The Daily Bitch 4th March 2012

I suppose the big question is, what is the purpose of the trolls in being here and what is their motivation? Marietta/Clara, for example, told me that she was not interested in debate, which is very odd because I would have thought that it was obvious that this was a discussion forum. They are absolutely not interested in talking about the real issues – the main overarching one being whether AA and its program gets and keeps alcoholics sober; the second one being about whether it is actually damaging and counter-productive for people seeking help with addiction problems. They tend to come out with irrelevant ad hom attacks and the usual tired AA insinuations that anyone who points out the obvious flaws in the 12-step programme must be drunk.

I’ve been a registered member of this forum since its inception, but have only posted sporadically. About a week ago, when I checked in, I had made only two comments before I was subjected to extreme threats of personal sexual violence by Trace LIn (he had been abusive to women immediately before this, accompanying this with threats of ‘tracking them down’ and posting their personal contact details on the internet). He then had a spectacular meltdown and was begging to know how to delete his account – understandably, because online threats of serious crimes such as rape are illegal, and taken as seriously as they would be anywhere else. The weird thing was, though, that he was back the next day as if nothing had happened, inviting people to comment on what music he was listening to!

OK, this is an extreme example, and Trace LIn is clearly a very disturbed person who has since been banned. But it is just one end of the troll spectrum. The others seek to derail the topic by changing the subject and trying to distract from the main issues, and range from passive-aggressive to outright aggressive-aggressive. They rarely try to give any positive or rational defense of AA or its program, which would be absolutely fine with everyone here (and actually I wish some people would actually attempt to do this, but few ever do).

However, back to the main question – why? Is this their personal interpretation of doing their 12th step? In this case, wouldn’t they be better off on AA forums? Are they attempting to persuade people of the merits of the program? (I don’t think so, because there is very little attempt at rational persuasion.) Or do they see it as ‘my gang good, your gang bad. Don’t mess with my gang, etc.’? Whatever it is, they do not seem to take the matter of alcohol addiction, and the problems arising from the monopoly AA has in this field, particularly seriously.

BUT, they could not continue in their mindless attempts to disrupt and distract if people didn’t respond to them. Too many people rise to the bait, IMO. By attempting to reply to off-topic responses, ad hom remarks, personal putdowns, etc., other people here are playing into their hands and giving them exactly what they want. If they are ignored until they come up with something sincere and sensible that is really worth engaging with, they will either eventually get bored and go away OR start joining in with some worthwhile contributions. It’s like bringing up a toddler, really – don’t reinforce the bad behaviour by rewarding it with attention. Meanwhile the rest of us could get on with discussing the serious grown-up stuff.

Clarietta!! Ben thats funny! i like that! I personally dont care if she poses as somebody else to stay on here and argue. But I do find it strange that somebody would want to battle so much that they would change their name and post a fake picture and act a little different just to stay on a site like this. Also ive have never witnessed somebody like Clara dive in so fast to any site much less this one. And Clara if im wrong sorry but its pretty strange how 1 person gets banned and the next day tah dah! here is somebody new posting just as much as her in every thread.