Please explain baiting I dont' think I understand.?

Question

When I read a question all I see is a question. I need help understanding how to recognize a question that is attempting to start a heated debate. I am assuming this is what baiting is. Please help me to understand what you consider baiting, phishing, or any other terms that mean the same thing.

Answer 1

My reference to *baiting* in a previous question was due to a question that I answered honestly, never thinking it was more than a true question.  After my answer was posted, another user immediately came on to insult the information I provided and how faulty it was, including directing her answer at my name.  It was almost as if the question was put out there to get people to answer it so that someone else could come in and insult them.  After reading the questioner's response to the best chosen answer, it became clear to me that these two people were playing the *baiting* game.  

I have no problem being educated about information that is incorrect, but my theory all along has been, do it respectfully.  Don't insult me.  I have learned a great deal from some very valuable people in this category - Possum, Andraya, Amy - but there are also a few that are just out there to be cruel and pass judgment unfairly.

Answer 2

I am guessing here,...baiting refers to starting-trouble of sorts.

start a discussion, and word it so that it'll push-someone's-button, emotionally.....and you've got a debate going.

people live by their emotions basically....and anytime you stir up someone's feelings you've got their attention.

Answer 3

I don't really get what is so negative about debating a heated subject. I was on the debate team in Jr. High and I loved it. I enjoy talking with others about differing opinions so I guess I will never understand this whole "baiting" thing.

Phishing is an online scam. It is when you are mislead to enter sensitive or personal information allowing others to use it as their own. Think credit card and identity fraud.

Answer 4

Asking difficult questions and participating in even heated debate are one thing.  Frankly, that is part of what we should be doing here.

Disrespectful "trashing" of other peoples' points of view, opinions, and/or experiences; name calling; and flagrant disregard for the community rules of Y!A is what I consider baiting.  Unfortunately, I too rarely see it until it is too late.  I have noticed that certain posters seem to show up regularly in that sort of question/answer.

Answer 5

Amen to BPD!  I am right beside you in the boat!

Answer 6

Baiting happens, as the first responder said, when someone intentionally tries to "stir the pot" as it were, with their question.  In order to identify something as "baiting" you have to make some assumptions about what the other person intends.  Sometimes it's really easy to recognize.  Sometimes it's not.  Part of the problem is not really knowing what the author intends.  If you think the author is intentionally pushing (or trying to push) someone's buttons, then it's baiting.  If you don't think that, you won't see it as baiting.  

I would guess, on Yahoo!, that as people interact repeatedly, some begin to recognize when another person (with whom they have some experience) is asking a question, but not really interested in the answer.  Having said that, if you have bad experiences with someone else, you may begin to see every question they ask as "baiting."  And you could be wrong sometimes.  Unless you have a way to read someone's mind, there's no way to be certain, I guess.

Not terribly helpful, I know, but I don't think there is a foolproof way of finding out.  (Fools being very ingenuous and all.)

Now "Phishing" is a different thing all together.  It's either an internet scam where someone sets up a website to look like another in an attempt to collect personal information from users.  Or it's following around on tour this generation's version of The Grateful Dead.  One of those two.  I can never keep it straight.  :)