Message boards and the nutbags who frequent them

KellyDwyer · Feb 22, 2004

I've never been a message board fiend.

I lurked here for years before registering in the summer of 2001, and I've tried to keep the posts short and sweet since them. I've taken part in a few Steely Dan message boards, but abdicated the sites once the topics began straying from Steely Dan. Another sportswriter message board I frequented dissolved due to anonymous posters, and after a month away from it, I returned to find it didn't exist anymore.

What I'm trying to get thru is the fact that I am hardly a message board regular or know-all.

But I still found this piece pretty damn interesting. Especially in light several boards that I know about (and that other friends visit) that have died in the ass (after years of healthy content) due to a spate of nasty posts.

Here it is:

http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/badboys.html

keeley · Feb 22, 2004

From that website

Freedom Fighters and Other Tenacious Debaters

Freedom fighters dwell on the argument that they have the right to freedom of speech and expression at Palace. But there's a delicate balance between allowing freedom of expression and offending other users - and freedom fighters usually sit heavily on one side of the scale. Sometimes they have a specific political ideology to spout, like the revolutionary. More often they just want to flaunt their inappropriate avatars or mouth off with foul language without anyone restraining them because it's their "right" according to the First Amendment. The basic internet philosophy that users should be able to "do your own thing" may be fueling their psychology. Similar to attempting reason with the revolutionary, it's very easy to fall into a no-win debate with the freedom fighter. Some wizards have described occasions when they did try to carry on a discussion with these users - probably because they were bored and had nothing else to do. The result was far less than intellectually satisfying because all these freedom fighters wanted to do was fight. Their mental set about "discussion" is basically similar to other self-important philosophical wannabes who come to Palace just to argue. Psychologists would categorize them as "oppositional personalities" who express their anger and frustrated need for independence through verbal/intellectual stubbornness. Wizards have joked about the possibility of creating an "Argument Clinic" (a la Monty Python) where freedom fighters and other recalcitrant debaters could be sent to spout their ideology at a bot that would mechanically reply with statements like, "I think I disagree" and "What's your proof on that point?"

Click to expand...

oh ho ho!

Very nice find KD. Argument bots... now that'd make an interesting project.

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Message boards and the nutbags who frequent them

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