Trolls, Being Duped, And Appropriate Responses
Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 2:36 pm
As we all know, the internet is one of the least regulated zones of human interaction, and many of us have had contact with some of the less happy implications of that. Years ago, I read that at least one acting class had as a class assignment, concocting a role for the student to play in a chat room. The student would then go into the chat room, assuming the role he or she had created, and the student would play the role either until he was found out or until the assignment was completed. And it's generally realized that, in a lot of boy-meets-girl chat rooms or message boards, some of the "girls" are actually gay males who want to do cybersex or more with straight men. It's a wild and woolly internet, and you have to be ready for anything. It helps to be a hardhead.
So, I wasn't particularly surprised when, a week or so ago, a post appeared on a thread on the Archive message board, in which someone said he had recently lost his testes, and requesting information and support. The first time I saw the message, I suspected the post was fishy, and after looking at subsequent posts I would still be quite suspicious. At least one other long-time archive member apparently doubted the validity of the post. Apparently somebody sent the poster a rather nasty private message, and he made a posting saying he was ending his activity on the archive.
The point I would make is that, while some posts have been made on the archive in which somebody obviously was trying to dupe archive members, and at least one person who made a post saying he had lost his testes and asking for support, later admitted he wasn't telling the truth; while that is true, I think it makes sense to err on the side of caution, and treat all posts of that type as though they are genuine and honest. This is because some people who post may do it in an awkward or inarticulate way, and they may be sincere even when they appear not to be. And it's important that people who genuinely need information and support, not be turned away. At the same time, you don't lose anything except your pride if you're duped by somebody on the internet, and don't send them money.
Another thing to realize is, that a lot of people may read posts of that type. At the time that the first of the posts I referred to above was made, it was made in a thread which already had something like thirty posts in it, and which had pretty much run its course. Yet, after the first post in which the person claimed he had lost his testes appeared, the number of views of the thread nearly doubled. Some of those views may have been the poster and his friends repeatedly viewing the post--this sort of thing excites some people--but some of the views may represent people who themselves had a problem regarding loss of the testes, and who were looking for information or at least reassurance that what had happened had not "ruined" them. It has to be remembered, that when a post is made on the archive, it is open to the entire universe of computer-literate people, which must be at least a third of the population of the world.
So, my point is, even if a post appears to be an obvious attempt by somebody to dupe the members of the archive, every post which relates to castration and which is a request for support or reassurance or information, should, in my view, be treated as an honest post rather than a phony one. Obviously, you can't let trolls take over the archive, but it doesn't seem that there is any present danger of that happening. Nothing is really gained by being nasty or by questioning somebody's integrity, at least until the person becomes obnoxious.
So, I wasn't particularly surprised when, a week or so ago, a post appeared on a thread on the Archive message board, in which someone said he had recently lost his testes, and requesting information and support. The first time I saw the message, I suspected the post was fishy, and after looking at subsequent posts I would still be quite suspicious. At least one other long-time archive member apparently doubted the validity of the post. Apparently somebody sent the poster a rather nasty private message, and he made a posting saying he was ending his activity on the archive.
The point I would make is that, while some posts have been made on the archive in which somebody obviously was trying to dupe archive members, and at least one person who made a post saying he had lost his testes and asking for support, later admitted he wasn't telling the truth; while that is true, I think it makes sense to err on the side of caution, and treat all posts of that type as though they are genuine and honest. This is because some people who post may do it in an awkward or inarticulate way, and they may be sincere even when they appear not to be. And it's important that people who genuinely need information and support, not be turned away. At the same time, you don't lose anything except your pride if you're duped by somebody on the internet, and don't send them money.
Another thing to realize is, that a lot of people may read posts of that type. At the time that the first of the posts I referred to above was made, it was made in a thread which already had something like thirty posts in it, and which had pretty much run its course. Yet, after the first post in which the person claimed he had lost his testes appeared, the number of views of the thread nearly doubled. Some of those views may have been the poster and his friends repeatedly viewing the post--this sort of thing excites some people--but some of the views may represent people who themselves had a problem regarding loss of the testes, and who were looking for information or at least reassurance that what had happened had not "ruined" them. It has to be remembered, that when a post is made on the archive, it is open to the entire universe of computer-literate people, which must be at least a third of the population of the world.
So, my point is, even if a post appears to be an obvious attempt by somebody to dupe the members of the archive, every post which relates to castration and which is a request for support or reassurance or information, should, in my view, be treated as an honest post rather than a phony one. Obviously, you can't let trolls take over the archive, but it doesn't seem that there is any present danger of that happening. Nothing is really gained by being nasty or by questioning somebody's integrity, at least until the person becomes obnoxious.
Moi
.
