When you encounter difficult people online, how to you handle them?.
Luckily unlike IRL you do have the option of walking away...Yet some of us are compelled to respond to them online.
Sometimes it feels lime we are talking on a discipline role. Start thinking...Am I this person's keeper?...Is it my responsibility to teach this a******e some manners?... NO...walk away from this and don't look back fool. I am not a mod and I think this might be why.

To give an example.
Somewhat recently I was dealing with someone who took to throwing random insults about me into their posts. the post turned into me standing up for a certain group of people they were putting down ( unfortunatley I find myself doing this a lot). I stand up for various groups when they are being put down.
Other times I find myself trying to be polite to correct someone in terms of manners only to have them going into attack the messenger. I come from a background where bad manners were a big no no and there were "talks" if bad manners occurred...So I guess this comes naturally to me. If I goofed up, I got a talk, that's how it worked.


Instead of sticking with the topic at hand...They went on about how I "only care about myself" and that "I want to encourage people to be abusive" among other insults which was obviously an attempt to get me riled up, possibly lose my temper and get banned.
They were turning the thread into unrelated personal attacks on me for daring to defend a certain group AND give them what started as a polite ettiquette reminder.
They wrote pages of this stuff without ever being open to learning about why their behavior was needing correction in the first place.
Then again..I should have left before they wrote these pages. :sarcasm:
Responding to these folks is compelling.

I suppose some people know defending certain groups is my weakness. Since I encounter discrimination against certain groups on a regular basis it keeps popping up.
I ended up walking away and stopped responding. I've done many times. It's probably the right thing to do most of the time. On the other hand, I feel dealing with these people is a valuable experience that helps with overall life since these folks are not going away and will show up at work and other places we will be forced to deal with their behavior.

I tend to defend the following groups:
Middle class people, especially folks on the lower end of the range.
Poverty/homlessness ( The next step down from being lower middle class, you wouldn't believe how many people think people in poverty are bad people and deserve to be in poverty)
Athesists.
Homeosexuals / other alternate sexual orientation.
Asexuals.
Female gender/sexism.
Transgendered.
Professional/serious artists.
Handicapped people.
Mentally ill/ brain damaged people. ( I know people with mental problems that they had no hand in and the discrimination they face is dis heartening).
People who suffer from chronic illness ( especially the kind which they did not cause as I'm afraid I hold folks who caused their own problems with less compassion).

I tend to speak out about:
Rich/ elitist type people who put middle class people down.
Bizarree relgious aspects. ( God says we should all flip upside down in full sun on our yard with a ice cream balancing on our feet, anyone who doesn't do this is a BAAADDD person)
Creulty to animals.
Sexists.
People who lack empathy ( yeah I made a thread about that one alreadu).
Rude/mean people.
Fanatic types.
Throw a way mentatalities sp?.

I could probably think of more later.
Oh you can see I can get into loads of trouble,.....

Other times you'll be dealing with folks who have emotional issues or mental problems. This is more tricky since they are not being mean...They have issues and need some compassion. Especially if you are dealing with someone mentally ill.

I am into promoting civil behavior and like other people, I might lose my temper and do and say things I might regret...It happens., especially when dealing with issues one feels strongly about. So I like to reflect and keep improving...After all I consider myself a well educated person and I keep striving to act the part. I sometimes get mad at myself because I shouldn't stoop to the level of ill mannered or mean people.
I feel it's good to keep evauluating sp? your behavior..especially when tackling difficult/mean/rude people. I am getting way better at dealing with these people in a civil manner.

I've had a couple of people who irked me or bothered me in a bad way. Not here, mind you, but on my IM list and through other channels. I try my best to keep my emotions in check and act rational, but if it's getting to a point where it really bothers me I opt to block them from my list or to ignore them rather than to provoke. While I'm not purely a pacifist, I do not like to argue by nature and would rather every one get along.

I guess my best suggestion is try not to surround yourself with people who do this. If they tend to hang out in a particular area or thread, I'd just kind of stay away from it and let them do their own thing. If they get out of hand and it isn't possible, then try to approach them civilly and work something out. If all else fails, then it's time to get staff involved to help sort things out. I would really use the staff as a very last resort though.

I encounter a bunch of assholes on the internet daily. When that happens, it's easier for me to just play along, since I do not believe people to be assholes enough to actually pick a fight with me, but rather to just troll me for their entertainment.

I hate when I encounter asses online. I some times get randon mail saying things like omg what did you do. blah blah you are such a bitch and blah blah. And i dont even have any clue who the person is. Honestly if they are that upset about my pressence then they need to get off because i didnt do anything ot think

I often just report them to the site admins depending on what site i am on at the time. If it is on aim or something then i just block them its easier that way.

I don't report them and more than likely I will state my opinion and fight back. I refuse to be a doormat, even online.

it depends on the situation and what kind of mood i'm in. mostly i ignore them, but there are some days when it's already been a bad day and i really just want to let them have it. i can usually tell the ones who are being mean deliberately from the ones who are just having a bad day but when someone throws around the word stupid in refference to me because of something i belive in/like it really makes me mad and i will respond, because i get that a LOT in irl too.

Fight back in a way that could never be conceived as trolling if you tried and then report their lame asses. Sometimes being a logical bitch rules.

Nobody on this website is really a douche. . .well I haven't met any yet. But on gaia there's a lot of people just looking for someone to insult for no reason, or no good reason. That's why I just insult them right back and put them in their place, which can be easy or it can be hard depending on the stupidity of the person insulting me, their stubbornness, and their logic. I mean if they're really stupid you'd think it'd be easy to crush them but it doesn't work that way because they're so stupid they can't make sense of anything that you tell them. If they're really stubborn they're not going to want to just walk away after being schooled they'll try to act like they're so good at comebacks and just say dumb things like "your mom", but I think pretty much one of the most important things is their logic. Cause if they just come at you insulting you for random reasons you can easily poke holes in their logic. . .for example, The other day in a thread I made on gaia, some guy came into my thread and started yelling at me because according to him I was in a crip gang and for those of you who don't know the crips wear blue. . .I was dressed in pretty much all green and he was dressed in just blue and black. . .I'd say he must have felt like a moron but he's probably not smart enough to know how a moron feels.

most of the time, i encounter 'those' kind of people on other avatar sites. of course i may fight back a bit, that's the kind of person i am. but a lot of the time, everything i say seems to go in one ear, and out the other, which just frustrates me even more.

so then i tell myself, i'm wasting my time trying to get this person to understand, and to learn the reasons why they are wrong. all in all, that is how i handle people who are difficult. but it doesn't mean that is it effective at all XD

By fighting back though you're basically giving them what they want - you've been hooked into the argument. I've had the same issue with dealing with an ex of my current fiance and she tried her hardest to get me to argue and bite on all the negative things she was saying about both me and my fiance, but I think I finally got her to settle down and give up when I didn't and just let her hurl it at me without fighting back.

People like that tend to feed off your negative emotions, and it tends to run in a never ending circle of suffering.

If it's an online ordeal, usually these people are the bored but lazy type who come online to harass people because they're too lazy to do something productive on the computer or take a walk outside and socialize with people. They like to feed their ego by harassing people online since they often have no other way of feeling good about themselves. Leave them alone and they'll get bored and find someone else to pester, or they'll turn on the tv and channel surf all day.

People who harass others usually have nothing else to do, and or, want something from that said person.
I, myself have been harassed, and I've dealt with it many ways. Such as, simply ignoring them. though, that doesn't always work of course. I would report them, to make sure they were band from the site that it happened on.
I personally find it annoying when it happens though.
Say, I'm trying to have a conversation with someone in towns on Gaia, and some newbie continually sends links to some scam site. I find that stupid and a waste of time. Plus, it's violating the rules.
I tend to try to stay away from the conflicts, but, what happens, happens.

Meh. It depends on where I am, what they said and my mood.

Usually, I'll fight back in a reasonable fashion for a couple of posts. Of course, usually these arguments will go on forever and I just get burnt out on it and leave after awhile. No use upsetting myself over idiots on the internet.
Sometimes I simply don't feel like dealing with it and will walk away, and report it if necessary. But on sites with bad/no moderation I may occasionally start some sort of flame war if you say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Yes, I am a bad person like that. xD It doesn't happen often.

I will not argue with someone unless I know there's a good chance I'll win. If someone is obviously just wanting to pick a fight, I walk away. If someone is open to hear what others have to say then I'll give them my 2 cents on the matter. I'm a pretty good debater and am good at dealing with people so most of the time I can get my point across.

How does one deal with morons online? Simple- BLIND THEM WITH SCIENCE.
Or logic, at least.

If I find someone difficult, I ignore them. =]

I ignore them, especially the more they talk.

The best thing about being online is that it's harder to walk away from someone you're face to face with, but signing off AIM or ignoring them is the easiest thing in the world haha.

I'm not really in to chat rooms or AIM or any kind of live chat. I usually post on message boards. When dealing with morons, just ignore thim. I often frequent the TFW 2005 boards (Transformers site) and most of the people there don't put up with that kind of stuff.

In general, I argue with them
I'm probably one of the "difficult people"
But sometimes, I just get tired of it
Or figure it's a lose-lose situation, I'm not going to change their mind, you know?
So then I just stop talking to them.