{"id":26109,"date":"2017-11-13T01:40:03","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T01:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26109"},"modified":"2017-11-13T01:40:03","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T01:40:03","slug":"one-troll-disappears-more-to-emerge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26109","title":{"rendered":"One troll disappears, more to emerge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I have become “acquainted” with trolls.<\/p>\n

They aren’t my favorite audience members. They seem to lurk out there, waiting for my posts to appear. Then they pounce with negative responses.<\/p>\n

I don’t mind the negativity if it is based on principled arguments to substantiate their point. I do mind the pointed barbs that contribute nothing to current discourse.<\/p>\n

I’ve been reluctant to comment on them because, well, because I don’t want to encourage other trolls.<\/p>\n

Recently, I took the rare step of blocking one of them. He and I aren’t connected on any social medium. He just kept chirping about issues on which I would comment. Then he got into name-calling, challenging my intelligence while remarking about how my posts were a “waste” of his time, which I presume is of great value to him.<\/p>\n

So I cut him off.<\/p>\n

Recently, another frequent critic of High Plains Blogger apparently has decided to block me<\/em>. Imagine that, will ya? This individual is a fervent supporter of Donald John Trump Sr. She took supreme offense at my constant carping against the president.<\/p>\n

This individual — and I reluctantly use the term “troll” here — is an actual acquaintance of mine. But I guess I have to describe this person as a classic “troll” as it has been used to define certain Internet users.<\/p>\n

I found this description via Wikipedia:\u00a0In Internet slang<\/a>, a troll<\/b> (\/\u02c8<\/span>t<\/span>r<\/span>o\u028a<\/span>l<\/span>\/<\/a><\/span><\/span>, \/\u02c8<\/span>t<\/span>r<\/span>\u0252<\/span>l<\/span>\/<\/a><\/span><\/span>) is a person who sows discord on the Internet<\/a> by starting quarrels or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory,[1]<\/a><\/sup> extraneous<\/a>, or off-topic<\/a> messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup<\/a>, forum, chat room<\/a>, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional<\/a> response[2]<\/a><\/sup> or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion,[3]<\/a><\/sup> often for the troll’s amusement.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yep. That describes the individual who blocked me. This person would engage in some heated back-and-forth with other readers of this blog, arguing just for the sake of arguing.<\/p>\n

I won’t lose a wink of sleep over getting blocked by this person, because I am acutely aware that there will be others who’ll step up to take the place of any such “troll” who drops off this blog’s grid.<\/p>\n

Oh, just so you know, I still love writing this blog.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have become “acquainted” with trolls. They aren’t my favorite audience members. They seem to lurk out there, waiting for my posts to appear. Then they pounce with negative responses. I don’t mind the negativity if it is based on principled arguments to substantiate their point. I do mind the pointed barbs that contribute nothing … Continue reading One troll disappears, more to emerge<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2122,7412,4300],"class_list":["post-26109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-news","tag-high-plains-blogger","tag-internet-trolls","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26111,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26109\/revisions\/26111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}