Driving off someone from being online, as a troll, because it gives you a thrill.
This is an awfully specific flex, but it is a flex nonetheless, that people do feel to boast about. Because it’s just another form of a power-trip. Congratulations, you’ve driven away someone who could’ve been a contributory member of a community to make yourself feel better by orchestrating lies, performing witch hunts and huddling with your troll buddies in ways to figure out how to process this.
There’s nothing prideful about this to flex over.
My all-time favorite GunTuber, Paul Harrell, was a household name among gun enthusiasts. Anyone serious about the topic was well versed on Paul’s videos and reputation, a “household” name so to speak.
His presentations were fascinating as they were done in the classic teaching format, no hype, no braggadocio, no opinions, no politics. Sprinkle some dry humor in as well! He presented topics as scientifically as he was able, and made any imperfect comparisons clear.
Paul didn’t hit 1M subscribers until he was nearly dead, only because we all “chipped in” after his cancer diagnosis. He never once asked us to “Like and subscribe!”, because he didn’t give a shit. He was there to educate.
His last video was simply titled, “I’m dead.” I’m getting weepy again. Here’s the sort of man he was:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-gZuFcEu0E
Notice he doesn’t cut the video once. He practised every presentation until he could give it without interruption. That’s a level of dedication to his audience I have not seen since. Paul cared about what he was doing, and he respected us, his viewers.
Anyway, we followers weren’t fake.
Someone new has taken over the channel. I haven’t watched any of the new videos yet, kind of feels a little disrespectful to me that they would continue his channel instead of starting their own, but I guess if they keep the same quality and feel, it could work out well.