Sifting through the Garbage

I have to say, I love these forums.
I have never belonged to a more active, and interesting group of people.

But, I have to admit, the amount of trolling that goes on in these forums is unbelievable.
I do not find myself reading a single thread in which I have to sift through the "Garbage" in order to find sincere posts regarding the topic at hand.

I find that there is an abundance of intelligent people with brilliant ideas they wish to share, yet when i go to read a thread, and the responses, (as the responses contain important information as well,) i find myself having to sift through hundreds of hate posts, containing things such as "This guys fake, this this stupid blah blah blah."

Now i understand there is some Disinfo out there, but to bash on somones thread that is not claiming to have true and accurate information is not appreciated by anyone other than yourself.
If you do not like a thread, then dont read it. If you disagree, explain why, without bashing the person, in a logical debate.

We are an intelligent group of people and there is no need for ignorance on these forums.

Im sorry about ranting but it is a bother to search for information through countless posts which are of no importance.

I saw somone call one's post a waste of bandwidth, well im sure with the amount of posts you make like that your doing plenty of your own bandwidth wasting.

Thanks.

Originally posted by sgrrsh26


If you do not like a thread, then dont read it. If you disagree, explain why, without bashing the person, in a logical debate.

Im sorry about ranting but it is a bother to search for information through countless posts which are of no importance.

But can you see the similarity between your annoyance with searching through "countless posts which are of no importance"

........ and others who are annoyed at having to search through, what they may regard as, countless threads which are of no importance .

But i agree with you , if somebody has a problem with something posted by another member, they should at least attempt to engage in some meaningful conversation .
Its good to keep redefining what it is we want as an on-line community ....a little self reflection from time to time.

Thanks for prompting me to engage in a little self reflection sgrrsh26

That's the 2nd time tonight I've seen
" if you do not like the thread, then don't read it"
How can you tell you don't like the thread UNLESS you read it ?
My tip is, if you are mentally unstable and wish to spout garbage, start your thread with
" I am menatally unstable and wish to spout garbage "
Save a lot of time for everyone , no ?

when obvious trolling or lying is spotted then I believe BS should be called. I know in which thread the "this is a waste of bandwidth" post was, and that comment deserved to be there.

When someone clearly lies beyond a shadow of a doubt, does not answer to questions when they are raised, avoids clarifying his/her points when asked or backing up his/her points with evidence, or insults others meaninglessly without making himself/herself clear on what exactly he/she is talking about then I believe it is time to lose a bit of civility and decorum and uphold the motto of this site, "deny ignorance."

reply to post by newworld


I prefer waiting to see if the person is going to hang themselves with their info rather than throw the thing in the garbage heap about four posts into a thread.

Sounds like most of us here know exactly what prompted this very thread.
When someone comes in and says, quite simply, I don't believe you and this thread needs to be deleted, it is insulting to whomever is actually reading the thread.

Nobody knew what angle the guy was taking. As it turns out, the guy showed himself to be a complete tool but simply plugging your ears and not listening to what is being said is a little childish, imo.

Originally posted by ukmadmax

" I am menatally unstable and wish to spout garbage "
Save a lot of time for everyone , no ?

Can I borrow that for my signature?

Awesome!

reply to post by mikerussellus


You should use just the first line, you crazy SOB. Just kidding, of course. It is pretty funny.
For anyone keeping score, check out the other thread now. This dude is highly imbalanced.

Originally posted by newworld
When someone clearly lies beyond a shadow of a doubt, does not answer to questions when they are raised, avoids clarifying his/her points when asked or backing up his/her points with evidence, or insults others meaninglessly without making himself/herself clear on what exactly he/she is talking about then I believe it is time to lose a bit of civility and decorum and uphold the motto of this site, "deny ignorance."

-Somewhat agreed, Lying should be analyzed and revealed, although how do you discern lying from purposeful fiction for the point of making one think outside the box.




[edit on 27-9-2009 by sgrrsh26]

[edit on 27-9-2009 by sgrrsh26]

Much of it is ego driven name calling and closed minded mud slinging.

There are a few gems here and there.

It's like a blackberry patch.
You've got to sort through briars,bramble and thorns to get to the good stuff.

Watch out for the bears. They like the blackberrys too.

Originally posted by ukmadmax
" I am menatally unstable and wish to spout garbage "

THAT would be an AWESOME thread Put it in 'Gray Area' or 'Skunkworks' though, but I bet that would be a flag getter

I think the best idea to prevent trolling is to prevent one sentence or shorter messages. If you force people to say a lot when they are flaming, perhaps they will say something worthwhile?
We have a 4000 character maximum, perhaps we need a minimum?
Just something to think about.

reply to post by sisgood


I don't think that would ever work. What if someone is asking someone a specific question in a thread? Like: "Where did this happen again?" If you tried to enforce a minimum character length you would get people saying "Roswell, NM... blah,blah,blah,blah,blah,blah" until they filled the requirement.

It is not that one liners are unacceptable, just one liners that aren't relavent to the topic. (or for that matter ANY post that isn't relavent to the topic)
This is what moderators are for. I actually had one of my posts removed for the first time the other day due to length. Sometimes it is hard to keep these things in mind if you are in the "heat of battle" on here.

reply to post by zorgon


I like that idea!
If I were going to do it I would comprise my post of one seriously long mind-bending Gary Busey quotation from his television show "I'm with Busey."

That dude cracks me up big time.

reply to post by sgrrsh26

We are an intelligent group of people...

Well, that isn't correct, for starters.


Any and every group of people is going to have a fair range of "intelligence", whatever that is, wit, dementia; etc. etc. You name the traits, there will be a range and variety to be sure.

Most of us are quite imperfect, still struggling to understand ourselves; never mind the other guy's point of view, or the world in general, no matter what our education level or experience with things.

Something I am struggling with just recently, is how to understand the point of view of the other guy who seems to be at the polar opposite on an issue from me. I want to do this because he is after all entitled to his opinion, and there is a reason for it that if I understood, I might be better able to crack the hard divide that seems to separate us.

cheers ..

reply to post by sgrrsh26


I had never heard of the word,trolling,until I joined ATS.
I did post a thread that some labeled garbage.I told the truth,
the mistake I made was posting it.I should have talked to
the pastor of my church instead of getting advice from this
forum.
Several members don't really want to know the truth.Because
the truth may not agree with their preconceived concept of
the truth.They are in total denial of anything that doesn't agree
with the way they think.

have a read of this thread which should help understand what a troll is and what to do about them.

First and main rule is Do Not Feed The Troll.

Like seagulls, if you feed them they become even more of a nuisance, and attempt to crap on you from a height, which they see as the lofty position of their moral/intellectual etc superiority.

Recognise the tactics they use, and when they appear, ignore them.

Trollish behaviour can be dressed up in many ways, so it's important to distinguish between what is a genuinely interested person wishing to clarify a point and debate the point and someone who just wants to disrupt a thread that offends them in some weird way.

There are many tactics that they use, but they usually start (on here) with picking an argument over an incredibly minor point and making it the focus of the thread in order to derail real discussion.

Often they will wait until the thread has started to die, and then post their spurious lies/disinfo/propaganda so that they "have the last word" or so it looks to the casual reader that they have somehow "won" the debate and therefore they are correct.

Know them, know their behaviour, recognise their tactics and then make judicious use of the ignore button or the alert button when extreme circumstances call for it.

reply to post by sgrrsh26


OK!

What have I done now?


[edit on 28-9-2009 by SLAYER69]