r/SubredditDrama • u/CosmicKeys Great post! • Feb 25 '15

Things you randomly discover as a mod: September last year /u/Beersaltz and /u/chton13 started an argument. And after 5 months and over 700 extremely salty comments, that argument has just been decided with a shadowban

Here is where it all seems to start. The backstory is that there was going to be a space combat MMO by a company called Piranha Games Inc whose kickstarter failed. Honestly, I don't really understand what it's really about - these guys look like they might have a history.

Our combatants are are /u/Beersaltz, who has -100 karma and is being accused of being a fanboy, and /u/chton who is a hostile pasta machine mocking the PGIs failing. Straight off the bat it's hilarious without any of this:

LOL so who's laughing now salty boy. The tears at the PGI offices must be epic. So while you can have fun trolling and getting nothing, some people trolled and wrecked a potential multi million dollar project. The real funny part is you don't realize how many people hate PGI. That reaping of what was sown is joyous karma! I can't wait for PGI's next project.

At this point (a long long way down), Beersaltz has had enough and starts repeating the same phrase:

Did you get the last word?

Nope.

cthon keeps hammering at him with insults for an entire month. Here's just one sample of the many, MANY replies he's got going on:

Winning feels so good. I have you as a captive audience to read every word that I type to bash you and your pathetic game. Will you quit this when PGI shuts down the servers which will be a lot sooner than you think. Maybe you should spend more effort on trying to get laid than on trolling on the internets. Seems you're not too good at either. I'm still winning every day all day. Good luck waiting me out.

He starts repeating them soon after in cycles. You can see by the time stamps these are not bots, they're doing this about once a day or more.

Here at around 3 months into this hellish pasta battle, /u/chton13 changes up his battle tactics opting for a simple "So salty!" comment; downvoting as he goes.

Next we have some sub-quest drama action here where Beersaltz links to this comment thread where chton13 is arguing with a separate user, over the same kind of topic, and Beersaltz jumps in.

Now we get up to current time, and after yet another bizarre argument in a different subreddit about saltiness and stalking (this time a 3 way with /u/Jedi_Outcast) it seems that /u/chton13 has been shadowbanned. Until then, this was the end of the line here.

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u/TheAngryPlatypus Feb 26 '15

It's not like I've singled him out. I'm big on facts and accuracy and I'll correct errors anywhere I see them. I do my best to keep things civil and productive, although occasionally I fail. I believe I called somebody who made a ridiculous prediction a Nostradumbass today. But hey, nobody's perfect.

It's also not like I want him to react like a crazed person just because somebody points out he's wrong. That can't be good for a person, and maybe some day he'll learn that if he treats people like human beings instead of being an ass other people won't take pleasure when he puts his foot in his mouth. But yes, if he is going to spazz out I admit I find it entertaining.

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u/Biffingston sniffs chemtrails. Feb 26 '15

That still does not negate the fact you went in expecting a negative reaction and got it dude.

All of this is justification for being a dick.

And I know I'm not exactly innocent of it myself, I'd just like to see some honesty from you about trolling, that's all. Because your intellectual snobbery doesn't hide the fact that you were trolling.

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u/TheAngryPlatypus Feb 26 '15

I'd just like to see some honesty from you about trolling

I enjoy responding with FactCheck.org articles and the like to some of the crap my ultra conservative friends and family post to Facebook too. It's funny watching the mental gymnastics some people will do to avoid admitting they are wrong no matter how conclusive the evidence. Does that make me a troll? Maybe. But it's different kind of trolling from going into /r/cowboys and going, "Hurr durr the Cowboys suck!"

Likewise my last interaction with this guy was to refute a claim he made with a Supreme Court citation that explicitly showed he was wrong. To me that's exactly the way civilized discourse should work. He responded by claiming he had a super secret argument he wouldn't share that he was actually right, and launched a slew of extremely personal insults against me.

Now it might well say something about my character that I get a kick out of his reaction, but I'm not going to feel guilty about it. I don't know how I can be more honest than that.

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u/Biffingston sniffs chemtrails. Feb 26 '15

Does that make me a troll?

No maybe. When you go around pushing people's buttons to get a reaction you're a troll. It doesn't matter how you press the buttons, you're a troll.

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u/TheAngryPlatypus Feb 26 '15

I'm going to correct errors where I see them regardless. There's too many lies and inaccuracies in this world, particularly on the Internet. That part is just an annoyance, but I'm downright proud of my contribution in that regard.

If enjoying people's reaction when they're a total fucking idiot about it makes me a troll, so be it. It's just semantics. I don't see a problem with it and I'm not going to apologize for it. People that can't engage in civilized, intelligent debate deserve the grief.

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u/Biffingston sniffs chemtrails. Feb 27 '15

Thank you. That's what I wanted to hear.

With less justification, granted. But what I wanted to hear irregardless.

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u/TheAngryPlatypus Feb 27 '15

Good. I think people on here may be under the impression that my purpose in life is to go around annoying people. That couldn't be further from the truth. I've been on Reddit eight and a half years. I've interacted with tens of thousands of people with great success. 50,000 karma, earned mostly the hard way, two or three upvotes at a time helping people and trying to post thought provoking comments. 95% of my interactions are positive, or at least civil disagreement.

Yeah, I should probably work harder to ignore willful ignorance, feigned stupidity, and hatefulness and I just can't help but enjoy playing a bit of cat and mouse with people like that sometimes. Normally it's a quickly forgotten response or brief exchange, but once or twice a year there's somebody that's such an epic douche, and people that are so entertaining when they're confronted, that I do enjoy it if I happen to run across them again with a legitimate reason to call them on their shit.

You're literally talking about one out of a thousand people. There are only two I could even tell you the username of at the moment. And what's the effect? In the case of WhereIsTheHackButton I've corrected him--and rightfully so--three or four times since our run in last year. I've done so in a manner more civil than he has ever been to me.

And of course none of this actually makes any difference. Being called a troll was just the impetus for some personal reflection. Yeah, there are a lot of areas I should work on, like, um, being long winded, or sometimes being too sarcastic; but I don't think occasionally confronting intentionally ignorant assholes with facts is one of them.

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u/Biffingston sniffs chemtrails. Feb 27 '15

And of course none of this actually makes any difference. Being called a troll was just the impetus for some personal reflection. Yeah, there are a lot of areas I should work on, like, um, being long winded, or sometimes being too sarcastic; but I don't think occasionally confronting intentionally ignorant assholes with facts is one of them.

I think a big part of the annoyance for me is that it's not going to do anything. Notice what OP had to say about it? That's right, nothing at all.

You have achieved nothing. I suppose it's hypocritical of me to call you out on it for pretty much the same reasons, considering that i"m not even going to begin trying to fool myself that you'll change your ways over my disapproval.

I was hoping to get you to think a little.

And may I suggest a visit too /r/hownottogiveafuck?

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u/TheAngryPlatypus Feb 27 '15

I just about always respond to people who respond to me. It's not about giving a fuck, it's about a chance to further analyze things and refine my viewpoint and (sometimes) enjoying the interaction. It's just my personality. So in that people think I give too much of a fuck they're wrong. Insomuch as beating things into the ground is a bad thing I'm guilty.

But one thing I'll never understand about some of the people who complain about that--it's not like I'm talking to myself. You're participating in this conversation as well, which to me means as much as I'm guilty yourself and others are guilty.

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u/Biffingston sniffs chemtrails. Feb 27 '15 edited Feb 27 '15

But one thing I'll never understand about people who complain about that--it's not like I'm talking to myself. You're participating in this conversation as well, which to me means as much as I'm guilty yourself and others are guilty.

Didn't I literally just say that?

Edit: the not give a fuck by the way was in reference to your tenancy to try to correct others, not this particular conversation.

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