People with unexamined, poorly thought out conservative world views have a tendency to see the world as a series of either/ors, with everything as black or white. This is not all conservatives, especially not the quiet ones who have been eclipsed by the tea partiers in Congress, or the ones who post here who have given up because of the awful troll.
I remember the most awful troll we've had in years expressing astonishment that so many people were recently critical of President Obama. It went so far as to say it had been mistaken in its belief that everyone all thought exactly the same about the president when in fact there has always been a diversity of opinions here. Did the troll adjust its boilerplate tactics? Nope it went right back to trolling about goose stepping about topics it prefers to be contrarian about, and being its usual general nuisance.
I also think there has been a big mistake in understanding the role of the ignore button here. It is a fact that so many people were constantly bothered by the troll, out in the open, in the public threads, that the owner of the site reinstated the ignore button. Specifically because of that one troll. Now, I admit, that must be a humiliating and difficult thing for any normal person to face, but a troll is not a normal person.
Here's the thing: the Ignore Button is for the people who use it, not for the comfort of the troll. I find the Ignore Button prevents the troll from interrupting online conversations between adults. The botton's not there to make BWW a better experience for the troll!
The fact of the matter is, if the ignore button functioned in such a way that a user NEVER saw evidence of the troll she is blocking, this awful troll would still be engaging in one-sided conversations, baiting the users who are ignoring it. Whining about how people who aren't paying attention to it are still paying attention to it. We have seen no evidence that this troll, the one the button was specifically resurrected for, will not continue trolling the site even after the regulars have blocked it.
I ignore it for weeks and then I see it in a thread when I've hit Reply and I see it has my screen name in its sig file. Or that it's addressing me and using hashtags where they don't belong and pretending like I'm engaging with it. It's true I saw something anti-feminist it posted and yelled "shut the **** up you stupid CUNT" at my phone outside a daycare. I didn't tell that story for its benefit, I told it for the benefit of the smart people with senses of humor who know where imcoming from, that it is such a terrible troll who attacks other women because it's awful through and through, it reduced me to yelling that.
In conclusion, the Ignore Button is for us, not for it. It has absolutely no say about if we choose to engage with it for any reason at the time of our choosing, or not. It can't interrupt us anymore, but the only way it can stop us from interrupting it is to block us. But it won't do that, it will continue to whine about getting a reaction from the people it tried to get a reaction from. Well, too bad. You know, even the smartest cat gets tired of playing with the dead mouse whose neck it broke after a while. But every once in a while, the dead mouse needs to be stomped again.
It's not an either block or don't block proposition.
Also, there is no way I will not comment when I see its fake avatar of somebody else with its skaggy hair that I'm not going to comment about its skaggy hair. It's not going to happen.
Also, we know whose nom de plume it is.
Twitter @NamoInExile
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Updated On: 10/10/13 at 08:11 PM
