Simultaneously I've had to deal with numerous trolls on the Internet forums and lists that I moderate. Now that I think of it, there isn't one list where someone hasn't been rude, cranky or outright mean in the last five days.
One forum that I've been on for years is undergoing some creepy changes that seem to have their root in one manipulative member. It has gone from being a homey place where I have friends, to a jungle that I dart in and out of, hoping I won't attract the attention of the two to four trolls who seem to never log off.
The first straw was being given the runaround by one of the trolls. I didn't realize she was a troll at first. First she set up a "club" and had people put a certain phrase in their signature. Then, when I asked privately what it was about, she lied. When another member of the "club" was asked publicly what the sig lines meant, he told a completely different story.
So I publicly asked why I'd been lied to.
And so it began.
I happen to love the truth. I tell the truth. I can't say I never lie, but I sure do my darnedest not to. I'm only human. People telling me lies makes me really, really angry.
The woman who lied then got very upset because I'd asked her why she lied, and started harassing me in private messages, telling me that the "club" was about having been hassled by ANOTHER member of the same group. Supposedly, according to this liar, everyone in that group had been hassled by him.
Well, I asked why he hadn't been simply reported and banned from the group? Unfortunately there wasn't a good answer for that. She launched into this implausible cloak-and-dagger (I'm tempted to write "cloaca-and-dagger") scenario and told me that I couldn't tell anyone about it, that that would "ruin everything." Oh, and when I said I'd write to the moderators of the board about it, she went ballistic. Oh no, dear God, please don't write to the moderators about this, she begged.
If you are scratching your head, you are right there with me. None of it made any sense. I DID write to one moderator and apparently they can't substantiate her "charges." The man she accuses is still there, she is still there, and she has started a whispering campaign against me, who did nothing!
Can you say...............TROLL?
She's quite the master manipulator and is fooling a lot of people. I do not wish to be a part of that and will step out until she is gone. The other trolls I can ignore, but I don't care to be her target like this.
There is a lot more to this story. She had her friends follow me around, informing her on what I posted, who i talked to and what I did. Even, at one point, who I emailed! I emailed one forum member to ask him what this club was all about. He had the signature denoting the club membership in his sig. I'd been told by the woman I just spoke of that he was not the harasser, so I thought it safe to ask him what was going on, since her responses didn't make sense. He and disposed of that subject with a couple of sentences and nothing much was learned. He said he wasn't the harasser and said I knew that already. Then we talked about dogs until, while writing him another email, I suddenly get a private message screaming at me for writing to him! This kind of thing is crazy. Just plain crazy.
The second straw, the one that broke my back, was suddenly having the rules to the forum changed with no notice, and being singled out as someone who —gasp— transgressed by having a link in my signature! Well, my goodness, a link to this blog, and a link to a topic-appropriate non-commercial site. How horrible!
This is just one incident. On another list a fellow who consistently insulted everyone and instigated flames finally started calling me names and ~BAM~ he is now history. Problem solved, just like that! No "clubs" needed!
On another board where I'm a moderator, people just started name-calling and other rude behavior, and posting entire web pages from commercial sites! (It was about dog food.) One forum member sold dog food and was spamming the group. The others were "hitting back" by posting entire web pages from the dog food companies that they thought were better. Good grief!
I'll never understand the people who join a group and then go out of their way to insult everyone, and especially direct their attention to speaking hatefully to the OWNER OF THE LIST. What the heck do they think they are doing?
Yes, I know, most of these people, including the woman on the first forum, probably have borderline personality disorder or something similar. They get their own twisted satisfaction for generating negative attention, and for being the center of chaos and attention, whether it be a huge drama or a fire fight.
The sad part is that it only takes one of these sick people to make the forum or list very uncomfortable for everyone. The forum I just left has at least four that I can count, and probably more. There are thousands of people who read that board, and about three hundred who post on it. Four is a smidgen of the total membership, and yet they can sour the whole thing for everyone. It's really too bad.
Without that forum to take up my time, I will be able to do a lot more writing. At least something good will come of this!
