How to protect your emotional health on DU

[LeftHander]

Okay folks one thing I know about this board from my 7 years (got here summer of 2001) of being here is that this board attracts NUMEROUS conservative operatives whose sole purpose is to generate FUD and division.

These people KNOW how to get to us. And they do it well.

I have seen it time and time again.

Some handy rules based on my own habits...


1. Avoid Posting on popular culture news bits. (I personally could care less)
2. Avoid Posts that attempt to generate outrage from some conservative response to a bizarre tragedy.
3. Avoid Re-posts from known conservative sources, I already know what they are saying and don't need to hear it again. They are just posted to piss people off. There is a lot of LGBT baiting going on right now.

4. If posts like 1,2,3 are constantly hitting the top it is because other deep trolls are keeping them kicked.
Notice how these posts are much less prevalent post election....

5. Don't hold faith in 1000+ - I have 1000+ plus posts and 90% mostly are snark....that is me...the others are some discussion I find interesting.

6. You can't win or get the last post on trolling flame baiters.

7. If you see a post that goes against the rules....alert mods to it. Be patient. And stop posting on it.

8. Be choosy about posts and people you engage...and avoid name calling. If it it looks to become tit for tat. Back off or take it offline. Don't read other peoples tit for tat or get into smoking out a troll with another DU already well into it. Some folks here who have been here a long time are good a picking out trolls. Even the deep ones.

9. If you do try and smoke out a suspected troll out by taking them on in a tit for tat then be prepared for the emotional turmoil it will cause. Not only to you but everyone else.

10. find something funny...every now and then. Be snarky, be a smartass, have fun...Being here is part recreation, part information gathering, part community....so try to have fun now and then and take a break from posting and read the lounge or the articles forums...

11. Probably the biggest...if you put together a emotional strong OP...be ready for the trolls to attack. Use the alert system and avoid being sucked into arguments that are off topic from the OP...

12. Understand that eventually a online personality does expose the posters real personality. And if you can look at the historical posts for a given handle and determine if that person is worth your time.

13. Don't let the spell nazis get to you. I love them and they typically are english teachers and mean well. LOL.

DU has been a part of my life for a long time and I have waited a long time to see the GOP fall.

It is a good time with mixed emotions....We have a lot of work to do for LBGT equality, but the GOP is down now and I for one want to keep kicking them, not each other. I won't tolerate anyone who even seems to be slightly homophobic. I just use alert. Let the mods do the background work...sometimes people need the benefit of the doubt and I have seen people genuinely change attitudes but most of the time they simply need to get tombstoned.

Peace everyone. LGBT Equality Now.

[Jamastiene]

1. Thank you.

I am going to try to remember to keep this kicked for everyone to see. :patriot: :thumbsup:

[yardwork]

2. Very good points about deep trolls.

The Department of Defense invented the internet and was the first to use it. The U.S. State Department, DoD, CIA, FBI, and other groups have decades of experience using psychological techniques to infiltrate, spy on, and sometimes agitate from deep within organizations. In fact, these are time-honored traditions that go back thousands of years.

We have no idea who is here and why, but it is certain that there are plenty of posters on DU who are not what they claim. Some of them are mean trolls who love to stir up trouble. Some of them are just crazy people who like to invent online persona and play mind games. Some of those mean no harm, but their goal is not to promote Democratic ideals, either. They're just focused on their own personal issues.

Some are sent by the Republican Party and other groups as paid disruptors to spread right-wing talking points. Some are paid by the Democrats or various campaigns to promote their candidates.

And some are deep, deep operatives whose jobs are not described in any public documents or budgets that anyone is allowed to see, not even Congress. Those are the ones who are tasked with ensuring that the capitalist paradigm is protected. While those posters may promote "easy" Democratic ideals, you will notice that they always disrupt or derail any conversation that starts to veer into significant labor organizing. They do not want minorities to band together and insist on human rights.

And some are just homophobic jerks.

[LeftHander]

3. Now with two presidential elections under DU's Belt....

it is painfully obvious at the level of opposition troll activity leading up to the election.

I can put money on that when Bush finally leaves office...we will see a huge shift away from entertainment news and pop culture vomit to constant re-posts of conservative attacks on Obama.

the strategy of the media around Bush was to obfuscate the truth and distract...lots of money was spent doing that.

[yardwork]

5. I agree. The dead bonde girls will disappear from the headlines

as the entire news media rediscovers investigative journalism about the president.

[bluedawg12]

4. That is why I personally don't want to go to

the general forums to keep debating this.

I think we made our point over the course of this week. Those who support us have said so, the rest can go educate themselves, and those who put up truculent, obsessive disruptive fights aren’t here to discuss anything at all, they just keep repeating their same lame mantras in slightly different ways... screw 'em.

[auntsue]

6. good info

Thanks for posting this I am a newbie and just figuring how
this all work but I am fast becoming addicted t reading what
people are thinking even when I disagree