Trolls, Flame Wars & CyberStalkers: 22 Trouble Makers On The Internet

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Case# 22 Trouble Makers On The Internet

Don't you just hate it when someone goes into a discussion or forum board, and starts a flame war, belittles and embarrasses people, just for their own satisfaction of their attention need? And they start their behavior as soon as they get there.

I have been keeping up with an individual who is doing this on practically a daily basis. While she claims that she has her heart out for the community, the fact is she is trying to takes these communities down a notch or two, and with no valid reason to do such a thing.

This particular person believes she is an expert on many things, (TOS, Privacy, rules, etc. when it comes to discussion boards) and if you disagree with her, then you are automatically put on a hit list, and she will blog about it, brings it out in the discussion forum and several other discussion forums, knowing full well it is going to bring contention among the members, the owners and herself. Personally, I think she does this just to get attention, to show off and to try to convince readers that she is some type of expert, and hoping that the members will read her blogs. But if you boil the truth about this, it all boils down to power of what she can do, and will try to exert that power anyway she can, never even considering what the outcome or repercussions could be. Or even cares for that matter. She uses the excuse

"Most don't even bother to read the terms when signing up. I spent hours going through networks and I did not find one place where a user had outlined a specific license on their profile page. Therefore as it stands users can create derivative works from any content submitted there." on this particular discussion forum." LINK is given so that the reader can understand the entire discussion and responses by others.

Well I have a news flash concerning that statement! It is not the sites owners fault that their members do not read the TOS, or whatever. At least it it is there to read! And even if members did read it, they might not have found any problems they were concerned about in it. So why would she even care if the members read all this stuff? Geez, if she is trying to warn them, she is going about it in the wrong way.

Here is another LINK that points how this individual is just trying to create havoc for no good reason. . (I think many readers will recognize this person from other places they have visited themselves before.)

I could provide dozens of link concerning this and at least half a dozen sites she is questioning in just the last month about how they run their own site, how their TOS is wrong and unfair, but I think the two links will give you the general idea why I consider this trouble maker behavior.

Now, I do believe if you find something wrong with a site, regardless of what it is, that one should PRIVATELY email the support links and voice your concerns and complaints there. My experience on the Internet has been very successful with doing just this. There is no way in the world I would go to the discussion boards and try to put the site or site owners down in front of public view of others for my own personal attention gain (or should I say game?) or write blogs about it with the intention of harming the site. Most normal people that I know of would not do such a thing, and if they did, I would rethink my relationship with them.

But, trouble makers are all over the Internet are doing this on a daily basis. My husband, who loves to play role playing games, told me that he gets so disgusted and frustrated when he plays a role playing online game with others, as many are there just to create havoc, they do not go by the game rules and just try to kill everything in the game (which is not how RPG are done), as well as if it has chat, they constantly try to provoke people and start flame wars. The immaturity of many members doing this is what made my husband stay away from online games.

Anyway, end of my rant about how trouble makers make life on discussion boards miserable for other members or members thinking of joining. It really is frustrating for members on discussion boards having to face this type of behavior. And I bet many people who are thinking about membership in some of these sites, read these types of discussions or her blog, therefore rejects the idea of joining the site. Could it be that was the trouble makers intention and has this all thought out?

Keep in mind there are thousands of trouble makers on the internet doing just this same thing, or something in common of this behavior. I chose this particular individual as an example as I have been following this story line for over a month.

What really LIES BENEATH the trouble maker?

Labels: bad behavior, discussion boards, forums, trouble makers

Investigated by yngathrrt @ 5:23 PM

Link To The Evidence| 5 thought(s)

Agent's Notes for: 22 Trouble Makers On The Internet

Logged in @ Wednesday, 08 August, 2007 | By Anonymous

I notice that some people do this to competitors. If they own a poetry site, they go all over the net bad mouthing and flaming other poetry sites; if they own a blogging site, they go all over the net posting on other blogging sites, starting flames and then bad mouthing them. It's just a troll's way of getting hits. The funny thing is, the only Google ranking that method has ever raised is that of the troll's — and not in a good way.

If I type "poetry site" or "women writers" or anything like that into Google, the site in question doens't show up. LOL. So much for their Google expertise. Guess they'll have to keep stealing other people's work (Grantastic Design's, for instance), since they haven't the skill to write the copy or develop the layout and code without stealing it. Any doubt? Go look at the site now. It's like a grammatical train wreck and has to be one of the most unprofessional looking web design boards on the Internt.

Logged in @ Wednesday, 08 August, 2007 | By Anonymous

One of the things that separates adults from children is the willingness to take responsibility for one self. It is very simple. If one does not like the way a site is run then simply do not use the site/service. The only time the public airing of private issues would be acceptable to me is if the site posed a real danger to the members. Such as, if the site installed spyware on the user's computer.

As you say, the terms of service are publicly accessible. Anyone can read them and determine for themselves if they are acceptable or not. The internet has grown so much that there is no excuse for ignorance. If one does not understand certain terms in a privacy policy or a TOS then just use the search engines to look them up. Email is also widely available and there is no excuse not to conduct a conversation of concerns over the TOS in private.

As a web designer I run into licensing issues all the time. Some graphic designers have the most ridiculous terms of use attached to their graphics. However, I don't complain about them or try to defame them all over the internet. I just find and promote other graphic resources who's terms I agree with. Not only is it a better use of my time and energy to promote designer friendly resources but just think of the repercussions when bad behavior comes to bite one in the butt later down the line. Eventually bad karma does find its way back to the perpetrator.

I agree with you that such behavior is usually just attention seeking. How very sad that people like that feel that negative attention is better than no attention at all.

Logged in @ Wednesday, 08 August, 2007 | By Anonymous

Even happens on support groups:

http://groups.msn.com/NarcissismSupportGroupMoralandSpiritualStruggle/femfreetheplagiarist.msnw

http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/narcissism/narcissism_caution_internet.html

Logged in @ Wednesday, 08 August, 2007 | By yngathrrt

Jennifer, thank you for your comment, and you pretty much hit the nail on the head concerning the person I was using as an example. I am assuming that you have had some problems of your own with this trouble maker, or have at least seen how she behaves herself on sites.

Daria, thank you also for your comment, and I certainly agee with you on this issue at hand, especially the karma part.

Hi Anon,

Thank you for your comments and giving those links. I did look at them and they are EXACTLY what I was talking about his this blog. This type of behavior is all over the Internet. I expect most of my comments will be anonymous if I get anymore, as I think some people will not want to comment due to the fact that it could mean Trouble Makers going after them if they leave their real name or blog, especially if they have had problems with people who is making the trouble.

Anyway, thank you again for providing the links.

Logged in @ Wednesday, 08 August, 2007 | By Karen

Some people thrive on strife. It makes them feel good to know they have the power to make people angry, as well as draw others into their web of crying victim when they get their hands slapped.

I've known people who offline who are like that, and I do my best to avoid them too.

I read what people have to say about trouble makers, sometimes I'll comment, but for the most part, I just want to know where they're going so I can avoid it like the plague.

They ARE the plague.

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