Talk:Sealioning

Block quotes
In the Description section we have two large block quotes. I fear they may be WP:COPVIOs. Any thoughts on that? Coretheapple (talk) 21:25, 23 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Of course not. They're just quotes, and not even large at all. — Smuckola(talk) 21:43, 23 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I understand but large quotes like that are frequently boiled down for that reason. I'm rusty on the subject so let's see what if anything others say. Coretheapple (talk) 22:17, 23 December 2023 (UTC)
 * This is technical/academic stuff (and contentious in places), and I think it is better to have the proper quote as used (properly attributed) than a summarised version of it, which would be prone to its own POV. Aszx5000 (talk) 01:37, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

Notable examples of sealioning?
It's interesting that the internet is full of explanations of what sealioning *is*, in abstract, but for those who haven't actually *seen* sealioning, those abstract definitions are very unhelpful, and could even be harmful.

All "sealioning" seems to be, on the surface, is a mocking word for those who ask questions. People shouldn't be afraid to ask questions when there's something they don't know! This is an important basis of any type of constructive discussion. This whole term could be extremely toxic where-ever someone would be accused of sealioning, quieting sincere questions. Maybe notable examples would be warranted in a wikipedia article, to illustrate why this term exists? Surely it shouldn't be hard to find actual examples, given how easy it is to find a definition. --Sigmundur (talk) 06:52, 26 May 2024 (UTC)

EDIT: here's an example from SSC comments: The first notable sealion in usenet history is probably Sedar Argic, a bot that replied to every instance of the word ‘turkey’ with a long copypasta denying the armenian genocide — which became problematic around thanksgiving.


 * It's typically not about asking questions to genuinely gain knowledge, it's typically about bad faith question-asking because the sealion (incorrectly) thinks that any statement on social media is an invitation to public debate. If you're asking a stranger a question you already know the answer to because you want to use the other person's response as the setup to some logical argument you want to make against their position, then you're probably being a sealion. (If someone is into that sort of thing then instead of hassling strangers, they should join a debate club.)


 * But to answer your actual question, I don't think naming and shaming individual trolls is a good idea. I think that would be tricky for a number of reasons, including BLP and not feeding the trolls. ApLundell (talk) 21:29, 26 May 2024 (UTC)