Wednesday, May 13, 2009
A few bloggers have been having problems with trolls leaving nasty comments. I don't mind comments that express an opinion contrary to mine, even when they imply that I'm stupid, or morally lacking, when that implication comes out of the commenter's passion for the topic. But I won't accept comments that are obviously just personal attacks with the intent of hurting me. I won't allow trolls.
Trolls attack people on blogs or forums or in chat rooms for the sole purpose of getting a reaction. They are experts at finding your soft spots. When you give them an outraged reaction, it thrills them, they know they got to you, and they'll come back for more.
The thing to do is to ignore them. Take control. Delete the comment. (On Blogger, delete the comment twice, so no one is even aware there ever was a comment.) If any of your regular readers responded to the troll, delete their comments, too. There must be no record of the troll ever having visited.
Do not, under any circumstances, give a troll the satisfaction of your response in a post. That's the worst thing you can do. It's exactly what they want.
If they decide to barrage your blog with their garbage, turn comment moderation on. And if your blog host allows it, bar anonymous comments for a while. It doesn't take more than a week or so before they get the idea that you won't put up with them and won't respond to them.
The goal is to avoid giving them a billboard. When they get no satisfaction, if they are completely ignored, they'll move on to greener (or bloodier) pastures.
(Um, this assumes you don't enjoy the drama. Some people like it. They like blasting back. They like being defended by others. If that's the case, "Ne'mind". Have at it.)
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Showing posts with label bullies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bullies. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Saturday, May 09, 2009
2390 Bullies 2
Saturday, May 9, 2009
I'm beginning to worry about my memory.
I wrote the previous post right after reading the "Shoebox" snipe at Hasselhoff. What I had forgotten was something I had come across earlier in the day, that set me up to be in no mood for that kind of nastiness.
Someone somewhere on the internet had mentioned some guy, Chris, who posts incredibly TMI video clips on YouTube. I picked up that tag end of yarn, and followed it, and ended up thoroughly disgusted - not with the poor fool himself, but with the wolves who have descended on him and are torturing him. In my opinion it's completely out of hand, and if it's not illegal, it should be.
Chris is mentally disabled in some way. He's a 27-year-old virgin who lives with his parents, and collects disability. He is fascinated by Star Trek, and draws an online comic strip with characters that are a blend of Sonic Hedgehog and Pokemon. He is in search of a boyfriend-free girl (all the women he meets already have boyfriends) to be his girlfriend, so maybe they can lose their virginities together.
Somehow a group of trolls have discovered him, and have set out to make him miserable. They get their jollies by setting him up and encouraging him to make a fool of himself.
They have fed him online girlfriends, who then encourage him to do debasing things and "show me" stuff - which he happily does, and posts on YouTube. They record telephone conversations with the bogus girlfriend, in which, of course, he is encouraged to say outrageous things, and then they post transcripts of his side of the conversations.
That might be illegal.
When he discovers he's been set up, where most of us would keep a low profile for a while, Chris videos his outrage, and posts it on YouTube, which is to his tormentors like the scent of blood. (Actually, the picture in my head is of them masturbating to it. They are probably every bit as unsuccessful in love and life as Chris is. Otherwise, you'd think they had better things to do.)
They are more immature than he is. I'd like to castrate the whole bunch of them.
That's definitely illegal.
I've tried to track them down, and can't. Unlike the openness and honesty of their victim, they hide and snipe from deep cover. I did find out where their internet personnas hang out, at http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Chris-chan, a disgusting website devoted to that kind of activity. Which doesn't seem to allow outraged non-members to comment.
I'd like to form a citizen's posse to give them some justice, or drag them to justice, whichever works. But I don't think I or anyone I know is mean and nasty and cruel enough to do a good job of it.
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I'm beginning to worry about my memory.
I wrote the previous post right after reading the "Shoebox" snipe at Hasselhoff. What I had forgotten was something I had come across earlier in the day, that set me up to be in no mood for that kind of nastiness.
Someone somewhere on the internet had mentioned some guy, Chris, who posts incredibly TMI video clips on YouTube. I picked up that tag end of yarn, and followed it, and ended up thoroughly disgusted - not with the poor fool himself, but with the wolves who have descended on him and are torturing him. In my opinion it's completely out of hand, and if it's not illegal, it should be.
Chris is mentally disabled in some way. He's a 27-year-old virgin who lives with his parents, and collects disability. He is fascinated by Star Trek, and draws an online comic strip with characters that are a blend of Sonic Hedgehog and Pokemon. He is in search of a boyfriend-free girl (all the women he meets already have boyfriends) to be his girlfriend, so maybe they can lose their virginities together.
Somehow a group of trolls have discovered him, and have set out to make him miserable. They get their jollies by setting him up and encouraging him to make a fool of himself.
They have fed him online girlfriends, who then encourage him to do debasing things and "show me" stuff - which he happily does, and posts on YouTube. They record telephone conversations with the bogus girlfriend, in which, of course, he is encouraged to say outrageous things, and then they post transcripts of his side of the conversations.
That might be illegal.
When he discovers he's been set up, where most of us would keep a low profile for a while, Chris videos his outrage, and posts it on YouTube, which is to his tormentors like the scent of blood. (Actually, the picture in my head is of them masturbating to it. They are probably every bit as unsuccessful in love and life as Chris is. Otherwise, you'd think they had better things to do.)
They are more immature than he is. I'd like to castrate the whole bunch of them.
That's definitely illegal.
I've tried to track them down, and can't. Unlike the openness and honesty of their victim, they hide and snipe from deep cover. I did find out where their internet personnas hang out, at http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Chris-chan, a disgusting website devoted to that kind of activity. Which doesn't seem to allow outraged non-members to comment.
I'd like to form a citizen's posse to give them some justice, or drag them to justice, whichever works. But I don't think I or anyone I know is mean and nasty and cruel enough to do a good job of it.
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Friday, May 08, 2009
2389 Bullying?
Friday, May 8, 2009
I came across this: "David Hasselhoff posted a dangerously high blood-alcohol level in what authorities are calling a dramatic attempt to forget he’s David Hasselhoff" in the Newsdroppings section of Shoebox.
That strikes me as unnecessarily nasty, to blame his drinking on his being him, like he can't stand himself. Um, maybe you bullies are his problem?
I don't know how stuff like that gets started. Other examples of people being picked on or sneered at for no real reason are Jerry Lewis, John Tesh, Richard Simmons, Paula Abdul, and believe it or not, people are starting to sneer at Susan Boyle.
All they've done is be themselves. They've done nothing that the sneerers or their neighbors or family members haven't done. They're just people, doing their thing. If you want to comment on their drinking, or drugging, or annoying enthusiasm, fine. That's a external, an action. But it's incredibly mean to blast them simply because they are who they are.
Sometimes I think some people get picked on more than others because they are weak, they don't defend themselves very well. That doesn't speak well of the picker-oners. Like they do it because they can. They don't even have the excuse of preserving strong genes that birds have when they oust the weakest nest mate.
Take the quote in the first paragraph, and substitute your own name (and for the failing, some weakness of your own). How much does that hurt? And how much more does it hurt that other people think it's funny?
This is the nastiest of bullying, and I don't like it!
What scares me most is that there are people who wouldn't understand what my objection is. Maybe even most people. We have become a nation of bullies.
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I came across this: "David Hasselhoff posted a dangerously high blood-alcohol level in what authorities are calling a dramatic attempt to forget he’s David Hasselhoff" in the Newsdroppings section of Shoebox.
That strikes me as unnecessarily nasty, to blame his drinking on his being him, like he can't stand himself. Um, maybe you bullies are his problem?
I don't know how stuff like that gets started. Other examples of people being picked on or sneered at for no real reason are Jerry Lewis, John Tesh, Richard Simmons, Paula Abdul, and believe it or not, people are starting to sneer at Susan Boyle.
All they've done is be themselves. They've done nothing that the sneerers or their neighbors or family members haven't done. They're just people, doing their thing. If you want to comment on their drinking, or drugging, or annoying enthusiasm, fine. That's a external, an action. But it's incredibly mean to blast them simply because they are who they are.
Sometimes I think some people get picked on more than others because they are weak, they don't defend themselves very well. That doesn't speak well of the picker-oners. Like they do it because they can. They don't even have the excuse of preserving strong genes that birds have when they oust the weakest nest mate.
Take the quote in the first paragraph, and substitute your own name (and for the failing, some weakness of your own). How much does that hurt? And how much more does it hurt that other people think it's funny?
This is the nastiest of bullying, and I don't like it!
What scares me most is that there are people who wouldn't understand what my objection is. Maybe even most people. We have become a nation of bullies.
.
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