Pairing Off

On the 27th June this year, I wrote:

New in-trading focused blogs spring up, but not many last the distance. I'm actually not aware of any long-running legitimate in-play blogs now that Mark Iverson has departed the scene. The latest that have come to my attention are Tennis Trading and Big Pairs, and how long they last will be interesting to see.

A little over two months later and Tennis Trading told me to go away, so may or may not still be active, but Big Pairs blog has now vanished almost as quickly as it began.

Courtesy of Steve M's trail-blazing and long-running Daily 25 blog, apparently the last post from Big Pairs read like this:

Soon after I started my blog back in October 2014 I began receiving comments from an individual called ‘James’. His comments became increasingly abusive and aggressive and eventually I had to block him from posting. Sure enough, a week or two later, he reappeared as ‘Anonymous’ and did exactly the same thing. I blocked all anonymous posts and then recently, presumably after his summer holiday, he reappeared as ‘Jonesy’. Last night James/Anonymous/Jonesy posted a comment full of defamatory remarks, false accusations and general abuse, none of which are remotely founded. I’ve chosen not to publish it, or respond.

In the whole time I’ve been blogging here and posting on Twitter I have probably been very lucky to have only experienced this one internet troll. In fact I’ve made some good friends, received advice from a couple of intelligent, very helpful betting professionals and enjoyed a huge amount of support from people in a similar position to me. Unfortunately the internet allows keyboard warriors like this to make their comments without retribution. It wouldn’t happen in the real world, but online there are sadly thousands of people with these tendencies.

As a result of this abuse, which is getting gradually worse, I have decided to end the blog here.

I could just block all comments, but if someone is willing to take the time to create three separate identities to continue with these personal attacks, then who knows what they are capable of. I will continue with my journey and share progress with the guys I’ve got to know well in private. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read the blog, offer advice and share their experiences.

Good luck with your betting and trading.

BP

Whatever the real reason for closing the blog down was, and it would indeed be disappointing if one troll were the reason, it's yet another blog dying a relatively early death. If you are successful in any endeavour, there will always be those envious of you, and a long-running blog is certainly one of the surer signs of lasting profitability. Human nature, as has been said before, makes it easy to continue something that is going well. When things don't go well, it's human nature to lose interest. For the record, Steve's been blogging for at least five years I believe.

On the topic of dealing with trolls, Steve wrote:

To put it mildly, I’ve had to deal with my fair share of trolls over the years. Like anything new, I had to learn to deal with it and at the start my method was to try and make them understand how dumb they were. Trolls feed off replies, it is their lifeblood. Knowing that they have made any type of impact gets them all sorts of aroused.

Unfortunately, trying to make dumb people understand how dumb they are doesn't work, so the best approach is simply to ignore them. Often trolls have an established track record, maybe thousands of tweets or perhaps other former targets all too willing to share information. Steve adds:

These poor lost trolls were living such sad lives that they needed to feel any connection they could and would do what used to get them attention as a child. They would simply act out. I went from hating these morons to actually feeling sorry for them.

That Big Pairs was able to attract a troll so soon after starting should have been taken as a compliment. No one trolls losers after all, and while most of us are not as nice as Steve and able to feel sorry for them, it is satisfying to know that their trolling is an implicit admission that they are not as successful as their targets. The irony is that if they put as much effort into learning from the advice and knowledge shared as they did into their trolling, they would be better off. Once again though, the mindset of a troll is probably incapable of understanding that.