Fighting On The Internet

[Mel]

Yep IMO its primarily about the anonymity you have behind your monitor, but that said I tend to get into disagreements with trolls who persist in spreading nonsense on the forum, bad personality trait I guess, but then someone has to make an effort.

[Dreamrage]

I wouldn't think of it that way, I do the same thing sometimes. Sometimes I know they're trying to make a point, or get attention, but I have limits like everyone does, and then I lose my grip on that brain mouth thing, and I end up saying something.

[Mel]

If only I could follow this advice I would probably be better off:

"put brain in gear before opening mouth"

[GMF]

Originally Posted by Mel

"put brain in gear before opening mouth"

Also:

"Use the search function/Google before opening a new thread"



Saw many arguments that abruptly ended just because someone was smart enough to use Google and research the matter....

[Inspired Ink]

Originally Posted by kju385

Have you kicked his ass with arguments or debated him to oblivion? Are we to conclude that people with high post count are more prone to verbal/textual fight picking?

Me? Nope. Would have been a waste of time.

The discussion was about a very sad tragedy in the tornadoes of the recent days. There were many people involved, and this guy. I simply pointed out that picking people apart on grammar might be petty for the topic at hand (didn't even get into the other things he was trying to drag into it, mostly religion and politics). I wanted to hint that his comments were out of place. And I speculated on what made him a "top" person on the site (I imagine his post count).

I'm not at all saying that people with a high post count are prone to fight picking. More like an observation that if someone is prone to fight picking, they can quickly generate a high post count by debating with every other post made.

Originally Posted by stone

And are people still responding to this troll?

Forums often have an ignore button specifically for this type of individual.

There are a lot of people that come into a discussion and use all kinds of dirty tactics for the purpose of derailing a discussion, and advancing their own agenda.

Yes, people responded vigorously to him. I think emotions were high because of the topic, and it seems they typed in anger the first thing that came to mind and hit "send". Probably exactly what he wanted them to do. It might be the best way to make someone else look foolish -- catch them in their emotions like that.

I don't think this one had an ignore.

And yes, it looked to me like he had an agenda he was plastering all over the place. I never could figure out EXACTLY what it was, not that I cared enough to invest much time in sorting it out. He seemed to be pro-Muslim, anti-America, and perhaps anti-moral (which as far as I know, doesn't fit with pro-Muslim). And full of anger.

Odd guy. Not likeable at all. And not worth arguing with or figuring out. I haven't even been back to see if he replied to me.

As far as the guy setting up his own site ... I suspect he wouldn't get anyone to visit except people who agreed with him (whoever that might be). Probably wouldn't generate the kind of "discussion" he's looking for.