To me trolling is someone that purposely comes in to post fake items or a statement that is made to purposely set people off. They are not actually part of the community discussions. They just join up and are there solely to rile people, fake people out etc.
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This is pretty much the definition of a troll/trolling.
We got trolls all over this site. They are our regular members. They donāt troll us, but they troll the heck outta others, lol. They are pretty open about it.
I have seen some users on here who have posted comments and images that are blatantly racist and xenophobic, without even trying to disguise that. It still seems a bit unclear to me the extent to which TuD tolerates that and is committed to providing an inclusive environment, which seems a bit odd for a forum on a website with a bilingual focus and that in theory is attempting to draw a diverse and international community. It seems all the more important given that T2 diabetes disproportionately affects BIPOC. I would hope for zero tolerance, as well as a statement to that effect. If every retailer Iāve ever given my email address to has sent me a statement about their commitment to fighting racism, it seems like a site where itās far more relevant might want to post something.
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Weāve had a couple regular, largely productive members who have occasionally gotten in a bad mood, stepped over the line and, had individual posts removed. One I know of, was completely banned back 2011.
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Honestly, I havenāt seen any, at least in the areas I post, although recently someone was called a troll more-or-less, but it seems that in the end he might not have been.
He started off with a highly inflammatory post about masks, totalitarianism, and covid tracking apps. One can see how this can set off many people trying to change his opinion, to no avail, as he ranted on, avoiding any relevant rebuttal. At some point, someone noticed that his account was two days old, but according to him, he was unable to use his account so recently created a new one. Troll or not, his most inflammatory post/posts was/were deleted, and the thread was closed.
That said, having threads closed isnāt always because of a troll, as mentioned by someone else - fevers running high about politics and covid (pun unintended?) - the political line can seem to have been crossed. Itās subjectiveā¦
Politics has replaced religion it seems. There is no way to debate politics anymore. Any more than you can debate religion. People believe what they want to believe most of the time.
This is why no matter what the president says or does half the country loves him and half the country hates him.
We have lost the ability to have perspective and to think about issues and use logic.
We have become a society of us versus them.
I donāt read about politics anymore. I avoid the conversations. It really can only make you either tone deaf or intolerant.
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That person may not fit the exact definition of a troll, but given that they also initially also added racist rhetoric to that thread and posted a confederate flag as the background pic of their profile page (now removed) and recently once again made off-topic xenophobic and racist comments that needed to be deleted from a thread, Iād say close enough.
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Hey Cardamom, I meant to message you. Did you see the DPAC meeting? Nothing earth shattering was revealed, but they did have some interesting minority focused healthcare orgs present that I had never heard of before.
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I did not, but thatās awesome! I know in my field, thereās been an uptick in diversity-focused presentations and special issues etc. I hope that it gets sustained beyond this year or so, given how serious disparities are across all aspects of healthcare.
I agree. I am very disturbed that those images were posted here. I am not here as much and donāt see a lot now. When I was a behind scenes moderator of sorts here, I saw a few obvious trolls and it took way too long for them to get deleted off the site.
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