Why do you feed the Prokofy Troll?

I've often wondered why for example Prok thread after thread has inspired so many people to respond in mass droves. It has been my experience with people of that sort of ilk that no matter what you say (unless however you agree with the 100%) that it will end up in an 11 page flame war. Why bother? You are all just giving the trolls what they want (or anyone for that fact) Trolls want one thing ATTENTION through ruffling peoples feathers by posting outrageous things that no one is ever going to agree with. Given, all of the recent hoopla, I don't agree with Prok and quite frankly his posts/responses irk the hell out of me, so I have refrained from responding. (I may have responded once or twice initially when he first starting posting a few months ago.) Now it seems as if there is the thread and corresponding flame war ever fecking day. Its tiring and part of the reason I don't read the forums all that much.

Sure I find the whole FIC thing amusing and all. But that is where I draw the line. Other than that it is a waste of my time and energy.

Simple advice, don't feed the troll. Ignore them and either they will go away or end up talking to themselves.

If there is something I am missing in this theory, please feel free to advise.

*And for those of you filled with the need to point out the irony in me posting a separate thread on this matter - its been bugging me since I started reading the forums again and quite frankly I wasnt sure which of the many threads to stick it in to and really didnt want to have to end up repeating myself.

(edited for your pure chewing pleasure)

and stop making threads about him, or asking questions about why people respond to him

Yeah Jen, seriously, I'm sick and tired of this shit, let's not make any more threads about it.
It's against the TOS to make threads about or directed a specific person.

Erm....should I state the obvious about this thread about Prokofy you've started?

I only started the thread because i didn't know which of the plethora of Prok related threads to stick it in.... sorry for not including the disclaimer

WHile this thread is about the Prok situation - its about forum trolls in general.

ruhoh *hides*

Ah, but if everybody did that...guess what...we'd have "thread after thread" wouldn't we......

Sorry the contradiction just makes me sit here and scratch my head.

*hides wif Kritter*

Is it? Why did you title it "Why do you feed the Prokofy Troll?" and mention his name 4 times in your post? Hardly general.

She did say ignore THEM, which to me means more than one, which means in theory trollS, not troll. Unless of course that one troll has multiple personalitys.

*stops trolling*

Oh never mind. I see why everyone responds to any trollesque posts for the simple ability to argue about anything and everything...


I really should have heeded my own advice and stayed away from the forums. Why I came back is anyones guess.

thank you for answering my question everyone.

I would suggest you simply say in response to one of his posts, " I don't agree Prokofy". That's all. I sometimes disagree with something he says, but I don't throw abuse and swear at him. Try it some time.

Alexa

Noooo don't go!!!!

You asked a civil question! You just have to wait for civil people to respond that have fulfilled their drama quota for the day

She said ignore THEM whilst directing a personal opinion of a named INDIVIDUAL, whilst saying I'm sick of all these Prok threads in a new thread started by her just for this purpose.

Call it trolling if you like, it's just stating the bloody obvious though.

I have very strict self-guidelines for posting to forums/mailing lists due to numerous conflicts with trolls of varying sizes, shapes or forms over the years. Heck throw in some personal conflicts with non-trolls. Meaning sometimes I make myself walk away to avoid further conflict. Its not to say that it always works, but I at least try and am self-aware.

All i really wanted to know was WHY people feel the constant need to respond to troll posts i.e. the recent schlew of Prokofy related threads... That is all.

Ignoring trolls seems to be the only way to solve the problem. Though everyone seems to be quite to content to keep feeding trolls no matter who they are and what they do.

anyways.

Well I for one replied because I think the mud slinging about Pathfinder was all a bit too far fetched, even tho I don't have any issues with Prok (apart from the lengthy posts )

I replied to Blaze's thread, because I thought It was inappropriate for another thread to be started about the subject and totally unecessary.

I tried trolling both threads with silly remarks and pictures and it got me nowhere

I get your point Jennyfur, I hope some more people reply to you without feeling the need to nitpick.

I recommend putting any prospective and prolific troll on ignore.

However, I'm at the point of putting people who chronically reply with quotes from said troll on ignore too. I'm just sick of reading he/she/its blather, even if it is secondhand quoting.

So be warned I guess, keep quoting and responding to trolls, you will get ignored. Parodies included.

aww. but you wuvs me!

I reply

Because I love the sound

of my own virtual voice.



-Flip

She has a good point and I think I have an answer.

Folks feed the troll because they haven't yet realized that there is something intrinsically wrong with the personality behind the posts. To paraphrase a great post in the Polisci forum, the person of interest presents a facade of intellectual critique that hides an agenda, directed by serious underlying emotional problems. Further, because dialogue does not seem to have an effect on this facade, one cannot debate by any normal rules, as the person of interest's condition does not allow for tolerance, kindness, discipline, or rational thought.

Thus there are two groups of folks, one that has realized that the dialog is a mock intellectual critique driven by underlying emotional problems and another that has not yet realized this and continue to debate.

We can try and avoid the subject to reduce the person's exposure but the fact is, that this person's problems have become our problems. We should be able to discuss them and how they have affected the quality of our online experience. Granted Pathfinder is no social worker but it's important for moderators to look at the root cause of the unrest in the forums and to seek a way to address it beyond deleting posts and locking threads.

~Ulrika~

wow. this reminds me of someone. so you're a troll too, huh?

Yes i forgot forum/mailing list rule #4265.980 which is to make sure that everything is explained to the Nth degree because if you forget to put in one a notation about this that or the other thing and you will be guaranteed that someone will jump down your throat about this that or the other thing that you neglected to mention.

Missed point #1 I had pretty much only been reading the forums maybe once or twice a month for quite some time now and posting even less. I only started reading the forums semi-regularly again last week.

...more missed points to follow

Yes, I put any constant drama troll on my ignore list. I don't mind discussions, but when it turns nasty, hateful, or just plain too hard to read, I just slap an ignore on it and go on. It's probably the most useful tool this forum has *huggles the ignore list*

I don't care about rumors and such, because frankly, they don't have much to do with my RL nor with my ingame life. Nothing is perfect and I accept that!

Prok knows how to use strong memes to trigger responses from people.

-Ghoti