole, same ole to me. As to trolls, maybe we need a BIG billy goat?

 

[fordy]

....................A website that I have been posting on for about 3 months or so has an "Opinions" section. The consensus of the posts are very much Pro Bush. I, have visited but NEVER state my view points concerning the war and "W". There were some posts made that were just Flat misstatements of fact. I'm NOT a Kerry fan either . So, I post some MY ideas about Bush and the war that I believe too be true and Immediately I am labeled a Troll. The poor little "Bush Babies" can't take ANY criticism of their fearless leader in any way , shape or form. I, fully believe that this "Troll" term is an all inclusive label , that ALL too often is utilized for demeaning a poster's point of view that the "Locals" don't happen to care for. Trolls , do exist , and like too stir the mud but I'm not one of them...........fordy....

 

[bergere]

SFM, I did not even know about Trolls until I saw one on the other forum.
I do not know what BB's are either...... and from the sound of it, I don't want to know.

I must also have my head in the sand. For the life of me I just can't understand people like that. Wouldn't it be better, to do go and help folks,, instead of the childish bashing, rudeness and over all causing problems??

Seems lately there are a whole lot of *not* :no: at all nice people out there, that their only thrill in life is to hurt others. Is becoming very tiring having to deal with them all the time.

I help Moderate one of these Forums with Nan,, who is a wonderful person to work with.
Also Moderate a few other lists, and one is my own. Am soo very glad, mine is a closed list, where I have to appove each email that wants to join. Getting to the point I would not want to handle a Troll on that list. Sigh ~~

Is a sad state of affairs when so many people feel it is their right to hurt good folks.

 

[Ardie/WI]

There is a very simple way to deal with a troll.......ignore 'em, don't reply to 'em, don't see 'em!

I have yet to understand why the opinion of some person I don't know would matter! If someone doesn't agree with me....so what? I don't need their approval!

As for understanding the need to be a troll......well, I have no idea and I really don't care to find out. People like that are a waste of oxygen.

 

[deberosa]

I never heard the term troll before, but it fits. Why would one post a classified on a site they knew was composed of mostly trolls? That's another little twist.

This kind of thought was occurring to me lately as ads for new TV shows are airing now. Bad enough 20 some women would grovel for some guy, but what about the "guess who's not a ****" or put a bunch of couples on an island and see if they cheat on each other. In general it seems more and more people are losing compassion. They are also losing self respect. I saw it when I left teaching. It was once upon a time I could talk to kids who were picking on others and get them to understand how they were making others feel, that went out the window in the 80's, when they really didn't care if they hurt someone physically or emotionally. That's when I left teaching.

I have a friend who was told by an executive in an upper management meeting that she "disgusted" this woman. In a meeting and no one stood up for her. She is switching jobs thank goodness. I am not a religious person, but find no reason for people to be mean, especially about something as stupid as a job, or even a classified ad! It's why I really like hanging out at this site. I learn alot and most of the time don't get blasted for my ideas.

My own way of dealing with this entire phenomenon is to uphold my own ideals, be it with name attached or anonymous. I also will call the trolls on their poor behavior when possible. I won't go to a site with trolls and I won't work with or do business with or watch the shows of people who act like that.

OK - time to get off the soap box and get another cup of coffee.

 

[SFM in KY]

Bergere: BB is a quick way to type bulletin board ... like this one, though they occur in a lot of different formats. The one I'm referring to has managed to do away with the need to register and exists, so far as I can tell, for the sole purpose of allowing people to post anything, true, false or something in between, in any words they choose ... even if it is slanderous or libelous ... without being held accountable in any way.

You'd probably be as appalled as I was ... it's a horse site!

Fordy: I've been on a few of the BBs that actually seem to be set up for a group of people that all have the same opinion about something. Again, in my case, mostly horse related. Even on some of the moderated BBs there have been some really nasty flame wars errupt ... to the extent that in a couple of cases the moderators have actually shut down the entire topic and will not allow anyone to post regarding that specific topic.

I know I am of an "older generation" ... when girls were told to "be a lady" and being a lady meant that you were polite, you did not rant and rave and raise your voice, slam doors or throw things. If you had held dissenting views you had better express yourself in moderate language, reasonable tone of voice and present a rational point of view.

And not just little girls either ... boys were supposed to be gentlemen.

Just reading some of the language in the posts on that anonymous BB was enough to remind me how vividly everything tasted of soap (seemed like for DAYS) when I was a kid and tried a swear word in front of my mother!

 

[SFM in KY]

I never heard the term troll before, but it fits. Why would one post a classified on a site they knew was composed of mostly trolls? That's another little twist.

Oh, no ... not that simple or straightforward. THESE people are surfing, going to legitimate websites on the Internet and the legitimate classified ad sites and then referring back to these and trashing them!

In some cases, it appears it might be someone with a grudge against another breeder (maybe his horse beat her horse?) and it other cases I can't see any indication that the people actually know or have had any contact with the people they are trashing!

I've known people to hold grudges for little or no reason ... I was involved in the dog show and horse show worlds for years ... and there probably isn't any place there are more personality conflicts than those two venues ... but this simply seems to be their idea of entertainment!

 

[anOldTroll]

yes my name is in reference to an unwanted post on a bulletin board and not the mythical creature but in all my years as a troll, I find I am ignored by the cliques on the board that makes my posts unwanted and not that I post unrelated sound bites to the thread. Speaking from experience from sports themed boards, there is always the need to bully as an invisable person. It makes the person who posted the nasty things feel bigger or better that they were heard and made a difference even if it was in a huge nasty unwanted way. I used to moderate the nascar online chat room and had a few racing rooms of my own and it always happened... folks were nasty to others. ..

sorry there is always going to be a troll or other immature poster on boards... its just the nature of this annonymous world.