Trolls, the Case for Them

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In this day and age, I think a lot of people have misidentified trolls with just being an asshole over the internet but the art of trolling itself was historically about getting as many replies as possible by investing as little emotional/intellectual energy as possible to earn those replies.

Example, say something innocently ignorant like, "I really enjoyed Bolt back in the day, but I am so glad they added tagbooks on Bolt3." and some people will attempt to correct you or, better yet, argue over what you said. That is genuine trolling. Within one sentence, you could crate a backlash of hundreds of replies. Seasoned trolls should never reply in their own posts.

So, if trolling is actually about farming as many replies as possible from users, would you say they are a desired element in a community? If not, what makes trolling so destructive?

I was the bro and probably had eight other troll accounts here.

[Nagi Naoe]

I think there is a case for it, then again, there is also the fact we are still kind of overly sensitive on some issues. It is the fact that there are what is considered the smart troll who will answer or talk or discuss something. There are trolls who are just plain annoying who like to just make it impossible to have a free idea without them trying to prolong a fight or something. These are usually the ones I start to think have some sort of problem offline where they have to feel like they are important somewhere else.

I consider the fact that sometimes i glance through a few topics and just read the responses, if I agree, I won't say anything, if I don't agree, I usually will answer to it. This is just the views i have and i dont' think it is bad to have trolls, but sometimes there are those trolls who really should think before they type.

[Nagi Naoe]

I do agree with you there, Jer, it is the fact that trolls come on that i have seen on 4chan or other sites and they think that its OK to do this. I was victim of it by a person who used to be my friend, who said he would help me out of a problem, he made it worse. Its the fact that trolls and flamers are always going to be there. The problem is not everyone can police a website all the time, if you look at the forums for certain groups, when they over police it, they get a lot of people pulling out of their forum.

[ISAAH06]

Its not the trolls, flamers or whatever the fuck you want to call them that are the problem..
Its the people that let themselves get sucked in by them. You controll your emotions, not them...

[ISAAH06]

And Dippy, you've been the victim of everything thats in the book at some stage, and from everybody... Does that not kinda tell you something..
Oh I'm sorry, is that trolling, flaming, being an asshole or just the good old fashioned truth?

Nagi Naoe aka Dippy said:

I was victim by a person who used to be my friend, who found out I have so many problems, and I made it worse. Its a fact that I'm the problem, not everyone else. I just want attention all the time, if you look at the forums I should be in the under 12 groups.

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Jer said:

Some people may find entertainment value in trolls and flamers, but I'm certainly not one of them. In my opinion they were a major reason why this version of Bolt never went anywhere. Trolls, flamers, spammers, scammers, and frauds are like parasites to websites. They annihilate them. They eat them away from the inside out, and they surely don't deserve to be looked at from a devil's advocate point of view.

From my point of view, the previous Bolt failed not because of trolls but having mixed signals. Some people got the full force of the rule book thrown at them while others were free to do what they pleased because moderators gave them special treatment. To top it off, there was levels of inconsistencies which made the site difficult to follow. MOTW lasted for weeks with the same person sometimes, pictures that were suppose to be updated weekly were updated once or twice a year and etc.. Some moderators were just downright hostile towards new members and turned Bolt into their private clubhouse. Ultimately, there was no direction; a lot of people wanting power/status but not willing to take the responsibility that went along with it. When they got what they wanted from the site, they went MIA.

The original Bolt had trolls and trolling was probably worse there since so many members didn't understand the concept behind trolling. Regardless, the original Bolt was very engaging and fresh.

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Nagi Naoe said:

I do agree with you there, Jer, it is the fact that trolls come on that i have seen on 4chan or other sites and they think that its OK to do this. I was victim of it by a person who used to be my friend, who said he would help me out of a problem, he made it worse. Its the fact that trolls and flamers are always going to be there. The problem is not everyone can police a website all the time, if you look at the forums for certain groups, when they over police it, they get a lot of people pulling out of their forum.

I think the word "troll" leaves a bitter taste in many mouths these days. When I think about what most people define as "trolling", what generally comes to mind is someone who mindlessly makes personal attacks upon a targeted person. This really isn't the essence of trolling and more like cyberbulling. The definition of trolling has been so streched and distorted that it covers activities which really contrast with it. Most of what people have seen on sites like 4chan is just cyberbulling or harassment.

[Nagi Naoe]

9 said:

Nagi Naoe said:

I do agree with you there, Jer, it is the fact that trolls come on that i have seen on 4chan or other sites and they think that its OK to do this. I was victim of it by a person who used to be my friend, who said he would help me out of a problem, he made it worse. Its the fact that trolls and flamers are always going to be there. The problem is not everyone can police a website all the time, if you look at the forums for certain groups, when they over police it, they get a lot of people pulling out of their forum.

I think the word "troll" leaves a bitter taste in many mouths these days. When I think about what most people define as "trolling", what generally comes to mind is someone who mindlessly makes personal attacks upon a targeted person. This really isn't the essence of trolling and more like cyberbulling. The definition of trolling has been so streched and distorted that it covers activities which really contrast with it. Most of what people have seen on sites like 4chan is just cyberbulling or harassment.

I see that...considering that sometimes the cyberbully just thinks they're being cute or funny...all I know is that it did hurt a lot. Aside from that I avoid those sites from now on...I was on the original Bolt and i was never once bullied of even hurt, I had a lot of friends too. There were problems, but one point of fact, Bolt was better than Facebook and Myspace in some respects.

I openly detest cyberbullies and also i openly dislike Trolls because soemtimes they're just too random or too interested in the reaction base. Sometimes having a serious conversation turns into a routine of trying to keep the entire thign on topic.

Isaah, I learned from the situation from the exfriend, so usually I'm on the defensive on comments and usually read thoroughly what the person tells me via forum posts. The truth is, you have to read between the lines in most troll comments. I have read through what the the former friend wrote and a lot of it was mean and spiteful. It went from saying I was this or that, to down right slander, truth is when I read between the lines, I found what he was saying false, and I had to do a lot of fire fighting with people who barely knew me and believed his lies.

As for the troll aspect of the internet, the one thing I learned on the matter was the fact some of the trolls come in different flavors. There are those who are random and post about everything and anyhting. Then there are those whole only post to get a reaction, they don't care if it is a good laugh or even a flame war. Then there are the lurking trolls, these are people who post at times and then just watch the conversations and then just post certain random things. I like the lurker more than anything, because sometimes they make interesting sense.

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Nagi Naoe said:

9 said:

Nagi Naoe said:

I do agree with you there, Jer, it is the fact that trolls come on that i have seen on 4chan or other sites and they think that its OK to do this. I was victim of it by a person who used to be my friend, who said he would help me out of a problem, he made it worse. Its the fact that trolls and flamers are always going to be there. The problem is not everyone can police a website all the time, if you look at the forums for certain groups, when they over police it, they get a lot of people pulling out of their forum.

I think the word "troll" leaves a bitter taste in many mouths these days. When I think about what most people define as "trolling", what generally comes to mind is someone who mindlessly makes personal attacks upon a targeted person. This really isn't the essence of trolling and more like cyberbulling. The definition of trolling has been so streched and distorted that it covers activities which really contrast with it. Most of what people have seen on sites like 4chan is just cyberbulling or harassment.

I see that...considering that sometimes the cyberbully just thinks they're being cute or funny...all I know is that it did hurt a lot. Aside from that I avoid those sites from now on...I was on the original Bolt and i was never once bullied of even hurt, I had a lot of friends too. There were problems, but one point of fact, Bolt was better than Facebook and Myspace in some respects.

I openly detest cyberbullies and also i openly dislike Trolls because soemtimes they're just too random or too interested in the reaction base. Sometimes having a serious conversation turns into a routine of trying to keep the entire thign on topic.

Isaah, I learned from the situation from the exfriend, so usually I'm on the defensive on comments and usually read thoroughly what the person tells me via forum posts. The truth is, you have to read between the lines in most troll comments. I have read through what the the former friend wrote and a lot of it was mean and spiteful. It went from saying I was this or that, to down right slander, truth is when I read between the lines, I found what he was saying false, and I had to do a lot of fire fighting with people who barely knew me and believed his lies.

As for the troll aspect of the internet, the one thing I learned on the matter was the fact some of the trolls come in different flavors. There are those who are random and post about everything and anyhting. Then there are those whole only post to get a reaction, they don't care if it is a good laugh or even a flame war. Then there are the lurking trolls, these are people who post at times and then just watch the conversations and then just post certain random things. I like the lurker more than anything, because sometimes they make interesting sense.

This reminds me of a story.

When Yahoo had an actual forum before it got shutdown and replaced with something much worse, there was one troll on the entire network who stood out amongst the others. Beyond the community's usual troll flavors of knuckle dragging racists, partisan blowhards and other colorful forms of extremism, there was one poster who was so wholesome that is drove so many of the trolls into a fury. The Cindybin.

It just goes to show that being a troll doesn't nessasarily mean you have to be crude. Being unique plays a part in it.

And elaborating on what you have said, the best way to avoid being a victim of trolling is to either ignore them, agree with them or just make an even more outrageous comment (i.e. Not only was Bolt's tagbook better, but Facebook was created before Bolt!) All three of these methods of a way to defuse a troll. And, if a troll does happen to troll you, just tell them you were only trying to troll them.

[goodomen]

I like to think you have to be open, impartial, and egoless to troll properly.