12-10-2017, 04:25 AM
quote:
Originally posted by TomK
If you want people to simply ignore that, then please make your case, I'll listen. In the meantime, I think it is worthwhile pointing out the racist nastiness and threats of violence, as well as a lack of respect for law, that Gypsy represents.
The case is simple, Tom. The content s/he posts is only intended to incite a response, and s/he gets the responses every time. S/he doesn't believe the things s/he posts. S/he simply gets off on screwing up any discourse the forum offers.
The more outrageous the posts, the more attention s/he gets. S/he knows you feel you must respond to the taunts, knows exactly what will piss you off. Any responses are a "win" and if the responses show anger and outrage s/he wins even more. It's clear to me that s/he simply thinks its funny to push buttons. Twisted sense of what people are for.
S/he doesn't need to be "debunked", s/he needs to be ignored.
I was tipped privately way back during the lava scare, when I was responding to his/her posts, that the troll lived in Leilani and that s/he wasn't the only one doing so. One poster even claimed to know him/her as a sort of neighbor. Some are "supporters" of her junk; some appear to be outraged. They may all be one person--I don't know. In any case, it appears to be a very mean-spirited sense of humor, londely attention-seeking, and/or a very anti-social sort of psychosis--s/he/they spend a LOT of energy on the disruption.
You can read every post s/he ever made as an attempt to get people pissed, not to forward an actual agenda. I can almost visualize him/her hooting in glee when people respond with outrage, taking the bait, thinking that reason will defeat unreason. The chain is jerked and jollies are had.
A thought experiment: S/he posts and no one responds--because the post is idiotic, because it is beneath contempt, because it contains ad hominem attacks, because of the history of the poster, because it is simply a thread hijack, whatever, but s/he jerks a chain and nothing resists it and no jollies available.
Or everyone can keep enabling him/her in the effort screw up any reasonable discourse on the forum. Rob can eventual ban the poster, but that won't likely stop the trolling. To my mind, the troll(s) are just the price of admission on Punaweb, or any forum on the web. I pay that price by ignoring it (except when I fall for it, I guess).
All of which is a too longwinded way to say: don't feed the trolls. It's not that difficult when you realize you're just being manipulated.
Now I'll go back to ignoring the whole issue...
Cheers,
Kirt