People just love bitching about everything, don't they...Was one thread not enough for complaints about catatonic?
It's because "troll" and "trolling" have merely become synonymous with "annoying to a moderator" and an overused label which nobody (including Wikipedia) can really define
lol
If I banned everyone who annoyed me here at some point, boy they'd be dropping like flies.
Cognisant, whom you mentioned has annoyed me on multiple occasions and as you can see he hasn't been banned, and he's not my friend, just an acquaintance. (we're still okay though, right coggy?
xoxo)
It's funny you accuse me of bias when you and Dod are certainly fond of catatonic.
By most definitions, everyone is a troll. This is because the root intent of any one's action is attention-seeking behavior.
There is no difference between your behavior and catatonic's
Or mine for that matter
We are expressing opinions and evoking emotions
No. You are reducing the definition to the point where it becomes meaningless and ignoring all nuance to justify how it's ok and even desirable. Yes, differences certainly do exist.
Your understanding of why catatonic was banned is narrow, literal and doesn't take the context, nor implications in account, either because you are facetious on purpose, or just don't get it. higs on the other hand, noticed the reasoning.
Cog might have admitted to 'trolling', but he's a long standing member (which demonstrates investment, not a privileged status), who cares about what he puts out, about what he's saying, in other words he respects this space and the people. catatonic didn't. The timing of her post demonstrates she pretty much came here to troll.
Much like her "troll friend" (her words) DeadonDreaming who also openly stated that he's a troll and told her she can write whatever the hell she wants like he does. See, this is disrespect. It's comparable to people who mess up public restrooms and throw their old sofa out on someone's lawn, because who the fuck cares someone else is using this space? I'm just gonna dump my trash indiscriminately wherever the hell I want.
To put it metaphorically, if someone is constantly shitting in a park multiple people congregate in I'm going to remove the shitter before their shit piles up, stinks the place up and attracts flies. You can call if censorship if you'd like; freedom of speech is an increasingly misused concept used to justify various things.
What else is a troll if not just a misunderstood character within society, outcast, attempting to emotionally connect with others, albeit in a rare fashion? And when their form of communication encroaches upon your boundaries of acceptability, setting off your annoyance alarms, the troll bell rings strong and the ban hammer falls hard.
That might be your own motivation, but don't assume it applies to everyone. Pardon me if I'm stepping over some personal boundary; but I get the sense you have a personal gripe with "trolls" as you define them above being banned and in the light of that are seeing catatonic's banning as more tragic than it is. (need I remind you she very likely doesn't even care?)
The person who harasses others for entertainment, and hacks into a forum to fuck it up, who turns members of a board against each other, sows paranoia and discord is destructive with varying degrees of malice, and is not excusable.
Also, while you might not be aware administration has had patience for posters considered to be trolling who tried to connect in convoluted ways in the past...
Catatronic didn't try anything of the sort and I don't see how she would be excused on grounds of somehow being misunderstood; her sexuality was never a factor in banning her, and I honestly have no problem with other people's sexuality.
Questioning things, devil's advocacy, parody, making people reassess their views, are not trolling. They are distinct behaviors that can be combined with trolling but do not constitute trolling on their own. As Hadoblado mentioned there are degrees of "trolishness" that are permissible, but cease being so when they outweigh the other things a poster is bringing to the table.
Proving that someone is a troll based on her self assertion that she is a troll is circular and hearsay.
It's not hearsay, uncle G.I. I know you administrate the forum I referenced. We could, as you say in absence of hard proof compare IPs of catatonic's suspected accounts but I'm not going to trivialize and expose a member's privacy, even a banned one for the sake of proving something to you.
I am also aware of your own admission of having been banned from here in 2010, y'know, and even though we have a general policy of not allowing ban evasion I didn't ban you the moment I saw it, because your behavior wasn't so bad, and I gave you a second chance.
Trolling fits into the porn category-- I know it when I see it.
You, catatonic and DeadonDreaming were all noticed as potential trolls by the administration from the start. We didn't ban anyone for months because we're more lenient that you think. Catatonic's smug bragging, which demonstrates a lack of respect and the intent to rile people up for entertainment was the last drop, in a manner of speaking, and a confirmation of our instincts.
DeadonDreaming is increasingly teetering towards the edge, and I have a feeling he's daring us to ban him; if he cares at all he can take this as a warning.
If he doesn't well....that's his own right.
