There have been a lot of bitter exchanges on the forum lately. Maybe the bad weather has reduced everyone’s happy level. Or maybe it’s universal – here is an interesting article on the subject …
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/24/internet-anonymity-trolling-tim-adams
Maybe it’s a mistake to have forum names – pity, because it was sort of fun to find out about the different non-persons.

It’s cyclical, it comes and goes 🙂

it does, the way it has always…

Thats rather funny seeing how unpleasant you were on the logo megathread.

Personally I don’t think its been bad on here recently. Its varies, it can be ignored and its a very small number of folk who are unpleasant and killfile script works nicely

There have been a lot of bitter exchanges on the forum lately

“lately“?

It’s cyclical….

I read that as “It’s Cynic-al…”

i blame binners.

It’s always been this way on here.

Jeez I get the blame for everything

cynic-al – Member

Jeez I get the blame for everything

And rightly so.

Thats rather funny seeing how unpleasant you were on the logo megathread.

Personally I don’t think its been bad on here recently. Its varies, it can be ignored and its a very small number of folk who are unpleasant and killfile script works nicely

This from you, when you happily admit to trolling at the end of the logo thread?

Maybe we’re all bored…

Or maybe we need a contributor to post nothing but happy threads… like, ‘favourite flowers, please’. No way we can get in a scrap over that. BTW, anyone who replies ‘primrose’ is a ****

Maybe we’re all bored…

Or maybe we need a contributor to post nothing but happy threads… like, ‘favourite flowers, please’. No way we can get in a scrap over that. BTW, anyone who replies ‘primrose’ is a ****

🙂

TJ we were only unpleasant on the logo thread because you (presumably inadvertently) wound us up something awful by being casually insulting.

This from you, when you happily admit to trolling at the end of the logo thread?

Isn’t there a name for such a tactic?

TJ we were only unpleasant on the logo thread because you (presumably inadvertently) wound us up something awful by being casually insulting.

No, he was playing rhetorical games! Ha ha, what a japester!

No, he was playing rhetorical games!

… whilst professing to be completely honest …

Charlie – I said it several times right from near the beginning. However DrJ was the only one being deliberately unpleasant.

However DrJ was the only one being deliberately unpleasant.

Sorry if you found me “unpleasant”, TJ, but I found your attitude a bit ridiculous – to adopt an extreme position and defend it taking advantage of the fact that on the internet nobody can check what you say. For me that devalues the whole discussion, hence my dismissive response to your claims.

Anyway, that is in the past now. Let’s move on.

DrJ – fair enough. Nuance in text based conversation. The position I adopted was no where near as extreme as the one people kept trying to push me into.

Your posts appeared to me to be really rather unpleasant and intentionally so – so to go back to your original point in this thread perhaps some of it is the lost non verbal communication when have text based debates making people appear more bitter and extreme that they intend

thegreatape – Member

Isn’t there a name for such a tactic?

yes, but you’d get banned for saying it 😕

There was an argument that I didn’t start?

I’ve noticed the prevalence of this across many other forums of late. What’s causing it is anyone’s guess.

I reckon it’s a reflection of the zeitgeist (for want of a better word) in as much as we’ve had the Age of Analysis and what not and, due to recentish developments such as life coaches or gurus or whatever you want to call them and various other self-development programmes etc, we’re now witnessing the inevitable emergence of the over-confident. This is the Age of Self Confidence IMO and the internet is merely reflecting the over-plus of the many who foolishly believe they are correct in every situation they find themselves in. Whether or not they truly have such self-belief or whether it’s merely bravado is another matter entirely.

This is the Age of Self Confidence IMO and the internet is merely reflecting the over-plus of the many who foolishly believe they are correct in every situation

Really? I must have missed out on that one, probably because I don’t live in Los Angeles and have never had therapy.

There are a few on here who’s views are intransigent but most are happy to learn and possibly review their own position in light of new info or a different perspective. It’s called reasoned debate, which most on here are quite capable of and a few just aren’t.

The trick is avoiding the ‘aren’ts’ 😉

The trick is avoiding the ‘aren’ts’

Or just recognising people’s personality traits/flaws and learning how to work with them without it destroying a thread!

I must have missed out on that one, probably because I don’t live in Los Angeles and have never had therapy.

🙂

Okay, maybe it’s not that extreme here (yet!).

learning how to work with them without it destroying a thread!

😆

Moon on a stick molgrips unless by ‘working with’ you mean ‘ignoring’, as more often than not it is the only viable solution.

a very small number of folk who are unpleasant and killfile script works nicely

Interested in that. I’m not sure what it is, but are you indicating that with some sort of software, I could avoid seeing posts from someone on here ?.

I’m really pulling back from STW because of one particular individual on the forum who, imo, is just plain mental.
I get the impression that the mods just tolerate that person, but have they stopped to wonder how much traffic he is costing them in people like me who are just going to find somewhere else ?.

Its one thing tolerating an idiot swaggering around on your website being nasty to people, as if he owned the place.

Quite another to see that people are directing themselves away from here because of said mental bloke.

you can all do one.

Moon on a stick molgrips unless by ‘working with’ you mean ‘ignoring’, as more often than not it is the only viable solution.

True.. I hate to give up on people but that in itself causes more problems than it solves…

Interested in that. I’m not sure what it is, but are you indicating that with some sort of software, I could avoid seeing posts from someone on here ?.

Dunno about STW specifically, but in general killfiles are limited in value because you see other folks’ replies quoting the person you want to “kill”. Self control is the way forward 🙂

Solo – Member

a very small number of folk who are unpleasant and killfile script works nicely

Interested in that. I’m not sure what it is, but are you indicating that with some sort of software, I could avoid seeing posts from someone on here ?.

Yes I think this is the one

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/stw-killfile-plugin

Self control is the way forward

Too true. Hence why I’m probably going to go off and play somewhere else.

TJ.
Thanks.

DrJ – fair enough. Nuance in text based conversation. The position I adopted was no where near as extreme as the one people kept trying to push me into.

True, your position was very like everyone else on here. However you inability to admit that was what wound everyone up. People weren’t trying to push youminto any position,they were just try to work out what on earth you meant.

I know, you’re going to tell me that you stated your position many times. I think the problem is that, that position was so trivial that folks struggled to see why you made such a point of it.

Ooooh…solo…name and shame!

Ooooh…solo…name and shame!

Everyone knows who the mental idiot is. One on here is enough.

Although I could just flame him back to the stone age, arguing with an idiot is only going to produce two idiots.

I enjoy chatting about bikes.
I’ve occassionally wondered off onto other subjects.
I’m thinking now, that was a mistake.

As above, I intend to wind back on my STW time.

Cheers.

🙂

Yup. Pretty much given up posting on here now. I can’t be bothered and just don’t have the time to argue, so really only come on here for the classifieds now (which is still excellent). I’ll only post on topics where I think I can actually help someone out with a useful answer, or if I think I really need an answer which google can’t provide. The level of bitterness and sniping that can go on, isn’t something that encourages me to hang around, but then I guess that’s no different to most of the forums on the internet.

Someone mentioned that some of the regulars on here have probably stopped more people joining, and that’s exactly what stopped me from signing up to post, as opposed to being a lurker.

I think I’ll just keep to the bike section, as that’s what I came here for. You can keep the rest tbh.

Bitter ? Yeah, a bit. The fun seems to have gone out a bit lately.

I guess the main problem is the shouty people with the loud opinions crowd out everyone else, who just want to get on a have a good time talking about riding bikes.

Very interesting article, very relevent to this place at times.

I enjoy chatting about bikes.
I’ve occassionally wondered off onto other subjects.
I’m thinking now, that was a mistake.

yeah, kind of been thinking the same lately.

As above, I intend to wind back on my STW time.

Haven’t had a flouncette in a while 🙂

I think that there is a real undercurrent of anger and bitterness that people feel safe to vent in this way.there are also dodgy jokes that people pass on online or by of mobile phones that they probably wouldn’t say out loud.I deal with kids in court and in the local newspaper blog site the comments will vary from misinformed to downright psychopathic .its a worry what is in people’s minds sometimes

Interesting article.

Mark the ‘Resident Grumpy’ admin has said repeatedly that what you post here should be no different to how you’d conduct yourself in public. It’s such a shame people often seem to disagree with that, and refer to the internet as somehow “not real life”.

I actually know someone (a fellow rider) who openly admits that he only posts on here to wind people up for his own amusement. He’s fine with being a troll. He’s an engineer studying for a doctorate in his spare time. A bright, witty and gifted person for whom I have much respect. But online he comes across as an attention seeking, hyperactive child. It’s ridiculous.

I don’t think the anonymity is solely to blame though. I think there’s also something else at play.

In the outside world, anyone behaving in such a way as to annoy everyone around them generally quite quickly find themselves having no friends.

Most of us figure out as children that being unpleasant to those around us results in our loneliness, so we moderate our behaviour to suit our environment. If I had a reputation for hijacking conversation, lampooning discussion and undermining people for my own selfish amusement, I wouldn’t be invited to join in with any conversations. I’d get that feedback pretty quickly.

So it’s a self policing dynamic – it never becomes much of a problem. Yet online it goes on day in, day out.

Here, you can just post indiscriminately, at whatever point of whatever discussion you see fit, in whatever way your mood dictates, because that ability of the group to self police by shunning the unpleasant is taken away. Those undeserving of our time and attention can online ensure they get both.