Don't Feed the Trolls!

[BelindaN]

Now that story made me smile. @Maryanne Solo

😊

Not something I get much on the forums right now.

Edited September 1, 2020 by BelindaN

[Amina Sopwith]

Relevant side point: this is a major reason why I don't use the ignore function, and don't much like the advice to use it as solution when someone's being antisocial (though I'm glad it exists as an option for those who want it). The discussions we have on here don't take place in silos; they influence each other, they spark new ones off, they shape each other. Over the last couple of days, several threads have been sparked off by another one and if you had someone on ignore, you wouldn't know what was going on. You could probably take a guess, but still, it would leave you somewhat excluded and in the dark. If a poster was especially calculating, they might even be able to use that to the disadvantage of posters who have them on ignore.

 

 

[Luna Bliss]

1 minute ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Over the last couple of days, several threads have been sparked off by another one and if you had someone on ignore, you wouldn't know what was going on.

I imagine someone coming in new, or perhaps a moderator, has taken a brief look at all the 3rd person chatting of late and wondered if the forum members were having some sort of mental breakdown...lol.

[Ceka Cianci]

2 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

I imagine someone coming in new, or perhaps a moderator, has taken a brief look at all the 3rd person chatting of late and wondered if the forum members were having some sort of mental breakdown...lol.

 OMG, You talked in first person!! \o/

[Madelaine McMasters]

2 minutes ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Relevant side point: this is a major reason why I don't use the ignore function, and don't much like the advice to use it as solution when someone's being antisocial (though I'm glad it exists as an option for those who want it). The discussions we have on here don't take place in silos; they influence each other, they spark new ones off, they shape each other. Over the last couple of days, several threads have been sparked off by another one and if you had someone on ignore, you wouldn't know what was going on. You could probably take a guess, but still, it would leave you somewhat excluded and in the dark. If a poster was especially calculating, they might even be able to use that to the disadvantage of posters who have them on ignore.

I agree. As an amateur woodworker, I find that I often do NOT want to use fancy tools to get the job done, preferring to hold a sharp chisel in my hands and get a feel for the wood I'm working. Ignoring things is a valuable skill and I don't want to neglect it by shoving the task off to some fancy tool.

I can do this.

[AdminGirl]

10 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

I imagine someone coming in new, or perhaps a moderator, has taken a brief look at all the 3rd person chatting of late and wondered if the forum members were having some sort of mental breakdown...lol.

Or someone new thinking that was the expected posting format!

[Luna Bliss]

Just now, AdminGirl said:

5 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

I imagine someone coming in new, or perhaps a moderator, has taken a brief look at all the 3rd person chatting of late and wondered if the forum members were having some sort of mental breakdown...lol.

Or someone new thinking that was the expected posting format!

lol...If all the people in lockdown who have not visited the forum aren't already crazy we will make them so!     😁

[AdminGirl]

10 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

lol...If all the people in lockdown who have not visited the forum aren't already crazy we will make them so!     😁

Challenge accepted!

[BelindaN]

I'm refreshed by using ignore. I don't feel I'm missing out at all. Up to nine now, and maybe double figures soon.

It's cleared away the dirty washing, although the overall atmosphere in the forums leaves me troubled. In the sense that it no longer draws me in as it once did. 

I view a few threads when I can't be in world but I've pretty much abandoned the picture threads, and ignore most in the GD section.

As I said before, good people have been driven away. Right now I don't expect much will change.

[MoiraKathleen]

16 minutes ago, BelindaN said:

I view a few threads when I can't be in world but I've pretty much abandoned the picture threads, and ignore most in the GD section.

I always enjoy seeing what you and your sisters are up to in the picture threads. 

[Seicher Rae]

19 minutes ago, BelindaN said:

I'm refreshed by using ignore. I don't feel I'm missing out at all. Up to nine now, and maybe double figures soon.

It's cleared away the dirty washing, although the overall atmosphere in the forums leaves me troubled. In the sense that it no longer draws me in as it once did. 

I view a few threads when I can't be in world but I've pretty much abandoned the picture threads, and ignore most in the GD section.

As I said before, good people have been driven away. Right now I don't expect much will change.

This is all understandable and rather sad. In my 10+ years posting in the forum, I never put anyone on block (not sure you could in the old days). That has been something for me since 2020. Having the people I have on block has not seriously impacted my forum reading. I don't feel I'm missing anything. I can always infer, and because I can still see the people quoted by people I can see, I miss very little except the hours of eye rolling.  The last person I considered blocking, and haven't, is because of what others have said... that person has so many comments and OPs that to put them on ignore would basically blow out half of my feed.

I wouldn't term myself in the group of "good people" who have been driven away, but I was driven away. Oddly, because I've been posting and reading more of late, I *STILL* feel like I'm not really here. I know I can, and probably will poof without notice again in the future. Like you, I don't expect much in the way of change here.

Edited September 1, 2020 by Seicher Rae

[LittleMe Jewell]

22 minutes ago, BelindaN said:

I'm refreshed by using ignore. I don't feel I'm missing out at all. Up to nine now, and maybe double figures soon.

 

3 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

In my 10+ years posting in the forum, I never put anyone on block (not sure you could in the old days). That has been something for me since 2020. Having the people I have on block has not seriously impacted my forum reading. I don't feel I'm missing anything.

 

I added people to Ignore for the first time ever about a year ago.  My Ignore list is very fluid though - nobody has been on it more than a few months, maybe 3-4 tops.  Most of the folks on it were due to forum spamming.  I'm currently down to one person and that person was put on there because I just couldn't stop myself from getting pulled into arguments with them.

[MoiraKathleen]

I haven't felt the need to block anyone yet, though there are threads, particularly in General Discussion, that I will skip over and not read once they get to a particular level of people arguing back and forth with each other.  I am not a very confrontational person, and don't like getting into arguments, especially here where I come to get away from RL issues and problems. There are also some days where I might not check the forums at all, or may only check the picture threads. 

[Skell Dagger]

1 hour ago, BelindaN said:

the overall atmosphere in the forums leaves me troubled. In the sense that it no longer draws me in as it once did

Same here. I'm pulling back, too. I'll be responding occasionally to people where I can be of help to them, but otherwise.. eh. I'll just file away the post that I just typed up in Notepad as "got this off my chest, made me feel better, will not post it anywhere though" and go do other stuff for a while.

You all know where to find me

[kali Wylder]

2 hours ago, BelindaN said:

I'm refreshed by using ignore. I don't feel I'm missing out at all. Up to nine now, and maybe double figures soon.

It's cleared away the dirty washing, although the overall atmosphere in the forums leaves me troubled. In the sense that it no longer draws me in as it once did. 

I view a few threads when I can't be in world but I've pretty much abandoned the picture threads, and ignore most in the GD section.

As I said before, good people have been driven away. Right now I don't expect much will change.

I agree with you, I've found that there are some voices that I get quite enough of when they are occasionally quoted and I feel no need to see more. I cannot be on line for more than an occasional ten minutes here and there these days and I'd much rather see the posters I don't need to ignore.

[Janet Voxel]

I remember asking why people even engage trolls on here a while back, because sometimes its really obvious. I got a reply back that was the equivalent of: Because there's nothing else to talk about and we're bored.

Which to me was like...wow, and that was during the "good" times. So to me, it's always existed here and its always been engaged in, in the same manner. I didn't think it was healthy then and I still don't think its healthy.

I don't block people, but my eyes definitely don't see certain people's posts. I've just trained myself to see a name or forum avatar and just skip over the whole post, or read a few words and continue scrolling down to the next post and if they quote me, depending on what it is...I probably just won't respond.

I feel like, I can hold on to what's left of my sanity that way. We're living in an unprecedented, historical event where we're even more isolated than we were a year ago and that's really saying something! I'm really not fond of keeping my thoughts to myself or living in my own bubble, because I'm naturally a social person. So I'm all for hearing things I might not want to hear, but at the same time, there's a fine line between having differing opinions and just saying something to get a rise out of someone.

 

[Lyssa Greymoon]

5 hours ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Over the last couple of days, several threads have been sparked off by another one and if you had someone on ignore, you wouldn't know what was going on.

That's sort of the point of the ignore list.

[Rowan Amore]

20 minutes ago, Lyssa Greymoon said:

That's sort of the point of the ignore list.

I'm more likely to ignore/block someone whos annoying me inworld rather than here.  I can easily skip over their post or just choose not to respond.  Now if I got a pesky little PING everytime they posted, that might be a different story.

Edited to add...I did block someone from personally messaging me here the other day but I can still see his posts.

Edited September 1, 2020 by RowanMinx

[LittleMe Jewell]

6 minutes ago, RowanMinx said:

Edited to add...I did block someone from personally messaging me here the other day but I can still see his posts.

I have about a half dozen folks blocked from Forum Messaging me.

[Rowan Amore]

2 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

I have about a half dozen folks blocked from Forum Messaging me.

Luckily, I haven't had to but this "gentleman..." was tossing a few racial things and I guess he didnt want backlash I public.  Although he did get some in private.

[Seicher Rae]

5 hours ago, Janet Voxel said:

I remember asking why people even engage trolls on here a while back, because sometimes its really obvious. I got a reply back that was the equivalent of: Because there's nothing else to talk about and we're bored.

 

This goes back to: Who is a troll.

There have always been people who engage because they are bored, etc. I've not been that bored (at least not often, and nothing I can think of). There are people who pick on others for entertainment. That was more prevalent in the bad old days, but it happens here, too.

I find myself getting "charged" on certain topics. I have several times fallen into contentious threads kind of by accident. There have been a few people I've engaged, not realizing their propensity for being asshats until it is too late. (And yep, these folks, some of whom I do consider to be trolls, are now blocked.) Have people yammering about mental health and I'll participate and probably do it too much.

But, I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all explanation for "why feed the trolls, the drama, the fighting."

Edited September 2, 2020 by Seicher Rae

[Lancewae Barrowstone]

Mein Gott!   Luke at all ze trollz you caught, admingirl!

[AdminGirl]

2 hours ago, Seicher Rae said:

This goes back to: Who is a troll.

But, I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all explanation for "why feed the trolls, the drama, the fighting."

Exactly. I've engaged with trolls or troll threads from not recognizing them as such until it's too late. Some trolls are more obvious, while others disguise themselves a bit better.

[Madelaine McMasters]

38 minutes ago, AdminGirl said:

Some trolls are more obvious, while others disguise themselves a bit better.

I've been here for nearly 11 years and nobody has caught on.

That's because I'm...

nefarious.

[Janet Voxel]

3 hours ago, Seicher Rae said:

This goes back to: Who is a troll.

The answer is simple: anyone can be a troll.

Its really best not to even go down that road, because it could be something as simple as someone having a bad day and they post one thing and next thing you know...dumpster fire.

Trolls don’t have to be some guy sitting in his mom’s basement in his underwear looking to start something. It doesn’t have to be some kid that hangs out on FourChan that thinks being edgy is cool.

It’s not about who is a troll, it’s about recognizing certain types of behaviors and not engaging them. Hence the phrase “Don’t feed the troll”. 

Initially, it can be difficult to tell the difference between a troll, someone who is attention seeking, a noob asking a genuine question, etc, etc. There is a certain point though when it’s pretty clear who you’re dealing with. So does it need to continue for another 12 pages? 
 

That’s when we come back to: I was bored...