I'm pissed!! (political trolls and hacks)

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Bill, I'm in total agreement with you. However I have a couple of questions.

DISCLOSURE: Left leaning. Not easily insulted.

If I see what appears to be false information, and there are numerous examples on ATS, how should I handle it? If I respond in a sarcastic tone to the poster of such false information am I now guilty of what you are trying to squash? If I don't respond as per your suggestion, there are many people who will eat this disinfo up if it goes unchecked. Should disinfo be allowed to stay on ATS? I think there is a fine line between sensible political discussion and political trolling these days and thus my confusion.

I respectfully want to play by the rules, but was hoping you could put it into context for me.

Dave

reply to post by jumpingbeanz
I have changed my postings on occasion, i react badly, then it takes me two seconds to realize..."Hey, i came through like a beeatch, so i will redo it or add something in the end to make it less incriminating, or i can go back and just plain delete it. I dont do it all the time, but sometimes i reconsider because i really love this place and most people here.

Just few days ago I made a thread about Trolls, thank you SO for highlighting this issue. For those of you who are not clear about Troll I will repost here

Trolls, flamers, griefers, jerks: They are known by many names, but they are always KNOWN. Let's peel back the mystery and take a look inside the world of the troll.





But seriously

Trolls are awful. It's tough to do anything worthwhile on the Internet, and even tougher when you have these living roadblocks doing their best to interfere. We suggest medication, or, failing that, intensive psychotherapy.

The best way to deal with trolls varies by type. To deal with the professor and critic, ignoring their rants goes a long way. They may get angrier at first, but the lack of an audience will drive them to more easily riled up communities, soon. Screamers should be gagged somehow, and are usually easy to pick out by their caps lock and swears-to-normal-words ratio. The prophet of doom should be mocked--nothing gets them to go away like knowing their dire warnings aren't being listened to. Robots need to be banned. It's hard, but necessary.

I think SkepticOverlard is trolling for trolls. His post is meant to elicit an emotional response from them and is littered with anti-troll insults. It doesn't encourage civil discussion and debate. He should ban himself to set a good example.

Thank you SO

Boy did that ever need to be said. I cant help but wonder if some of these creatures fire up the old PC, crack their knuckles and see just how much ire they can stir up in todays session. It can be very disheartening, but for me at least, I'm ripe for the fight.

The "One Thing" that really gets my dander up is when someone flubs it, and I am sure someone will pour over my posts to show me a hypocrite here, but its not the flub that gets me. It's when someone catches it and as opposed to helping the OP correct the error (perhaps a U2U to avoid embarrassment) they instead bait the poster. Especially in the case of a quote or in this case misquote. "Well where exactly is that quote? I cant seem to find that "exact" quote. Grow up and at least pretend to be an adult for the sake of this forum. Lets all try to work together to "deny ignorance" exploiting our mistakes instead of helping one another correct them just leaves a plethora of idiocy for our opponents to quote elsewhere displaying our "ignorance" for all the world to see.

Those that frequent this site can attest that we have amassed some of the most intelligent people I have ever had the honor of knowing and we don't need our faults being exploited showing us all to be a bunch of immature crackpots.

It is completely acceptable to "agree to disagree" but still try to maintain some semblance of a community

I also like the idea of a new special TROLL tag, which would be worn for a given period, say like three days, or a week. And maybe along with that could go a temporary posting ban for the same period. And I say this despite the fact that I occasionally can get drawn into discussing a member rather than the subject- particularly when they infuriate me with outright stupidity, make statements showing their lack of research of information posted on this board a zillion times, or a direct personal insult. But what can you do?

And while I can empathize with your sentiment SO, nothing's going to change ultimately until you and the staff do something about it.

I will also point out that your lack of direct examples, with actual members called out, leaves a lot of grey area here, and I feel it's high time that the generalization stopped and the specifics started. And I'll volunteer. Call out one of my posts and label me as a troll with a posting ban, so that others can be very clear on what constitutes a troll or trolling. After all, I have been accused in one case before here of being the king of trolls.

[edit on Fri Feb 26th 2010 by TrueAmerican]

This is actually my first post on ats. I've been skeptical for some time now as to whether or not I should join for this exact reason: I didn't want to waste my time sifting through piles of trivial close minded argument.
To see though, that both the majority of users and staff are of a like mind as myself, I've been convinced to join and look forward to truly inspired and productive discussion with all of you.
It will be nice to exchange with people who have more to discuss than that which they know nothing about.

Originally posted by davec0021
reply to post by SkepticOverlord

 

Bill, I'm in total agreement with you. However I have a couple of questions.

DISCLOSURE: Left leaning. Not easily insulted.

If I see what appears to be false information, and there are numerous examples on ATS, how should I handle it? If I respond in a sarcastic tone to the poster of such false information am I now guilty of what you are trying to squash? If I don't respond as per your suggestion, there are many people who will eat this disinfo up if it goes unchecked. Should disinfo be allowed to stay on ATS? I think there is a fine line between sensible political discussion and political trolling these days and thus my confusion.

I respectfully want to play by the rules, but was hoping you could put it into context for me.

Dave

I don't think the OP from SO is about responding to disinfo. It's about responding in a cordial and respectful manner. Without name calling of the poster or name calling of any political figureheads. That's what this is about.

This is exactly what SO was stating about the 'confusion'. It's not that difficult. Keep responding to the valid posts or challenge the invalid ones. Just don't fall into the traps of trolling where the people that try to siderail a discussion with garbage and insults get people angry and spitting back.

Would be good if you or the staff took the same initiative regarding religion. Anti-anti-semitism and discrimination of individuals or groups shouldn't be allowed here. Specially when they incite violence or hate in one shape or another.

Originally posted by thomas_
Would be good if you or the staff took the same initiative regarding religion. Anti-anti-semitism and discrimination of individuals or groups shouldn't be allowed here. Specially when they incite violence or hate in one shape or another.

I agree, al-Qaeda conspiracies theories are just a form of anti-Arab hate speech and shouldn't be tolerated. The word terrorist should never be used next to the word Muslim, ever. Such talk must not be allowed. We don't let people say "Jewish Terrorist" do we? So why do we let people say "Muslim terrorist?"

reply to post by Crito



you are not from around here, right?

adverbs and nouns, strange bedfellows.

reply to post by Crito


Don't mention "extremist" either, unless you want your own forum created just for you.

How about we call a Troll for what he/she really is, as a definition.

Troll ==> A being incaple of trying to see another point of view; a troll cannot:
1) See Definitive Fact
2) Change the Subject
3) Base Arguements on Facts based on facts
4) Increase Intellectual Conversation
5) Remember his original stance when contfronted with fact.

reply to post by dariousg


Understood loud and clear DariousG. Thanks.

This thread is so funny, I look forward to doing more than skimming it as I don't have the time right now.

I just wanted to say Thanks to the staff of ATS for taking this step. The trolling and hacks can really ruin a good thread. I am sucked in from time to time, but generally, I can ignore them for the most part and remain civil. Discussions are SO much more entertaining, educational and productive when people keep a cool head and focus on the topic.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
DISCLOSURE: My personal political leanings are staunchly agnostic, with a slight leaning in the general direction of conservative and libertarian.

Thank you SO much for sharing this! I've often wondered about your political leanings, but have never really been able to tell by your posts. My curiosity is sated.

I probably have more to say later. I usually do.

admin edit: Regretfully this post wasn't formatted properly and appeared to violate the TAC but, it was actually a quote of a post that violated the TAC.

jumpingbeanz did nothing wrong and has been reimbursed his points.


[edit on 2-26-2010 by Springer]

reply to post by jumpingbeanz

so thanks for trying to corrupt my children with your sick ways

I believe you will have a big part in any corruption that occurs in the way of your own children. I don't even believe this has anything to do with the topic of the thread.

reply to post by jackflap


If you read it correctly i am stating that some people get away with calling people and reffering to people as fags and trolling comments but yet they are not blocked???

reply to post by December_Rain


Thank you for your post. Although i must say...some of it sounds like me.

Anybody stars and flags this and you're in trouble.

Heck, after having read it, some of it sounds like lots of us.

reply to post by jumpingbeanz


My bad, I just re read your post. I guess you were posting content from another thread? I see your point but we all know that some posts are pertinent to the over all discussion. I would politely point out how they are looking a bit troll-like and move on.