Dealing with online baiters

It can be hard dealing with these type of people.

We all know their type. You go online, state your opinion, and there is always that one person who jumps down your throat for saying it. I call these people, quiet properly, "Online Baiters". They are trying to bait you into long, drawn out war of words, in which they can use everything at their disposal to try to make you feel like you are in the wrong.

I recently encountered one of these. The particular site is a Star Trek online message board site. We were discussing a character from Deep Space Nine, who I felt was supposed to be representative of transgenders. There was a cacophony of people of the LBGT community who felt that wasn't the case because "well, the symbiot the character has doesn't have a gender itself, so it can't possibly be one." Except the character's symbiot had had many hosts, roughly half male and half female. But that is not important.

Now, there is a user on the site who is always looking for a fight. A couple years back, I posted about Sir Patrick Stewart was rumored to be performing the marriage of Ian McKellan to his boyfriend. I asked him his thoughts, only to get yelled at by the user that I had no right asking him about this, since it isn't real. Now, this user was one of the reasons I left the site for over a year.

I even got warning on my profile for being and suspended for a week for defending being a Republican when he and his friends ripped into the GOP, calling all Republicans unreasonable and all good ones dying out with Reagen.

There was also my response of "Your mom died with Reagen" that also contributed to it.

So forward to 2017. I finally return to the site. The election is over, Trump is Prez, so there should be less of a problem. Nope, the site is still pretty toxic. But, that's fine, as I'm there to post fanfics and other stuff. So....forward to a week after my return. The longer we delve into the topic, the more the one guy gets more and more wound up about the need to explain that every relationship in ST if it's male has sexual undertones to it. I finally respond with a lengthy response that there is no basis for what he says and people need to stop looking for homosexuality where there is none.

Yep....that didn't go over well. He launched into a massive attack, saying everything that I said but reversing it to make me look like a bigot.

A good rumble can do the soul some good!

So.....what do you do in such a case? The obvious answer is to try to decelerate the argument. So, I told him to stop being an arse about it, I wasn't bashing gays and we should get back on topic. I worded it more eloquently, trying to bring the situation under control before it got out of control any more.

Did that work? Nope. This guy loves the idea of fighting anyone who isn't homosexual. Having known this guy for seven years, I'm speaking with lots of experience.

So, said man continues his attack, trying to make me out to be an idiot. He tries baiting me, for he and the guy who suspended me are tight buds and that was how the got me suspended in the first place. Riling me up, so that we he could go bawling to the other moderator so the other moderate suspended me.

So what do you do now? You tried to decelerate the argument but the other guy won't take it. My response was simple. "It's done. It's over. Let's get back on topic."

That was the last of it....which happened actually an hour ago. So, we shall see what happens next!

With such a site, one that obviously my brand of ideas is best kept to myself, why would I return to it? One where my views are seen as bad? Where the site has gotten even worse, the continual need to bash anyone down who doesn't see their viewpoint? So bad that the almost strictly liberal crowd is tearing itself apart as they seem unable to post any topics anymore without it going political and angry?

Well, it's the online Star Trek forum I currently am subscribed to. There is some good conversations on there and I can post my fanfics pretty easily! I'd hate to leave again so soon after getting back, but I get the feeling that might have to be what happens.

I'll keep you guys informed on what transpires!