Internetiquette

Bloody hellfire, the internet harbours the best and worst in people.

Forums, facebook and youtube (and I said this before) are traditionally the very worst examples of this, with slanging matches starting within minutes of people posting something.  These arguments are usually childish in nature and often involve a total lack of interpersonal skills or ability to participate in rational argument.

When a person resorts TO TYPING IN CAPITALS or just repeating the same thing over and over, especially when combined with escalating insults or rudeness, you know you’ve met the internet troll.

Shouting, caps, insults, straw man arguments (where you bring in an unrelated topic to the central argument, usually an emotional one and use that to debate with), ad hominem (personal) attacks – all things that indicate that a person cannot formulate an argument, cannot debate facts and lacks the openness of mind to be able to assess the scope of an issue.

More importantly, especially when the person resorts to insults or rudeness, this, to me, indicates a potentially serious issue with anger and loss of control, especially when they are a repeat offender.

The Internet, home of the Troll, just hope you don’t meet one in the street.