I've had occasional arguments, generally pretty civil, but I don't know it's even possible to be cyber-bullied here. If someone is giving you a hard time just put them on ignore and you'll never hear from them again.

That is a lot of effort to go through for a disagreement on an internet politics forum.

The only time I ever called someone and hung up was when I was 11 with my friend Albert, we prank called another friend of ours while we were hanging out over the summer. I was 11.

That forum was bonkers back in the day.

Sid

I had made a scale chicken-wire model of the Titanic hull and tried to breach it with ice in order to prove that ice could not have sunk the Titanic, in response to the famed chicken-wire twin towers model with the burning newspaper inside. After all, ice can't break steel, amirite? I got that call right after I posted the video.

Slad would have been a good candidate, yes, along with defendandprotect. God I haven't thought about those weirdos, or the WeAreChange crowd, for a long time.

I'm eternally disappointed that I never got to hear the Nutty Professor (whatever his name was) explain what is REALLY happening on the moon. He had alluded to some kind of alien outpost there for the purpose, I think, of confining humans to earth, but never really spit it out.

I remember one forum (not DU) where one loon made up a whole story about herself as the daughter of Anastasia (the Russian princess who was 'lost&quot and how now that the Soviet Union was over, she was going to be Empress of Russia.

I guess they can look you up if you're using your name, but geez. I would never in a million years call up someone on here to express what? Something I could quite as easily type into one of these nice boxes?

Wow.

That said, I request from all of you that you do not call me even if you figure out who I am. That's a hard boundary, folks. So please do not unless I ask it, and I do not foresee that happening.

That includes ad hominem, gaslighting, and whatever other stupid games people play.

It doesn't have to be successful to be bullying.

I can understand how people can perceive abusive comments and the other techniques as part of bullying, but bullying typically involves repeated attacks over time, the perception of a power imbalance, and hostile intent to dominate or intimidate.

I agree that bullying doesn't have to force someone to leave or do something more drastic, but there is an expectation that it causes some harm to the target.

Got a PM from an individual That stated "Go F..... Yourself" awhile back.

He and I disagreed in some thread about something.

Though I have had a couple of people email me. No biggie.

until I stopped posting (for the most part) a few years ago.

In the public forums, I have advocated in favor of vaccination, in favor of ending the opiate addiction crisis, and against smoking (among other medical issues; I'm a Physician Assistant practicing Primary Care medicine).

In every case, a throng of people showed up to call me some pretty filthy names, cast doubt on my status as a medical provider, and say I hate my patients and enjoy harming them.

I'm a big boy. I just shrug it off, and as always, a huge number of long-time DU-ers come to my defense and stick up for me. The harassment bothers me for a little while, and then goes away.

That was insensitive on my part, and I took ownership of it.

But never bullied. I know how to take down a bully and would not hesitate to do so here if the occasion merited it.

I didn't mean to ask whether the bullies were successful.

Emotions run high on occasion here. But to not cross that line is important not to vilify someone for a different point of view.

This is a really good site.

Same here. One side of the spectrum would call it "PC" and the other would call it insensitive.
Either way I realized it was prolly not a nice thing to say. Yes I have used it to someone's face but to me it was an education. Why trash someone just for the sake of trashing someone?
BTW is "read my fucken post" cyber bulling or just a copout cause your position is weak...
Like when someone says "what ever".
To me it says I have won the conversation and they want it to go away.. YMMV..
m

...AND i told about it in the forum.

how does that work? I have seen a few people claim that, but posting stupid shit and having a lot of responses doesn't constitute bullying to me. following someone around the internet, doxing, or harassing them off line, or at work...that is getting there.

even some of the mean shit I have seen done to people here don't constitute "bullying" to me. behaving like an asshole isn't the same as bulling to me. not saying that kind of thing isn't painful for the recipient, it is and it probably can feel like bullying (if they aren't a troll deliberately stirring shit and just laughing to themselves), but there are tools to stop the impacts and some don't seem capable of using them.

picking fights on a discussion board? um, isn't that one of the main reasons they exist?

It used to be like that around here. If you accept bad behavior then you will certainly get it.

good behavior generally gets respect, assholes tend to get what they give

I am no angel, been in both positions and own it. some days ignoring the ignorance is hard.

Mostly limited to a couple of posters following me from one thread to another, being called out for my positions/facts, not-so-subtle threats to have me banned. (FYI never had a single post hidden or removed.)

I think they should just block me if they don’t like to read what I have to say.

And it is those returnees who inspired my poll.

You will see all kinds of returnees.

You can't be cyberbullied, if you have the ability to make the bully disappear.

Now, if the bully follows you to facebook, or anywhere else outside of DU, then that's a different story.

But if you feel you're being bullied at DU, hit ignore.

Poof! Problem solved.

Sid

So, I unblocked everyone I had blocked. It's important to see what people are saying, I think.

I didn't let it get to me, though. I just went ahead and kept posting, replying to some people who had a problem with me occasionally in my own defense.

As I said, I'm still here, while most of those folks who found me an interesting target are not. Most.

because that's how you open your mind and learn new things. Doesn't mean I always have to agree with these different opinions, nor does anyone else have to agree with mine.

Can a cyber bully hurt me?

No, not directly and I don't need to block. But that doesn't mean that their malice should be tolerated or that it doesn't hurt our cause.

This is a rough and tumble political discussion board. The TOS expects us to all be civil to each other. However, the jury system is in place for us to self-police civility, because the reality is that we’re sometimes going to be uncivil.

But that’s a different situation from cyber bullying.

We all have the tools at our disposal to ensure that no poster bullies us.

Whether we choose to use those tools is a different story.

Sid

I think it hinges on intent and the same behavior can be uncivil in one context and bullying in another. You may say the intent to bully is there and I may say it is not, on a case by case basis. But some of it is indeed bullying.

Cyber bullies hiding behind a keyboard are truly pathetic. They exist.

It is against the rules for me to say more. Yet I could not block who I could not see.

However I also received snail mail. I took that to the police. Who does that kind of shit? Cowards.

And tried to pin some crap on me that someone with the same name posted on another site.
Since DU is the only site I use this name on, I asked the shit weasel to back up their accusation and post what they found on google.
They slithered away pretty quick.

been blocked from a few forums because I didn't follow the "party line".

Is that "bullying"?

while he was coordinating with other members. He kept posting wkipedia links to different psych probs...when I posted BACK to him that it was delusional, my post was blocked. He KEPT UP THE TROLLING after my post was hidden, so I deleted the whole thread. There are other instances, but on that one, I got a few pm's about this guy. It was weird, and it absolutely happens here.

I let it all slide off my coat. My dad was a NCO drill instructor, US Army; Korea. I learned how to ignore non-essential verbal abuse early.

Posted in the Atheists and Agnostics group, of which I was a member, and got savaged by a Believer.

I always figure if they switch from the discussion to attacking me personally that I have won and they are throwing a hissy fit, it is all about perspective.

tend to show up on threads in whatever is their topic of the week and work together to snap at people in an attempt to shut discussion down. Bullying? Kind of, but nothing that is harmful in a lasting way, just annoying.

anyone who risks disagreeing with the DU group think or group opinion.

Someone makes an OP about a topic that they know damn well a few people will disagree with but they also know damn well they will get rec after rec for it.

Someone will post a reply that is at odds with the majority then the pile on begins.

It’s the “your just the type we are talking about” meme.

I have had people take what I write and make comments that show they need a few courses in reading comprehension. I usually give them 2-3 tries and then block them. I do not block people who I don't agree with who understand what I write. I may block someone who reads a 2 sentence post I wrote and tells me I am wrong because I hate something or there was a problem with my upbringing.

Go figure.

Tikki

is not my idea of bullying. Bullying would be doxxing or stalking outside DU or harassing me in some way that would make me feel threatened or frightened, or at a minimum would make me reluctant to keep participating. I try to be civil here even when I'm pissed off, so most of the time I don't get much crap thrown at me. When it does happen I ignore it because I really don't care what some stranger on an internet message board says to or about me as long as that's where it stays.

It has occurred for a number of DUers, sometimes to their serious detriment.

It has occurred with me as the victim. I monitor such things closely. I even have a few transcripts of threads in hidden forums that include such doxxing and even threats. They were sent to me by people who could see and copy those threads.

I won't provide any details, but similar things have happened to a number of other DUers, as well. In some cases, it has affected their employment and worse.

It's a real problem. It exists. It happens.

whether it has ever happened to me, and it hasn't. I guess I should try harder.

It's a pain in the ass to deal with. I had to contact an attorney and dig down to see who the people doing it in meatspace. Lots of work.

It's still going on, but at a much reduced level.

It just didn't affect you. Like getting punched by someone really really weak.

who is perceived as weak and unable to fight back, for the purpose of intimidating them. If I'm being punched by someone who is weaker than I am, I'm not being bullied because I'm not intimidated or affected. I'm just being bothered, and I can deal with that very easily by ignoring it.

I don't like bullies but there is one here who is only around at certain times who threatened me once. Somehow it was not enough for DU to do anything about that. I see this person bully others all the time when they are around. If they threaten someone else I hope that gets reported, I think it would not stand any more.

Not consistently, but I changed positions on something in 2016, and had an ethical objection to a racist statement, and got a ton of personal attacks not exactly related to the subject. Pretty sure most of them are gone now though.

Does that make me a bully?

I think I've had two posts hidden over my many years here on DU that did cross that line.

Others have had posts hidden that were meant to bully me.

People have also caused me to change my opinions, or pointed out my miscomprehensions, some of them quite blatant. I can be quite thick-headed. I always try to acknowledge my trespasses, and apologize for my worst behavior.

I'm not a believer in civil political discourse when the other side clearly isn't playing by the same rules.

Sometimes a chant of "Fuck Trump!" behind a Fox News Reporter in a sports bar is appropriate.

Sometimes there's nothing to do but wave a fan in the face of someone spewing hate speech.

I usually give as good as I get there, though.


Of course, I've never had the guts to post in Cooking & Baking.

I hear it's worse than Mos Eisley in there.

watch yourself!

you deserve every lash that you receive!

rarely when some try to show up themselves, I'll just ignore them. I have too much going on to participate in cyber squabbling. I have 0 tolerance for bs.
The ignore and trash tabs are our friends.
However, for the most part DUers are awesome and I've learned a lot since being here.

I do so respectfully, but no one on here, and I mean no one, should EVER be bullied. Not ever. This site is too good for that. All of you are too good for that.

I think we should be allies and that we should treat each other as such. I don't think that's either difficult or too much to ask. I don't to want to fight fellow liberals. I am quite capable of defending myself but why should I have to?

Our differences are superficial and are a weakness to be exploited by the fascists.

For a start, you're only one person, and they said 'children'. Doesn't it make much more sense if it's aimed at the subject of the thread, ie "moderate" conservative commentators? It might just possibly be aimed at the 2 people who make the podcast, but there's no indication it is.

The response was confusing. Another reason why I didn't report it.

In the LGBT forum - when I objected to the multiple male beefcake (bordering on nude) threads, and I suggested that made the forum less than a friendly place for lesbians. The initiator is long gone (at least a temporary ban for behavior directed at me, but since unacceptable behavior was directed at others, as well, they were ultimately permanently banned); the main supporter is still here and still bullying - based on the last encounter I had with them. I actively try to stay out of their way.

(There is lots of pushback to my regular requests not to use gay, trans, fat, "tard," etc. as insults - but that pushback doesn't rise to the level of bullying.)

Oh, yeah - the death threat guy targeted me specifically. (Not a real DU member - just one who pops in periodically and targets anyone who can identify him and ban him quickly for particularly vile follow-up posts.)

Have had some back and forth with people, but I have not experienced repeated attempts to intimidate me, at least I did not perceive it that way.

A lot of people say things behind the anonymity of a keyboard that they would likely not say to your face. For those people I typically shrug them off.

by making it personal. When I start seeing "You" statements I know something is up.

That is what I am referring to. I call it bullying.

you could expect to be harassed, belittled, stalked, swarmed, name-called by them and their cultists cliques

Comes with the territory

I'm still here and they are gone

Including myself. My opinions and thoughts are not going to be the same as everyone else's here, and that's okay.

There are items that I have shared with this community that have been obviously misconstrued. I always TRY to be clear and precise and there are moments where I fail at this.

There has been inappropriate insults directed towards me and I've seen DU members name call other members here on DU. I have zero tolerance for this type of B.S. Period. However, I don't feel like I've ever been bullied here.


I don't come in here looking to argue or to be insulted. I come here because I'm surrounded by MAGAts and I don't have a Democratic support system in my personal life.

me down irl, including a phone call to work calling me by my DU name. This was in 2008. A took a multi year break from DU and have never returned to the post level I once had.

I'd call it bullying.

I think I can come across as a bully sometimes. There have been a couple of instances when I realized later that what I posted could be seen as bullying. If you call me out on it, I will go back and review my post(s) and either delete or amend them.

A mother blobfish.




That one stung, just a little.

I meant you had a face only a mother puffer fish could love.

Or a puff...

Some Conservative site that like to troll us.

Why insult brainless people?

They have found my attempt at a YouTube channel. But jokes on them. YouTube is all about numbers. They are helping with those numbers.

I have even talked to a guy in my apartment complex that is in marketing here at the U of A. Showed him the numbers, he said that I should start thinking now about Merchandise that the right would buy but the left would know the joke. Like when that one group past out those Russia flags with Trump's name on them.

He also said that when it comes to merchandise, don't forget Great Britain, because of the slow rise in numbers there.

Now marketing is still way off due to equipment issues, but thinking of making money off these conservatives does spark my imagination.

I know all about what they have said about me on said conservative sites. I hear ya.

So the jokes on them.

People being mean? Sure. Of course. However, people being mean online isn't bullying though. People can be assholes sometimes. It happens. NOt everyone who is mean to you is bullying you.

been sent nasty PMs, you name it. I've never tried to claim any kind of victimhood, nor have I been bullied. The great thing about the internet is that we are all equal. Size, gender and other physical traits don't matter.

That's it.

Fucking psycho.

The first time was back in 2008 when I posted that Biden was Obama’s pick for VP. This was early in the morning, six or seven hours before the announcement was made public. I got dozens of snarky replies like, oh yeah? What makes YOU so special? It involved a family member and two unwitting members of Biden’s staff, so I didn’t say how I knew. I got trashed right and left with the predictable “LINK????” demand.

Then there was the 2016 campaign, when I responded to a post on the home page about Sanders. It turned out the post was from some Sanders group I didn’t even know existed, from which I was angrily banned. This was fine with me, of course, as I hadn’t known they were there in the first place.

There have been several acquaintances of mine in public life that have been the victims of a bullying we on an internet board can only have nightmares about. At least three of them had distinguished public careers unjustly terminated due to orchestrated harassment by political or media antagonists. A few angry yells of “Link!!!” are trivial nuisances by comparison.

The whole place was very unpleasant for awhile.

I think it has been much more civil this time around, so far.

but i don't think that constitutes cyber-bullying.

Skinner declared an amnesty in 2016.

85/15

That says it all.