Recently nemolist opened a thread on this forum. Troll's generally make posts not for the benefit of the forum, but to cause confrontation. Although it's difficult to refrain from replying to these posts, I believe for the benefit of the forum and to discourage the trolls we should not reply to these sort of posts. When we reply the troll gets fed and so receives his reward. Unfortunately this puts the post back to the top of the forum and therefore it receives more exposure. I think a trollish post is best dealt with by giving red rep and no replies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll
Yes, I totally agree. Some people try to create arguments to make a thread more popular, but they are often mean spirited, and it just makes the environment here low quality.
I agree there appear to be many here who are making posts simply to cause conflict. However, I also think there are many here who did not intend to cause conflict with their original post and have been slammed because others do not agree with what was said or would rather promote a competing mod, programmer, or script. I think it is a slippery slope to start deleting threads that are "confrontational" when so many of the most vile exchanges were in threads that were not started to cause trouble and the most churlish behavior was initiated by someone other than the person who started the thread. Delete for lack of thesis? That wouldn't leave much.
I think if there were clearer rules of play there would be fewer issues. You don't see stuff like this happening on a forum like Sitepoint, do you?
A few days ago I get an infraction for starting a thread in the wrong category (shame on me ) while these people are messing about these forums without being noticed by mods
even though sitepoint is a good place and effective in market place .... i dont like their security... u know like here at dp, if someone bids and than it was sold to him and dont pay ... gets banned sitepoint says ... well we dont have that secure of a system ... ebay: is some what better in marketplace. .. i like sitepoint as a forum but not as a market place because i believe if i am paying to list something for sale than it better go through if the bid was placed and if the bidder won and refused to pay and didn't respond to any pms.... they shall be banned ...
I thought the thread had good humor to it. I took it for what it was worth, and the message I got was that the OP was pretty much posting with regards to the same question being asked all the time. If anyone thought his post was 'dumb' or 'mean'... what do you guys think of those threads that consistently pop up asking: 'can i make money from directories', 'how much can i make', 'how much do you make' etc etc.. I think those are worse.
I hope DP never uses SP as a template for success. I like the more free flowing nature here. SP is more like the formal seminar where everyone's on their best behavior and agrees with the host rather than risk being the voice of dissent and DP is more like the "real" discussions that happen at the cocktail party. Both have their value. The trick is to keep the cocktail party from turning into a drunken free-for-all without stiffling the openess of the conversation. Posts full of name-calling and 4-letter words have no place on any forum. The drunken louts should be asked to leave due to bad behavior - not unpopular opinions. I do agree that the oft-repeated questions should be dealt with. Perhaps some stickies and the threads deleted or the moderators could simply list the previous threads and then close the new one.
Or my favourite threads, "How much do you have in your bank account, what is your social insurance number and what's your mother's maiden name???"!
its a cheap +1 to the post count. i replied to the troll in question "why all directories fail" because i was angry. newbies who actually want to learn get sucked up by the troll and get confused, actually believing them. Trolls should get a fat "Troll noob" avatar given to them by the mods.