Troll 101 - the insidious troll

[randys1]

Two types of trolls, the most common one is he or she who hits and runs with inflammatory bullshit.

But the far more insidious troll is the one who comes to a site like, oh lets say www.typewritersaboveground.com

A place where collectors and lovers of typewriters gather, personally I am an IBM Selectric fanatic, but there are others who prefer the Mignon or the Hermes 3000.

But what these collectors all have in common, or are suppose to per the rules of www.typewritersaboveground.com, is they are fans of typewriters and to a person considers them superior to laptop keyboards and in fact they consider laptops to be bordering on inhumane, with their flattop typing platforms and so on. Maddening, those damn laptop keyboards!

So while these typewriter lovers gather and share their passion, some person will come on and allege that they like typewriters but every chance they get they talk about how laptops and their flat keyboards are not all that bad, or are not to blame for their lot in life, that it is someone else's fault that their keyboards were created so flat and unworkable.

Often there will be a story in the news of a laptop causing someone the dreadful "carpal tunnel" syndrome, a killer of the wrists, and when that story hits the www.typewritersaboveground.com community, this troll will find some way to come to the defense of the dreaded laptop and the crime it has committed causing some innocent person carpal tunnel.

Said defense will be clever, they might say "well if the doctor had diagnosed the problem sooner, maybe they wouldnt have carpal tunnel, therefore it isnt the laptop that is to blame, it is the system".

Problem is if some devoted typewriter lover responds to this person aggressively, it is often the typewriter lover who will get in trouble with the flawed system used by www.typewritersaboveground.com to weed out the actual non typewriter lovers.

and so it goes

[Enrique]

1. and then what happens

then the laptops win?

[NuclearDem]

2. ...

[randys1]

3. Hmmm....interesting

[Nye Bevan]

12. Wait.... did you just praise yourself?

Not that there's anything wrong with that. Self-praise can be a healthy thing when other kinds of praise are not available.

[bravenak]

16. I loved it too.

I was giggling the whole time.

[Teamster Jeff]

4. Many typewriter lovers would claim this broken and useless typewriter is the best typewriter ever!

[jeff47]

7. But it worked great 30 years ago!!!

Sure, the paper actually came out of the copy machine, but you could still use that typewriter back then. So clearly we have to keep using that typewriter, despite its current condition.

[AngryAmish]

24. In high school we had a computer programming class

And learned typing on mostly manual typewriters. The world was changing and it seemed normal to us. Plus DEVO was on mtv.

[OnyxCollie]

8. My Martinelli!

[whatchamacallit]

5. An "insight" only experience could provide

[GGJohn]

6. I see what you did there.

[randys1]

10. You sure do have a fascination with me and my posts...

[GGJohn]

13. Don't flatter yourself, I have no fascination for you or your posts.

I'm participating on a discussion board, as are hundreds of others on this board on this rainy Sunday.

[randys1]

11. Indeed, as a true typewriter lover I do come across laptop lovers all the time disguised as

one of our community, solely there to sow discord and try and get true typewriter lovers banned from their own site, sadly you are correct

[GGJohn]

14. What laptops are trying to get typewriters banned?

Seems like a certain typewriter is a tad bit paranoid?
Sounds like typewriter needs a ribbon change.

[Hutzpa]

19. lol.. this is too funny

I'm sorry... I know this is serious, but I just find it funny.

[Dr. Strange]

9. www.typewritersaboveground.com?

Is that Call Me Wesley's website?

[Douglas Carpenter]

15. nothing worse than a fake typewriter lover

[oneview]

17. I'd think the "insidious" troll would be the opposite, really.

Some person will come on and allege they like typewriters and every chance they get they bang the drum for typewriter extremism, spout woo about how laptops cause cancer, autism and impotence, assert that anyone who favors laptops is intrinsically evil and should be shunned, even family, openly keeps lists of fellow-boarders who at one point or another were insufficiently typewriterist and therefore suspicious and otherwise acts as the Robespierre of the (ink) Ribbon.

That seems more insidious, doesn't it?

[Puglover]

25. Yikes.

Welcome to DU.

Spot on.

The kind of troll you imagine would give me the heebie jeebies.

[arcane1]

26. My favorite is the one who is over-the-top in hatred for laptops, to make typewriter-lovers look bad

Then everyone can point to how irrational the typewriter crowd is, and therefore cannot be taken seriously. By default, laptops "win".

Not that I've ever seen this on DU, of course.

[Electric Monk]

18. I get what you're saying. Here are some real world examples.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1135093_index.html

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1556486_index.html

[randys1]

30. Leftist Obama twit LOL you, I assume, if so I am a fan

[Electric Monk]

31. That wasn't me. I've never posted on ar15.com. nt

[Nuclear Unicorn]

20. Wouldn't Progressives be more inclined towards laptops than outdated typewriters?

Maybe we should give these evangelizers of The Way of the Laptop a fair hearing.

[kentauros]

27. I agree!

However, do not go into the Cooking & Baking group and start dissing cast iron cookware

[TheBlackAdder]

29. Can't be too progressive if you use a typewriter.

In college, professors might enforce the three correction rule.

If there are more than three corrections on a page, it must be retyped.

[NuclearDem]

21. Damn you Dell Family Evil Empire!

[pansypoo53219]

22. newspaper this week featured a typewriter repair man, the clarity old kind.

[petronius]

23. -- . - .- !!

Typewriters are too new-fangled and nobody needs one anyway - a simple telegraph key was good enough for the dinosaurs, so it's good enough for us too. Frankly, I think anyone who isn't posting to DU with pencil and paper ought to be banned (but I'm purer than the average soul)...

[Nuclear Unicorn]

28. "-- . - .- "

Potty mouth!

[Caretha]

32. I think laptop lovers

should form their own damn party...er I mean forum. And leave us liberal democrats....er I mean typewriter lovers alone.

[randys1]

33. Now there is a novel idea, problem is typewriter lovers thought they had done just that