It’s really annoying. Imagining when you make some IDs but you are not very sure. There are someone comes out laughing and saying ‘You can’t even distinguish A to B!’ ‘Go back home and learn more!’ ‘You make mistakes all the time!’ He mock on you before you can correct your choice and admit your mistake, you want to argue on his attitude, then he mock again: ‘You don’t even admit your mistake!’
It happens everytime just like he is an ‘ID Police’. But the guy himself don’t give any constructive advice. He doesn’t even have any knowledge learn by himself——He just follow with some expert’s idea. And of course he makes mistakes himself. When I saw I just point out his mistake neutrally along with reasonable reference. I don’t want to make trouble with him, but I can’t stop him find my trouble. And he will keep judging you with old impression. No matter how many correct IDs you’ve made and how many people you’ve help, he always focus on your mistakes.
How to judge and deal with people like that? Do I need to tell you his iNat ID here? (I don’t know if this is proper)
Hi @Manassas, if this is a persistent issue with a specific user, please email help@inaturalist.org. You can also flag individual comments as inappropriate if they violate the Community Guidelines.
(it’s not appropriate to name who they are here on the forum)
No, we’re not supposed to call out specific users here.
Fine, but I am not only ask for reasult, I want to hear people’s attitude toward this.
Maybe I need to cancle the ‘question’ tag?
The problem is, it’s not only happen on iNat, he do it to me on other media and group. Merely solve the problem on iNat seems not enough.
I think you can block a person who is harassing you on iNaturalist, and, perhaps, on those other sites also. If it is someone you know in real life at school, perhaps talk to a school counselor about it?
Just flag those comments.
Does it needs other people think it’s not appropriate comments also?
If it’s hurtful or offensive to you, flag it. I regularly go through flags for comments and many times I find they are not outwardly meant to be hurtful, but the tone is there, and the commenter should still be informed that they’re potentially offending others. Sometimes it’s intentional and sometimes they don’t even know. It’s always worth flagging, in my opinion, just in case. The flag can always be resolved afterwards. You deserve to have a good experience on the site, and so does everybody else.
It’s not only on iNat. I want to seek for people’s ideas toward comments and person like this.
What do you think?
I think if they’re bothersome to you then these comments are probably worded in an unnecessarily hostile or argumentative way. And they should probably stop.
Yes it does. Does any one not be bothersome toward comment and person like this?
I think avoiding the individual by blocking them on this site and any other places you can would be the best place to start. If they continue, ask them why they present this attitude and then try to talk to them about resolving it. If they continue, they have an issue and it would be best to do all you can to avoid them.
This person is acting like a bully and that is unacceptable behavior in most-of modern society, it constitutes harassment.
This type of behavior demonstrates a staggering lack of social maturity on the part of the instigator, take this as an opportunity to learn the skill of “letting others be wrong”, something this person apparently cannot do.
Folks can be “protective” of some taxa or places, and can act a bit defensive or standoffish when interacting with others new to their region or taxa, but nothing justifies being patronizing or rude to anyone, let alone harassing someone, regardless of each-other’s individual knowledge or expertise in a field.
They are likely threatened by your potential and the possibility that you could someday surpass them in performance and accomplishments.
One of best things to do in this situation, to “beat” someone like this, is to take the high road, ignore them and immerse yourself in your studies and quietly become a better naturalist, biologist, and person, than them. People who are outwardly angry towards others generally have other problems in their life that are causing them to take out this aggression towards you,it’s not easy always, best not try not to take it personally.
Most people on the site are nice people. And even if they aren’t, the guidelines urge people to behave like they are, so there’s a system for handling situations like this. I’d really recommend flagging the comments in question. That’s what I would do and that’s what I would advise anybody to do.
@Manassas I know I have tagged you in for help - so your troll / bully is ‘wrong’.
First rule don’t feed trolls, don’t reward bullies by engaging with them.
Second rule - use the tools you have available - flag and block as and where you need to.
You are under no obligation whatsoever to accept being mocked.
I know. But how about he say ‘You don’t even admit your mistake!’ When I don’t want to hear from him even I know I was wrong?
There’s no perfect solution here, but my unofficial advice is to stay positive and respond as if they aren’t being mean or rude. Intentionally mean users and trolls want you to be upset, so if they see you are being upset it’ll encourage them to continue. Staying positive tends to discourage them, and often they’ll just silently give up. It’s not a solution for everyone though, but it’s personally how I try and deal with them.
Examples of response could be:
-
“You make mistakes all the time!”
answer: “Yeah I’m still learning, it happens!” -
“You don’t even admit your mistake!”
answer: “Luckily we have great identifiers, so it isn’t a mistake anymore.” -
“Go back home and learn more!”
answer: “That’s the plan! I learn a lot from this website too!”
Many other solutions have been given above, which also work. If it continues, or the comments are particularly bad, then flagging is a very good idea. There is nothing wrong with flagging comments if need be, and reporting users who are a consistent hostile force.
What about short phrases, always the same? Like: Did you not sleep well?or W ho does nothing makes not mistakes! and so on.
Take a deep breath. Ignore them. And move on.
Online bullies take advantage of people who have been raised to be polite and kind. Nothing you say or do will change them. If you don’t respond they will find someone else to pick on.
I’m not a digital native so I have learnt my way thru social media. Another good rule I found early on is (from sport I guess?) Three Strikes and You Are OUT. So - when you get the third nasty message from someone? OUT.
It is important to flag online bullies. Think of the tip of the iceberg - as you. There will be other victims who have silently withdrawn from iNat in horror. Even here! We fight for the silent victims.
Rant over. Not on my patch, thank you.
PS I remember an evil episode from Google Plus days. A young woman beginning her research career in cancer. Who was ‘gaslighted’ by a second rate man. She is now flying high in cancer research in Britain. But for a while he totally destroyed her.
PPS there’s a thing called Eve baiting (that had a fun G+ story)
You can use the @username of friends who have given you permission to summon them and who you think may also know what the photo is about and witness