This morning I was made aware of some trolling going on a post by a user here in the Steemian community. A post about a pet and how their precious family member passed away. Out of respect for that person and not really being familiar yet with them I will not drag them into this article but I do think what went down should be highlighted as a reference of warning how this community reacts to trolling.
In this post someone came about in their comments putting that person down for having understandable emotions about their ill pet and about their worries. Not sure how people feel but personally a pet can sometimes be just as much a family member as a human. You tend to them, you raise them and sadly as life goes we lose them a bit more often than human members due to shorter lifespans, still hurts and still comes with an understandable grieving process.
As trolls do this person came to a hurting person and blasted them with constant put downs. This is human nature in my opinion at the worst and definitely not someone I deem a true Steemian and apart of the positive nature of this community.
The reason I wrote this is not to point fingers at anyone, not about to drop down to trolling status myself by saying who did what but what I am here to do is highlight what amazing action this community took to stomp out the immature commenting. In a swarm of disgust a bunch of the commentators came to defend this hurting Steemian. To top that off they went to flagging this person to help stop spread his putrid trolling habits of negativity. Now granted they kind of hide all his content and maybe a bit extreme but that did show me here that this community will not stand for any trolling and rightfully so.
Trolling has been a huge nuisance on the internet over the years and seems to be an uptrending issue with mainstream social media. What happens is they group up and spread such immature bullying. This then seems to get contagious and spreads out because they find adolescent fun in the games. I have actually read up on this a lot over the years because my son is Autistic and very sensitive towards how people treat him and we have had moments where trolling kids or hell maybe even adults have caused him some grief.
Trolling is a virus. Sure I get the poke some jabs on the old trollbox when your trading, that is a whole different kind of trolling, more that is a game users play in fun and less about the individual and more about the coins of choice they hold. You don't have a sense of humor if you can't laugh about a few harmless roasting and jabs now and then. There is a line though and you hit a very serious mark when your attacking a person for being an individual or they have emotions you want to use as a weakness against them, that my friends is trolling at its most immature.
Studies show that the trolling attacks over the years has actually provided a rise in suicides, depression, ,and murder. There are so many numerous cases out there you can dig up where someone was attacked online by a troll and the person on the other side actually hunted them down and offed the troll. So many cases of this you would actually think the media would kind of make it known more. Trolls don't get the dangerous game they play sometimes, you may think its fun to jab at someone because you sit safely behind that screen but you have no clue your picking on a person with a serious chip on their shoulder and ultimately may have crossed the wrong person.
We are not in Facebook here, nor Twitter, nor on some trollbox in crypto. This place has proven to be a huge meeting of the minds forum. Sharing and expressing ones life, views, topics in the news, and I also firmly believe Steemit maybe the hub for the fight against the system which could push our crypto movement ahead to fix the system. This is a true place for maturity and mutual respect.
We are leaving mainstream social media for a lot of personal reasons past making money. I think we are all sick of the dumbed down way they have gotten people. I firmly believe we are here to do it right and I think trolling is beneath what we are trying to achieve. I can't speak for everyone but that is how I view using this platform and I hope its more of the majority here that views it like I do. We have a huge opportunity here to help one another, spread wealth, and form up as a tight community trying to bring positive change. Trolling to me has no real place in Steemit. Sure an argument may pop off but directly attacking others for caring about something and sharing that openly, not healthy nor a healthy mind worthy of earning with this community, my opinion of course.
Well that is my rant about seeing that, my fiance showed me this and like me it bugged her to see. Right now the troll is posting on why did he get flagged lol...so maybe he will see this and understand to be a little more respectful in this community of mature adults. I personally didn't get in on the flag game. I think we need to really use that flag option wisely and not scare off good people here just trying to make a difference. I do think though those that flagged that situation had value in their choices, maybe ease off the guy now seeing he probably got the message but that is for the community to decide.
Just be good to each other, we got enough Hell going around in the world, lets have a safe place here in Steemit.
@sflaherty