We all have posted on the popular diesel forums whether it's your opinion on a subject or about your product/services . . . and we all have experienced the negative aspect of being attacked on line by others who are competitors, their friends or unknowns.
I believe that is why online services such as Twitter and Facebook have become very popular within our diesel community. At least you can control who you want to converse with on a positive level and have fun discussing our sport.
My son educated me what a troll is on the Internet, someone who no matter what you respond with will in a negative response keep attacking you online. Their purpose in life is too make everyone's life miserable! They are followed by fellow trolls who take pleasure in trying to make themselves look big on the net by attacking the innocent. As my son reminded me, it's just like the fairy book tales "you don't feed the trolls"!
In other words don't reply to any of them, they feed off of your response! I have even had forum moderators re-paraphrase parts of private PMs I have sent them in order to resolve their dislikes and repost them in a negative way to discredit you. A lot of unprofessional communication has gone on in the years that the economy has become tight and competitive. Companies even hire Internet trolls to attack their competition online on the forums, disgusting as that sounds it has become a way of life for many that know nothing about the products or business.
Bashers are very similar but they are the amateur trolls who sometimes are even kids sitting at home with nothing to do or it's the competitor's friends or employees that cruise the net looking for a fight. I had one sponsor who was furious about the statements and attacks on his products on a online forum. He finally got a hold of the individual only to find it was a 17 year old kid with not even a drivers license much less a truck. This person had rung up over 18 pages of bashing our sponsor's products.
Should the forums moderate such activities online? Some do and some thrive on it because they feel it drives traffic to their site! Some even encourage it so they can claim high traffic numbers. I guess it's like a traffic accident, eveyone wants to take a look as they drive by even on a simple fender bender to see what kind of misfortune another person has fallen to on the roads.
Then there is the punks who are big behind the keyboard but kittens in person. I had someone last year threatening to kick my butt when we meet at a convention and race we were attending. Bashed me big time online, called me names, etc, etc. Had a group of guys come to the booth that weekend, super nice young men, talked pleasant, shook our hands and when they left the people in the booth said do you know who that was? I replied no idea and they said it was the guy who was going to kick my butt, etc, etc. I just laughed and said "oh well seems like a nice young fellow"!
I am asking that in THE FUTURE, in order to keep our sport headed in a positive direction - PLEASE - don't fall victim to this vice or be a part of it!
When someone asks for help on his truck online, don't bash him or make fun, try to help him or her in a positive way. If you see others trolling him ignore their remarks and keep on helping the person.
This much negative energy does our sport no good and drives people away from the sport when they see so much in-fighting and bashing. I have had many competitors say they don't even go online anymore because of the nonsense associated with the sport online. It has cut a way to communicate with our enthusiasts. Many creative enthusiasts like i have stated before has found ways to go around the direction by using Twitter, Facebook and text messaging.
In THE FUTURE, BEWARE OF TROLLS, BASHERS and PUNKS! Don't be a part of it, help build the sport by being positive.
I believe that is why online services such as Twitter and Facebook have become very popular within our diesel community. At least you can control who you want to converse with on a positive level and have fun discussing our sport.
My son educated me what a troll is on the Internet, someone who no matter what you respond with will in a negative response keep attacking you online. Their purpose in life is too make everyone's life miserable! They are followed by fellow trolls who take pleasure in trying to make themselves look big on the net by attacking the innocent. As my son reminded me, it's just like the fairy book tales "you don't feed the trolls"!
In other words don't reply to any of them, they feed off of your response! I have even had forum moderators re-paraphrase parts of private PMs I have sent them in order to resolve their dislikes and repost them in a negative way to discredit you. A lot of unprofessional communication has gone on in the years that the economy has become tight and competitive. Companies even hire Internet trolls to attack their competition online on the forums, disgusting as that sounds it has become a way of life for many that know nothing about the products or business.
Bashers are very similar but they are the amateur trolls who sometimes are even kids sitting at home with nothing to do or it's the competitor's friends or employees that cruise the net looking for a fight. I had one sponsor who was furious about the statements and attacks on his products on a online forum. He finally got a hold of the individual only to find it was a 17 year old kid with not even a drivers license much less a truck. This person had rung up over 18 pages of bashing our sponsor's products.
Should the forums moderate such activities online? Some do and some thrive on it because they feel it drives traffic to their site! Some even encourage it so they can claim high traffic numbers. I guess it's like a traffic accident, eveyone wants to take a look as they drive by even on a simple fender bender to see what kind of misfortune another person has fallen to on the roads.
Then there is the punks who are big behind the keyboard but kittens in person. I had someone last year threatening to kick my butt when we meet at a convention and race we were attending. Bashed me big time online, called me names, etc, etc. Had a group of guys come to the booth that weekend, super nice young men, talked pleasant, shook our hands and when they left the people in the booth said do you know who that was? I replied no idea and they said it was the guy who was going to kick my butt, etc, etc. I just laughed and said "oh well seems like a nice young fellow"!
I am asking that in THE FUTURE, in order to keep our sport headed in a positive direction - PLEASE - don't fall victim to this vice or be a part of it!
When someone asks for help on his truck online, don't bash him or make fun, try to help him or her in a positive way. If you see others trolling him ignore their remarks and keep on helping the person.
This much negative energy does our sport no good and drives people away from the sport when they see so much in-fighting and bashing. I have had many competitors say they don't even go online anymore because of the nonsense associated with the sport online. It has cut a way to communicate with our enthusiasts. Many creative enthusiasts like i have stated before has found ways to go around the direction by using Twitter, Facebook and text messaging.
In THE FUTURE, BEWARE OF TROLLS, BASHERS and PUNKS! Don't be a part of it, help build the sport by being positive.
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