Schiit hater from ASR trolls SBAF

It’s probably been suggested before but why no 24h grace period on new accounts before they can post?
Might discourage them, change their mind after their meds start working, get a like on tinder or finally see that bridge they have been dreaming about all this time...

 

To cheer you up, here is something I tried to make in 5 mins

 

Its a real shame that haters and trolls can be so hurtful.
I think that conscientious, honest and thoughtful folks maybe feel the hurt more intensely.
I have been very happy to spend $ on multiple pieces of Schiit gear, and they have give me countless hours of happiness.
Thanks Jason for all the happiness you have given to me.
Here's a big (embarrassing) SBAF hug from me

 

You are assuming too much. You assume the person signing up might actually be reasonable. Admirable on your part to give people benefit of doubt before they prove themselves to be assholes. But dedicated assholes are bad actors on today's internut. Easy to dish out bullshit with minimal accountability.

 

The troll registered the account on Thursday, and trolled on a Saturday. Beyond 24 hours.

 

One thing I find really interesting about this community is how trolls are put front and center, where you can start to see their mindset and even where what they're saying actually comes from. Usually you're just left to wonder. Just from a people-watching perspective it's usually something different when you can see how something actually goes down and what ultimately comes out. Makes you almost too aware of how strange people can be.

For instance, who registers an account just to troll at the end of the week? That in itself stands out to me. Do they think it over first? Like, is it actually a concentrated effort? I usually think of trolling as a knee-jerk thing that people just do without thinking about. To have it as a future goal, like even if it's just a 'maybe later' thing (just don't feel like it at the time? ) is a whole different deal to me. It's basically a theme in your head at that point. The recurring impulse part of it is what makes it 'not normal'. Or at least I'd like to think a normal person, no matter how frustrated at the time, wouldn't pick it up later if they didn't react in that first moment. It's transient. You feel better later and realize it doesn't mean anything. You'd forget all about it, right?

 

Yes, it does seem to be a thing. Sleeper accounts get opened on forums. Either left alone for a while, making a few innocent posts, or whatever. The aim may be advertising, or adding an adverting signature, anti-advertising, because they work for the competition, Or just plain arse-holing (asr-holing in this case, it seems).

I used to be a mod on a travel forum. The trade stuff comes thick and fast. At first, it was easy to spot, because of the distinctive Indian-English, which the poster from Birmingham, England, who had absolutely loved their stay in some junk hotel, would most certainly not write or speak. then they got more sophisticated. That, and the inter-personal nastiness, makes forum moderation very hard work. Been there, done that, never will again. Hats off to the guys here, and on the other forums I inhabit, for the work they do.

Been there done that. Hands up who hasn't...





What, never?

 

I've done some time in that pen and seen how it can take away from the general forum experience, but thankfully never had to deal with anything like that. It's not a job I envy at all. It takes a special kind of person to make a good mod. Sometimes there just is no chill. If doesn't wear you down, it sucks you in.

Ahaha, no doubt I have. And in fact I can promise that I will again. Not on purpose (until I decide it is) Probably not here though. Probably.

Anybody who says they haven't done it is either lying, has forgotten, or hasn't been on the real internet for very long.

Think about it like this next time you're in a densely populated area - many faces you see have at one point trolled somebody. They may not even fully know what it is, but they've done it. The only questions are "What does it take to make a troll outta that guy." and "What kind of troll is he?"

Intent matters, though. Some people are really just malignant as all hell and want to undermine everything they can. But others are just being playful with the internet or specifically have it out for one individual/stereotype. Others just have that annoying personality leading to unwitting trolling behavior, even if they genuinely mean well. People lose rationality when mad or threatened - it's not new to the internet. It comes in degrees. Of course we all get a little dickish when life isn't going right and we happen to have one of those days where all of the bullshit is emerging at once. Not really an excuse to be shitty, just an observation. Even the chillest people you ever meet probably have that mode.

I think very few people who ever troll, ever do it with the malignancy seen in this case, or your example. Manipulating people and hiding your intentions specifically to undermine people and garner genuine hate/distrust where it isn't warranted is a different breed. It may be teeny tiny little piss-ant schoolyard bullshit, but it shows an actual character flaw, as opposed to just isolated 'normal-people-quirky-behavior' in action. That a person even thinks to operate that way, let alone think about it long enough to carry it out reveals a deeper toxicity in how they see things and deal with them. Extrapolate the patterns out and try to picture how someone who does that reacts to worse things... things that actually matter.

Regular trolling is mostly a matter of decency and respect. It's just kind of crass thing to do - an unwanted diversion. You really shouldn't do it if you care about what you're taking part in, but it doesn't automatically qualify someone's presence as incorrigible. Just kind of a dick thing to do. I kind of expect that if you've been on this earth really living some kind of life, you've been that dickhead at some point.

Making calculated attempts at disrupting things and swaying opinions for personal gain and/or garnering hate, just to hit someone/something where it hurts, out of nothing but your own personal disdain, kinda sits in its own distinct ethical territory.

Someone who is or has been a regular troll can still be my friend, even if they irritate me sometimes, because they can also be entertaining, and I've never seen them straight up try to stab anyone in the back. I don't assume they're necessarily a bad person, or even that they care if I actually think they believe half of the things they say, let alone that they actually hate anybody. They just put their full misery/disinterest on display for people to laugh at or get caught up in. It's a primal dealeo. You and everyone else knows they're kind of a troll - none of it surprises anyone because it's obvious what it is. You're not exactly being betrayed by how they come off if you choose to buy-in. They're obviously full of shit and outwardly neurotic a lot of the time. The damage is self-containing.

The other, darker kind, I wouldn't want anything to do with. It's creepy that point. Definitely sitting a little too comfortably within the dark triad of personality traits. I don't see that as just trolling... the bigger problem is being a shady-ass person. You can troll sometimes and still be generally healthy/normal. But taking it to that level is far from normal to me. Actually focusing intellect on a trolling effort, with actual goals laid out, sneaking around... it all just seems really off. Bigger problems than just being a troll. That's someone who's out to do more serious damage if they can get away with it. Not normal at all.

 

@robot zombie, that's a pretty good analysis.

One of the things I like about some of my forum activity is that people can tear each other's throats out on one thread, and be good mates on another. It's something that actually works online better than off.

But if someone is, or turns, toxic... well toxic is poisonous and there's no getting away from that. Moderators' life: people say "why was XYZ banned? Such a helpful guy." They didn't see the passive aggressive streak that made some other members very uncomfortable, or know about the sales PMs, or even the abusive PMs, or, on more mixed-gender forums, the guys going after every female in sight.

But when one has to pull the plug on someone who used to be regarded as a friend it's tough. Not nice. Even worse if it is just that they have real problems, and, sorry, but we are not medical docs, and it is something we cannot deal with.

Toxicity. There's a story about a site called Changstar. Others here know it far better than I do, and I'm not asking for it to be told yet again: a bit of internet archaeology could probably reveal it. But SBAF came into existence because of stuff it had to leave behind. And it has been beautifully managed to be as quirky and weird as it wants to be, without toxicity taking over again. @purr1n & Co have put far too much into this place to allow that to happen again, and, if one of us wakes up, one day, as a toxic online bully, that red banner is going to happen. And so it should.

Oh, where were we? Oh yes... being imperfect but moderately ok humans. I guess we'd better get back to that now!

 

Definitely. Some of my favorite forum experiences have been like that. It's kind of a show of respect, sometimes you don't go at someone unless you consider them an equal. When done right it just goes to show how well people know each other, just knowing what they can take. Showing colors for camaraderie. Everybody puts some skin in the game.

The reduced immediacy probably helps, too. Hard to get *completely* carried away when the actual interaction is stretched into hours and days, with a lot of expressive cues absent, and you actually have time to think it through. It becomes like a little game. I have a harder time understanding how people get genuinely, personally caught-up in an actually negative way. How long is it 'sposed to take for someone to cool off about some text on a screen and take it in stride? It's not like you have someone getting up in your face, actually yelling and making gestures.

Oh yes, I know exactly what you mean. It sucks when you have to be that guy to someone you've known for a while and it's someone who's become a core part of the community. The story behind it becomes lore for the members... sometimes factions form as people get personal, driving pointless conflicts and sometimes even causing good contributors to walk away.

That's arguably the tougher part... when the people you're trying to help-out no longer trust you and start working against you (and really each other,) because of something they don't understand that you can't actually give them a full picture of. Makes you question yourself just as much, even though you may worry about the person, too. Just sad, bad times. However, sometimes it really is better for everyone, including that person. Trying to keep it going only undermines everything in the end. Give someone a go for certain behaviors and it only gets more outwardly damaging and inwardly self-destructive.

People now seem to think everything on the internet should be an open democracy, or that all opinions should be valued and accepted everywhere online, without discretion. But all that leads to is tribalism and a whole lotta noise. I think at some point there needs to be real arbitration and enforced exclusivity. People are terrible at being organized left to themselves, and people worry too much about leaving people out, while a lot of those people offer nothing worthwhile and only cause problems for themselves and others. The internet would be a happier place with clearer points of division. In real life, not everything is open to everyone. Level playing field is a terrible idea. Why should someone who doesn't agree with how things work in a spot be invited in? Just because they want to? That's not even a good deal for them.

Too many different elements leave too many problems to even deal with. Any really big community or outlet makes that pretty obvious. Everyone wants to be a hub these days, with the content being second, you know?

I remember reading a little of the lore a couple of years back. I don't know how things were then, but things look pretty good now! It's definitely a unique community, with an interesting way of operating that, to me, is pretty refreshing. It seems like the core was always pretty close-knit, with a deeper identity to it, which is always worth protecting. There used to be more places like this online when I was growing up. At some point people got soft on stupid, crappy behavior, just as the majority of people were just becoming familiar and comfortable with being online. And yet unwilling to draw or adhere to lines that would be basic social norms in literally any other setting. Like, it's intuitive for most functional adults, until people hop online. Too many people poisoning the well now... just a problem of too many people, really. But being on any community online was always supposed to be a privilege. People are going to know that they'll still slide by in a bigger group with fewer people who actually give a shit.

Bans happen everywhere and people call-out, but little is done to give it perspective or meaning. If it's pretty much inconsequential, like there's no attachment or clear ethos coming from anywhere, more people will act out when given an easy means to. Some people think of the web only as a personal playground - and that's a lot easier to get away with now that it's all scaled up. In the wake of increased tolerance, people who've never really had a connection online have an easier time living out that 'nothing is real on the internet' perspective.

I think certain people can't handle the idea that it actually matters at times, and that their actions still affect people... and things bigger than them. It's not even all about hurt feelings or whatever, my opinion there is walk away, after saying your piece if you've gotta. It's more like crashing a party. And what happens when you go around crashing parties? You don't get invited anymore. Unless you're online and the party is any major outlet, where for some reason people don't get kicked out for generally toxic behavior. Instead the whole party has to suffer it and nobody really cares as much anymore.

Not meaning to take this thread off-track (if that's even possible) Stuff like this gives me an interesting perspective on internet interactions. I can't think of too many places off of the top of my head that give you the same look at things. FWIW I appreciate this place for being what it is.

 

For proven trolls every word is one too many, there is only one solution:

 

Well we can always hope for the bridge option, hell if he is enough of a blowhard he might actually land under the bridge.

Yeah i get that but after he gets banned he is basically on a 24h time out if he is smart enough to use a vpn and a different email. Might be less work for the admins. Anyways it was just an idea

 

Some forums make a user’s first few posts get validated by moderator accounts before they show up but that’s more work for mods who would probably rather be doing something else. Other sites have ranking setups where disliked posts get quickly hidden or binned. SBAF already has liked and dislikes, it probably wouldn’t be that hard to auto-hide posts/threads with > 10 (or whatever) dislikes for normal users but that’d probably need some php hacking on the server side.

 

The question is will you guys have time to check all new posts when the food gates are opened?

 

Slacker.

 

It takes a world-wide team, able to volunteer enough time to keep an eye on a forum in all time zones, 24 hours a day.

Or @jexby .

 

I'll help delete rando shit posts.

 

@jexby is clever. probably write an AI inspired script that performs content check for certain combinations of words and phrases along with post count and dislike count producing a ranking of need to check posts. High ranking receives expedited review.