Trolls, shitposters and sockpuppets: why post on Bitcointalk?

[Donneski]

None of what you said justifies insulting and being rude to a person when he was not rude to you.
Yes, he made a shit coin, and then what? Is that a mortal sin? Again, nothing in the post he made warrants insults. If you think the person is a troll, you can always ignore his posts.
I don't think he's a troll. I think he is a person that simly has very opposing views to mine in a lot of things, and we have disagreed a lot.
It would never make sense to me that a person whose biggest crime was to say his coins are better as a currency than Bitcoin would receive insults when he makes a post. I mean, it's laughable that he thinks his coin is better as money than Bitcoin, but again, it doesn't mean you would attack him for making a completely different post.
You can disagree without insulting, and you can also ignore.
If he insults or is rude to you first, then that is a completely different thing.

I'm not justifying the use of derogatory remarks on anyone on the forum but it's also important for us to differentiate honest response from insults. When a person is being brutally honest, we sometimes mistake it for being rude.

Again, you've failed to address the content of what the OP said and how his criticism of forum demanded a response that also scrutinizes his activity in the forum. You don't come to the meta board and create a topic where you tell us that "technically speaking, posting of Bitcointalk is a waste of time." and expect the forum members not to remind you of your failed shitcoin project and how it's probably the main reason you're crashing out.

[Alpha Marine]

I'm not justifying the use of derogatory remarks on anyone on the forum but it's also important for us to differentiate honest response from insults. When a person is being brutally honest, we sometimes mistake it for being rude.

And most times, people use the "brutally honest" excuse to be rude.
I mean, he literally called him a "deepshit".

You don't come to the meta board and create a topic where you tell us that "technically speaking, posting of Bitcointalk is a waste of time." and expect the forum members not to remind you of your failed shitcoin project and how it's probably the main reason you're crashing out.

And if that is what angers you, then you are taking it out of context; at least that's how I see it.
If you read the other things he said, he is trying to say there is no major gain in posting on the forum, just like there is no gain in scrolling through Facebook or watching a football match, even though we still do those things. I don't agree with him because I have learnt a lot from this forum, I also like to believe I have impacted others too, plus also make little money on the side, but disagreeing with somebody doesn't mean you should insult them and that has been my point from the begining.
A lot of other users disagree with him, why don't I have a problem with them? It's simply because they did not insult. It's not like a rule or something, it's just courtesy. It's a discussion forum afterall, you're bound to see a lot of shit you disagree with.

[legiteum]

Again, you've failed to address the content of what the OP said and how his criticism of forum demanded a response that also scrutinizes his activity in the forum. You don't come to the meta board and create a topic where you tell us that "technically speaking, posting of Bitcointalk is a waste of time." and expect the forum members not to remind you of your failed shitcoin project and how it's probably the main reason you're crashing out.

You are absolutely right: I expect many posters to read a few soundbites of my post and write an emotional knee jerk response to it. I expect them to read a few sentences that trigger them, lose their shit, and write a flame response. I expect them to not read the rest of the context the that indicates the exact opposite of what the poster went off on.

I expect that some people read forums like this looking, very intentionally, for something to piss them off. And then I expect that when they are pissed off, they will blame the poster personally for hurting them in this way, and try to think of ways to hurt them back. They know that simply refuting arguments isn't good enough for them: they need to use every resource they have to hurt the person, physically if possible. In the world of online forums, that usually comes in the form of saying negative things about the person's vocational expertise or their business.

I also expect online posters to imagine themselves several hundred times more powerful than they really are. They will think, "aha! now that I have said Xyz is a bad coder, they will never get another job coding for the rest of their lives because everybody in the world  will know". They will never allow themselves to see the truth, which is that the forum is the online equivalent of a bunch of guys sitting around a bar. Fun banter, sure, but hardly world-changing.

I've been posting on online forums since the 1980s. This is all... exactly what you'd expect.