Stars Flags and Troll Points

reply to post by Shirak


never ever work - some people think thier thread is being "trolled " if skeptics ask for evidence

OK, since you did not bite, I gotta point out some problems I have with your thought process. I won't be needing any special new board features to prove my point in one post.

Originally posted by Shirak

I often find myself wondering when I see the same avatar-less profiles posting the same agenda on the same thread types I wonder if that's a pro troll.

I often think about reporting people for being abusive with their prejudiced posts. But I don't tell on people like a little child. I get all up in their face about it, even though I don't care how their thought process works, or if they ever change. I say let the mods be the police, they took the job to control the riff-raff.

Let me say this to the OP, There is a HUGE difference between someone not taking your side because you are wrong and actual trolling. It is not trolling to say that you are wrong once or twice. Thankfully, we rarely see proper trolling here. Just a post or two from the other side. What I have seen, is posts like yours draw in a troll that will follow you around and intellectually destroy each thing you say.

We mostly have skeptic trolling here, and the mods here keep the real trolling under very good control.

Negative stars or any sort of retaliatory rating systems don't work to help you separate good people from bad people. The mods know it, so they work with the positive and or the lack there of it.

You do understand that people with lots of stars are not smarter than people without stars don't you?
I hope you do understand that some people don't care about pleasing others with candy coated posts, and will therefore post cold hard facts without concern for someones feelings, flags or stars.

I simply don't agree with your thought process, and I felt the need to expose your flaws to you and others.

Good Day

ats staff love trolls they love their posts and they love everything about them, troll troll troll troll troll. I don't see them doing anything to stop trolls, all they do is say "thread closed" and that's that, the troll doesn't have anything done to them maybe a slap on the wrist oh and what about when you try to name trolls? Wouldn't it be better if you knew who trolled so you could actually not read there posts?

Not in the eyes of ATS staff... Keep Trollin, Trollin, Trollin, Trollin .. Whaaat, Keep on Trollin Baby..

Originally posted by Windows
ats staff love trolls they love their posts and they love everything about them, troll troll troll troll troll. I don't see them doing anything to stop trolls, all they do is say "thread closed" and that's that, the troll doesn't have anything done to them maybe a slap on the wrist oh and what about when you try to name trolls? Wouldn't it be better if you knew who trolled so you could actually not read there posts?

Not in the eyes of ATS staff... Keep Trollin, Trollin, Trollin, Trollin .. Whaaat, Keep on Trollin Baby..

edit on 1/12/11 by Windows because: my song wasnt good enough.

Oddly, while your post has all the hallmarks of a troll-like contribution... I do not love it. Please stop.

Happy now?

I strongly urge the curious to pay close heed to the words of one of our pinnacles of wisdom here... Majic's direction should be well considered.

Being a troll is not about agreement of disagreement. One can agree and still post like a troll. One can disagree and post like a troll. Those who find themselves being supprted by a troll's distraction or flummery are often quite tolerant of them. Therefore they do not "Alert" us to their presence... although were the trollish behavior in disagreemnt of their postion or perspective they would be rightly offended. no?

I offer this poorly hashed out idea about trolldom: Tolls love useing the word "you" or "people like you" a lot. If there is a label associated with the type, or a meme associated with the argument, that will nearly always arise. Trolls are frequent abusers of hyperbole, demagogery, and broad generalization.... (how's that for hypocrasy? after all, I appear to be doing the same.)

But it seems that trolls unlike most members cannot break away for the personal aspect of discussion. Trolls will invariably find a person to attack, prod, tease, malign, or otherwiase disrespect.... and most tend to vanish if ignored.

Just my "I'm a member too." opinion..... Be well everyone!

A troll's purpose is to cause controversy. He seeks out the low-hanging fruit, playing pseudo-naive or taking an extreme position in order to get a rise out of actual naives or extremists. A troll feeds on the emotional reactions he can cause." - Troll defined by Anon

Source of Anon Quote

Posters are sometimes trolls, looking to bait people into interacting with them. I've seen posts that are so ridiculous that you know the poster can't possibly believe what they're saying. Then the poster will refuse to address questions to throw gas on the fire and accuse anyone on the thread who calls them on their 'logic' a troll. I haven't played that game, but I've been on the sidelines.

I usually think the poster who stoops to that level is bored and looking for some excitement via role playing and messing with people's heads. I'd never use the 'alert' feature because it wouldn't do any good. That's only my opinion. Others may believe the poster really believes what they are saying. It does encourage interaction, if you're into that kind of interaction. There is no shortage of argumentative types, naives or extremists on forum boards. Just throw out some bait and let the games begin, right?

Never feed a troll. Ignore them.
No treats for trolls...troll points or whatever.
It would make it too much fun for the real trolls
who do it for the lulz

Originally posted by ignorant_ape
reply to post by PrimalRed

 

yeah - pretty much - if i had a quid for every time i was acussed of being a troll , shill , disinfo agent etc

Oh yeah, according to most of the whack jobs here im a disinfo agent on the payroll of the evil 1% "banksters". I had no idea that posting on forums was a paid position.

Some well thought out replies here.
As I said putting it out there as a thought. The idea of troll points as stated in my head was like in the shape of little troll heads nothing nasty.

My thoughts had not gone as dark-side as some of the opinions here. This was a great insight into the perceptions of others. I feel I came to my own conclusion early in the thread based on the response I got a general idea of how something like that would be used and perceived.

I was interested in the pros and cons ideas and there are plenty. I also learned a lot. Thanks for all the replies and imparted wisdom from perspective.

It is interesting to note that there are some very good threads on trolling in ATS and this thread was not an attempt to duplicate their work. It is good to get wide perspective and perception and as the Mods have stated there are avenues for recourse for major thread derailment abuse. Not something I had even considered.

The star limit system is nice and all, but you talk as if the main point of this place is just about stars. I don't really think a troll cares much about stars, they just want to be able to start a fire. Take away their matches, I say!

Right now everyone simply reports people who troll. Why not have a system, whereby if a post is reported a certain number of times, meaning a number of members see that post/member as trolling, then stars/flags are taken away?

No point in taking away points, since points don't count for anything. What can you use them for? Nothing I'm aware of.

But in this system I've proposed, posters won't be ganging up on others, because others have no idea if a post has been reported. But say 3-5 separate members report a post, why not then deduct stars/flags from that poster?

It's also hard to argue you were not trolling, if 3-5 separate members report you for it. I agree something should be done. We have a lot of new members, the older ones aren't here nearly as much, and countless threads get derailed by people who don't even take the time to read the OP, let alone respond intelligently to other posters.

Here's an example. A poster who started a thread, with every intent of trolling.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Shouldn't there be a substantial penalty for this? Why should someone who acts like this, be allowed to post at all, in the future?

Originally posted by Domo1
reply to post by GogoVicMorrow

 

I think that's what it is. Where the star belongs there is a little ~ instead. I may be wrong on this but I er, uh, think it may have happened to me once or twice.

One thing I would like to see is a reduction of one liner posts with a picture that automatically derail a thread within the first few posts. A crime that I am most guilty of.

The ~ (tilde) happens when a user is banned. So you're partly right...they get sent to the corner, but they get sent to the corner for good.

Originally posted by Domo1
reply to post by GogoVicMorrow

 

I think that's what it is. Where the star belongs there is a little ~ instead. I may be wrong on this but I er, uh, think it may have happened to me once or twice.

One thing I would like to see is a reduction of one liner posts with a picture that automatically derail a thread within the first few posts. A crime that I am most guilty of.

When you see that ~ it means that person has been banned and that is why you can't star there post anymore. I don't think they have changed that, but like you, I may be wrong as well. The only other time I can really see that being implemented is during a temporary post ban.

I agree about the one liner posts. I have seen an increase in that and it drives me nuts to see a post that says nothing more than " Nice thread" or " I agree". Posts like that are just plain lazy....ATS is so much better than that.

As for the OP's idea. It would not work. People would be hitting that troll button anytime they disagreed with others and I can see lots of people simply misusing it.

the ATS definition of trolling: "waaaah you dont agree with me - you're a troll!".

reply to post by gimme_some_truth

I think a lot of people use the 1 liner to subscribe to a thread. Is there a subscribe button yet that I don't know about? Goes to do some research.
Yup its there found it.
www.abovetopsecret.com...
I have seen people write that they are replying to add it to their subscription MY ATS

No, I would have like 10000 trols points. I would not be happy

Man. I'd have all the UFO'ers and creationists lighting up my profile with troll tags for no better reason than me posting a truthful logical statement into the their threads

Damn was that trolling

I LOVE the idea of TROLL points! YOU ROCK!

reply to post by kdog1982


I hope there will be a "bad post" button next to a "I disagree" button. When people talk pure #, usually because they are ;normal; people, thinking inside some box, unable to respond but responding anyway, that would be a bad post.

Clicking "I disagree" could make me more popular. People who disagree are very similar to people who AGREE.

Trying to get your opinion across is very different from posting "you are stupid for believing/asking this".

One guy asked for secret societies and there were TROLLS beyond belief. More #heads than thinkers posted in there. Just one post stating the obvious is good enough.

Well I am a little late to the party here, but here is my two cents anyway...

When a member suspects another of being a troll, they can always use the 'alert' feature, which sends a message into a 'mod-only' forum and will be dealt with however the moderator sees fit. The ATS membership is usually pretty good at policing itself this way. Dont respond, dont give in, just utilize this feature.

That is if you can't ignore the trolling post to begin with.

A second way to judge this, just what I have seen...

Trolls are usually new members, as they can't retain their membership for very long without being banned. If you visit their profile, you will see that they actually have negative points. I won't link to any here, as to not draw more attention to the trolls, but try it out.

I used the alert function once recently, where a troll was on a daily basis composing a new thread and linking to anther site where the source of the 'news' was their own opinion piece. Not only did the offending thread get removed, but other threads that were not 'alerted' were also removed, because of their trolling and self serving nature.

Lastly, as I have stated a few times in this very forum, be the change that you want to see.
If you see a troll, don't feed it, dont acknowledge it, simply use the 'ALERT" feature and we can all be on our way.