Beware the troll under the bridge
It's happened. I've had my first troll. Let me begin at the beginning.
Once upon a time, our heroine fell in love. She fell in love with the character of Giles on the beloved (but now defunct) show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." She had it so bad she decided one day to seek out LJ communities devoted to her beautiful librarian man. So it was she happened upon the community Hotties in the Stacks.
But it was immediately obvious this community had nothing to do with the angelic creature that is Giles. Quite the opposite, actually. The community had but one post, a lone librarian and her picture. Confused, I read the userinfo. This was a community created solely for people to submit their pics for evaluation by the "members" to decide whether or not they qualified as a hottie. This girl's picture was posted Feb 8. Alone and ignored it sat for 5 solid months almost to the day, when I saw it on July 7 (she got one response, someone pointing out they couldn't see the pic, so she replied with a link to a website, which again was ignored). I felt sorry for the girl. Sorry that she needed validation so very badly that she posted at all, and worse that no one bothered to comment on it for 5 months.
I was so filled with disgust at the entire premise that I was forced to post. And I did. I said it was the stupidest, most demeaning community I'd ever seen on LJ. I still feel that way just writing about it.
Then I promptly forgot about it. That is, until last night when my troll appeared. Out of the clear blue he replied to my latest journal entry, accusing me of being "snippy" and that I felt "superior to women who are comfortable with their bodies." Go ahead and read it, I'm not making this up. All of this, I might add, done anonymously, because it's always easier to attack people when they have no recourse against you. He referred to "SexyLibrarians" so I went back to the community. It had taken off immensely in popularity and seemed to be thriving. I was puzzled, but felt happy for the one poor girl I had found there, thinking that she was no longer alone.
The problem is that I mistakenly went back to check on sexylibrarians, NOT the correct community, sexy_librarians. In the correct community, my one poor lonely girl was evidently better off alone. Someone finally "evaluated" her and decided she was a "cow." Still, she fared better than the girl who posted after me. The userinfo claims the community is "all in good fun." "Show us your fucking tits slutface, or just SHUT THE FUCK UP," was the reply to her post. What fun! Yet here this troll was reprimanding ME for my "condesending (sic) attitude," yadda, yadda yadda. Fortunately for me, the troll slipped on his last reply, being so eager to get that last, clever zinger in he mistakenly included his LJ identity. He actually thought deleting it and reposting anonymously would trick me, but those email notifications were his downfall. He tried to play all casual, like he didn't care, but strangely he didn't stick around too much longer after that. Not so easy to cross the line into harassment if I can report him to LJ.
I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of writing about it, but this journal is about my life and what happens to me. I am still really confused about whatever muddy point he was trying to make. The nearest guess I can come up with is he mistook me for the creator of the community, who then....awoke from my drunken stupor and, horrified, went back to denounce my own creation. Because let's get it straight. My criticism was clearly of the community, not the poor girl who posted. And I will stand by my post, proudly. I think the limited (but immensely degrading) activity that has occurred there before and since more than supports my original statement.
You accused me of thinking I was better than you, hkat. As a matter of fact, I DO think I'm better than someone who has nothing better to do than anonymously attack strangers for all the wrong reasons. If you really believe in what you're saying and are interested in a fair debate, you sign your name to your statements. If you are chickenshit and just want to pick on someone, you don't. And I also think I'm a hell of a lot better than someone who creates a community just to get girls to post pics and then insult them. I'll go even further and say that most of the people I know are better than scum like that. My question is, why do you care so much what I think?
I know I promised to give hkat the last word, but this is my journal. I believe I've paid for that privilege. So there it is.
Once upon a time, our heroine fell in love. She fell in love with the character of Giles on the beloved (but now defunct) show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." She had it so bad she decided one day to seek out LJ communities devoted to her beautiful librarian man. So it was she happened upon the community Hotties in the Stacks.
But it was immediately obvious this community had nothing to do with the angelic creature that is Giles. Quite the opposite, actually. The community had but one post, a lone librarian and her picture. Confused, I read the userinfo. This was a community created solely for people to submit their pics for evaluation by the "members" to decide whether or not they qualified as a hottie. This girl's picture was posted Feb 8. Alone and ignored it sat for 5 solid months almost to the day, when I saw it on July 7 (she got one response, someone pointing out they couldn't see the pic, so she replied with a link to a website, which again was ignored). I felt sorry for the girl. Sorry that she needed validation so very badly that she posted at all, and worse that no one bothered to comment on it for 5 months.
I was so filled with disgust at the entire premise that I was forced to post. And I did. I said it was the stupidest, most demeaning community I'd ever seen on LJ. I still feel that way just writing about it.
Then I promptly forgot about it. That is, until last night when my troll appeared. Out of the clear blue he replied to my latest journal entry, accusing me of being "snippy" and that I felt "superior to women who are comfortable with their bodies." Go ahead and read it, I'm not making this up. All of this, I might add, done anonymously, because it's always easier to attack people when they have no recourse against you. He referred to "SexyLibrarians" so I went back to the community. It had taken off immensely in popularity and seemed to be thriving. I was puzzled, but felt happy for the one poor girl I had found there, thinking that she was no longer alone.
The problem is that I mistakenly went back to check on sexylibrarians, NOT the correct community, sexy_librarians. In the correct community, my one poor lonely girl was evidently better off alone. Someone finally "evaluated" her and decided she was a "cow." Still, she fared better than the girl who posted after me. The userinfo claims the community is "all in good fun." "Show us your fucking tits slutface, or just SHUT THE FUCK UP," was the reply to her post. What fun! Yet here this troll was reprimanding ME for my "condesending (sic) attitude," yadda, yadda yadda. Fortunately for me, the troll slipped on his last reply, being so eager to get that last, clever zinger in he mistakenly included his LJ identity. He actually thought deleting it and reposting anonymously would trick me, but those email notifications were his downfall. He tried to play all casual, like he didn't care, but strangely he didn't stick around too much longer after that. Not so easy to cross the line into harassment if I can report him to LJ.
I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of writing about it, but this journal is about my life and what happens to me. I am still really confused about whatever muddy point he was trying to make. The nearest guess I can come up with is he mistook me for the creator of the community, who then....awoke from my drunken stupor and, horrified, went back to denounce my own creation. Because let's get it straight. My criticism was clearly of the community, not the poor girl who posted. And I will stand by my post, proudly. I think the limited (but immensely degrading) activity that has occurred there before and since more than supports my original statement.
You accused me of thinking I was better than you, hkat. As a matter of fact, I DO think I'm better than someone who has nothing better to do than anonymously attack strangers for all the wrong reasons. If you really believe in what you're saying and are interested in a fair debate, you sign your name to your statements. If you are chickenshit and just want to pick on someone, you don't. And I also think I'm a hell of a lot better than someone who creates a community just to get girls to post pics and then insult them. I'll go even further and say that most of the people I know are better than scum like that. My question is, why do you care so much what I think?
I know I promised to give hkat the last word, but this is my journal. I believe I've paid for that privilege. So there it is.