Serious What I learnt from talking to a troll

So for context, I was chilling on PS yesterday playing unrated randbats as one does. In one match, a fortunate match up meant I won 6-0. Now this is no big deal as it's unrated - it literally counts for nothing. However, he was not happy, as shown below (anonymous as I don't want repercussions for him):

EnzoLapras won the battle!
Him: WOOOOOW
Him: FUCKING WOW
EnzoLapras: it doesnt matter
Him: shut the FUCK UP
EnzoLapras: as its unrated
Him: when i get fucked over it silll pisses me off
EnzoLapras: shit happens
Him: fuck off with that
Him: you got handed the fucking win
Him: hows it feel, cunt?
EnzoLapras: and the win doesnt count for shit
Him: i DONT FUCKING CARE
EnzoLapras: the only joy i get is seeing your reaction tbh
Him: hur hur go ahead
EnzoLapras: otherwise i wouldnt care at all
Him: post it on reddit and get 3 karma, you fucking shit
EnzoLapras: i would if i cared, or had reddit
Him: still
Him: fuck off and die
EnzoLapras: lololol
Him: FUCKING END YOUR WORTHLESS LIIIIIIIFE


I'll admit I was rather antagonising, but the line that I've highlighted in bold really pinged me. So I tried to see if there was more to it, leading to the following exchange:

[22:33:26] Him: die
[22:33:39] EnzoLapras: i'll pass
[22:34:02] Him: ill do it instead
[22:34:03] Him: cunt
[22:34:12] EnzoLapras: good luck with that
[22:34:21] Him: wont be hard
[22:34:49] EnzoLapras: oh really?
[22:34:58] Him: to end myself? yeah
[22:35:10] EnzoLapras: no i meant for you to kill me
[22:35:18] Him: i wasnt talking about that
[22:35:36] Him: i meant ill die instead
[22:35:37] EnzoLapras: don't kill yourself please, get help first
[22:35:43] Him: whatever
[22:36:02] EnzoLapras: i hate to be antagonising, but you seem troubled
[22:36:07] Him: im not worth anything anyway
[22:36:14] EnzoLapras: yes you are dude
[22:36:34] Him: i just freaked out about an unrated random battle
[22:36:37] Him: thats enough reason
[22:37:07] EnzoLapras: that doesn't mean you arent worthless though
[22:37:19] Him: oh i am
[22:37:25] EnzoLapras: you mean a hell of a lot to some people
[22:37:40] Him: which means i have to stay around and suffer


After this followed an hour and a half long discussion about why he was so depressed. I won't post the details but he was really in a bad state and my heart really goes out to him.

So what did I learn? Well obviously the big one is that if someone is trolling a community as niche/nerdy as this, chances are they've got issues that are bubbling over (this is probably not that shocking in hindsight but still). The other one for me was a reminder that "success stories" are one of the worst things to hear about when you're down in the dumps, as it adds to the despair, rather than providing hope.

Discussion:
(Ngl I only put this in cong as it didn't fit anywhere else, so this bit is pretty much here to meet the requirements for a thread)
Should we consider approaching rude users differently? Is a deep chat the better alternative to a mute/lock from talking?
It's definitely worth considering that everyone is ultimately a human being and maybe some of them just need a hug.

The topic of mental health is rather important to me, so I hope I can ultimately help people to help one another. As a wise Meowth once said,
"We do have a lot in common. The same air, the same Earth, the same sky. Maybe if we started looking at what's the same instead of always looking at what's different, ...well, who knows?”
 
As much as I really admire what you did in this situation, sadly I don't think it applies to most. I believe that in a majority of situations, while yes, there is an underlying issue as to why these people choose to berate randoms over the internet, very few of them are as extreme as this poor guy. Most trolls probably got bullied a bit for liking pokemon a bit past whats deemed an appropriate age, being a little different, etc, and so they decide to get back at people by annoying them. That, or they're just genuine asses. However, in this case this guy clearly has some more intense issues as a result from a genetic disposition to depression, or worse psychological bombardment.

Sadly, sometimes only the ones who got hurt the most are the ones who are able to be gotten through to, where the others are just pathetic, never taught how to properly deal with bullying, or something of the sort. In some ways I wish everyone was as hurt as him, because then at least they'd have legitimate reasons to act the ways they do, and can heal.

Really not the most eloquent wording I've ever used, so hopefully you understand what I'm trying to say. Really, it's just that some people have good reasons for doing the things they do, and others don't. I just believe that some people are weaker than others and have harsher reactions to lesser harm. It's triage, treat those who are harmed worst with a chance of living first.
 
As much as I really admire what you did in this situation, sadly I don't think it applies to most. I believe that in a majority of situations, while yes, there is an underlying issue as to why these people choose to berate randoms over the internet, very few of them are as extreme as this poor guy. Most trolls probably got bullied a bit for liking pokemon a bit past whats deemed an appropriate age, being a little different, etc, and so they decide to get back at people by annoying them. That, or they're just genuine asses. However, in this case this guy clearly has some more intense issues as a result from a genetic disposition to depression, or worse psychological bombardment.

Sadly, sometimes only the ones who got hurt the most are the ones who are able to be gotten through to, where the others are just pathetic, never taught how to properly deal with bullying, or something of the sort. In some ways I wish everyone was as hurt as him, because then at least they'd have legitimate reasons to act the ways they do, and can heal.

Really not the most eloquent wording I've ever used, so hopefully you understand what I'm trying to say. Really, it's just that some people have good reasons for doing the things they do, and others don't. I just believe that some people are weaker than others and have harsher reactions to lesser harm. It's triage, treat those who are harmed worst with a chance of living first.
I suppose one of the points of this post was to encourage other people to do something similar in this scenario. This guy turned out to have issues, but he might be a rarity or he might be typical. Hopefully if people treat trolls this way, maybe we can get a picture of whether the average troll is actually a troubled person crying for help or a genuinely bad person.
I just remembered a guy I spoke to a while ago on PS who wanted to be locked from talking so that he couldn't vent on various chatrooms when he was angry. He was considering sh*tposting until he got locked iirc, which isn't the best plan...

I hadn't seen that article before you brought it to my attention, so thank you! Calling it a trend implies that it will die down at some point and people will stop being wholesome (which probably won't happen). Since I started following wholesome meme pages, I have found stories that I find inspiring, so that is what made me make a post on here about it (I've done other things that one would call wholesome, but haven't posted about them because they'd be too urr... narcissistic?). I made this post to encourage other people to do something similar in the hope that a fraction of the people reading would carry this out.

As I said before, I care a lot about mental health and want to help people out because mental health seems to generally be worse among nerds than the rest of the population.
 

Taylor

i am alien
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God these people are... [word non-existent]

The fact is Showdown is a site open to the world so you will meet these types of people from time to time. I just hate when they personally attack you for not being able to take the loss because in their head they have this idea that you were meant to play a certain way so that they would win for sure.

We make bad plays sometimes to actually turn the game in our favor. I have had situations where my opponent thinks I am going to make a certain play to reduce the size of defeat but cost themselves the game because of it. They shouldn't risk those plays if they push victory further away. They call you bad for making the bad move...lol
 
God these people are... [word non-existent]

The fact is Showdown is a site open to the world so you will meet these types of people from time to time. I just hate when they personally attack you for not being able to take the loss because in their head they have this idea that you were meant to play a certain way so that they would win for sure.

We make bad plays sometimes to actually turn the game in our favor. I have had situations where my opponent thinks I am going to make a certain play to reduce the size of defeat but cost themselves the game because of it. They shouldn't risk those plays if they push victory further away. They call you bad for making the bad move...lol
(sorry for delay in replying, I just finished exams)
You say the word is non-existent, but the point of my post was that these people are just ordinary people who are having problems, not monsters. I agree that it is frustrating when opponents are annoying, and there is the ignore opponent option in battles if needed.

idk just be nice to people
 

Taylor

i am alien
is a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Yeah it's not that they are evil or anything like that as it depends how far someone is willing to go. It's just I know when someone is getting at me just for being who I am and not arguing any valid point for their case going off what happened. I see it they either have a problem with me and they vent their frustrations on me or it is because they have problems with themselves and just don't know who to take it out on.
 
I guess if they kinda know you (like you're staff in a room they're in) then maybe it's specific to you, but otherwise (most cases) it's just them taking their frustration out on whoever will listen, so I wouldn't read too much into it. Just do you
 

HoeenHero

The Misspelled Hero!
is a Battle Simulator Administratoris a Programmeris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
PS Admin
There are some people who troll due to insecurities, or issues. If they choose to open up to me, i'm willing to listen to them, and to try and give them advice to help them. Even if this holds true for a majority of trolls/ect, I need to take action when it happens, since when you break the rules you get a punishment of some kind, mostly to keep the chats on track and keep PS an overall welcoming enviroment. I'm open to talking about the punishment in PMs (appeal and/or just chat) as long as you aren't a complete jerk to me (like alot of people).
 

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