I have seen instances of "baiting" in threads, lately.

Originally posted by guinnessford
reply to post by visible_villain

 

I want some rocky road!
Interestedalways, wanna come?
No offense, guys but I'd feel funny inviting men for ice cream.

Are you trying to bate me with ice cream?

reply to post by interestedalways


You better beleive it!
I refuse to practice, though.
Ive heard it leads to blindness.

The Great Debait

Baiting constitutes a form of trolling, and if Scandinavian folklore is to believed, trolls are a threat which has always been with us. Indeed, trolling has deep roots in all cultures...

"Trolling is divided into three parts: sinking and roving, trolling with gauge, and snap-hooks and spinning."

-- Boy's Own Book, A Complete Encyclopedia of Athletic, Scientific, Outdoor and Indoor Sports, 1881

I'm rather fond of the way that characterization so aptly corresponds with the typical methods of the dreaded Internet Troll, which is known to lure unsuspecting victims with carefully baited posts.

What does one look like? Wikipedia offers a pretty good description...

Wikipedia: Troll (Internet)

An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

On ATS, the key to dealing with trolls is to avoid feeding them, lest they become stronger, and avoid reciprocating their tactics, lest you become a troll yourself.

Rather, should you encounter a post which violates the AboveTopSecret.com Terms And Conditions Of Use, please be sure to notify your friendly moderator staff by ALERTing the post or submitting a complaint explaining the problem.

Please note that simply holding or expressing unpopular or controversial points of view does not constitute trolling. All members are free and encouraged to make up their own minds about what to believe, and all posts which don't violate our rules are welcome, so it's important to always bear that in mind.

Also, it would be unrealistic to believe that all incidents of baiting and other forms of trollery could be completely eliminated from our fine forums, no matter how hard we may try.

Still, every little bit helps.

reply to post by Majic


As ive said before, you all do a great job of modding, but you cant be everywher all at the same time.
Hence the dreaded button.
I havent brought myself to rat anyone out, someone usually does it regardless.
Ive had mny posts, on may toics in my short time here.
And i can say theres only been few and small instances of said trolls.
Thank you, mods!

Since this thread had wandered into various unlikely corners, and since I think one of those corners was left insufficiently illuminated, I will just add that your u2u light will stay on if all the u2u's in your inbox have been read, but one of them miscapitalized your name.

People often write to me as AmericanDingBat or Americandingbat, and those messages stick my u2u light on until I save or delete them

As you were



p.s. don't feed the trolls.

reply to post by weedwhacker


Baiting , trolling, malliscious wordsmithing, call it what you will , its dispicable. Its the adolf hitler of the internet. In true internet style I say KILL IT WITH FIRE!
But in all seriousness, I dont believe that everyone who trolls or baits knows they are doing it. Some people are just so pig ignorant that it might appear that way, but in actual fact they are REALLY of the (often appalling) opinion they are debating for, and incapable (possibly in some cases due to a form of autism or other social interaction disfunction) of accepting or at even comprehending an alternative viewpoint. Its very possible that this very thing happened in the thread about that fellow whos been trying to debunk the moon landings. I believe you mentioned it on this thread in connection to the problem.

OK, call me silly but I find this thread ironic considering one of my recent favs by OP:

Rush Limbaugh! A bloviating bouncing bag of blubber!

www.abovetopsecret.com...

(Disclaimer: I was a vocal participant of that thread in favor of it.)

But something comes to mind about Pot referring to Kettle color.
( Unless I'm unclear on the definition of "baiting." ) Just sayin'.

Hey, there ain't any stars in this forum........spooky.

Regards...KK


[edit on 24-3-2009 by kinda kurious]

There has been a lot of trolling , bi partisan bickering, and just outright baseless and factless confrontation.

It has gotten worse and has been reduced to name calling and degrading. I have always appreciated this site because they work hard to keep it respectable, but it just seems we angry thread mobs running around that make baseless accusations, can't particiapte in basic debate,and basically star and flag each other and congratulate each other on being masters of the universe.

speculation is not a good form a debate
a glorified blog is not legimate evidence
and to resort to name calling and baiting is just infantile


I am hoping it is just a phase and goes away. But is quite annoying and I think a lot of the legitimate mature posters have taken a step back or a step away.

Myself included here soon.

A very important topic, I have drafted the following for submission to The Onion..........

World Shocked By New Phenomena, "Internet Arguments"

reporter - Hugh Jarce

The media world was stunned today by new revelations that people have started arguing and even deliberately provoking each other on the Internet. Evidently this new craze, which is believed to have been started by militia groups in the US, has spread across the web-based world like wildfire. Alice Bentduck, a member of the Organization Against Internet Tomfoolery, was quoted as saying:

"We at the OAIT are horrified at these latest developments, and call on the government to pass new laws to protect our children from these vile arguments, but we thank ATS for revealing this huge conspiracy"

Other concerned citizens weighed in with comments including:

"We're having meatloaf for dinner tonight", "How 'bout them Yankees", and most worryingly "Would you like to see my bunion?".

[edit on 25-3-2009 by Retseh]

reply to post by Retseh


Nice!
Man, i wish i woulda found that....

Yeah, I'm the bad troll referred to in the moon hoax thread.

Of course the thread starts out calling Bart Sibrel all kinds of names.

The reason the OP is crying here is because he doesn't like to see the moon landings get debunked and they are getting ROYALLY DEBUNKED on the Bart Sibel thread.

This particular person, Weedwacker, is the antithesis of me. He worships at the alter of science (so-called) and the establishment, and I am 180 degrees the other way.

So I'm sure my posts offend him. His offend me less probably because I am used to his kind of thinking, and he is probably not used to people like me who think so differently from him.

My outspokenness on Zionism also rattles people.

But, hey, I'm not trolling. I can discuss any number of subjects. And I'm not stealing stuff from people's blogs either, as I've been accused.

I just read a lot and have a lot of interests and like to connect the dots. I love the Internet.

I also think Weedwacker is one of the most confrontational, on a one-to-on basis, posters here, so it's definitely calling the kettle black.

I don't call people names. I do poke fun and use satire to get my point across and even people who disagree with me enjoy my humor.

So I just think this discussion is kind of wimpy and crybaby stuff about the dreaded trolls and "baiters."

Baiting, meaning if you don't write vague and noncontroversial posts that nobody reads or cares about, then you need to get points docked, threads closed, and kicked off the board.

Lord knows enough "baiters" have already been driven off the board, as I myself was at one time when I took on the Freemasons and one of the mods hounded me from post to post, accusing me of plagiarism and docking points and making an example out of me.

So I did leave.

The real trolls here are the ones who are here and post on only one subject and are being PAID BY THE GOVERNMENT TO DO SO.

One thing that really annoys me is when I post a long post and somebody comes along and just rips it all apart, every single sentence, just disagreeing to disagree, not saying anything worthy of rebuttal unless one wants to get into a hair-splitting, bickering argument. Rather than do that, you leave your post up having been shredded, giving the impression that you were soundly defeated. In actuality, most people don't bother to post long posts with lots and lots of examples and ideas, and anybody can go in and just say wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, and offer a lame comeback.

That's what annoys me.

But to me "baiting" is just good posting. Lively discussions where ideas go back and forth is exactly what people are looking for in a forum.

There are other places where a discussion commences, such as survival techniques, how to cure arthritis with home remedies, where people just contribute in a friendly way.

But the moon hoax thread should have the people kicked off who advocate the moon landings were a hoax, or their posts removed, or they should get reprimanded or penalized? I don't think so. The people posting on those forums already have all their ammunition and have chosen sides, and it is a free-for-all debate.

I do think people should NOT be allowed to call names like "idiot," or "stupid jackass," or other stupid names that are just mean and mean nothing. Also, antisemite is a very hot button word to call somebody, and one should think twice before slinging a word like that around at the posters on here. I can't count the number of times I've been called an antisemite, and it's so unfair. I am anti-Zionist. Big, big difference. I actually love the Semitic people, especially the Palestinians, who have the most Abrahamic DNA markers of anybody.

So there. That's my "bait" for the day.

reply to post by Salt of the Earth


SotE,

bait noted. I'm not biting.

Good day.

reply to post by Salt of the Earth

Yeah, I'm the bad troll referred to in the moon hoax thread.

I remember that thread and a couple of others at the time. Gotta admit I was fairly appalled by some of your posts. Aliens eating babies and so forth Having read your last post on this thread, I'd like to retract my initial 'unprintable' opinion. You seem fairly reasonable and I'll read your posts in a different light in future.

In general, I enjoy WWs posts and haven't noticed any misbehavior on his part, although I won't have read that many. I can think of a handful of established members that overstep the boundaries from time to time. No names; they know who they are. Of those, at least one is a more interesting poster because of it. Another is obnoxious in such a grand way that it would be a mistake to muzzle them. It wouldn't be the same if they were polite

Originally posted by Kandinsky
I remember that thread and a couple of others at the time. Gotta admit I was fairly appalled by some of your posts. Aliens eating babies and so forth

Just to clear the record here, even though this is not the topic, but I just want to be clear here that I don't believe in aliens whatsoever. Period.

Aliens, meaning humanoid creatures who travel here in spaceships to observe us, live here, and do whatever they do.

Rather, there are spiritual creatures living in the air, on the ground and under the ground, (ESPECIALLY under the ground), who are malevolent, vile, ugly, thoroughly evil, and are able to take any shape. Their leader is named Lucifer, among many other names including Beezebub, Satan, Pan, Baal, Saturn, Baphomet, Jahbulon, Diana, Venus, Columbia, Horus, Abaddon, Appolyon, and many others.

These creatures enjoy assuming the most grotesque and filthy shapes but they are capable of appearing as beautiful angels and lovely ladies with soft and melodious voices.

These creatures, the ones confined underground, Nephilim, are creatures who at one time mated with humans and their punishment is to confine them to the underground. They traffic with devil worshipping vampiric humans, giving them scientific and technical guidance in building weapons and in mind control, lies and deceit to control the world so that Lucifer himself can rule unobstructed in the New World Order.

I also do believe that humans are being abducted, their egg and sperm stolen from them, even their babies growing in the womb. I also believe, from my research, that the DUMBs contain many thousands of poor women used for breeding experiments, and many chimera creatures created in the Nazi Frankensteinian underground labs. These creatures will be foisted off on us in a fake alien invasion as true "alien humanoids."

But I'm not buying the scam. If you want to fall for another hoax perpetrated by the devil worshippers, that's your own problem.

reply to post by Salt of the Earth

so......you do accept my apology. Cool. Thanks

I nominate THIS ( www.abovetopsecret.com... ) thread as a prime example of 'Baiting and Trolling 101'.

Ooopsie! Looks like the same OP!

Are you allowed to win your own award?