mjp
Founding member
The Dissident disrupts, insults and steers topics off course like any garden variety troll, but when it meets resistance The Dissident will claim "freedom of speech," "group think" (reminiscent of The Rebel), and characterize the forum as a totalitarian gulag.
They typically post in another venue to list their grievances with the forum, though they will just as often launch into an incoherent, unibomber-type rant via email. This rant normally consists of five to ten emails sent in quick succession, as if The Dissident is so caught up in the passion of the moment, they cannot contain or format all their thoughts.
Quite the opposite is true, however, and the rant is simply another aspect of the performance. The Dissident knows before its first post what it is going to say. It has studied the forum and believes it knows all the "soft spots" - what to say to incite outrage and resistance, and it does all this very intentionally.
Knowing this effectively neuters any claims of suppression of ideas, but a lot of forum owners overlook these important details because they are preoccupied trying to prove that they certainly are in favor of "free speech."
Because The Dissident usually couches its free speech rants within personal insults aimed at forum management and regular users, it is understandable that many forum owners react emotionally. That is a waste of time however, and merely plays into The Dissident's hand.
They typically post in another venue to list their grievances with the forum, though they will just as often launch into an incoherent, unibomber-type rant via email. This rant normally consists of five to ten emails sent in quick succession, as if The Dissident is so caught up in the passion of the moment, they cannot contain or format all their thoughts.
Quite the opposite is true, however, and the rant is simply another aspect of the performance. The Dissident knows before its first post what it is going to say. It has studied the forum and believes it knows all the "soft spots" - what to say to incite outrage and resistance, and it does all this very intentionally.
Knowing this effectively neuters any claims of suppression of ideas, but a lot of forum owners overlook these important details because they are preoccupied trying to prove that they certainly are in favor of "free speech."
Because The Dissident usually couches its free speech rants within personal insults aimed at forum management and regular users, it is understandable that many forum owners react emotionally. That is a waste of time however, and merely plays into The Dissident's hand.
