Quote:
Originally Posted by Polar Bear
With the recent forum problems, I just wanted to put something out there...
The political forum has always been a bit...to put it mildly...disturbing. When ToTV works properly, the political forum is easy enough to avoid...don't join the group, ignore posts by Guest, etc. But with all the problems lately, it's impossible to totally ignore it. All the posts are listed in New/Today's Posts, thread titles often do not give away the content of the thread, you can't get to the group options in the Control Panel, forum names are shown so you can't quickly skip posts by Guest, etc..
The displaying of forum names just adds to the general strangeness of the political forum. 'Guest' somehow makes posts seem a little more distant. But when forum names are displayed...especially when often they appear to possibly be a person's real name...then the creepiness factor goes off the charts.
Here's the point of this post. After seeing that many of the most racist, sexist, bigoted, nasty posts come from the same small group of people, I'm convinced more than ever that the worst of the posters are nothing but trolls. Sure, they're nasty and possibly believe a lot of what they post. But I think the motivation is predominantly to get a thrill from inciting the reactions that naturally follow their intentionally over-the-top posts. Even if they believe what they say, the ultra-extreme wording and hatefulness is uncalled for to make a legitimate point. It's simply to get off on the reactions.
Until the technical issues are resolved, it's not going to be easy to totally ignore the political forum.
So, as difficult as it might be, if you think there might be a grain of truth to what I'm saying, give it your best effort to ignore the trolls. An unfed beast goes away.
|
Having been an IT professional for the last 20+ years. I think that "most" of what we see on such forums is simply internet banter and much ado about nothing.
Some of the most tyrannical buffoons and "Keyboard Hero's" are very nice people when they are in person. The anonymity is key, and the fact that there is no tense or tone on the internet takes away some of the jest in many situations.
It is the nut who lives in their mothers basement and takes themselves seriously who we have to watch for.
