Sockpuppets/GHOULS/Trolls/Banned Users

wageslave

!!!!!!_face wrote: »

Ghoul is a term, arguably a small MSE bespoke meme now I guess, invented by a plethora of posters grouped together by their CAPITALS_AND_UNDERSCORES (another meme??) names.

It could be one poster, or several. It could be estate agents who genuinely believe their expressed viewpoint, or bears who are satirising bulls. OR a mixture. OR something else.

The CAPITALS_AND_UNDERSCORES characters proclaim all those who are in favour of a stable/sensible property market are "ghouls".

Of course, when I say "those who are in favour of a stable/sensible property market", I am also making reference to what HAMISH_MCTAVISH (apparently not a CAPITALS_AND_UNDERSCORES character, but possibly an inspiration to the name (I speculate)) calls "crashaholics", i.e. the true doom-and-gloomsters from the housepricecrash.co.uk (aka HPC) forum.

It would appear the CAPITALS_AND_UNDERSCORES characters generally have the view that the "ghouls" are akin to baby-murderers and kitten-molestors, who want nothing more than to destroy the wealth and wellbeing of property-owners throughout the UK, despite the obvious credit bubble and loony mentality that drove the UK to madness and then economic oblivion, and a consequent prolonged (20 years? look at Japan...) sluggish recovery.

Cor blimey, look at me, I've almost validated the existence of one or a selection of trolls. I should be banned.

Please don't ban me.

You should be banned for making no bliddy sense at all

Ghouls are bears or merely anyone who disagrees with a bulls interpretation on the economy?

Hamish, would you have charactised Mewbie as a ghoul? Or if not, who?

Language is my very favourite thing.

t is better than shoes......

twadge_face

wageslave wrote: »

You should be banned for making no bliddy sense at all

Ghouls are bears or merely anyone who disagrees with a bulls interpretation on the economy?

Hamish, would you have charactised Mewbie as a ghoul? Or if not, who?

Language is my very favourite thing.

t is better than shoes......

No, no, no. Ghoul is a term invented by a (several?) troll(s?).

They all have names like GHOULS_AVENGED or COOL_PEOPLE_R_HOMEOWNERS.

But there are loads of them. Dozens! Latest is TIME_TO_BUY, I think... It's a bit depressing how they lack wit in their humourousness, I have to say.

Anyway, this is why we can use CAPITALS_AND_UNDERSCORES to group them together collectively.

And no, I don't think we think HAMISH_MCTAVISH is the perpetrator... but I think he is quite possibly the inspiration behind using CAPITALS_AND_UNDERSCORES.

So what IS a "ghoul"? Anyone who thinks prices should be stable or go down, it seems.

Amusingly there was a thread instigated by a CAPITALS_AND_UNDERSCORES character asking why everyone dislikes Sibley. Now that was weird...

Does that make more sense?! :-/

twadge_face

SAY_NO_TO_GHOULS wrote: »

Great post. Actually I think everyone should be banned except Hamish. He's clearly the most intelligent one here and the only one who posts anything remotely sensible like saying gold would crash in price (IT DID) and saying house prices wouldn't crash (THEY DID NOT).

And right on cue, an example of a SATIRICAL c_&_u individuals.

wageslave

!!!!!!_face wrote: »

No, no, no. Ghoul is a term invented by a (several?) troll(s?).

They all have names like GHOULS_AVENGED or COOL_PEOPLE_R_HOMEOWNERS.

But there are loads of them. Dozens! Latest is TIME_TO_BUY, I think... It's a bit depressing how they lack wit in their humourousness, I have to say.

Anyway, this is why we can use CAPITALS_AND_UNDERSCORES to group them together collectively.

And no, I don't think we think HAMISH_MCTAVISH is the perpetrator... but I think he is quite possibly the inspiration behind using CAPITALS_AND_UNDERSCORES.

So what IS a "ghoul"? Anyone who thinks prices should be stable or go down, it seems.

Amusingly there was a thread instigated by a CAPITALS_AND_UNDERSCORES character asking why everyone dislikes Sibley. Now that was weird...

Does that make more sense?! :-/

Finally, light dawns......

You have to forgive me, I am not the brightest pixel in the firnament that is MSE.

I quite like sockies, I would hate to see them banned. There are so few people who genuinely amuse me.

Anyways, re-inventing yourself is practically a Ye Olde custom on this board.

BTW !!!!!!_er_person, what was in your bliddy head when you came up with that particular screen name?

wageslave

SAY_NO_TO_GHOULS wrote: »

Great post. Actually I think everyone should be banned except Hamish. He's clearly the most intelligent one here and the only one who posts anything remotely sensible like saying gold would crash in price (IT DID) and saying house prices wouldn't crash (THEY DID NOT).

Hi Hamish:rotfl:

twadge_face

wageslave wrote: »

Finally, light dawns......

You have to forgive me, I am not the brightest pixel in the firnament that is MSE.

I quite like sockies, I would hate to see them banned. There are so few people who genuinely amuse me.

Anyways, re-inventing yourself is practically a Ye Olde custom on this board.

BTW !!!!!!_er_person, what was in your bliddy head when you came up with that particular screen name?

I just perhaps spend too much time here... although I'm a very light user by comparison to quite a few other regulars! I have a particular interest in people's modes of expression and developments of a social ilk. Hence this one was particularly intriguing in how it panned. Although I'm a bit concerned by writing about it so "seriously" (ahem) I'm lending a little too much credibility to the situation?

For what it's worth, I think this c_&_u thing was initially one person, a true bulltroll, but it seems to have developed from there. It's very difficult to disguise your writing style, and particularly stupid to thank yourself.

But then I think it developed to another level, with other people on both sides of the fence getting involved. Hence my belief in deliberate satire-o-bears getting in on the act.

Bit of clever-de-clever student ironickness, I reckon.

You know, you're possibly right about sockies and the like. They do add colour, as mostlycheerful commented in the mainboard thread about them adding a touch of salt and pepper. I'd hate for this forum to be too dry and lacking colour (I'm not racist). I'm here for the laughs as THAT is where truth lies. Maybe.

As for my name... I just wanted something distinctive ;-) ...it's a portmanteau don'tchaknow. It's nice that it's noticed from time-to-time. :-)

mostlycheerful

Wow, got to you RenovationMan, hasn't it, how many places have you started threads about this today? This is the third one I've noticed so far. Doing a campaign, aren't you. Well, listen up, McLavish is great, one of the best writers on the whole forum and lots of people think and say so, and GHOULIES is a laugh and also a good addition to the whole thing. And you can take it or leave it with either of them, and all the others, it's easy just to skim or skip their contributions and it would be appalling if they were censored out. That would be a mistake and a disaster.

Right, if you're posting this same guff everywhere, here again is what I've already posted on two of your other threads today about this subject :

Oh no, McLavish and his Lavishness are great. Hoots mon! Very interesting poster, dead intelligent and informed, always a very interesting read, and very witty, got a global perspective that is quite rare here. And he often expresses quite complicated stuff succinctly and clearly. And I love his Aberdeen stuff. Being in London it’s great to hear about the other end of the country from time to time. Yes, I’m a fan of McLavish, the boards would be sadly de lavished if he got his wings clipped. I trust ye jest with such a suggestion.

Well, yes, regarding some of the numpties : but the GHOUL_GHOUL weirdo is also often amusing to read. And whether that might be Sibley or not doesn’t bother me. It’d be funny if it was, if it’s someone else, well, that’s a tantalising little mystery that may or may not be revealed at some point.

His/her postings are all so relentlessly absurd and superficial and appear to be a kind of stand up comedy routine and the said person kindly identifies itself as being the same silly twit by the style of naming so we have the choice of ignoring it’s fatuous threads or reading them for the humour. When I’m in the mood for a bit of it’s latest silliness I read a bit and giggle at it or if I want to read something with a bit more meat and bones then I skip it’s little efforts. Not a problem to me.

And, indeed, a fair few people actually engage with said fule and answer it’s inanities with a mixture of intelligent debunking actually addressing it’s concerns, dismissing them for what they are and quite often with humorous put downs. I very rarely, if ever, see anyone being annoyed or irritated or upset with it’s vacuous jollity and silliness.

I regard the poster as more of a comedian than a serious threat to my enjoyment of the board. Some of what it does is quite amusing and shows a certain quite interesting style and flair. I like the way it thanks itself, that’s fantastic, very funny, and the other day it did a classic load of guff with the usual format of one or two inane comments about property being great and it’s usual bit of hate of HPC, the property crash forum whose banned people often wash up here at MSE, very funny, then, when people called it a twit and made some swipes at it, it then came on in one of it’s other IDs and supported itself and then came out with the classic line “Now that’s what I want to hear” and thanked itself again! I found all that an absolute hoot, screamingly funny, very jolly and I said so. And all harmless and inoffensive. All quite cheerful and upbeat and entertaining.

And recently it’s got a great line, and a number of funny variations, about visiting it’s friendly local estate agent and all sorts of daftisms and some people have been copying the humour and doing threads about visiting their friendly local pawnbroker and such like which, if you’ve already read the original stuff, is also a right laugh to read. I read quite a few of them and often get a good giggle out of it. It definitely holds it’s own in the humour stakes which, surely, is therefore a valid addition.

I find it interesting the way it’s preoccupied with some superficial aspects of property and each time it comes back with yet a new variant on the same theme it mostly makes me cackle. I loved some of its recent names such as REAL_MEN_OWN_PROPERTY and WOMEN_LIKE_MEN_WITH_PROPERTY and such like, very silly, very funny. Daft as a box of frogs. Yes, I like a bit of humour and jollity, brightens up the day. It’s harmless and, as I already say above, it’s easy to skip it any time you’re not particularly in the mood for it so I don’t see it as a problem or irritation

By the way, I’m not it and I don’t do any pranks like that or of any description and I only use this one ID myself.

What I’ve noticed about some other forums is that they have a troll section marked as such and listed right at the bottom of the list of boards and all the nuisance and idiotic stuff gets plonked in there. I’ve read several of them and some of the guff is entertaining, amusing and even quite informative at times. Silliness and rudeness and inanity can be quite a laugh at times. So surely that would be an easy partial solution to this and perhaps Martin could open a troll board, listed right at the bottom after Discussion Time and appoint some more volunteer board guides whose job it is to pick out troll and idiot and nonsense stuff and move it to the troll board. Of course highly offensive stuff still has to be deleted but the relatively harmless and a bit irritating daft stuff could be bunged down there and then we have the choice of either ignoring it or enjoying it.

Regarding banned people coming back, some other posters have, on other threads about this subject, discussed how some of them behave themselves in their new IDs or alternatively, at some point, when they’ve done something particularly out of order, just get banned again. Either way I haven’t noticed much disruption or irritation being caused so I think the current policy works fine. The abuse button gets rid of highly offensive stuff, the not so gross stuff can just jog along and people can just ignore it if they don’t like it. I don’t see it as a problem.

Yes, these boards are pretty bland and quite heavily censored already, all the hot topics and usual suspects are already banned and listed as such in the stickies and the terms and conditions and are frequently culled by use of the abuse button, so to make the whole thing any more bland than it already is would be cutting out too much of the entertainment and valid expression. It would be dumbing it down unnecessarily. I think most people would prefer there to be at least a bit of a spark going on here and there, from time to time, and a bit of definition and black and white stuff to sink your teeth into rather than just one uniform shade of grey throughout. Yes, if you flatten it out too much then you run the risk of decapitating it, of killing off too much of the spirit.

I think Martin and co have got it about right, it’s a bit lively and colourful occasionally, which is a good thing, and the extreme stuff gets the chop so it’s not all clogged up with unpleasant filth. Yes, I think the current policy is pretty good and the only addition that I think could be made would be, as I say above, a troll section marked as such to put all the flaky stuff that’s not so outrageous that it has to be deleted.

twadge_face

wageslave wrote: »

Hi Hamish:rotfl:

I say it ain't Hamish... but it could be Hamish!

Jennifer_Jane

wageslave wrote: »

Hamish, would you have charactised Mewbie as a ghoul? Or if not, who?
QUOTE]

Ah, beloved mewbie! Where art thou, or who art thou?

I was a little in love with mewbie, and have now had to resort to a relationship with a real live person, which is more time-consuming, among other things.

twadge_face

mostlycheerful wrote: »

Looooong post (albeit good fun and well articulated, remarked !!!!!!_face in an unsurprisingly patronising fashion)

Mate, now I know I defended you previously against a lame tl;dr, but summarising IS your friend! But good on you for standing up to RenovationMan as it DOES sound like he's lost the plot if he's posting like you say.

I started off today being fed up of the c_&_u individuals, but I've come round now to the settled opinion that the forum policy is just about right. Perhaps the c_&_u individuals will fade to obscurity as the boredom level towards their contributions increases further?

I s'pose it's a classic case of "do not feed the troll". I'm particularly guilty of providing trollfeed and take on other posters' feedlines as a springboard for a response. Easily baited...

Or... IS THERE AN IGNORE BUTTON?!