There are certain posters that will come here, post fake tweets, engage in a bad faith discussion and repeatedly play dumb even when presented with facts--with no intention of doing anything other than spamming fake news and propaganda. Some folks on here routinely take the bait and engage with these folks, especially the big one that has been openly racist, genocidal and discriminatory. Disappearing for months at a time when he gets proven wrong, only to come back and repeat the same. I understand this is a place to debate and discuss, but it has its limits and ruins the experience (whatever is left) for the others. When someone is clearly here just to propagandize can we please have the members place these people..or person* on ignore?
I don't post here often, how about you use another example lol. In fact I have most of the posters that are looking to troll on ignore which is why half the time is see people arguing by themselves.
there are countless examples, I posted it out of respect for you and your time. Ultimately it is up to you
Seeing only half of some of these conversations is wild. Sometimes there are only a few threads even visible because the majority of thread starters are on my ignore. I'll admit I might be too quick on the trigger, I'm sure some on my ignore had a bad day or whatever... or we just strongly disagree on whatever issue caused me to hit the button and they are actually arguing in good faith. That is unfortunate and not what I'm going for, but in the long run, I don't really care enough to sift through the nonsense to find the one guy who, from my pov, is simply misguided and... if they were only shown a different perspective, or the real facts they'd change their mind. Not much of that to be had. 2026, years of this stuff and you are still on that bs, ya gone. Logic doesn't pull someone away from an opinion that was formed without it. Or, logical primacy... anyone can fit logic after the conclusion is reached. It probably won't be any good, and THAT explains the halves of conversations I *do* see.
You gotta be more specific Weren’t you trolling just a few years ago? https://bbs.clutchfans.net/threads/why-the-left-is-embracing-obesity.319622/ Lol
As that hateful jackass @basso would probably say, why? Every single decent fan of any Houston team should immediately put him on their ignore list. Starve the trolls out...
It’s interesting to me because I think that we have this forum because it ultimately isolated such discussion away from the sports and hangout for him. so I understand the utility, but I don’t participate here a lot because it’s pretty unhinged. There isn’t really a middle ground. It’s just kind of both extremes. that might just be because there’s not ultimately that many people on the forum and there’s not a ton to actually want to peep their head in here. I am always surprised by the lack of moderate thinking.
yeah, I don’t get why people keep responding or even bothering to read their posts astros123 and adoo take their bait 24/7 and I’m like
A griefer is a player in a multiplayer video game who intentionally ruins the experience of others by harassing them, sabotaging progress, or destroying in-game creations. Rather than playing by the rules, they derive pleasure from causing frustration and distress Basically the same thing Rocket River
I appreciate the effort, but it seems like convincing people to not take the bait is just as hard as convincing trolls not to troll. You win one convert and someone new will come in and argue with a troll and derail the thread in his place. I cope by reading less carefully, skipping over posts responding to ghosts in their entirety and scanning for the people who want to say something about the topic instead of those looking to refute insincere takes. But I'm sure I have contributed in various ways to degrading the experience for others too. My philosophy on ignore lists is to add the people who are insincere, and preserve the people who say what they really think even when it is dumb or evil. So I'm sure I've annoyed people by arguing with posters who got added to someone's ignore list for being dumb or evil.
I think here there is very little influencing the influenceable, but I do think when this is happening in venues where maybe young or old people who are ignorant (IE facebook where family members interact, youtube/TikTok comment sections, etc.), but well meaning, it's important to make sure that propaganda/misinformation gets swatted down. Where I decide whether its worth my time or not is when I feel like bad information could affect people who maybe just see things at a glance that goes unchecked, and can later be something that shapes opinion even if ignorant of the sourced facts. The question is really about this forum, and the greater sort of Houston sports community that could come into contact with misinformation here. I still think it's worthwhile to swat down quickly, and firmly with the facts, and THEN move on. Make sure you don't take the bait, and especially engage in misdirection tactics. The whole goal of 95% of their posts is to incite an angry response, re-direct via whataboutism, and the plant the seeds of guilt/insecurity of your position through gaslighting. But yeah there are some that I've put on ignore because the sheer volume is intolerable. I still have many though that I do find useful to see what the MAGA propaganda machine is pumping out so I can understand how people are being negatively influenced, and lied to so we can be prepared to deal with the outcomes of that misinformation.
I think it's been proposed elsewhere before, but you could cut down the propaganda a lot by not hosting embeds of twitter and youtube in the DND. Make people type it out, at least, if they want to propagandize.
Can you point to an example of anyone posting extreme left political takes on here? We do indeed have a majority of left-leaning posters here, but nobody is calling for Soviet-style collectivism or the total destruction of capitalism. This may not be the case for you, but more often, the self-described moderates who come on here are basically embarrassed conservatives who may hate MAGA but for one reason or another, are equally hostile to any left-leaning ideas. I went back and forth on a couple of issues with Refman, who was quite far right in his politics but insisted he was a moderate. Similarly, I got in an argument here a few years ago with someone who called themselves a moderate but was basically spouting Fox New talking points on an issue. When I called that out, he got angry and blocked me. I credit a lot of this to way the GOP has framed left-leaning ideas since the era of Reagan, where New Deal Democrats were demonized and words/concepts like "welfare," "social justice," and "liberal" were turned into slurs. They were so successful at this (3 Presidential election blowouts in a row) that many Democrats became permanently shy about embracing their political roots. I still observe otherwise left-leaning people (assuming their specific political ideas/beliefs are genuine) around my age and older still treating right wing ideas as the "norm" and demonstrating hostility toward "liberal" ideas. Addressing the topic, better moderation of bad faith and trolling posters would improve the level of debate here. In fact, one of the reasons I don't post here very frequently is because almost all of the real debate is between left-leaning posters, while the right wing posters respond with ignorant and hateful non-sequiturs. When most of the real debate is between like-minded posters - even posters who are as smart, well-read and articulate as many here are - it can become a bit stale.
We have had this exchange before but the most annoying thing about the tweets is 90% of them are from random people
