Yahoo Message Boards

[Arlia Janet]

I was reading a news article on Yahoo. When I went down to hit the button to print the article, I hit the message board link instead.

This board surprised the heck out of me. Any forum will have the occasional "Troll" hiding under a bridge causing trouble, but this message board was an entire ecosystem consisting of nothing but trolls that fed off of each other.

It made me sick. Some of the things being spewed out really made my blood boil. There are people out there actually typing that stuff out. I am not just talking about the racism and sexism. No. I am talking about these other -isms that don't have names because the English language never imagined this type of ignorance could exist.

I know they are just trolling. I know they are just saying controversial stuff just to get a rise out of people like me, but I'll never understand the psyche of these 13 year old boys who decide to spend their time calling people creative names, like 'cockfag,' while hiding behind the anonymity of the internet.

The whole experience made me appreciate these forums and the civility and respect 99.9% of the members have toward each other. I'm glad I am a member here. Many of you are funny, enlightening individuals, and, every now and then, I learn a thing or two. I'd also like to thank to moderators for keeping this place moving smoothly and weeding out these trolls. Thank you for making this place a community instead of a shout-fest.

[Dragonsbane]

Hey, some of them are much older than 13. My personal theory is that it's caused by their own sudden realization that they can stroke their pathetic little egos as much as they want without getting in trouble, because of the anonymity granted by the internet.

These people are either scum, or confused. The former need to be purged from the gene pool, preferably with flamethrowers, and the latter are simply in need of reeducation.

[Mike McC]

Yeah, this forum is class all the way. It actually allows actual, real conversations to take place. Hell, I remember one thread that was started by a newcomer, the topic was what kind of sodas people like, and in the initial post he said he started it just to see how long it would take to get off topic. And it stayed on topic until it's closure.

Much props need to go out to the excellent mods as well, who work dilligently to get rid of crap threads and posts we never even see, and dish out punishment where it is needed.

Also, on a side note, it seems that about 90% of the people who don't know how to use capitolization and punctuation correctly don't seem to last more than about a wek or two. The remaining 10% does it in a way that's just as readable and non-offensive as the correct usage, as well.