ita, how would you define a "real troll," just out of curiosity?

Not ita, but answering. To me, a real troll is someone who posts only to cause ill feelings or a fight, who never contributes anything but dischord. And who has fun doing this.

ita, how would you define a "real troll," just out of curiosity?

I don't have a clear definition, but ... from USENET, from TT, it's someone who's there to disrupt or destroy, quite on purpose. Not even someone who wants to change the community to match their own ideals, or who's abrasive and impatient, and doesn't have the same degree of civility to which we strive.

Some bust in like the Dark Angel person, others do it slower. I don't think we've had a persistent example of one yet, and I wonder if m/S/A can cause this much strife, how we'd deal with someone clever and bent on destruction.

And no, I don't mean technologically, or even rules-wise. I mean as people, and as a community.

I don't see much of an opening to change the rules -- but that's because I can't think of any better ones. I don't want power shifted, and I don't think we can outline enough scenarious without leaving our knickers showing somewhere else.

I'm just sad that the reverberation is still being felt, although I don't want to tell anyone they shouldn't be feeling what they're feeling. That would be absurd.

Mostly I hope we would be strong enough to resist or deflect any real onslaught that may come our way.

OK, so I just googled myself, and have a request: Can my last name come out of the FAQ? Thx.

Thank you for that post, Cindy.

I don't see much of an opening to change the rules -- but that's because I can't think of any better ones. I don't want power shifted, and I don't think we can outline enough scenarious without leaving our knickers showing somewhere else.

This is how I feel.

OK, so I just googled myself, and have a request: Can my last name come out of the FAQ? Thx.

I fixed the old Geocities FAQ. Jon or ita need to to the Phoenix FAQ.

FWIW, sometimes a hypothetical question is exactly the means I use to recast a situation and get a handle on what bothered me/didn't bother me/where I draw the line. I'm sorry if my hypothetical comes in the middle of a lot of others, but it was a small thought that I didn't see that anybody else had posed, and it showed me an important distinction in the overall wrongness of m/S/A's conduct.

Thanks, DX.

I see no problem with playing with hypothetical situations. It helps us know what is/is not worth worrying about, and be mentally ready in case we do get an idjit posting on the board. I think that as a community, we were not ready for the reality of a shit-disturber turning up in our midst.

I don't think we can outline enough scenarious without leaving our knickers showing somewhere else.

True. It would be sheer madness to think we could come up with a plan for every possibility.

I do think that reminding ourselves how to behave properly in the face of improper behavior is a good policy. Basically, I think that when someone says something that is hurtful or angering, 9 times out of 10, on-board Doblerization solves the problem.

Will people think I'm losing it if I want to say one last thing about the m/s/a issue?

Yes! Why are we (not just John) all so obsessed with being right about this? Some people feel one way, and some people feel another way, and the twain may never meet. Moreover, what kind of silly people are we to try and convince each other with logic to feel a different way?

I think more than one person herein the past 14 hours has flirted with being insulting to other people's feelings, on several sides of the issue, and that makes me sad and angry. I'm very pleased it's gotten back to "how I feel" and "why I did X" in the past 30-40 posts.

Feelings is feelings, and trying to argue with feelings is like trying to beat someone to death with a feather. Diplomacy is acknowledging and stating your feelings without wielding the violent feather.

I have a great deal of interest in discussing the procedure, because while I can say without a doubt that we handled the situation as best we could, I'd like to not have to be left in the same gray zone again.

With Victor on this. When we've all had a good cry and a good nap, can we convene for a Stompy Foot Duties caucus? Say, next Monday or something?

Can't we go back to talking about Nutty's bras again?

Yes! Today I am wearing something by Bali, which is incredibly old and ratty. If you'll turn to the Natter thread, we can begin a discussion about the vagaries of bra design during the course of the hormone cycle.