Message board Terms of Service (TOS) are pretty much the rules that moderators or administrators use to hassle the posters of the board. Since people are pretty much animals there needs to be some guidelines to keep them under control. Many users follow them, but many do not. Some rules may be: No profanity (swearing, cursing), no pornographic images, no personal attacks on other posters, no spamming, etc. These are rules put into place so that members can get along (somewhat) and that the boards will remain uncluttered and family safe. Blah, blah, blah.

For most of us though, these rules tend to be something that we loosely follow. I’ll admit that I swear like a truck driver on most days so that rule on boards is pretty damned annoying if they have a word filter. My posts sometimes look like this:

“This is ****ing bull***! I can’t ****ing believe that you ***holes want to **** **** **** **** the *** and **** stuff **** *****!”

As you can see it is pretty difficult to tell what I’m saying on these boards because I have a potty mouth.

Besides the curse filter, the personal attacks thing kind of gets out of control at times too. Some people are just idiots. Someone has to tell them that they are full of crap or brain-dead don’t they? I consider this a personal service, free of charge mind you, to these ignoramus posters out there. God forbid these posters actually learn the correct way thing work.

Then you have the old “consequences” of actions for violating the TOS. Maybe you can’t post for a few days. Maybe you get banned for a month. In extreme cases you could get your IP address banned and you can’t post from that computer again (IP masks and other stuff get around that). One board I post at actually changes your title under your username to “Asscaked” once you get banned. Everyone gets a good chuckle out of that.

You just need to learn how to bend, but not break the rules. Push the limits, but don’t go over the line. You can easily piss off, annoy, and make other posters cry with just some subtle truths masked with sarcasm rather than getting really offensive. If it s learned skill. Nothing works better than a laughing smiley or the little code after a really true, but offensive post. After all…you were just “joking”. Doesn’t anyone have a sense of humor anymore?

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Have you ever run into this fool? He’s the classic name caller you meet in real life when they can’t seem to debate correctly with someone. Online they are even more aggressive.

Suppose you are debating about a topic in the news and someone pipes in that has no idea what they are talking about. You decide that you will politely correct them by explaining the situation so they understand. You forget that sarchasm isn’t easily deciphered on a forum so this poster becomes hostile. First they begin with juvenile name calling and sometimes suck you in. You try using logic to make them look a fool, but that only increases their rage. Eventually this “gangsta” will begin to post threats of the physical nature and call you out to actually fight them. They will most likely even come up with some grandiose stories about how many people they have beaten up, killed, or maimed to try and scare you off and gain some message board cred.

The conversation usually ends by you telling them that they need some psychological help and that you are through with the conversation. Don’t falter after you leave this discussion. The Internet Tough Guy is always going to keep posting until they have the absolute final word. The longer you keep coming back the more satisfaction they get. Remember that these people are full of rage and will follow such a topic forever until you quit. Just cut your ties and walk away.

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