Richard-Business Eng
Professionele leerkracht
A message to the Trolls... and other lowlife forms...

I have been a member of italki since its inception in 2007.
Over the past 13 years, every month or two, a young lady posts a discussion about being harassed by a troll, a male italki user who usually has no interest in languages and simply wants to use the website to meet ladies.
In the last week I have seen at least four discussions from women related to the problems caused by a few, brainless men/little boys who take pleasure in disrespecting and upsetting innocent, respectable young ladies.
Just today, I saw another discussion asking why men use terms of endearment with ladies they have just met online.

This type of behaviour should anger any decent-minded man and it has angered me.
So, I now feel compelled to send a message directly to the trolls (for all the good it might do).

______________________________________________________________________


Message to the Trolls

1 italki is not a dating site nor a place to flirt with females

______________________________________________________________________


Very often, in fact far too often, the troll talks about sexually-related matters.

Message to the Trolls

2 Grow up

3 Mind your manners

4 Be polite and respectful or get off italki

______________________________________________________________________

And on many occasions, the troll will continue to hassle, annoy, intimidate, irritate and stress the young lady.

Message to the Trolls

5  You should know by now that men, good men, the kind of man a good woman would want,
are the kind of men who will always protect and defend women, senior citizens and children.
Trolls, and men who disrespect women, are not good men.

6  If you do not satisfy the definition of a good man, you should change your ways.

7  And if you don’t want to change your bad, low-class habits, then you should get off the internet,
crawl into a hole, and stay there. 

8  GROW UP

9  BE A GOOD MAN

10  STOP UPSETTING INNOCENT PEOPLE

11  GET A LIFE

12  DO SOME GOOD – NOT HARM

______________________________________________________________________


Finally, if any lowlife troll feels offended by what I have written,
you know exactly what you can do with yourself…


2 mrt. 2020 13:16
Opmerkingen · 31
7
Just a message to any women who happen to be reading this.

I currently have a couple of language partners – both of them independent, interesting, intelligent women.

<em>I</em> was the one who was contacted by <em>them</em>.

They both said that they settled on me after viewing my profile and judging that I was probably a serious and trustworthy partner. There is surely a message there, not only for women seeking language partners, but also as a warning to new teachers. If someone’s profile shows they have already had a number of lessons, a track record of posts on the discussion forum or have themselves made corrections to posts submitted by other users in their native language, then these are signs, (though not guarantees), of a reliable and honest partner.

If you are a woman, you might think of using this kind of screening as a safeguard. Choose your partners carefully, avoid those with no apparent history, and be wary of <em>men</em> who contact <em>you</em>.   

Not all men are predatory degenerate scumbags, but this site, unfortunately, clearly attracts more than its fair share.

3 maart 2020
7
Richard
 
I fear your message will fall on deaf ears.
 
“Troll” by the way, is for me, far too harmless a term. A more accurate description would be “predator”, (though <em>lowlife</em> is also appropriate).
 
Thanks all the same for posting.

2 maart 2020
6
Hello sir Richard
How are you? I hope well.
I can say that I have great students with whom I would love to take classes every day and teach them forever, they are in my heart always.
Then I can say that I was recently attacked by a pervert who keeps chasing, harassing and defaming my name as if he were a rejected ex-boyfriend. Horrible and rude students who are the only ones who speak during a conversation class and do not respect me or my opinion.
I'm not looking for language partners and I just teach, but I still receive messages, all kind of them.
I don't give free classes, but they want free classes. Sometimes I send a message during festive or crisis times like now saying that I'm at home and accept students, but they think it's free.
I've had proposals for marriage, dating and everything special from some countries but if I say where they are from people will say Im racist or xenophobic, but are usually always from X countries.
27 maart 2020
6
Richard: Nice post, but none of those misogynists are going to click on it. Unless you upload a different profile picture….

2 maart 2020
5
Hello everybody

I am absolutely on your side.
We should all be respectful and treat others the way we want to be treated.
I do not know, how Italki-support is maintaining this topic.
In my opinion, If somebody doesn't comply to behavioral standards, he/she should be able to receive a first warning and if it happens a second time, his/her profile should be erased.

However I strongly disagree with the statement:
"And we know exactly what 2 or 3 countries they come from."

Really? Do we? Which countries then?
And do we know, from which 2 or 3 countries the majority of racial slurs come from?

I know it's hard sometimes to keep ones contenance, but please, do make that effort to not fall into racist traps like that. NOWHERE, NEVER and certainly NOT on an international forum like Italki.

thank you

28 maart 2020
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