An interesting article:
The Forum Bully – Why Are There So Many Online Bullies? (chataboutyou.com)
What is a Forum Bully?
- Bullies use unsubstantiated personal attacks to denigrate their victims.
- Bullies usually attack weak or new targets.
- Bullies hate being challenged and they hate losing.
- Bullies usually hunt in packs.
- Bullies are afraid of strength.
- Bullies are in-love with themselves.
How to Fight Forum Bullies
1. Do not let forum bullies affect you.
Forum bullies are the scum of the Earth and they deserve nothing from us – not our attention, not our time, and certainly not our emotional well-being. One of the best ways to deal with online bullies is to hit the delete button. If we cannot delete their comment in fact, then simply delete it from our consciousness and move on.
Forum bullies are after attention so they may try to egg you on by further calling you names, calling you a coward, and raging on in a negative fashion. They will try to bring you down to their own sad level of existence.
Delete, ignore, and a bully will shout himself out, like a young child throwing a tantrum. Hopefully, he will learn from this experience and find more productive activities with which to fill his time. Otherwise, he will simply continue to fritter his time away in negative pursuits, which will hurt him a lot more than it hurts us.
2. Report bullies to the forum administration.
3. Fight fire with water.
However, if we feel compelled to converse with our friendly online thug, then the only way to fight negative verbal attacks is by dispelling it with humor and positive energy.
If they write a long diatribe, I’ll pretend I don’t understand some part of it and quote it while asking “why? Plz explain.” Like if they say I’m stupid, then I’ll ask “why, please explain why I’m stupid.” I’ll reply with these low effort but highly open ended questions till they give up in exhaustion.
