bigpern23
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2004
- Messages
- 20,711
... if nobody gives them attention, they get bored and leave.
We clearly have several trolls/sock puppets populating the board right now who constantly start inane threads, provoke absurd arguments and generally contribute nothing to the board.
Now, I'm not one for banning anyone from the board. But these trolls are so completely obvious, I don't understand why we keep feeding their attention-***** appetites.
I'm not above the temptation of responding to them. I think I was dumb enough to respond to the Ricky Williams thread in a non-snarky, straightforward (albeit dismissive) manner on Williams' hall chances. Admittedly, that was largely because I had seen earlier this week that Ricky had gained 10,000 yards and I thought to myself, "Boy, 10,000 yards rushing isn't the HOF milestone it used to be."
I have, on more than one occasion, spent 20 minutes typing a response to something stupid one of them has posted. It felt good to write a cogent, reasoned argument about how wrong they were. I felt like my response displayed my intelligence, sports knowledge and my Lloyd Christmas-esque rapist wit.
And then?
I move my cursor off "Post" and clicked the link to Anything Goes or Sports and News, letting my response slip into the ether.
As I finished my response, I would realize that the troll had gotten me to do what he had hoped. He got me to waste minutes of my life responding to something he already knew was patently stupid. I (wisely, I believe) then chose not to give the troll the satisfaction of knowing he had succeeded, that he had achieved his goal.
By not posting my brilliant rebuttals, my SportsJournalists.com persona was not elevated in the eyes of the board members who I respect. I did not expose the troll's utter lack of intellect. I didn't even get a chance to make someone spit their Coke on their computer screen.
But I made the right decision.
I starved the troll of the attention he so desperately sought. The attention he needed so badly he decided turn his attention from his wife, girlfriend, cat, frog or that empty bag of Cheetos he has been holding onto because that night just meant so much to him dammit! He turned his attention instead to his computer, set up an anonymous identity on our board and then crafted 150 words of soul-sucking stupidity in the hopes that someone he will never meet will get frothingly angry about it.
And when we do that, when we give in to that temptation to show how much smarter, funnier and ******* sexier we are than the troll, he gets his wish. He gets that sweet redemption, the knowledge that his meager existence -- subsisting on Red Bull, internet porn and the pure hatred of strangers -- has had an impact on the world. He sees himself as the butterfly who created the hurricane and it feeds his soul.
So, I guess what I'm saying is, we know who the trolls are. They aren't the people with whom we simply disagree. They aren't the ones who love all things Jersey Shore. They are the ones bait us with blatant stupidity. They are obvious. And they are hungry for your attention.
So, please, don't feed the trolls.
We clearly have several trolls/sock puppets populating the board right now who constantly start inane threads, provoke absurd arguments and generally contribute nothing to the board.
Now, I'm not one for banning anyone from the board. But these trolls are so completely obvious, I don't understand why we keep feeding their attention-***** appetites.
I'm not above the temptation of responding to them. I think I was dumb enough to respond to the Ricky Williams thread in a non-snarky, straightforward (albeit dismissive) manner on Williams' hall chances. Admittedly, that was largely because I had seen earlier this week that Ricky had gained 10,000 yards and I thought to myself, "Boy, 10,000 yards rushing isn't the HOF milestone it used to be."
I have, on more than one occasion, spent 20 minutes typing a response to something stupid one of them has posted. It felt good to write a cogent, reasoned argument about how wrong they were. I felt like my response displayed my intelligence, sports knowledge and my Lloyd Christmas-esque rapist wit.
And then?
I move my cursor off "Post" and clicked the link to Anything Goes or Sports and News, letting my response slip into the ether.
As I finished my response, I would realize that the troll had gotten me to do what he had hoped. He got me to waste minutes of my life responding to something he already knew was patently stupid. I (wisely, I believe) then chose not to give the troll the satisfaction of knowing he had succeeded, that he had achieved his goal.
By not posting my brilliant rebuttals, my SportsJournalists.com persona was not elevated in the eyes of the board members who I respect. I did not expose the troll's utter lack of intellect. I didn't even get a chance to make someone spit their Coke on their computer screen.
But I made the right decision.
I starved the troll of the attention he so desperately sought. The attention he needed so badly he decided turn his attention from his wife, girlfriend, cat, frog or that empty bag of Cheetos he has been holding onto because that night just meant so much to him dammit! He turned his attention instead to his computer, set up an anonymous identity on our board and then crafted 150 words of soul-sucking stupidity in the hopes that someone he will never meet will get frothingly angry about it.
And when we do that, when we give in to that temptation to show how much smarter, funnier and ******* sexier we are than the troll, he gets his wish. He gets that sweet redemption, the knowledge that his meager existence -- subsisting on Red Bull, internet porn and the pure hatred of strangers -- has had an impact on the world. He sees himself as the butterfly who created the hurricane and it feeds his soul.
So, I guess what I'm saying is, we know who the trolls are. They aren't the people with whom we simply disagree. They aren't the ones who love all things Jersey Shore. They are the ones bait us with blatant stupidity. They are obvious. And they are hungry for your attention.
So, please, don't feed the trolls.
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