For crying out loud, I cant leave you kids alone for two minutes. I thought we had agreed not to feed the trolls. So imagine my surprise when I check in and see a banquet of tasty treats laid out with my best china and silverware!

Now just in case you dont know who Im talking about, see the troll post about Killing others for food. 28 Frickin answers! 28!!!! For Crissakes have IQs dropped into the single digits around here? And then have the guts to bitch and moan about the curse of the living dead? Ignore em! I say that we deserve them, what with all the feeding they get around here.

A word about rights- Ive got rights, youve got rights. NEWSFLASH Jerry has rights too! Shocking but true. Yes folks even trolls have rights. Can somebody please tell me what makes flying fruitcake more relevant to Y2K than dunny shitboxx dunny shitboxx dunny shitboxx??? I suspect that the trolls will disappear into the night come one year from now, whether they curse and scream or not. If dirty icky poo poo and other cusswords offend your sensitive little girly-man feelings I have two suggestions for you.

1) IGNORE AND SCROLL PAST WITHOUT ANSWERING

2) Sign off the forum, go into the garage, run a hose from the exhaust pipe to the front window, get in and start the car. Do it now, while the insurance companies are still able to pay! It may help your family survive the coming chaos, cause I dont think such a tender sensitive person has a chance in hell to help those they love, come 2000.

Another thing, to those of you who want a registration system. What the hell gives you the idea that you have a right not to be offended? Some of us do not want to give out our email address to folks like dunny shitboxx! I have had my handle abused by trolls, do you see me running to my mommy crying Mommy the bad man used my name. Save me, mommy, save me? HELL NO! Get a grip and grow up, before your mindset destroys the final frontier of freedom, the net! I absolutely despise people who will give up their freedom to try and protect themselves from the possibility that they may get their feelings hurt. YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT NOT TO BE OFFENDED!

I hope that I have offended everybody, if I missed pissing you off, let me know and I will see to it personally.

Get a grip folks, if ya cant make it through a few trolls, youre toast!

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), December 15, 1998

Answers

Uncle makes a good point. For some really good trolls visit the newsgroup rec.pets.cats (or rec.food.recipies.cats). Then, fully educated about trolls and their ways, forget 'em.

-- Arnie Deedah (arnie_Deedah@usa.net), December 15, 1998.

"I thought we had agreed not to feed the trolls."

It becomes a tad different Uncle when they turn their foul breath on one's self. There are a lot of newbies showing up here just now. They aren't going to know if it is for "real" or not.

Might I suggest that the first reader to post place an alert flag, for the newcomers, something like:

ALERT! Troll Posting Under Assumed Name. IGNORE!!!

Eventually, they may get tired of the game playing.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 15, 1998.

OK!!!! OK!!!AWREADDY!!!!! I was JUST trying to preserve HERE as one of the last bastions of civility in a truly uncivilized situation. i was also trying to keep us at a level that we can EASE the new GI's into a frame of reference which will be more pro-survival. Some of the folks need to be eased.

My major point was made in the front, that the sig:noise ratio hasn't changed just the volume and we get to live with that as awareness ramps up.

Chuck, drawing in his horns JUST A LITTLE!!

-- Chuck a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 15, 1998.

Although I fully believe that impersonating another poster is a definite no-no, the impersonation in "Killing others for food" was so obvious, and so funny -- considering what was said and who was being impersonated -- that if Poster Impersonation were not such a rampant problem, it probably would have been better received. And like it or not, short of the forum's moderator implementing some kind of totalitarian Know Your Poster regulations, there is really nothing that one can do about it.

(Hmmmm. Did Unkle Deedah really say that? Doesn't sound like him, or does it?...)

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), December 15, 1998.

Hey Unc',

Thanks for takin yer belt to da kids. Cept any self-respectin patriarch knows ya always gotta do it if'n yer outa da room too long.

-- hodad (whicker@bill.com), December 15, 1998.

ROFLMAO Deedah!!!!!!

If you didn't make so damn much sense, I'd think you were a troll yourself!!

(icky poo girly-man feelings, LOL)

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), December 15, 1998.

I actually kinda like playing with trolls. It makes you test your own assumptions and attitudes. It helps toughen the skin and improve the character. If you can be consistent in your attitudes in dealing with trolls, you'll be more likely to be consistent in your attitude when dealing with starving humans at your doorstep. I personally don't have a problem being insulted by them, and I enjoy feeding them sometimes when they're amusing. They often serve to ramp up the level of discussion. If you don't like what they are saying, IGNORE 'EM, I say.

True, impersonation is to be considered "not a good thing" but I think the most important thing an individual can do to protect themselves is to be consistent. We all knew that wasn't Diane. Any newbies worth their weight in sodium would quickly figure that out too.

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), December 15, 1998.

I have to admit, I think the trolls really dirty up the place. I can't answer though, because it feels like those punk-kid in-your- face kind of challenges. I never bite on those. The newbies? I'm at a loss about how to protect them. Maybe they'll just have to sort through the chaff, like the rest of us do for all this Y2K, um, stuff. It's not easy, but a reasonable person takes what he/she needs and leaves the rest.

-- margie mason (mar3mike@aol.com), December 15, 1998.

Hey! Some troll posted my thoughts, and signed Uncle Deedah's name to them!

Well, whoever you are, your perspective is right on target, even if you did manage to offend me. ;-)

Unfortunately, there are a number of COMPULSIVES out there (you know who you are) who cannot keep their hands off the keyboard when a little self restraint is called for. And it is the penultimate hypocrisy to post "Get Lost!" messages and whine about the "need" for censorship of one form or other as if any one participating here has some special privilege. The only claim anyone can make is that they discovered this forum earlier than others. That and three dollars will get you a laaattttteeee. WE ARE ALL GUESTS ON THIS FORUM. These elitist attitudes do not auger well for the nature of the post-Y2K brave new world many of you talk about. THINK ABOUT IT! I get irritated by the nonsense postings too, but some (how can I put this delicately?) *silliness* threads waste enormous bandwidth but no one objects (currently 130+ posts!!??) while one post by a troll gets flamed. I'm more disgusted by the responses to a troll than by a troll.

But that's just my NSHO.

-- Elbow Grease (Elbow_Grease@AutoShop.com), December 15, 1998.

Grease, I love you. My opinion exactly. Here we are trying to deal with or possibly head off the EOTW and have to get crabby with each other over form - and act self-important over who got here first. Marry me.

-- Lisa (nomail@work.com), December 15, 1998.

I resemble that remark Elbow Grease :-P

Just two thoughts:

1. We're talking about trolls here, not bandwith. Trolls and Drolls are not the same.

2. About bandwith. Just complaining about trolls wastes bandwith. I'd rather waste it on "silly" threads.

Damn, just wasted my time here again. I'm off to the Yourdonhood :-P

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), December 15, 1998.

....and just when I thought the talk on this forum was getting silly.....

-- John Howard (Greenville, NC) (pcdir@prodigy.net), December 15, 1998.

You asked for it.

"It becomes a tad different Uncle when they turn their foul breath on one's self. There are a lot of newbies showing up here just now. They aren't going to know if it is for "real" or not."

Diane, your elitism is showing. Why do you assume they are so dull?

PS They HAVE turned their foul breath on me from time to time, I, somehow, found the strength to go on. You will too.

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), December 15, 1998.

Unk's the fukin bomb man. I rollin on the floor laffin my ass off. I got glaze and jelly and shit all ove the place. So when we gonna meet to go to your "bug out"?

-- Jimmy Bagga Doughnuts (jim1bets@worldnet.att.net), December 15, 1998.

Jimmy Bagga Doughnuts RULES!

-- epigone (cc@zz.com), December 15, 1998.

what's a troll? i thought this was for y2k discussions - what is all of this stuff about trolls?

-- (hello@there.com), December 15, 1998.

Lisa, dear, I am extremely flattered, but my wife of 30 years might have an objection. :-)

Besides, there's the name thing... Lisa Grease... just wouldn't work.

Chris: what's "bandwith"? ;-)

-- Elbow Grease (Elbow_Grease@AutoShop.com), December 16, 1998.

"Chris: what's "bandwith"? ;-) "

Not really sure what it is anymore. Somewhere somehow the meaning of it on the internet has changed over the past 7 years that I've been ranting on the net. Back then, flamers would say that my rantings took too much precious "bandwith", i.e., packets travelling at a slow 2400 baud rate over limited resources (or something like that), and taking too much precious expensive space on the servers.

Today, 56k modems are cheapest and slowest access, storage is a dime a gig...so that first definition is like yelling at someone over using too much air or water. I now think of "wasted bandwith" as the amount of time people have to scroll through noise to get to interesting nugets. This latter definition isn't as much a problem as the first, since one can easily skip over threads altogether, especially when the subject isn't interesting or isn't serious enough for them. Anyhow, that's how I handle it. And that's what I mean by "bandwith" ;)

I wasn't going to leave a question posed to me unanswered ;)

-- Chris the Ranting Maven (catsy@pond.com), December 16, 1998.

Uncle Deedah, thanks for saying what needed to be said. I really get weary of catering so many sensitivities out there. We're adults, or supposed to be. If you don't like it, don't read it. Icky poo words don't bother me, nor do rants, even those aimed at me, but it bothers me to have to apologize for not being socially, politically, sexually and spiritually correct all the time to protect everyone's sensitivities.

-- gilda jessie (jess@listbot.com), December 16, 1998.

Uncle, I can take anything but some things. Can't take the most recent. Help.

-- Lisa (nomail@work.com), December 16, 1998.