MLive Trolls

Submitted by Rico616 on

I was wondering if anyone else ever goes to MLive.com and see all the OSU/MSU trolls on there...it's bad. MLive isnt my 1st, 2nd, or 5th choice for UofM news but it's a convenient spot to get all my Tigers, Pistons, and Lions news.

Either way I dont know if the trolls really are that stupid or if they get off on being annoying. Notre Dame fans arent on there, guess it's cuz they all know all we have to do is make fun of Charlie Weiss' FUPA and it's over but damn the MSu fans sure know how to take a 1 win every decade to the max. Ohio State fans counter every MSU/Florida argument with their recent record against Blue but I think starting next year thats gonna change.

Stupid trolls.

redcedar87

July 17th, 2009 at 2:55 PM ^

that's something we can agree on. That place is a complete wasteland of comments. I think they're all idiots.

Speaking of that, there's a UM troll named tater-something that posts on every single MSU article. I think I may have seen him around...

Rico616

July 17th, 2009 at 2:57 PM ^

Does he? I always see him on the UM boards talking about MSU trolls. I wouldnt know if he posts on MSU boards cuz I dont give a damn about little brother. Or that little sister ND.

Tater

July 17th, 2009 at 3:42 PM ^

I was going to steer clear of this one, but since I was mentioned, I will respond.

I usually post on things I read. I happen to read MSU articles, just like I read articles on the Pistons, Lions, etc. I don't read more than about a third of MSU articles, but usually do read ones about recruiting or ones that compare them to UM.

I have posted a few pretty balanced things on the MSU articles, but usually I respond to MSU-diots bragging about how much better they are than UM now, etc. Any MSU article's comment field has a lot of negative comments about UM. I usually try to remind them of three things:

1. Their football team's record against UM is 28-67, or about one win every three years.

2. Other than two years of Magic and about ten of Izzo, UM has consistently had a superior basketball program to that of MSU. Related to this, I also have posted that I think the Pistons should make Izzo an "offer he can't refuse," since he is just about at the age limit he originally put on himself for coaching in college.

3. Saturday night tear gas parties.

That hardly constitutes "trolling." Calling me a "troll" is especially inaccurate when compared to the troll who spends, as close as I can tell, ten hours a day scouring UM articles at freep.com and mlive.com, and using over a hundred different identities over the last two years, sometimes as many as seven in the same thread.

The person I refer to as the "Vile Troll" has made racial comments about Obama and RR, and made fun of people with special needs on more than one occasion. Her dogged pursuit and hatred of all things RR is pratically legendary on mlive at this point. And she is almost incapable of reading a UM basketball article without mentioning the Fab Five, cheating, etc.

And, though this has nothing to do with UM, she has gone as far as to post as about five different variations and misspellings of my handle on mlive, and has run her own little personal hate campaign against me for over a year now.

Incidentally, I think this person was here as "Bluefront95," and has been responsible for some of the more inflammatory threads over the last six months in a couople of other identities that were driven off or banned.

I wouldn't be surprised if "redcedar87" didn't turn out to be her, too.

Anyway, I'm a lifelong UM fan who doesn't like to see every UM article hijacked by a troll. Also, I don't like seeing MSU fans act as if their program is now superior to UM because they won one game in the series last year. I've been to somewhere around a hundred games at the Big House, and close to that many at Crisler. I have spent a lot of time and energy cheering for UM, and really, really hate it when one troll is able to consistently hijack the comment field of UM articles, depriving actual UM fans of a forum in which to discuss their favorite team. That's why I created my small community called "The Maize Page."

And, though the more "enlightened" among us will probably disagree, ignoring the troll never, ever works. So, I try to make sure that my dissenting opinion is there to provide counterpoint to hers.

If that is "trolling," so be it. If that is "feeding the trolls," so be it. But it is how I choose to provide opposition to the constant stream of anti-UM and anti-RR bile on mlive and, to a lesser extent, freep.com.

I am not going to read any more of this thread so that I am not tempted to respond, so I will cover one question that may be asked.

I believe the troll is female, mostly for three reasons:

First, she was "outed" on freep.com by someone who said he knows her a year or two ago. I don't remember who the poster was or what the arguments were, but they were quite convincing. Second, her fixation on what she percieves as the "beer bellies" of RR, Magee, and Barwis. She posted a lot about their bellies as though it were the coup de gras of insults, when no male would see it as much of an insult at all. Also, I can't really see a male obsessing over RR the way she does; the frequency and amplitude of her hatred suggests a jilted groupie wannabe.

I am sorry to use space here to discuss the Vile Troll, and sorry that she decided to bring her hatred campaign here to mgoblog, but I definitely felt that I had both the right and the need to clarify and rebut "redcedar's" attack.

Once again, it appears that the Vile Troll has found a way to make it "all about her," if only for one thread. And I am put in the position of either laying down while she tramples my rights, or contributing to her "all about me party."

Hopefully, this thread will run its course, people will respond to it as they feel neccessary, and everyone will get the trolling thread out of their system now. Also, I hope "redcedar" is the last we see of "Bluefront95." Then, we can get back to discussing things that really matter, like UM football, basketball, and recruiting.

dex

July 17th, 2009 at 4:03 PM ^

if i understand this right (and i kinda hope i don't) you are attributing nearly every persona that disagreed with you on every board you've participated in for the last three years to one female stalker that follows you around the internet in her attempt to bring down Michigan?

S FL Wolverine

July 17th, 2009 at 4:35 PM ^

I'm sure Tater has made some mistakes in labeling posters "the" troll, but I've seen what he describes in action...a series of different screen names that use similar tactics to constantly bash RR and Michigan. They consistently respond to each other and they consistently bash Tater as well. And then "they" gang up on any poster that disagrees with "them".

It's not really a question of having a logical debate and then labeling someone who disagrees with you a troll. Unless you consider the proposition that "RR is the devil" to be a valid debate topic. It's not like the point in question is "what will Michigan's record be this year". It's more like "when is that f-ing scumbag RR who ran out on WVU, beat his wife, and snorted coke of a transvestite stripper's c*ck going to get fired by that corrupt UM administration"?

Durham Blue

July 17th, 2009 at 5:40 PM ^

If trolls bash UM, RR, etc., does it matter if hardly anyone reads the comments? I would be shocked if more than 5% of all the people that read a UM article at Freep or Mlive actually read more than two or three comments. That said, I don't have issues with people that feel compelled to take on the trolls. If that's how they want to spend their time then so be it. It seems pointless but so is Dungeons and Dragons (IMO...no offense to D&D fans).

a2bluefan

July 17th, 2009 at 3:04 PM ^

I used to post on Mlive from time to time, but I have not in months. It has gotten so bad on there, that it takes an average of like 1.377 posts before the trolls have gone completely off topic and bash each other endlessly and childishly. It grew really old really fast.

daveheal

July 17th, 2009 at 7:00 PM ^

This isn't just an MLive problem, but yeah, really glad the 'first!' brigade hasn't made its way over here. I also occasionally make the mistake of scrolling down after reading an article on MLive and am always confronted by about 17 layers of quoted material, nearly all of which makes me want to jab my eyes out with a hot poker.

DamnYankee

July 17th, 2009 at 3:26 PM ^

As a Michigander and UofM alum living in Atlanta, I use Detnews & Freep.com to keep up with the Tigers, Wings, and other events going on in metro Detroit since the Atlanta paper (AJC) barely covers hockey or the American League. However, I'm to the point that I don't even look at the comments anymore after the articles since they are so troll-infested.

MRG

July 17th, 2009 at 3:34 PM ^

...a 1986 Ford Fiesta filled with 30 rabies infested chihuahuas. It's the pits. If they had MLive Points, everyone would have -∞ (man that's small (TWSS). it's infinity).

VAWolverine

July 17th, 2009 at 4:02 PM ^

I do not go to MLive or the Freep any more to post. Both sites are home to borderline personality disorder cliques that are very unflattering to read. They have major axes to grind and collectively must be part of that 15.2% unemployment rate just announced.

I only post here at this time and am damn proud to admit that.

Kvothe

July 17th, 2009 at 5:07 PM ^

I have thought recently that maybe someone at the freep is actually posting as a troll. It sounds crazy but looking at the number of comments a UM post gets now compared to before is much higher. Maybe they are just trying to boost thier page hits in this crappy economy.

S FL Wolverine

July 17th, 2009 at 5:15 PM ^

Notice how every time there is an article about a former player "bashing" RR it ends up in the "Most Popular" stories of the day? Of course, anything U-M sells, but anti-RR stuff seems to go right to the top. The negativity gets a ton of hits.

I doubt Freep employees are doing this, but the Freep isn't trying to stop it, either. They will take their hits anyway they can get them.

S FL Wolverine

July 17th, 2009 at 4:06 PM ^

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if both Rico616 and RedCedar87 are the same troll. I read quite a bit around here and I haven't seen either of them much before. Both have joined recently, within the last month. And then there's the timing. Rico posts topic at 1:50, followed by RedCedar at 1:55 and then Rico again at 1:57. Doesn't this timing seem just a little too convenient for you? And how they just sort of feed off of each other...it seems just like her style.

Trolls are desperately depressed, angry people who want nothing more than to bring you down to their level of depression. They can't find an ounce of happiness in this world, so they get minimal satisfaction by trolling. The closest they get to happiness is the snide smirk they get on their faces when they are typing off a "look at how smart I am" zinger. They are people in real need of clinical help. Who would spend the amount of time a troll does bashing others and venting so much anger? How could someone who spends so much time being angry have any satisfaction in their life?

I'm reminded of a troll that used to post on a board devoted to Star Trek: TNG back in the 90s. This troll would watch every single episode and then rip it to shreds on the board. The common, logical question from other posters was "why do you watch the show if you hate it so much" and the troll's response was "I keep hoping it will get better". Yes, I would watch a show I hate for 7 years in the "hope that it will get better". Makes sense to me. More likely, this troll was obsessed with being right, obsessed with ruining other peoples' happiness because she (this was another female troll) had none herself. Its' sad because trolls are often quite intelligent, but they put their gifts to use trying to make others feel smaller. Very sad.

S FL Wolverine

July 17th, 2009 at 4:21 PM ^

Nah, not Tater. But I've watched the ongoing crap on M-Live for a while now. Usually, I just don't waste my time reading the comments because it is so ridiculous and I just get pissed off.

I'm just commenting on the psyche it takes to troll a significant portion of the day.

Rico616

July 18th, 2009 at 1:11 AM ^

I hope you never take a new career as a PI when your unemployment runs out.

I'm glad you could put these pieces together about RedCedar and I but I'm my own person and he's whoever he is. Just because we happened to be posting about the same time and have a similar view point...oh we must be the same people! Seriously man.

A post about trolls shouldnt be as long as yours. There's not much to say or to look into. They get off on starting arguments with fans of the other team. Goodnght Magnum.

wolverine71

July 17th, 2009 at 4:47 PM ^

from time to time. Tater is right. Those people over there just wait for somebody to try to post something relating to the article and they attack and spew everything but the answer you're looking for, or bash you for posting in the first place. I don't go there anymore either. Now I just get RSS feeds, read the articles and that's it.

Trimalico

July 17th, 2009 at 5:17 PM ^

I used to live in Columbus, and Buckeye fans will take any story and blow it out of proportion. The recruitment of Pryor was a fiasco down there. I attributed this to pent up aggresion during the Cooper era. I mean Biakabutka put up 300+ yards against them in the 90's.

nightavenger

July 17th, 2009 at 5:40 PM ^

Mlive is a cesspool of idiocy. I stopped going there when the comments actually made my brain decompose. (Thankfully, my tinfoil hat mitigated the long term damage)

Blue boy johnson

July 17th, 2009 at 7:24 PM ^

Just thinkin, maybe we need a "petty squabble" forum on here, so those folks can bicker deep into the night.
How bout a tv show where "vile trolls" are hunted down and exposed for their evil and chicanery?

Rico616

July 18th, 2009 at 1:15 AM ^

MLive's Pistons and Tigers coverage isnt too bad. My only complaint about that is that everyone wants to be an armchair GM. They think they know what Joe D should do for the Pistons and DD for the Tigers. Killer's articles on the Lions are just boring but that might be attributed to the Lions being horrible and not exciting.

S FL Wolverine

July 18th, 2009 at 10:57 AM ^

Rico,

Reading more of your stuff I can tell you aren't a troll, and I apologize for casting you as one. But I've seen this type of back and forth conversation amongst the troll (or trolls) on mlive.

Seriously, if anyone has a "right" answer to dealing with trolls I'd love to hear it. Ignoring simply does not work, since that requires 100% unity on the part of other posters. That won't happen.

Engaging, like Tater is, seems like a waste of time to me, almost as much of a waste as trolling itself, but I'm sure he does deprive the troll(s) of some satisfaction.

However, pointing out that trolls are serious losers like I did above really doesn't "feed" them IMO, other than causing them fits of rage.

I just don't read the comments on any site other than mgoblog or gobluewolverine. The other boards have been ruined for everyone.