Afternoon all,

[Chickenwire]

I joined the forum, a) because I have a healthy lay-mans interest in day-to-day psychology and have read into things like NLP - but also b) I'm a member of another forum - in which we discuss sport (!) and there is a poster there who comes across as being extremely knowledgable, but displays a number of aggressive behaviours. I'm just wondering if anyone can shed any light on why someone would come to an online sport forum and display such behaviours? He states that he's not interested in peoples views but continues to post nonetheless. I complain about the more outrageous things he says and his posts get removed, but I'm not sure whats making him tick. It's becoming quite unappealing posting there for me, which is a shame as I enjoy learning about the sport and also some of the humour that shines through.

Any thoughts?

 

[Ash]

Interesting. In another forum I moderate on, a member is given three strikes. Keep it up and you're out. Why do they let this continue?

It's really hard to say what makes this guy tick since we really have no information on him. People do things for many reasons.

But please, welcome to the forum!

 

[Chickenwire]

Thanks for the response

But, I was wondering if it were to do with the anonymity of the internet. People find that certain inhibitions leave them and they're able to do things they couldn't easily do in real life. All I can really say is that he shows behaviours that are high-handed - in that I mean that he often belittles other posters for their views and opinions, but then complains vocally if his aren't listened to. He even appears to be paranoid - although I'm not sure this is the correct description - but he sees people talking behind his back. He vociferously defends his position and claims not to have any further interest but then when someone counter-argues, he insults their intelligence with yet another post on the same subject... Any further opinions?

 

[David Baxter PhD]

As Ash said, this is pretty common on many forums. You're probably correct in that it is related to perceived anonymity, similar to what drivers acting out road rage may feel. I think the solution is, again as Ash said, to be clear about boundaries and rules and have them enforced by the forum administrators.

 

[Daniel E.]

He vociferously defends his position and claims not to have any further interest but then when someone counter-argues, he insults their intelligence with yet another post on the same subject...

As you say, the nature of the Internet takes away some of the personal nature of communication, which can lead to an almost warlike mentality with the posters one disagrees with looking like blips on a target screen.

 

[Chickenwire]

Thank you for the replies!

Thanks for taking the time to respond, guys. I look forward to contributing to the site in future!

 

[ThatLady]

I moderate a message board that can become quite vociferous, at times. Okay...most of the time.

My suggestion is to let the Administrator and the Moderators know how you feel about this particular poster. If it's a busy board, as ours is, sometimes it's hard to keep up with everything that's being said. Moderators miss things, or zone out, or any number of other things. Yet, if a poster reports a post or another poster, it gives the moderators a heads up about what's going on and how their valued posters perceive some of those who are less than enjoyable for the majority. Knowing that can result in efforts on our parts to either educate the problem poster, or to remove them, if necessary.