The Lagoon TechMy little blog in Cyberspace.

This is a short blog telling you about a few things that online troublemakers do, and how to spot them in a conversation.

Please remember that not everyone who posts online sounding upset is a “troll”.  They may have just had a bad day, and something someone said set them off.

Also just because someone calls someone else a “troll” does not necessarily make them one.  Many times people will call other people “trolls” just because they disagreed with them.  That is not right nor honest.

• Personal attacks

Many times, online troublemakers (e.g., trolls) will post a quick message with a personal attack in it. They usually will have little to no discussion about the topic at hand, and they will just seem to want to call people names and taunt people. Basically they will give pointless talk with little to no technical arguments.

Conclusion:  If an online poster (in a comments section or forum) keeps “trash talking” (abusing) users, they are probably just out to cause trouble and nothing more.  It is best to ignore such posters. As they say, “don’t feed the trolls”.

• Out of Context

You may find online troublemakers posting unrelated information.

For example, a discussion is going on about Windows and a fella comes on and starts saying how bad Windows is and how MacOS X is a much better choice.

This person is a troll.  Why?  He is posting irrelevant information that has a good chance of causing people to become agitated. While there is a chance that he is honestly posting information, it would be unlikely given the circumstance.

Conclusion:  Posters who post off topic for no apparent reason usually have an agenda that is not in your (or anyone else’s) best interest.

• Fake Sincerity

These people are harder to spot. They usually come in the form of wanting to know more about a subject, but when you engage them in conversation, it starts to become apparent they already made up their mind on the subject, and for some reason wanted to debate it with you.

I think people who do this are trying to trick you into believing just like they do, without you realizing it.

Conclusion:  These posters are definitely wasting your time playing dumb.  They were not even open to an honest, mature conversion to begin with.  Do not ask me why people do that, but it is dishonest.

• They have the “know-it-all” attitude

These posters like to post to show off their knowledge (as well as feed their ego). They really do not care if you learn anything from what they said (assuming they are correct to begin with).

They just like hearing themselves talk and they like thinking that everyone around them assumes they are smart.

Conclusion:  If you see a post online that seems to go on and on with a hint of bad attitude, you have a clue that this person will not take criticisms of their posts lightly, and may even argue with you even if you have shown proof to disprove what they said.

• The “you are wrong!” kind of people

These people usually will reply to someone saying “Your spreading FUD“, “your an idiot”, “your stupid”, “you have some mistakes of what you said…”, etc.  You get the idea.  They typically will give little to no technical arguments.  They basically just say you’re wrong without explaining why you are wrong.

In my opinion, whenever someone says “your wrong” but they cannot explain why, they don’t have any argument and just disliked what you said.  That’s silly.