Need advice on coping with single-issue flamers spammers.

[UTUSN]

This discussion thread was locked by EarlG (a host of the DU Community Help forum).

I don't want to name the single-issue here because it will spur the couple of flamers to do their thing. Actually, I agree with them on the broader dangers of the subject phenomenon, but there is a moderate side where the main content is not pernicious, but it's all or nothing to the inquisitors. They spoil every innocuous thread, highjack it, flame, harass, and personally attack the posters.

When one of them, who has been well thought of for years, first went on the tirade in one of my posts, I first responded with the moderate explanations inside the public thread, but they kept up the tirade, then I asked politely and privately in a DM that they stop, which only got a LONG conversion type sermon on the topic, so I DMed that they STOP. No, they don't stop, ending with my having to subject myself to the embarrassment of posting it in the public thread. They don't stop.

I have never used the Ignore feature because, for me, it's better to know what's out there than not to know; knowledge is power. And I have tried to use the guideline SKINNER laid out, that we should attempt to negotiate to solve our interactional problems with one another - doesn't work with these. And I seldom use Alert, in this case hard to fit these one-issue things into category - Civility, Spam, Don't Divide Us, what?

Their one issue is *large* and worldwide and not fixable on an internet board by a few posters. The couple of flamers here no concept that they cannot convert (apart from the core agreement) everybody, and relentlessly do long, LONG tirades that will not be read, much less convert.

[LuckyCharms]

1. Like the old saying goes...

"No response...is a response in itself".

If I don't feel like getting into the weeds with someone, I just won't respond.

Let them say what they want, and go silent.

I don't use ignore either, for the same reasons as you.

[UTUSN]

11. Yip, the no response has its message. The flamers go by the internet "rule" about the Last Word wins.

So they "win" in their mind.

*** Thanks for the understanding.

[highplainsdem]

23. LC, please see reply 18.

[LuckyCharms]

46. I was unfamiliar with the thread, highplainsdem, and was replying in generalities.

[Doodley]

2. If you use "ignore," you will not regret it, IMO! Why let a few people annoy you and get in your head?

[jmbar2]

3. Same experience here

In past situations, I have responded with the following. It didn't help, but made me feel better.

[UTUSN]

7. Absolutely perfect, am saving it. Would like to post it to the flamers but it might be called a personal attack.

Wish they hadn't made the person in the video to resemble Elizabeth WARREN.

[jmbar2]

10. It is a striking resemblance

The last time I used this, it resulted in an argument: "Karens are only conservative". I asked for proof-- LOL.

[UTUSN]

12. Am going to post it in Lounge, crediting you, in order to get it into my Journal. Thanks!

[jmbar2]

13. You may need to include a Trigger Warning for

aye eye...

[FoxNewsSucks]

34. That's what I thought too.

And the haircut wasn't exactly the stereotypical "karen" cut.

[UTUSN]

36. My first impression of the WARREN resemblance was just the immediate impact of the face.

I wouldn't know about the haircut or, for that matter, tons of the details that flamers count up to construct their obsessive conspiracy motives.

And already, in another thread there has been news that the product is a MAGAt inspiration based on unrelated content.

[FoxNewsSucks]

38. There's definitely a facial resemblance

and it also kinda spoiled an otherwise good video for me.

This was a standard "karen" cut



" I want to speak to the manager" is written all over her face

[UTUSN]

44. Yeah, the vid is spoiled for me now, too. This highlights another flamer trait,

how they manage to overpower what the original legit content was, by shifting everything over to their own side twists. So yes the content of this video is an excellent, almost clinical description of this specimen's behaviors, but the culprits will deflect the content by the source, the technology, the projections.

[Fiendish Thingy]

4. The ignore button is your friend

As is the function to filter out certain words, which blocks OP’s with those words in them.

Before the 2024 election, I had about a dozen people on ignore. Since then, my ignore list has grown to over a hundred. Election Denialism and other kooky CT nonsense, as well as board spammers and other hot button topics that simply aren’t worth the effort to risk a hide replying to are all worth ignoring for me.

It has helped keep DU a useable and useful place for me.

[EarlG]

5. We provide tools to help with problems like this, but it's up to you to use them

I commend you for attempting to use moderate explanations in an effort to solve problems with other people, but if they refuse to be persuaded by your point of view, and if they refuse your commands to "STOP," and if their posts don't break the rules, then the Ignore function is your last line of defense.

Right now you are making the deliberate choice not to use the Ignore function because "it's better to know what's out there than not to know." But from what you're telling me, it sounds like you would rather not see these posts. If that is the case, you don't need someone else to make them go away for you, because you can do it yourself. My advice is to use the Ignore function.

[UTUSN]

9. Yip, my choices make it insoluble for me.

[highplainsdem]

20. Please see reply 18 to understand the thread UTUSN is complaining about others complaining about.

It was an AI-generated channel emphasizing rape, torture and perversion that he was recommending DUers watch historically inaccurate videos from.

[stopdiggin]

6. short of an alert (given they have actually demeaned or broken other rules) about your only alternative

and a generally good practice - is to just fail to respond. That may not be as gratifying as you would wish - but, on the other hand, it's fairly easy to appreciate (I think) that you do not have a right (on a public forum) to muzzle someone else for the fact that they express a different point of view. Even if they are doing it over and over, and at great and exhausting, length. They are not required to 'come around' - moderate - reconcile - agree with you, or disengage at some point. And you can't require that they do.

Walk away ... It's what all the rest of us learn to do.
(or stay engaged - until the eyeballs are rolling back in your skull - if that is your particular gig)

[UTUSN]

8. Yip, doing that more than can like, reaping a pain in the gut and actual stress. Sometimes I dread

seeing the yellow highlight about a Reply.

*** Thanks for the understanding.

[NNadir]

14. As a big fan of the ignore function, I'll tell ypu how I manage it.

First of all, I use it when I've had interactions that are nearly identical, in situations where I can anticipate exactly what the response will be no matter what I say. Then I put the miscreant on ignore.

If I feel I'm missing something, like one of my OPs is getting kicked up in the "my posts" tab and I see nothing, I might temporarily remove the block - only if I am in a good mood and hoping for amusement - see what the miscreant or miscreants say, which usually reminds me why they're on ignore, chuckle and move on.

If there is something that I really feels needs a response, I'll make a comment offering the alternate point elsewhere in the thread or forum without any reference to the miscreant.

I don't often alert, except in really egregious situations, but I have done so.

As a gentle person, as your post suggests you are, you really don't need the bother. Some people are just inflexible and it's not worth the angst.

I wish you peace in less than peaceful times.

Just. my advice.

[UTUSN]

15. Excellent and very understanding points. Back when, during the early Ignore era, tried it on bad actors.

Actually filled up the limit of slots. Years later, looked at my slots and just about all of them had been banned or otherwise gone!

What makes my OP situation the more regrettable is that I had long agreed with (other topics) and liked one of the now flamer's posts, had never had a problem with them and had Recc'd them much. These flamers demand Unconditional Surrender, cult-like submission.

By the bye, have liked your posts tons, can't think of a single disagreement. Thanks.

[NNadir]

19. That's the best part of an ignore list. Checking through it and realizing...

...that the ignored person is gone.

I've seen a few for or with posting privileges revoked.

I can be cranky myself; but the ignore list is great for keeping me out of trouble when I get as puerile as a five year old.

I must say that some of the best original posts, as I judge myself, have been made when reflecting on my ignorees without direct interaction.

[UTUSN]

21. Yip, silently ignoring the stalking and lies until they expose themselves is satisfying when it happens.

Adding one of their flaming characteristics - they project their imagined motives to the hapless poster. Always cynical, dirty motives. And apparently they use the Subscribe feature to do their stalking.

[highplainsdem]

22. See reply 18 to understand the thread UTUSN is complaining about others commenting on. He was

recommending an AI-generated "history" channel (inaccurate history) emphasizing rape, torture and perversion with grotesque illustrations.

[NNadir]

25. Ok. I'm not going to get involved other than to say..

...everyone is free to use the ignore list.

I'm quite sure I am on the ignore lists of people on mine.

[highplainsdem]

30. I'm not going to ignore someone recommending an AI channel using illustrations of rape to advertise

videos.

[NNadir]

35. Ok. I understand your postion, but to be perfectly clear I often...

...ignore some horrible things - there are lots of them - to hold on to my sanity, such as it is.

I am often overwhelmed with sadness by these things, particularly with a pedophile in the White House starting wars to distract from that sordid history.

This may not be the ideal forum for adjudication of the current issue between two deservedly respected DUers however.

My participation in this thread was merely to express my generic appreciation of the ignore list, as well as other features of DU - the jury system for example - that makes this site the best, in my view, for fighting fascism, as well as addressing other issues, despite internal disagreements.

As a subsidiary of fighting fascism, I personally focus on environmental issues from a somewhat non-standard (among liberal) views, which often leads to conflict. I struggle to step aside from these conflicts, especially when offended, but have gotten better at discerning where the fight is not worth it.

To the point at hand:

I would be very shocked to see anyone here who endorses rape. In fact in more than two decades here, even serving on MIRT, I've not seen that, happily.

I wish you peace.

[yorkster]

16. Timely and relevant post.

[UTUSN]

17. Thanks for the understanding! - Insoluble because of my choices, but at least it's on record.

And it's been around forever, probably even before the interent in dealing with intractibles.

[highplainsdem]

18. UTUSN, you're apparently complaining about multiple people objecting to the lurid, non-historical content

of an AI-generated "history" channel you were urging people in GD to watch videos from a week ago.

Yes, the fact it was AI-generated was brought up, but there was more emphasis on the content being about "history" that didn't happen, the illustrations of women being sexualized, and the apparent focus of that AI channel, judging by the page of thumbnails with the video titles, being rape, torture and perversion.

You completely ignored my question about the content, and you ignored or brushed aside the other comments on the content and the lack of historical accuracy.

This was my last response to you there:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221118242#post16

Your exposition in the OP didn't begin to explain your recommending a 'history" channel where

two of the videos are illustrated - the thumbnail image created to sell the video - by images of soldiers restraining women who are apparently about to be raped by animals (a horse and a bull),

one shows a woman screaming as she's raped by Genghis Khan,

two show captive women hanging in the air, screaming, their legs spread,

one shows two women in ripped clothing pushed against a wall, armed soldiers behind them, the video about "the filthy fate of female prisoners in Rome,"

one shows an older woman screaming as she's boiled alive,

and so on.

One sickening scene after another illustrating the "history" videos you're recommending.

Your OP recommends a video about Herod that "goes into breathtaking detail about his personal atrocities" - why do you want people to view images and videos about atrocities like rape, torture and perversions?

The illos with those videos are some of the most grotesque I've seen on YouTube, even on AI slop channels.

I was asking about that because I'd never seen anything like that recommended on DU before. And you simply referred to AI in your replies to me.

[highplainsdem]

24. And btw, if anyone here who's been sympathizing with UTUSN feels the replies he received in that

thread from me and others were unfair, feel free to say so.

It still makes me feel sick to think of the AI illustrations on the page of videos shown with the AI "history" channel he was recommending.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

26. I use the Ignore feature because, for me, it's better not to know what's out there.

But if you post, you're going to have to expect that there will be replies. You don't have to read them, but you can't stop them.

[UTUSN]

28. Yip, I use a kind of Ignore - skipping. It's always been irritating when posters feel obligated

to go to a thread with their peeves, not discussing the topic, only needing to announce to the entire world of their personal preferences. When it involves their criticizing respectable and respected members, I sometimes chime in to say that there are

thousands of threads out there, so why don't they go find ones they can be constructive about instead of wasting their life force just to expect that others live by their preferences. Usually they claim to be Holier Dems than everybody at the same time that they are oblivious to Dem values, in this case, hammering down on the rights of others, most of all projecting horrible motives on others. They could just SKIP past.

Here's a poster that was on our walls during the late Hippie, early 1970s days:

[highplainsdem]

31. Please see reply 18 and let me know if you think I was wrong for objecting to the content of the

channel UTUSN was recommending. I wasn't the only one in that thread objecting to it.

[pwb]

27. I ignore people like that to keep track of them.

Sometimes I am right and they get banded. You can always see their last post in their profile to see if they treat others the same? If they do they stay ignored. I have maybe 10 people in my ignore list, some I think have died it has been so long since they posted.

[UTUSN]

29. Thanks. It's consolation that karma sometimes makes itself known.

[highplainsdem]

33. Please see reply 18. UTUSN is unhappy that people objected to his reccing an AI channel with gross illos of rape,

torture, and perversion - a channel peddling inaccurate history.

[pwb]

37. I know how you feel about AI from Music Appreciation.

I don't see any need for it to divide us though. I like both of you. Personal discretion may come late in some videos posted, not noticed but posted anyway. Forgiveness works for me unless it is repeated.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

32. "but there is a moderate side where the main content is not pernicious,"

Disagreeing with you on this point is not an attack or a flame.

The couple of flamers here no concept that they cannot convert (apart from the core agreement) everybody, and relentlessly do long, LONG tirades that will not be read, much less convert.

I'm not necessarily looking to convert anyone. I just can't remain silent in the face of it. If AI has a million haters, I am one of them. If it has a thousand haters, I am one of them. If it has one hater, it’s me. If it has no haters, it means I have left this world. If the world is against AI I am with the world; if the world is for AI I am against the world.

[highplainsdem]

39. The thread UTUSN is upset about wasn't primarily a debate about AI, either. It was about the inaccurate

Last edited Mon Mar 30, 2026, 05:29 PM - Edit history (1)

history and the disgusting content in the channel he was recommending. As I explained in reply 18.

I'm not necessarily looking to convert anyone. I just can't remain silent in the face of it. If AI has a million haters, I am one of them. If it has a thousand haters, I am one of them. If it has one hater, it’s me. If it has no haters, it means I have left this world. If the world is against AI I am with the world; if the world is for AI I am against the world.

Most liberals, as far as I can tell from other platforms, are opposed to generative AI. I posted a thread here showing the hundreds of angry responses on Bluesky to a teachers union president thoughtlessly posting AI slop as "fun."

It's surprised me to see some people on DU not only defending genAI but loving AI slop. Generative AI causes so many harms and is on the wrong side of issues liberals traditionally care about.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

40. I also pushed back on the inaccuracies ("100 vikings vs 10,000 Mongols," come on) and I think it's important to

highlight that one of your objections -- the weirdly sexualized, violent and victimizing tone of the videos -- is a direct result of relying on AI to produce content.

[questionseverything]

41. If what was posted was inaccurate then post an article or video with the correct info

[highplainsdem]

42. He was recommending an entire channel whose video thumbnails focused on rape, torture and

perversions.

[questionseverything]

43. Your post I referenced said it was about the inaccuracy of the video

Any video about kahn would be full of murder, death and rapes , wouldn’t it?

[highplainsdem]

45. I just scrolled past thumbnails of hundreds of YouTube videos about Khan. None of them showed Khan raping

a screaming woman. Those sadistic AI illos on that AI channel were unnecessary and pandering to something other than an interest in history.

[questionseverything]

50. Honestly you keep moving the goal posts

First the problem was ai

Then it was the inaccuracy

Now it’s disgusting and sadistic

Ai is definitely a bad thing just because of the heat it creates and the water it uses but we still all get to make our own decisions and I find the brow beating off putting… as someone who respects your opinion in general I feel like your point has been made

[highplainsdem]

52. I'm not moving the goalposts at all. This is the same objection I made when UTUSN posted about

that channel last week. WhiskeyGrinder put more emphasis on the inaccuracy and it being AI slop. But UTUSN didn't respond to anything I said about how objectionable those illos were. He kept talking only about AI.

This was my first reply to him in that thread:

UTUSN, that's the sleaziest AI slop channel I've seen, with thumbnail illos about rape, torture and perversion.

One of the premium "members only" videos is How White Men Bought Black Slave Wives in America (1810 Quadroon Balls).

What that channel is peddling doesn't appear to be history. The emphasis isn't history, anyway. It's emphasizing what's lurid and salacious.

If you want to learn about history, there are plenty of books and documentaries by real historians. No real historian would have anything to do with videos like those.

A friend I showed the video thumbnails to said they were porn.

Not sure I'd use that word, but I stand by what I said last week: What that channel is peddling doesn't appear to be history. The emphasis isn't history, anyway. It's emphasizing what's lurid and salacious.

[LearnedHand]

47. Don't respond to them

Who cares if they think they won. What does “winning” even mean in this electronic DU universe? Just stick to your own excellent critical thinking and don’t engage with the trolls.

[UTUSN]

48. Thanks much.

[Skittles]

49. IGNORE IS YOUR FRIEND MY FRIEND

seriously, would you put up with that asshole in real life

[FSogol]

51. Block them using the ignore feature. n/t