On the Internet, baiting is similar to trolling, in that baiters, like trolls, try to elicit a response from other users. The difference is that the response is supposed to be embarrassing to the user in question, and humorous to others. Baiters frequently concentrate on groups they do not like, such as pedophiles, fraudsters, religious fundamentalists, or homosexuals. What the baiter says does not need to make sense, it is often simply written to baffle the bait, and to produce an interesting result. In that respect, baiting is similar to telephone prank calls, but often much more elaborate.
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Cyberbullying is also called "cyber bullying," "electronic bullying," "e-bullying," "sms bullying," "mobile bullying," "online bullying," "digital bullying," or "Internet bullying."
We define cyberbullying or baiting as "willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text" (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006). This definition was developed because it is simple, concise, thorough, and captures the main elements of cyberbullying. Those elements include: "willful" (the behavior has to be intentional, not accidental); "repeated" (bullying reflects a pattern of behavior, not just one isolated incident); "harm" (the target must perceive that harm was inflicted); and "electronic text" (this, of course, is what differentiates cyberbullying from traditional bullying).
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On Internet forums, baiting is sometimes used in attempts to empty forums or reduce a forum's usage. This type of baiting is usually done to make the atmosphere of a forum appear unpleasant or to make forum owners, moderators and long-time users look foolish. A person using this kind of baiting may post comments to elicit rude responses from prominent members of a forum, thus making the responding member or members appear as trolls or flamers to bystanders. As a result, forum users in general may become disgusted and leave the forum.
Baiters are sometimes long time residents of a particular Usenet nesgroup. They see a newbie visit, and toss a question or comment at some remark the newbie posted. It may be hostile, challenging, aggressive, just to see what the newbie is made of. Thus, baiting can be a sort of "hazing" or humiliation prior to initiation, or formal admission (or acceptance), into a posting "club". The practice is generally frowned upon in Usenet newsgroups of general interest.
Links
cyberbullying.us.
Man Gets Two Years for Pretending to Be Ex-Wife Online - whsv.com.
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