Sceptic-Troll? Troll-Sceptic

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

Obviously the homs call any opposition trolling because it excuses them from thinking about the issues, but it also leaves them a huge blind-spot.

Trolling is, by my understanding, posting on a board in order to provoke a reaction and there is a necessary element of deception.

What the homeopathy boards have been up against have been overt sceptics, and these they have merrily banned, making themselves look like narrow-minded bigots.

However what they have failed to ban are the genuine trolls, to whom respect is due. I think most of the fun at Hpathy currently is trying to spot the real trolls. The tricky part is that if a principal feature of a troll is posting in order to make homeopathy look stupid to an outsider the list would be endless!

 

[Benguin]

I've tried asking genuine, simple questions and been banned.

I want to know their, position rationally explained. I want to find a common basis of understanding we can agree on and then establish where we part ways, they seem totally uninterested in debate of any sort.

 

[Rolfe]

When I was on that forum, I didn't tell a single lie or misrepresent my position in any way except as necessary to conceal my identity. Even Xanta got quite pally for a while. But I gradually pulled the punches less and less as I got more and more frustrated by the evasions. I think I had over 250 posts. Then I got banned, no warning, nothing. Some weeks later all my posts were deleted, leaving a lot of threads looking awfully one-sided.

But I wasn't trolling. I was challenging them openly. That they can't take.

I do so admire those with the ability to be really duplicitous and troll properly. I've started suspecting every newbie of being BSM these days, and half the time I think I'm right. The trouble for the homoeopaths is that half the time it's a genuine newbie. And they can't tell the difference.

Rolfe.

 

[Homeoskeptic]

It actually does not take long to discover the real trolls around. Paris was one and has not posted since.

Keep up the good work though. You'll all get banned in the end. Ha, Ha.

 

[Chris Haynes]

..Keep up the good work though. You'll all get banned in the end. Ha, Ha.

How is that supposed to keep up a good open dialogue?

Kind of reminds me why my Dad stopped taking the Miami Herald when he was stationed in Ft. Clayton in what was then the Panama Canal Zone. He got frustrated because they were often not delivered because Gen. Omar Torrijos had the whole shipment confiscated at the airport whenever they had anything critical to say about him.

Censorship in action.

Editted for punctuation.

 

[tamiO]

How is that supposed to keep up a good open dialogue?

Kind of reminds me why my Dad stopped taking the Miami Herald when he was stationed in Ft. Clayton in what was then the Panama Canal Zone. He got frustrated because they were often not delivered because Gen. Omar Torrijos had the whole shipment confiscated at the airport whenever they had anything critical to say about him.

Censorship in action.

Editted for punctuation.

A Zonie !

 

[Chris Haynes]

A Zonie !

1971-73: Curundu Jr. High

1973-74: Balboa High School (20+ bombscares, usually during chemistry lab!)

My chemistry teacher was Ray Dragseth. From him I learned the secret to why homeopathy is bogus.

 

[Benguin]

You'll all get banned in the end. Ha, Ha.

What are you afraid of? A great fall?

 

[Prester John]

It actually does not take long to discover the real trolls around. Paris was one and has not posted since.

Keep up the good work though. You'll all get banned in the end. Ha, Ha.

Of course it doesn't, anyone who questions homeopathy is a troll, you've merely extended the definition of troll to encompass all the questions you can't answer. Your proud of it to. Do you not stop to think even for 1 second ?

 

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

It actually does not take long to discover the real trolls around. Paris was one and has not posted since.

Keep up the good work though. You'll all get banned in the end. Ha, Ha.

HS/Cora/NH

Read what you have just written. You are gleeful about banning people who ask reasonable questions and can present a pile of evidence that shows you misrepresenting medical reality. You have already lost the debate.

 

[geni]

A far as I casn tel lthough only homeopathy cafe has had the nerve to admit that they are banning sceptics (sorry but I love this quote):

This board has a zero tolerance policy regarding TROLLS and any member of professional skeptic site such as Quackbusters and Amazing Randi. Any member of these sites will be immediately banned. Any suspected member will be banned. Anyone posting in a "Trolling" manner, as determined by the board owner, will be banned. The owner of the board reserves the right to ban anyone at anytime as is seen fit.

http://com1.runboard.com/bhomeopathywellnesscenter.fboardrules.t1

 

[Rolfe]

Paris was one and has not posted since.

Well, if you banned "Paris", then "Paris" isn't likely to have posted since! Whether or not someone typing with the same fingers has posted since is another question entirely.

As Prester John said, the insanity here is the redefinition of the word "troll". Someone who disagrees with you and says so, or someone who has some rather searching questions to ask, is not a troll. However, if you routinely ban people in that category, you're simply opening yourselves up to real trolling.

A real troll is someone who mis-represents his position in order to stir up discussion or disagreement. You know, like coming to JREF and calling yourself "Homeoskeptic", claiming to be a man with a degree in Italian and no scientific training, who wants ammunition to persuade his wife that homoeopahty is "dangerous nonsense"? When all the time you're a woman who claims to have several homoeopathic diplomas and is a practising homoeopath? Now THAT's trolling.

So is having two separate identities on the same forum (like "Homeoskeptic" and "Corallinus", just to take a totally random example) and having them act as if they are separate participants in a discussion. Trolling sock puppetry, no less.

Now, if you routinely ban anyone who comes along to debate, but openly takes a point of view in opposition to you, or asks questions you find uncomfortable, you're just begging for people to return as real trolls - pretending to be homoeopaths, or pretending to be interested newbies and so on, or having multiple identities to manufacture an entire thread, even.

You've only got yourselves to blame.

Rolfe.