I should preface this by pointing out that people have been talking about sports, and especially college football, ever since Al Gore invented the internet. Before there were message boards, there was usenet, which still exists (kind of the way that some people still listen to music on vinyl). And there was a very active group on usenet called rec.sport.football.college. FWIW, I was active on RSFC from the old days, and remember when it became fashionable to start engaging in "fishing," which was the precursor to what we now know as trolling. Here's an old link to the RSFC's New User Guide:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/re...daSBG8R_8J

If you read down a bit, you'll get to the section on net.fishing, but just in case, here's what it says (with emphasis added by me):

Quote:C. Fishing

Q: What is net.fishing?

Net.fishing is an old, highly esteemed sport on RSFC, in which
fishermen (usually RSFC regulars) post highly inflammatory or
even incorrect statements (bait) in order to draw a lot of high-
intensity flames. YOU ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO FOLLOW RSFC FOR
A WHILE BEFORE FLAMING ANYBODY! Net.fishermen are usually very
wiley, have few scruples to speak of, and would just as soon
expose you as a foolish newbie as get up in the morning.

Q: How can I identify bait?

1. Look for statements that are obviously incorrect. People
generally don't read or post to RSFC unless they know *some-
thing* about college football, and most RSFC regulars are pretty
well informed. So if you read that Florida State won the SEC
championship last year or that Nebraska tied Kansas, you can
usually assume that you have stumbled across some bait.

2. Look for stubborn adherence to an argument that has been
exposed as flawed. Anyone who, for example, insists in the
face of contrary statistics that conference games are inherently
more difficult than non-conference games is probably fishing.

3. In some cases a slam against your school or conference may
be serving a second purpose -- to get you to bite that hook!
Many net.veterans use IYB as shorthand for the Rose Bowl, a.k.a.
the Irrelevant Yawner Bowl [tm]. (Anything that is appended with
[tm] is likely to be bait as well.) While many of these veterans
sincerely believe that the Rose Bowl is irrelevant and boring,
they also enjoy getting Big 10 / Pac 10 fans riled up defending
the Granddaddy of Them All.

In summary, bait may take on many forms and can lure even the most
experienced net.users -- even curators of the Hall o' Bait!
Anything which offends your sensibilities stands a decent chance
of being bait, so be careful.

Q: What should I do when I get "caught?"

RSFC appreciates anybody with a good sense of humor, even if he or
she has massive hook wounds in his or her lips. Grin and bear it.
Enjoy a laugh at your own expense. If the bait was good, say so.
We've all been there before.

What you should *not* do is then claim to have been fishing yourself,
as in, "I only defended the Rose Bowl so vehemently because I was
baiting you into attacking it again." This is called "Jonah fishing"
because ultimately you have been eaten by the fish you claim to have
caught. Nothing looks so desperate or ridiculous as this.

I know there are at least two of us on here who are former RSFCkers, and suspect there are more. So just because somebody pokes fun at your team/school, it doesn't make them a classless jerk. They're quite likely trying to reel you in.

USFFan

PS - that doesn't mean there aren't classless jerks out there, but not EVERYBODY is one

I think that by starting this thread, you just got hooked.

(11-05-2017 06:46 PM)HuskyU Wrote:  I think that by starting this thread, you just got hooked.

If you say so, but if it saves me from seeing countless newbies biting at stinky bait over and over again, I can live with that.

USFFan

But it's not just the newbies...

Who would have thought Cuban would be so easily baited...?

(11-05-2017 06:57 PM)HuskyU Wrote:  But it's not just the newbies...

Who would have thought Cuban would be so easily baited...?

Please see the second bolded statement...

USFFan