That only works with some trolls, usually those that simply post out of ignorance. True haters, or politically motivated trolls actually gain traction the more you pile on. No publicity is bad publicity. You can't argue with a drive by shooting.
Sure you can. You just need a bigger gun. Trouble is firing a volley is risky for you, and a troll has nothing to lose.
That's why it's not about feeding the troll or defeating them - it's not about the troll at all.. It's about not allowing their ideas to stand and ruin your forum.
I've not seen any evidence that your approach has been particularly effective against a real Troll. One need only look to the years and years of slash dot being trolled by that GNAA troll. Nothing works with that troll, because the motivation is simply to troll.
The moderation system here gets abused, but when used properly (and it almost always is against this kind of troll) it is made clear that what they are saying is not of value. Again, it's not about defeating the troll themself. It's about protecting your board for from becoming their voice.
Sounds like the OP is suggesting we respond to trolls with Eliza.
Please go on.
Over the weekend for a laugh I modified Eliza to sound like Charlie Sheen. It's only a quick hack job and could be greatly improved but the nonsense he was sprouting was just so amusing I couldn't resist.
Treating them like an adult ("why do you say that Windows is a load of pigs' livers?") will maybe get them to respond to the question in an adult-sense (come back, Eric Berne...) but life's too short.
Just don't respond, add them to your ignore list and do something more productive.
The problem is that if you don't respond and add them to an ignore list, they end up with free reign to say anything they like. They may even have supporters. Eventually the forum/board is full of misinformation spouted by trolls that is unchallenged and becomes a worthless source of misinformation.
You should feed trolls...with poison. Always calmly and rationally point out every hole in their logic until the ridiculousness of it is clear...and here's the challenging part...do it without losing your cool or resorting to personal insults. Just point out how stupid what they are saying really is. The reason it's hard is that a troll will do everything from questioning your morality, your job, your child rearing - any piece of information they can extract out of you to hurl insults - when it's totally irrelevant. I've seen "That's the sort of behaviour I'd expect from my 2 year old" on a camera board turn into a tirade about what a horrible parent the poster must be and why they should be jailed and have their 2 year old taken from them. Some people are just nasty when they can't or don't want to come up with a logical counter-argument.
The trouble with HDDs is that they can just pack up at any time.
I've just had a drive fail catastrophically after 7 months. No bad treatment or sudden shocks to the drive or anything.
For anything that's valuable (sentimentally or otherwise) you want to be backing up to optical discs and keeping them somewhere very safe or paying for guaranteed online storage.
Have you ever tried to copy a GB worth of data back of DVD? 4.5-4.7GB/DVD means at least 213 DVDs.
Multiple hard drives are a much saner solution. Instead of buying 1 hard disk, buy 3. Preferably different brands. Keep one off site and one local. Update the local copy every few days or a week. Update the offline copy at least every 2-3 months.
Oh and one I learnt recently - keep a checksum on the files (md5sum is enough - you're not trying to combat active hacking). Don't trust photo editors and DAM apps like Picasa and Lightroom to live up to their claims that they are non-destructive. I've caught a couple of the big names altering metadata even on read only files.
I have recently been in prison for spamming. As part of my rehabilitation I am required to contact you and inform you of my crime. If you can spare as little as one dollar please make your tax decutable donation out to "Spammers rehabilitation. 45 LaughingAllTheWayToTheBank Street, Idiotsville". From time to time I'll be contacting you to let you know about similar opportunities as well as a host of unbeatable specials for valuable goods like viagra. My friends from Nigeria will be contacting you with some fantastic financial opportunities I know you won't want to miss.
I built and used scanning electron microscopes back in my distant youth. We always referred to microscopes as "light" or "electron" or even "ion" (yes, we built a prototype ion microscope). All of these have optics in the form of lenses and apertures and could correctly be called optical microscopes.
If you're in one of the "healthiest of marriages", you're not going to be doing anything on facebook or elsewhere that's going to jeopardize your marriage. I'm not going to be an asshole in person, or online. If you think that something is OK online, but not in real life, then you've got problems.
I understand what you're saying but you've said it very very poorly.
For example I've played Battlefield 2 online. There is no way I'd go out and kill and mame people for fun in real life.
The online environments can alter what is and isn't acceptable. However the implications in real life aren't altered. For instance in the context of the game I might shoot and kill, but I would not bully a player - a real life person - via the medium of the game.
I think the important thing is to establish what is and isn't acceptable online just as you do in person. If in your marriage it's acceptable to flirt mildly without intent, it might be the same online. Or the lack of face to face contact may mean that how serious the flirtation is becomes less clear. Therefore it might be acceptable to flirt in person but not on Facebook, within the context of what the 2 people in a particular marriage agree. If you don't have those lines of communication open in the first place, your marriage is already in trouble!
If Microsoft suddenly get good ad blocking - as in, really good ad blocking, they could completely cut off all oxygen from Google. Of course, MS also makes some money from web advertising, but they don't need it to live like Google does. Also, it really would improve the quality of the user experience in IE if this were done well and thoroughly.
Google would just get really good at detecting Ad blocking and refuse to serve search results and other content if you block their ads.
But I can literally taste the tin foil on this guy's head. The little nutter gave me synesthesia.
Either remove the word literally from that sentence or seek help for your medical condition. Reading an article shouldn't put a tin foil taste in your mouth, and I suspect it didn't literally do so.
If you care about quality you should care about arcades. Arcades force ruthless competition between games. Only the best earn enough to be worth their floor space. Developers are forced to innovate, and good ideas spread to the rest of the industry.
Now the games compete for cupboard space at your home and top ratings on game review sites. Love it or hate it, it's not 1975 anymore and that transition is nearly complete.
Speak for yourself. I literally use BCC every day and sometimes many times a day. I guess I am neither a subset of nobody or everybody, at least according to your email.
Once upon a time there was this fairly cool guy called JRR Tolkien who wrote some popular books. Then he had some descendants who were leeching cunts. The lawyers on all sides lived happily ever after. The end.
I would have to agree that the copyright and patent systems could be better. But abolishing them altogether could be disastrous. They do serve a purpose.
Perhaps the car analogy is that thousands are killed by cars every year, but abolishing cars could be a disaster. Just because you can think of a disadvantage of something doesn't mean it's all bad and should be abolished. Too many times what I say is reduced to "X is all good" or "X is all bad". There are tradeoffs. Life isn't black and white.
Disastrous? Give me a break. Stop drinking the coolaid or shilling. Your analogy makes no sense either. A better analogy would be allowing other companies to copy the cars so that others may drive them.
Slashdot Mirror
That only works with some trolls, usually those that simply post out of ignorance. True haters, or politically motivated trolls actually gain traction the more you pile on. No publicity is bad publicity. You can't argue with a drive by shooting.
Sure you can. You just need a bigger gun. Trouble is firing a volley is risky for you, and a troll has nothing to lose.
That's why it's not about feeding the troll or defeating them - it's not about the troll at all.. It's about not allowing their ideas to stand and ruin your forum.
I've not seen any evidence that your approach has been particularly effective against a real Troll. One need only look to the years and years of slash dot being trolled by that GNAA troll. Nothing works with that troll, because the motivation is simply to troll.
The moderation system here gets abused, but when used properly (and it almost always is against this kind of troll) it is made clear that what they are saying is not of value. Again, it's not about defeating the troll themself. It's about protecting your board for from becoming their voice.
Sounds like the OP is suggesting we respond to trolls with Eliza.
Please go on.
Over the weekend for a laugh I modified Eliza to sound like Charlie Sheen. It's only a quick hack job and could be greatly improved but the nonsense he was sprouting was just so amusing I couldn't resist.
http://www.progsoc.uts.edu.au/~sammy/charlie/charlie.html
Treating them like an adult ("why do you say that Windows is a load of pigs' livers?") will maybe get them to respond to the question in an adult-sense (come back, Eric Berne...) but life's too short.
Just don't respond, add them to your ignore list and do something more productive.
The problem is that if you don't respond and add them to an ignore list, they end up with free reign to say anything they like. They may even have supporters. Eventually the forum/board is full of misinformation spouted by trolls that is unchallenged and becomes a worthless source of misinformation.
You should feed trolls...with poison. Always calmly and rationally point out every hole in their logic until the ridiculousness of it is clear...and here's the challenging part...do it without losing your cool or resorting to personal insults. Just point out how stupid what they are saying really is. The reason it's hard is that a troll will do everything from questioning your morality, your job, your child rearing - any piece of information they can extract out of you to hurl insults - when it's totally irrelevant. I've seen "That's the sort of behaviour I'd expect from my 2 year old" on a camera board turn into a tirade about what a horrible parent the poster must be and why they should be jailed and have their 2 year old taken from them. Some people are just nasty when they can't or don't want to come up with a logical counter-argument.
The trouble with HDDs is that they can just pack up at any time.
I've just had a drive fail catastrophically after 7 months. No bad treatment or sudden shocks to the drive or anything.
For anything that's valuable (sentimentally or otherwise) you want to be backing up to optical discs and keeping them somewhere very safe or paying for guaranteed online storage.
Have you ever tried to copy a GB worth of data back of DVD? 4.5-4.7GB/DVD means at least 213 DVDs.
Multiple hard drives are a much saner solution. Instead of buying 1 hard disk, buy 3. Preferably different brands. Keep one off site and one local. Update the local copy every few days or a week. Update the offline copy at least every 2-3 months.
Oh and one I learnt recently - keep a checksum on the files (md5sum is enough - you're not trying to combat active hacking). Don't trust photo editors and DAM apps like Picasa and Lightroom to live up to their claims that they are non-destructive. I've caught a couple of the big names altering metadata even on read only files.
"My name is Mickey Mouse, and I'm an alcoholic."
Mickey, what the HELL did you do to Britney Spears? Look at what she's turned into, you filthy rat!!!
I searched Wikipedia for these "douchebags" you speak about, but the article had been deleted.
Dear neighbour,
I have recently been in prison for spamming. As part of my rehabilitation I am required to contact you and inform you of my crime. If you can spare as little as one dollar please make your tax decutable donation out to "Spammers rehabilitation. 45 LaughingAllTheWayToTheBank Street, Idiotsville". From time to time I'll be contacting you to let you know about similar opportunities as well as a host of unbeatable specials for valuable goods like viagra. My friends from Nigeria will be contacting you with some fantastic financial opportunities I know you won't want to miss.
Yours in Spam,
The Spam King.
I want a pony.
I want amentiies for the staff. I hear machines don't work so well when you urinate on them.
We liked our Data Centers the way we liked our women:
Hot. And always going down.
Charlie Sheen, is that you?
So just how high does your blood alcohol level have to be before you're allowed to play the console?
I built and used scanning electron microscopes back in my distant youth. We always referred to microscopes as "light" or "electron" or even "ion" (yes, we built a prototype ion microscope). All of these have optics in the form of lenses and apertures and could correctly be called optical microscopes.
Good God man! I don't care how much it weighed!!!
Darth Vader, and Jar Jar Binks would be more like it.
Jar Jar Binks IS Hitler and Darth Vader's love child!
If you're in one of the "healthiest of marriages", you're not going to be doing anything on facebook or elsewhere that's going to jeopardize your marriage. I'm not going to be an asshole in person, or online. If you think that something is OK online, but not in real life, then you've got problems.
I understand what you're saying but you've said it very very poorly.
For example I've played Battlefield 2 online. There is no way I'd go out and kill and mame people for fun in real life.
The online environments can alter what is and isn't acceptable. However the implications in real life aren't altered. For instance in the context of the game I might shoot and kill, but I would not bully a player - a real life person - via the medium of the game.
I think the important thing is to establish what is and isn't acceptable online just as you do in person. If in your marriage it's acceptable to flirt mildly without intent, it might be the same online. Or the lack of face to face contact may mean that how serious the flirtation is becomes less clear. Therefore it might be acceptable to flirt in person but not on Facebook, within the context of what the 2 people in a particular marriage agree. If you don't have those lines of communication open in the first place, your marriage is already in trouble!
This is a common way for people to communicate. Facebook is going to be "linked to" everything as long as this is a fact.
In the article replace "Facebook" with "Telephone". It's not news anymore is it?
Somebody is confused. .
With Intel's naming (lack of) conventions I'm surprised anyone ISN'T confused.
If Microsoft suddenly get good ad blocking - as in, really good ad blocking, they could completely cut off all oxygen from Google. Of course, MS also makes some money from web advertising, but they don't need it to live like Google does. Also, it really would improve the quality of the user experience in IE if this were done well and thoroughly.
Google would just get really good at detecting Ad blocking and refuse to serve search results and other content if you block their ads.
But I can literally taste the tin foil on this guy's head. The little nutter gave me synesthesia.
Either remove the word literally from that sentence or seek help for your medical condition. Reading an article shouldn't put a tin foil taste in your mouth, and I suspect it didn't literally do so.
But where are the Julian Assange contraceptives? ;)
Julian Assange IS a contraceptive ;-)
If you care about quality you should care about arcades. Arcades force ruthless competition between games. Only the best earn enough to be worth their floor space. Developers are forced to innovate, and good ideas spread to the rest of the industry.
Now the games compete for cupboard space at your home and top ratings on game review sites. Love it or hate it, it's not 1975 anymore and that transition is nearly complete.
Goatse and Tubgirl changed my life, but I won't be naming offspring after them.
But Goatse Tubgirl Grub has such a lovely ring to it!
Despite everything, I still see them as one of the good guys.
Do you believe in Santa Claus and The Tooth Fairy too? Companies aren't a force for good. They're a force for making a profit.
You lot think everything is createb by Allah(PBUH), so any human who claims copyright should be stoned to death.
I'm not Muslim you twit.
Speak for yourself. I literally use BCC every day and sometimes many times a day. I guess I am neither a subset of nobody or everybody, at least according to your email.
Once upon a time there was this fairly cool guy called JRR Tolkien who wrote some popular books. Then he had some descendants who were leeching cunts. The lawyers on all sides lived happily ever after. The end.
This is OK because it's not fiction, right?
Let me abbreviate that for you.
leeching cunts! it's not fiction, right?
I would have to agree that the copyright and patent systems could be better. But abolishing them altogether could be disastrous. They do serve a purpose.
Perhaps the car analogy is that thousands are killed by cars every year, but abolishing cars could be a disaster. Just because you can think of a disadvantage of something doesn't mean it's all bad and should be abolished. Too many times what I say is reduced to "X is all good" or "X is all bad". There are tradeoffs. Life isn't black and white.
Disastrous? Give me a break. Stop drinking the coolaid or shilling. Your analogy makes no sense either. A better analogy would be allowing other companies to copy the cars so that others may drive them.