Commentary, by Victoria S.
You know them ... Every e-mail discussion group, Usenet group, Yahoo / Google / Whatever group, message board, and online forum is bound to have at least *one* know-it-all malcontent, who - regardless of knowing all of the facts - posts controversial and provocative, and generally unpopular comments, with no real purpose. They continually submit posts under the pretext of "discussion," but in reality interject little more than venom, thinly veiled as "another point-of-view." While they are all too happy to latch onto any available discussion thread, they will also post, when they are feeling especially ignored, provocative posts of no special relevance, solely to draw attention and to provoke some (any) response.
People such as this appear to derive what little joy and satisfaction this apparently brings to them! It is purely an short-lived orgasm of the ego, not even faded before they desperately seek out their next release.
Typically, they are all-too-happy to argue at great length on virtually any topic, as long as it provokes some reaction - the "subject" really doesn't matter. Occassionally, they annoy the members of the group so much, that they find themselves banned from the group.
Here's another interesting observation - they tend to post only in "protected zones," like private / semi-private discussion groups. While they may have Yahoo profiles and MySpace web pages, you'll never find any of their b.s. posted anywhere else, certainly never in any public forum / web site, where they may expose their twisted arguments to public scrutiny.
The sad reality is that these so-called fanboys / lapdogs / gnats / malcontents / supplicants are nothing more than bottom-feeding trolls, lurking in the dark recesses, waiting to feed on any detritus that happens to filter down to the murky depths where they hide.
Equally culpable are those Moderators (etc.) who allow these persons to spew their venom, without setting boundaries or otherwise maintaining order. These "enablers" provide a void, which these trolls inevitably populate and florish, to the detriment of the entire group.
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