First topic message reminder :
What is a forum troll?
A troll is someone who registers a forum account and an identity (sometimes more than one) which he uses (it seems to be males) to post controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or insulting messages. His aim is to upset members and provoke negative responses for his own amusement.
The widely accepted ethic of free speech may lead on to an undeserved tolerance of potential troll behaviour when striving to maintain an open discussion forum at the same time as avoiding undue censure.
At first, the word 'troll' referred mainly to individuals trolling for a response or opinion. Over time, trolling became more aggressive and the word began to be used to describe disruptive, irritating or hurtful behaviour.
Any bulletin board, newsgroup, forum, chat room, blog or other online community may attract trolls. Some may be, or present as, experts in a particular field. But equally they may just choose topics they know they will attract impassioned responses. Their own postings may indicate personal prejudices about sex, religion, gender, race, politics, etc.
Typically a troll may harass an online community for weeks or months, posting inflammatory or divisive statements in order to ‘push the buttons’ of members for the troll's amusement. Trolls differ in their attitudes and aggressiveness from ordinary users who just have different points of view. Their aim is not to discuss or debate but to antagonise and frustrate.
Some trolls go to extremes by harassing, cyber-stalking, outing or hacking threads and blogs, things they may do with great skill. Normal forum business can be greatly disrupted, member relationships compromised, community spirit spoiled and considerable administrative time needed in tidying up.
Types of troll
Trolls may pose as 'newbies' who ask questions designed to 'wind up' other members and/or provoke extreme reactions. Or they may spin a tragic personal story, pretending to be searching for answers and drawing in empathetic members who are unaware they are being taken in by a false story line.
They may attack by insults or provocative language. They may mount 'sneak attacks' by first posing as being interested in a topic before posting a message that includes controversial material.
On other occasions the troll may form a relationship with a well-known, regular member giving the impression (by that association) that the troll is just another member like everyone else, a neat and mostly effective deception.
A number of trolls (or one individual with multiple fake accounts and characters) may collude to cause problems. One troll or character may support another claiming the first was only trying to contribute to the discussion. Or a 'sacrificial' character (or troll) may deliberately transgress forum rules, unconcerned by the threat of a ban. When that happens focus gets pulled from the other troll(s) (or character) who, in turn, may then feign a 'hail fellow, well met' stance, just biding their time until the next opportunity to disrupt and upset.
Another forum of trolling is truly bizarre. In this situation, two or more identities are created and postings made one in response to the other, the troll effectively speaking to himself. It's hard to be sure this is happening because IP addresses - indicators of the location of the characters - can be masked and it can then be impossible to see if the postings are coming from a single source. Successful trolls are masters of disguise and often computer literate and 'net savvy', leaving website owners/administrators uncertain about the situation. Members, too, get taken in because they think they're replying to different individuals.
This is just a selection of the various types.
Why do trolls do it?
It's likely there are many reasons and they fall into the field of the mental health specialists. The nature of the World Wide Web encourages troll behaviour by allowing easy access and anonymity. It's deviant behaviour which would have presented in other ways before the emergence of the web. Such individuals may be socially inept, isolated and/or unable to relate to others in ordinary ways. Certainly they give that impression as they show no empathy, compassion or genuine emotion.
Please do not feed the trolls
Trolls are desperate for attention - any attention. Starve them of it in one place and they will seek it somewhere else, often on the same website. Most responses encourage further disruptive behaviour. Once identified the best policy (short of a ban) is not to 'feed the troll' but members may not anyway realise they're being trolled and be unwilling to resist hitting back when they do realise.
Some folk who have long-time Internet experience know how best to deal with trolls and say they're something we're stuck with now the web is so deeply embedded in our lives. It may never be possible to prevent their antics and, as the saying goes, "You can't have a picnic without ants."
Freedom to enjoy worldwide communication is our picnic and we have to learn to deal with the troublesome ants.
During the spring of 2013 certain behaviours (as described above) became evident on the forum pages of a particular website. Forum disagreements initially appeared to be down more to personality clashes than trolling but over the following weeks it became obvious that something else was going on.
I still feel very bad that it was I who unwittingly led one such troll to that website. He may be a particular individual who has faked my identity, and claimed all manner of lies about me (and others I've spoken to) in several other online locations. Being totally certain about who is who is rarely possible, however, and trolls move freely around websites.
This troll manipulated the situation by being supportive and helpful to some members, attacking me (and sometimes others) and generally masquerading as a knowledgeable, interested and concerned fellow member.
As a master of disguises it was easy to mistake him for someone highly knowledgeable on a range of spiritual issues but there were always weaknesses in his presentation. He wasn't subject-knowledgeable so much as knowledgeable about how to present himself. Challenges were either rubbished, ignored or swamped with text and links. [techniques often used on other websites] With the clarity of hindsight he was hiding in plain sight, something I'd always suspected but been unable to prove.
A skilled tactician, this particular troll would attack me on a personal level at the same time as currying favour with other members, effectively isolating me to give the impression that I was the unreasonable one. He used one very clever ruse of accusing me in public of leaking to other members private messages he said he'd sent me. Impossible, of course, to refute in much the same way as trying to prove a negative. From occasional, 'throw-away' remarks in postings I gained the impression he may have used private messaging of other members to discredit me and undermine my character. Again impossible to prove unless those members disclose it.
What is a forum troll?
A troll is someone who registers a forum account and an identity (sometimes more than one) which he uses (it seems to be males) to post controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or insulting messages. His aim is to upset members and provoke negative responses for his own amusement.
The widely accepted ethic of free speech may lead on to an undeserved tolerance of potential troll behaviour when striving to maintain an open discussion forum at the same time as avoiding undue censure.
At first, the word 'troll' referred mainly to individuals trolling for a response or opinion. Over time, trolling became more aggressive and the word began to be used to describe disruptive, irritating or hurtful behaviour.
Any bulletin board, newsgroup, forum, chat room, blog or other online community may attract trolls. Some may be, or present as, experts in a particular field. But equally they may just choose topics they know they will attract impassioned responses. Their own postings may indicate personal prejudices about sex, religion, gender, race, politics, etc.
Typically a troll may harass an online community for weeks or months, posting inflammatory or divisive statements in order to ‘push the buttons’ of members for the troll's amusement. Trolls differ in their attitudes and aggressiveness from ordinary users who just have different points of view. Their aim is not to discuss or debate but to antagonise and frustrate.
Some trolls go to extremes by harassing, cyber-stalking, outing or hacking threads and blogs, things they may do with great skill. Normal forum business can be greatly disrupted, member relationships compromised, community spirit spoiled and considerable administrative time needed in tidying up.
Types of troll
Trolls may pose as 'newbies' who ask questions designed to 'wind up' other members and/or provoke extreme reactions. Or they may spin a tragic personal story, pretending to be searching for answers and drawing in empathetic members who are unaware they are being taken in by a false story line.
They may attack by insults or provocative language. They may mount 'sneak attacks' by first posing as being interested in a topic before posting a message that includes controversial material.
On other occasions the troll may form a relationship with a well-known, regular member giving the impression (by that association) that the troll is just another member like everyone else, a neat and mostly effective deception.
A number of trolls (or one individual with multiple fake accounts and characters) may collude to cause problems. One troll or character may support another claiming the first was only trying to contribute to the discussion. Or a 'sacrificial' character (or troll) may deliberately transgress forum rules, unconcerned by the threat of a ban. When that happens focus gets pulled from the other troll(s) (or character) who, in turn, may then feign a 'hail fellow, well met' stance, just biding their time until the next opportunity to disrupt and upset.
Another forum of trolling is truly bizarre. In this situation, two or more identities are created and postings made one in response to the other, the troll effectively speaking to himself. It's hard to be sure this is happening because IP addresses - indicators of the location of the characters - can be masked and it can then be impossible to see if the postings are coming from a single source. Successful trolls are masters of disguise and often computer literate and 'net savvy', leaving website owners/administrators uncertain about the situation. Members, too, get taken in because they think they're replying to different individuals.
This is just a selection of the various types.
Why do trolls do it?
It's likely there are many reasons and they fall into the field of the mental health specialists. The nature of the World Wide Web encourages troll behaviour by allowing easy access and anonymity. It's deviant behaviour which would have presented in other ways before the emergence of the web. Such individuals may be socially inept, isolated and/or unable to relate to others in ordinary ways. Certainly they give that impression as they show no empathy, compassion or genuine emotion.
Please do not feed the trolls
Trolls are desperate for attention - any attention. Starve them of it in one place and they will seek it somewhere else, often on the same website. Most responses encourage further disruptive behaviour. Once identified the best policy (short of a ban) is not to 'feed the troll' but members may not anyway realise they're being trolled and be unwilling to resist hitting back when they do realise.
Some folk who have long-time Internet experience know how best to deal with trolls and say they're something we're stuck with now the web is so deeply embedded in our lives. It may never be possible to prevent their antics and, as the saying goes, "You can't have a picnic without ants."
Freedom to enjoy worldwide communication is our picnic and we have to learn to deal with the troublesome ants.
During the spring of 2013 certain behaviours (as described above) became evident on the forum pages of a particular website. Forum disagreements initially appeared to be down more to personality clashes than trolling but over the following weeks it became obvious that something else was going on.
I still feel very bad that it was I who unwittingly led one such troll to that website. He may be a particular individual who has faked my identity, and claimed all manner of lies about me (and others I've spoken to) in several other online locations. Being totally certain about who is who is rarely possible, however, and trolls move freely around websites.
This troll manipulated the situation by being supportive and helpful to some members, attacking me (and sometimes others) and generally masquerading as a knowledgeable, interested and concerned fellow member.
As a master of disguises it was easy to mistake him for someone highly knowledgeable on a range of spiritual issues but there were always weaknesses in his presentation. He wasn't subject-knowledgeable so much as knowledgeable about how to present himself. Challenges were either rubbished, ignored or swamped with text and links. [techniques often used on other websites] With the clarity of hindsight he was hiding in plain sight, something I'd always suspected but been unable to prove.
A skilled tactician, this particular troll would attack me on a personal level at the same time as currying favour with other members, effectively isolating me to give the impression that I was the unreasonable one. He used one very clever ruse of accusing me in public of leaking to other members private messages he said he'd sent me. Impossible, of course, to refute in much the same way as trying to prove a negative. From occasional, 'throw-away' remarks in postings I gained the impression he may have used private messaging of other members to discredit me and undermine my character. Again impossible to prove unless those members disclose it.
