gldearman
September 12th, 2008, 09:57 PM
Hi,
I'm just an ordinary joe here, but I've started to notice a particular forum member who seems to be doing nothing but trolling.
I noticed him the other day. I had started a thread asking for help, and he hijacked it. Then, bumped it (kinda rudely) less than an hour later. OK, so I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt ... his problem was kinda similar to the one I had asked about. In fact, while searching the fora for help on my problem, I had noticed a possible fix for his. So, I politely post, asking him to try a troubleshooting step, and see if his problem was fixed. Instead of a yes or no, I get back a rant about how much Ubuntu sucks, how much these fora suck, how no one is willing to help him, and that he is giving up and going back to XP.
So, I think, "good riddance," to myself. A while later, I am reading another thread -- newbie has a problem, more experienced member posts solution, newbie has trouble understanding instructions, newbie figures it out on his own, problem is fixed, everyone is all smiles. I was just about to post and ask the newbie a question about his settings (to see if his problem might be related to an issue I had) ... when I noticed the same troll. He posted to the thread just to lambaste to experienced user for not helping the newbie ... after the newbie's issue had already been resolved!
So I search for all of this troll's posts. They are all the same. He gripes about how lousy Ubuntu is. He hijacks threads. He bumps his own threads. He is rude and obnoxious to people. He asks for help, but refuses it when it is offered. But his favorite pastime seems to be to complain loudly about how useless these fora are, and how the forum members refuse to help newbies and talk down to less experienced users.
In fact, I am half-wondering if he works for That Other Operating System (TM), and his job is to dishearten Ubuntu newbies by barraging them with garbage about how the help forum sucks and more experienced Linux users hate newbies.
I thought about sending this guy a polite message pointing out that his tone of voice (well, tone of text) isn't winning him any friends or getting him any help, and asking him to stop trolling and be more polite. But I'm not a moderator. I don't want to start a flame war with this guy. And, if he is just a socially-challenged newb who needs help and doesn't know how to ask for it, I don't want to come across as self-righteous. That would just feed his paranoid delusion that everyone here hates newbies.
Sorry about the long rant. Part of this was needing an audience to vent to. But, really, can anyone help?
I'm just an ordinary joe here, but I've started to notice a particular forum member who seems to be doing nothing but trolling.
I noticed him the other day. I had started a thread asking for help, and he hijacked it. Then, bumped it (kinda rudely) less than an hour later. OK, so I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt ... his problem was kinda similar to the one I had asked about. In fact, while searching the fora for help on my problem, I had noticed a possible fix for his. So, I politely post, asking him to try a troubleshooting step, and see if his problem was fixed. Instead of a yes or no, I get back a rant about how much Ubuntu sucks, how much these fora suck, how no one is willing to help him, and that he is giving up and going back to XP.
So, I think, "good riddance," to myself. A while later, I am reading another thread -- newbie has a problem, more experienced member posts solution, newbie has trouble understanding instructions, newbie figures it out on his own, problem is fixed, everyone is all smiles. I was just about to post and ask the newbie a question about his settings (to see if his problem might be related to an issue I had) ... when I noticed the same troll. He posted to the thread just to lambaste to experienced user for not helping the newbie ... after the newbie's issue had already been resolved!
So I search for all of this troll's posts. They are all the same. He gripes about how lousy Ubuntu is. He hijacks threads. He bumps his own threads. He is rude and obnoxious to people. He asks for help, but refuses it when it is offered. But his favorite pastime seems to be to complain loudly about how useless these fora are, and how the forum members refuse to help newbies and talk down to less experienced users.
In fact, I am half-wondering if he works for That Other Operating System (TM), and his job is to dishearten Ubuntu newbies by barraging them with garbage about how the help forum sucks and more experienced Linux users hate newbies.
I thought about sending this guy a polite message pointing out that his tone of voice (well, tone of text) isn't winning him any friends or getting him any help, and asking him to stop trolling and be more polite. But I'm not a moderator. I don't want to start a flame war with this guy. And, if he is just a socially-challenged newb who needs help and doesn't know how to ask for it, I don't want to come across as self-righteous. That would just feed his paranoid delusion that everyone here hates newbies.
Sorry about the long rant. Part of this was needing an audience to vent to. But, really, can anyone help?