Coaxial wrote: 
3 Canadian universities did the studies - what is their interest?  Hmmm....an eradication of trolling?

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
They spent money to do a study? We could have told them that.

 RichardPrins wrote: 
Signs? Signs?

Online ‘trolls’ show signs of being sadists, psychology study finds

The 'everyday sadist'
Internet “trolls” appear to have some extreme personality issues, based on the results of a new study.

They show signs of being sadistic and Machiavellian, says the recent study by Erin Buckels, a University of Manitoba psychology graduate student, and psych professors Paul Trapnell of the University of Winnipeg and Delroy Paulhus of the University of British Columbia.

“Much like the Joker, trolls operate as agents of chaos on the Internet, exploiting ‘hot-button issues’ to make users appear overly emotional or foolish in some manner,” they wrote.

The researchers described trolling, or commenting online, as the “practice of behaving in a deceptive, destructive, or disruptive manner in a social setting on the Internet, with no apparent instrumental purpose.”

And what they found via two studies were “similar patterns of relations” between trolling and what’s known as the “Dark Tetrad” of personality, which includes, among other things, sadism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism,” based on enjoyment ratings and identity scores.

Sadism showed the “most robust” association with trolling. (...)

 cc_rider wrote: 
i love that so much

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

 cc_rider wrote: 
it was the Nyquil talking

 JrzyTmata wrote:  Brutal, Jrz. Brutal. Well played.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

 

 mutepoint wrote: 

1. Band name
2. Album name
3. Song name

 MsJudi wrote: 
i didn't care for him going after alexandra for no reason, and i didn't like the way he just poked and poked and poked at people, but seemed that his complaints about this place were the very things he was doing himself...(that probably was worded wrong, but i know what i mean )

anyway...he like those before him chose his path.

 MsJudi wrote: 
I usually am too. Both on the Innernets and otherwise. This was an exception for me, for some reason. I usually do kindness first too - it's just good "give what you want to receive" common sense. And it feels good.
 
 
 Thanks, Judi.

 lily34 wrote: 
It's looking that way, yep. Bill warned him more than once.

 MsJudi wrote: 
i think you and ov and kurt are all awesome and i will strive to be more like you.

i didn't back scroll enough, but i'm assuming gman got the can?

 mutepoint wrote: 
Band name.

Every time someone is DD'd, we go through this same soul-searching analysis, does anyone else notice that? Did we do enough? Did we do too little? Are we a mean cabal? Are we a loose-fitting band of hippies? Poor Bill. Poor Rebecca. 

If there's a lesson to be had, I guess it's that the earth revolves until another soul finds us and wants to make trouble. They never think they're doing wrong. They always think we're persecuting them. They can't take responsibility for the seeds they've sown. We can't make them see reason. Things degenerate. Sometimes the problem resolves itself, sometimes Bill intervenes. Afterwards, we try again to figure out what went wrong and how to save the situation next time it crops up. But we can't. There are people wandering the world who are unhappy, or angry, or aggressive, or spoiling for a fight because they need something the world can't provide them. Some of them will find us.

I am slow to reach a saturation point with people (as I've told others, it's not only the way I am in real life, it's also an aid to my blood pressure). My rule of thumb is: 1) kindness first, 2) ignoring next, 3) action as a last resort. Sometimes it works for me, sometimes (like when someone calls my little girl a mass murderer), I lose my shit. But I try to follow the same pattern for everyone. Kindness first, everything else much, much later. RP actually taught me that, because when I arrived here more than ten years ago, I didn't have nearly that much self-restraint.

Anyway, my two cents and your Starbucks card will buy you a cup of coffee.

It's all semantics.  Unacceptable behavior is unacceptable behavior, call it whatever you like.

 mutepoint wrote: 
I went to TVoid and bed shortly after reading your post that lit this all up.

Some did call Servo a troll, but that's water under the bridge.  I called Servo a few things, but I believe troll was never one of them.  I've been called a troll now and then as have you.  I don't believe I've ever called anyone a troll.  IIRC, neither have you.  Its a two way street.  To me, troll is the innernet equivalent of the 'N' word.  If you give a rat's ass, the label hurts.  Some like to toss it around too freely and with little thought.

Whatever.  I gave it a shot and tried to offer gman some public counsel this time around and some pm counsel a long time ago.  It clearly hurt to see him go after Alexandra the way he did.  Totally beyond the pale.  I read the comment in the bug thread that apparently lit the fuse and those that followed.

He got what he wanted in the end.  As he has shared with us, he's had a rough life to this point taking him at face value.  No justification for what just transpired, but it has been recognized in this post mortem, so there is that.  Flight or fight.  He chose the latter. 

In the end, its sad anyway its sliced.  Mean and trollish, heavy on the ish, but not a true troll, imo.