Trolls with multiple handles

reply to post by Jaellma


I am sick of it, I recently had a thread shut down because one of these trolls.

They busted in my thread with off topic accusations and bold faced lies.

Shortly after my thread was closed due to "unciviility"

It's a shame that the moderators allow this to continue on a daily basis.

I have a theory as for why it happens, but it's not my place to make accusations based on speculation, but I will provide a hint, it applies to certain thread topics.

I barely post anymore because of it.

reply to post by Jaellma

Hi Jaella,
I’m still a youngster here with a different time zone to the majority of members posting, so sometimes I feel a little trollish too, especially when I come back after a good night’s sleep or a week away from home which happens quite often and find tons of posts and then try and respond to whoever has responded to me… Erm, does that make sense?

I would love to copy paste your thread to any of my threads when I feel I am being trolled, would you accept that Jaella and would the Moderators accept that too?

Kindest respects

Rodinus

reply to post by AfterInfinity


Sweet of you to say AI, as I value yours as well. I do everyone's except when they begin to down someone else for their ideas. When there are multiple in a thread tag teaming, doing just that it gets my focus off the thread entirely where I want to "straighten" them up so we can move on to a more meaningful discussion without the insults.

It did allow me to really reflect on how I react. At first I was not posting, then I posted of topic, then mine was the ONLY one removed as I had anticipated. I was right, and did not even want to be "right". My expectations faulted me.

The mod was really nice and explained a thread that big does get overwhelmed and they work different shifts. I haven't been back to the thread and wont. I learned when that is happening, leave the thread as I have done before. Its not worth the time or effort because I cannot change someone else's behavior. If the mods are not catching it, there is a reason , so be it. I can't change it.

A week prior I had alerted the same member (3 times). I never alert.... except when it comes to this poster. He/she/It is a nuisance. lol Nothing became of it then either.

It seems as if he/she follows another poster around harassing. Even she emailed me saying the same thing. All I know is he is not respected by me and I will leave a thread if he is in there. Life is too short to be upset over the internet with a troll.

Anyone who lets words get under their skin is merely trolling themselves. The funny thing is, text cannot hurt unless you allow it, yet I see much pain here—all of it self-inflicted.

reply to post by LesMisanthrope


Words are powerful indeed.

For someone to hurt another with their words is ignorant based, and for the one who allows such to affect them is also ignorant of expectations set forth.

It happens though... so be it.

Yeah, people that have like 30 names suck.

reply to post by WaterBottle

Yeah, people that have like 30 names suck.

I can think of one particular troll who has over a hundred names...but I guess I won't go there.

I've been on ATS long enough that I noticed a big uptick in shill/troll activity during the election campaign. Now it's gun control threads they seem to be trolling heavily.

I've said in other threads where trolling's been going on that I blame the availabilty of the internet on mobiles. It used to be somebody sitting at a computer that accessed the net, so their comments would not necessarily be that much. Now a troll can access the net from anywhere so they have more time to do it.

I don't have an avatar because I can't be bothered with one.

I don't have a facebook account either, am I weird?

reply to post by cripmeister


Anyone savvy enough can figure out how to post from different ip's.
Not that hard really.

Brown girl in the ring...TROLOLOLOL

reply to post by tothetenthpower


no you are not

reply to post by votan


I second that.

Yeah it's pretty obvious when people come into threads acting like jerks for the sole purpose of getting the thread closed. Pretty effective tactic around here.

reply to post by LesMisanthrope


I googled people getting killed over text. Apparently text can lead to death.

I think that people are just so arrogant that the very idea of more than one person disagreeing with them for the same reason is abhorrent to them.

Originally posted by RandyBragg
I think that people are just so arrogant that the very idea of more than one person disagreeing with them for the same reason is abhorrent to them.

Hell, Im guilty of that at times myself. How dare they! .

What the problem OP is talking about is different though. There are threads are being trashed due to bad member behavior.. in groups. You dont see these threads laying around becuase they are removed.. it becomes a free for all and by time its modded its nearly unreadable. If youre IN or watchig a thread where it happens, its pretty hard to miss. Its far from disagreement or heated debate. Its much more like a bunch of people who have NO social or interpersonal skills, no knowledge of the subject other than a think they thunked but feel its profound, and consumed with being jerks for the sake of it descend on a thread and are joined by those like minds.. its not even worth trying to bring back to the OP it gets so off track. You can prevent a lot of this by preventing "posses" from forming.. but you cant prevent the forum phenomenon of "birds of a feather". They just gravitate to eachother when they smell snarkiness or a fight.

As far as the OP feeling there are multiple accts..
I know for a fact you can make multiple accts and not be caught by IP alone because I did it as a joke last halloween and punked the other owner on my own board. It takes observant mods to catch it... but when youre the only mod.. its easy as pie. If you have a coupla computers/devices/laptops... in my case 2 laptops and a rooted kindle... and TOR/etc... you can do it. I can have an IP from anywhere in the world. The effort is worth it for a mean and fun joke.. but I cant imagine the mindset of a person who would do this so seriously on a message board... to talk to and star themselves! Weird as hell to me. Just last week a previous member was talking to himself.. he made a thread about it even! LOL!

reply to post by Advantage

Its much more like a bunch of people who have NO social or interpersonal skills, no knowledge of the subject other than a think they thunked but feel its profound,

That sounds like 90% of ATS to me.

Yeah...Heff is correct you can not star and flag from different accounts at the same house, at least my ex and I couldn't , even with 2 computers.

I do remember when we were new at ATS.....he created a thread about "chemtrails".....now he put Days and HOURS of work into researching this subject, had put together a powerful and well thought out thread. I was researching with him the best I could, but his intellect was beyond mine in "technical" areas.

I was however able to contribute "eyewitness" accounts of what I was actually seeing as I drove up and down our state for my job, and could observe many areas in my travels. We both felt strongly the subject disserved further investigation and conversation.

The point is... this thread turned into a "nightmare", arguments, insults, post bans, etc., after a point, and several other threads of going back and forth on the same points over and over, it became clear to me, there were 2 very different camps on the issue.....now maybe calling the other side "trolls" is not accurate...but at a point it was impossible to continue the threads with any positive outcome.....

Funny because people have similar ideas now others think they are 'troll' accounts. This usually relates to those not going with the flow of conversation, so I op a better question... Are the hundreds on here behind the gun control debate who are for less gun control being mind controlled? Or is it the few that have similar problems with the lack of gun control that are the trolls? Hmmm it is interesting but the minority is usually seen as the free thinking, while the majority are seen as the sheeple. Again not talking the views of the current administration and America in general but this site which is clearly pro gun.