ClefairyFollow

Okay, I doubt this posting's going to be read with any seriousness, but I don't particuarly care, I'm posting it anyway.

And yes, before everything else I have to say, I am aware I can filter out messages by rating. But I don't, because... well, dammit, I'm a gossip *****, and I like to know what's going on :P

Now, while no names were given, a while ago, some hands were slapped on the Garuda forum for "flaming" someone, and it really was rather obvious that it originated with Clefairy's postings.

This is when you get into "flame" vs fact, and it's sad to say, most of the flames are fact.

This girl claims to be all hugs and puppies and rainbow sunshine, but when it comes down to it, she's quite the psycho.

All her posts follow the same general trend:
She posts about how awesome her job combo is, or how awesome she is at her job combo, and how we're all blind/stupid/whatever reason every FFXI server isn't full of whm/thf and thf/whm, or some variation on this theme.
Originally she got a couple combolol posts, and a whole bunch of actual helpful people pointing out the benefits of other combinations, and how hers might penalize her later, etc, etc but basically NOT RUDE OR INFLAMMATORY posts. Now her first page of replies are full of trollish posts, intermixed with the "helpful" replies.
The more replies she gets that aren't people standing up and shouting that they agree with her, the more abusive she gets in her responses, until...

Pikko came in and posted on our BPT that it was going to be closed unless it turned itself around. It's a joke... it's THE grand joke of Garuda. "Come to Garuda, we have drama!" I have random people send me tells in game talking about the bad players thread more often than I post in the damn thing. It's sad to say a bunch of us have a sick sense of pride about its length, but hey, human beings tend to be obsessed with length :P

Pikko also posted and locked a few of Clefairy's posts. What's directly before Pikko's posting? Well, it's a bunch of anecdotes about how crappy Clefairy is at her preached job combination. It doesn't take a whole lot to put two and two together and assume that Clefairy complained.

Our bad players thread follows one of three routes, generally.
1. Someone posts someone and whatever they did, and nobody cares.
2. Someone posts someone and whatever they did, and a whole bunch of people crawl out of the woodwork to basically say "OMG! I thought I was the only one who witnessed that, here's my story" but noone ever debates that the original post was wrong - I think this is as close as it gets to it not being a joke.
3. Someone posts someone and whatever they did, and sides are drawn, the subject is debated until we're giving away free horse burgers, and everyone rejoices that we're closer to our "99 pages before (our mystical not-this-year-but-maybe-next-year's) Christmas"

Very rarely does anyone walk away with any hard feelings lasting more than 24H, and in those instances, it's generally a larger topic than what was originally posted in the BPT - ie. <BadPlayerGuy> screwed over a whole bunch of people in some giant MMORPG social no-no, and in those situations, it wouldn't matter if it was posted or not, because the news'd still spread around the server on its own.

I ramble a lot, and am verbose, and I apologise.

Two anecdotes:
I helped Clefairy (Anna in game) with getting some of her white mage artifact equipment. It was a casual partying experience, with your typical much higher level people helping out someone much lower level. I chatted with her while we were doing it, she seemed distracted, but at no time was she rude, or was I rude to her, but at no time was she all hugs and puppies either. Just.. normal.

Fast forward a bit. I partied with her as her thf/whm combo. She was... psycho. Noone said anything about her job combination. She was trying to stack her sneak attack with a weaponskill it wouldn't stack with, and it was pointed out that it had to be a non-elemental weaponskill - useful game information. She flipped out. She chewed out the entire party, ******* at our white mage until they left the party, and flipped out on the people in the party who hadn't said anything, simply because we were "complaining about her job combo". We weren't. "This skill does not stack" != anything about a job combo.

This is exactly what you'll find posted about her time and time again, and given that the other responses she gets are either helpful or trollish, I'm forced to assume she's complained about the trolls+anecdotes.

And, her behaviour is far from limited to these boards. She lets everything spill over and between here and in game, and is equally abusive in bost scenarios.


Normally, I'd rejoice. It's drama. It's the Garuda motto.

I don't personally care what she does with her spare time, or how she plays her game. I tried the helpful route, and I got bit back along with everyone else.

So... why am I posting here?



She is an instigator both here and in game. She has started each and every "flame war" by lashing out at someone when it was uncalled for, and both here and in game, complained when they responded in kind.

Her two-faced (no offense to Harvey Dent by the comparison) behaviour shouldn't be tolerable. You guys have banned trolls for less. Granted, most of those trolls don't come in a "I'm really a nice person, really! People are just so mean to me!" package. (If anyone's mean to her, it's because she bit the hand that fed.)

Look at her threads. I mean go back to the start and really LOOK at them. Look at the path they take. Now couple that with her dragging things off of the board into game, with her flipping out on players there and calling GMs on them after inciting verbally abusive conversations, and what have you got?

She's a troll in huggy-puppy-rainbow-sunshine skin, and she needs to go.


Thanks for reading. I hope it entertained all the non-admins >.>

Cheers.

I'm fine with your normal, "harmless" troll.

But, this person has shown a repeated pattern of lashing out at others and then calling down authority on them. She's done it on here, and she's done it in game.

It's what, IMO, makes her behaviour unacceptable. I should never have to talk to a GM and be given a warning because she cussed me & my party out and then reported me & my party for kicking her (wtf??), nor should we be warned or punished on here because she lashes out at everyone who responds to her post, then calls down an admin afterward, likely leaving out the part that she instigates 99% of the situations in both venues.

The behaviour of the person she's attacking doesn't even matter. It's moot whether they answer in kind or not. I know she's called GMs on people who said nothing while she flipped on them and blacklisted her instead, so it's not beyond reason to assume she might do the same here.

I am so very very tired of the hate and b.s. that follows in her trail. Hell, I'd be happy if there were some way to restrict her from starting new posts, and only being allowed to reply to topics.

The frequency with which she gets rated down should speak for itself. Couple that with the inflammatory nature of her responses to thread replies... well... maybe she's a troll that doesn't realize she's a troll.

Regardless, it's... absurd.

Garuda posters were slapped on the hand for a fire she started and continued to feed fuel to, and what exactly did she get? If anything, Pikko's postings justify her self-victimizing behaviour.

I'd like to see something done about Clefairy, who is the root of the problem, before the rest of us get punished either directly or indirectly for her actions.

There are some very simple steps you can take to deal with this situation:

1. Doesn't your game have an ignore list? Put her on it and you'll never have to hear her in-game. If you get in a group and she's in it, decline. I play a different game, but having played it for over 4 years now, I've gotten to know a lot of people and, yes, there are a few people that I REFUSE to group with. It's not that unusual.

2. For the forums, no one is MAKING you reply to anything she types. Hell, the easiest way to deal with it is just to not read anything she posts at all. It may be annoying seeing all the spam that a flame thread can produce, but it's like you pointed out, people love drama. If everyone sees her for what she is, as you claim, then they should all know not to reply. It's an old intrawebs saying, you know? "Don't feed the trolls." If people are replying to her anyway then blame them because they probably like the attention just as much as her.

I don't know her or you, but it just seems like something that is better left to be dealt with by the community rather then asking an admin to go back, read all the posts someone has made, try to make a judgement on their character, then decide to ban them or not. That's not why they're here. These are mostly self-moderating forums. If it really bothers enough people, she'll end up under the filter eventually. Then, she'll either get the hint and lay off or become a REAL troll (we've had that happen in the EQ forums before), in which case the admins might eventually flat out ban her.

1. She's on my blacklist in FFXI. That's really a logic thing :D

2. Rimesume, thanks for well... trolling my post. Your advice might do Clefairy more good, if she'd actually listen to anyone.


I've come across several trolls before. I know you can't get rid of them. But I have yet to see the greater masses get in trouble for the actions of one troll... until Clefairy came along.

I would prefer that the greater posting masses of Garuda not get punished for responding to a troll, when the instigator should be the one being punished. So, I posted. Simple enough.

Thank you for the clarification.

I wrongly assumed that, since she was the topic du jour, she was the one who'd made complaints. And, as it didn't conflict with her M.O., I didn't put much further thought into it.

And... our BPT needs a disclaimer of some sort, but I've not seen head nor hair of the OP in quite some time. Sort of a "If you take this thread seriously..." along with a suggestion to read more than one page before posting O.o A title change wouldn't hurt either, since it's mostly a one-time vent fest that (thankfully) gets put there instead of having thread after thread of singular events.

Can you clarify on the nature of the complaints? The majority of the postings are anecdotal, albeit in an angry sort of way (ie. "This tool/loser/****** So-and-so" - which I guess would be expected, given the nature of the thread and the events that lead to someone adding an anecdote), as opposed to what I think of as straight up flames (which would generally start with "You are" or "So-and-so is" and be followed by an insult, but devoid of content/the anecdotal explanation, and generally given in response to another posting). I view the former as blowing off steam, and the latter as inflammatory.

I know there've been a few flash fires, but they tend to die rather quickly once the angry people start sifting through their sock drawers to make replies. If it didn't put a major (lol) dent in our campaign for 99 pages, I'd ask for the original to be deleted, and a new one to be made and (gasp!) stickied, complete with disclaimer and warnings :P

lol Rime, I misread your post. For some reason I saw "and trolling the forum is an art form."

I need more sleep. Kids with ear infections are no fun. /feel sorry for Bunny NOW!