the_true_iori
Lapsis Stella
I'm not intentionally goading anyone. I merely read over them and then click away from the thread. I should have made it more clear when I responded to that person. I never engage anyone when the thread becomes heated in an argument, I find it useless when there are others who are already in the thread and debating/arguing with the OP.
But I'm sure the people who do engage these people are aware of that, or at least I would hope they are. There are instances where they aren't intentionally goading the person because the OP keeps coming back more and more. You have to remember, the goading can go both ways.
Reading back on it, my tone was perhaps more accusatory than intended. I was speaking of a general case rather than specifically calling you out.
It is not difficult to see when your responses are intentionally trying to provoke a negative response from another person, especially if you have been interacting with this person already and can generate at least a simplistic/minor profile of how they think and act.
Many users, particularly those in the GCD, ED and most 'Entertainment' forums, have an inherent sense of moral superiority because the 'troll' or frustrated op has broken the rules of the Terms of Service. They view this as carte blanche to be sarcastic, snide and 'witty' (using that in the loosest sense of the term) because "Hey that guy is a total a**, who cares anyway?". Worse still, they so rarely get called out on it that it sets a precedent that this sort of behavior is okay.
I would say that the vast majority of users who respond in 'closed threads' to reply to the OP are theoretically aware that what they are doing is wrong/trolling, but not cognitively conscious of it at the time. A lapse in judgment you could say.
No worries!
emotion_yatta I know tone sometimes doesn't come across that well over the internet!
Oh yes, they can. The Walking Dead forum is a perfect example of that happening a little too much. I don't like to engage in the arguments because I find it more entertaining to watch it snowball from a civilized conversation into something that is straight out of a TV drama.
Sometimes it's not hard to have a lapse in judgment, the temptation is already there and there is no one really stopping you but your own self. And sometimes that isn't enough and before you know it, in a flame war.
I think sometimes a tone is mistaken for trolling, especially if the poster didn't really mean anything by it and another user is just looking for an excuse to start an argument. It really isn't hard.