I Want to Improve the Experience Project

Trolls don't make me at all glad EP is ending. I have long heard much discussion of "trolls" as a negative part of the EP experience. I don't know exactly what people have in mind with "trolls", but I suspect it's being used primarily in regard to what I would call bullies. It is true that I lost two of my best friends on EP, VisualOne/Atri and Michelle007, because they were very seriously harassed by people with an ideological ax to grind against them, and EP Support would not do anything.

I certainly experienced some hateful behavior on EP. It all came from people angry at me because of the deep difference in viewpoints we held. They gave me some trying times, but I felt the tools provided by EP were fairly effective: delete hateful comments on your stories, block your enemies, and avoid third-party stories where your enemies are engaged.

Why is it that more people didn't find relief with the strategy of delete, block, and avoid?

Did trolls kill EP or make a major contribution? Did the pattern or intensity of troll conduct change over time?

I will assert that there was always so much positive, so much love, on EP, that it made the website worth it. Now if you are a person whose good friends all left EP because of the management's dismantling of the websites' features in the last few years, then you'll have a bad taste in your mouth about it. But I had plenty of wonderful friends here until the very end. I will surely, deeply miss having one good place to interact with them all.

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Georgethealienguy

Trolls? What exactly are trolls? I think the ancient aliens and their nocturnal anal probing experiments are what has ended EP. Many people here thought that EPAllie was a bot, but in reality, she was the ancient alien's most feared probe. Like a marital aid on steroids. Actually more like that magical pig that Frank Zappa sang about on Joe's Garage. At first Armen enjoyed being probed, relished it actually, but eventually, as the callouses began to form on his anal canal from regular vigorous nocturnal probing experiments, he came to realize that the friction he was craving no longer was of the sort that he was receiving. Even with EPAllie as his favorite probe. Finally, in a fit of pleasure (similar to the same song mentioned earlier) he pluked himself with Allie too hard and shorted out her internal electronics. Thus ended EP.

goliathtree

^^^^This guy is one of the reasons I will miss EP

pone22

I personally saw several flavors of this:

* Men were overtly predatory to women, demanding sexual things from them and sending them sex photos, when they barely knew them. I guess in 1960 that would have gotten the man arrested, but somehow in the Internet age that is business as usual. Women were rightly asking "why do I have to put up with these clowns?" Men did not see this behavior because they were not the targets.

* There were a lot of software chat robots in the last year that would contact all users round the clock, trying to start "conversations" and get friend connections. It was all social engineering and significantly diminished from the value of EP's entire system.

conceptualclarity · M

Yes, I knew the horndogs were always a problem on EP. I heard the complaints. I felt that the abject failure of EP to keep pornography off the website in the 2009-2013 period worsened the problem, because it attracted to the website an element that we would have been better off without. I think another part of the problem is that simple manners are no longer inculcated in this society the way they were in purportedly less enlightened times. Children used to learn basic manners in strong, two-parent families. Rudeness was not tolerated,

This is the first I've heard of the software robots. Once every six months or so I'd hear from a woman who offered to have me contact her at her email address and get her pictures. I always thought "SPAMMER".

Hikingguy

Your first answer is spot on. Women were preyed upon from rabid wolves.

silentwriter180

EP as I knew it is definitely gone since I've joined. The sincerity and love is gone, along with the understanding and support. I was brought here to heal. I don't get the feeling I can do that any longer. My time here has certainly diminished to a trickle. Thankfully, I can keep my dearest friends through email.

Sinjintiger

I've not had any experience with actual trolls here. Some said some incarnation of BillyMadison was harassing them, but I only saw dumb short comments. I think the fake females and the foreign inboxers were a worse problem.

Hikingguy

I think the trolls and other things took EP to a place it was never meant to go.

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