The science of trolling

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
When it comes to trolls, members can help more by what they don't say than what they do say.

Don't feed the trolls.
That SOUNDS really great.

But trolls are bullies. They provoke and cause harm to others.

What you are proposing is to let the bullies win, and offer no resistance.

The schoolkids can only "ignore the bullies" if there is adequate supervision in the playground. Otherwise the bullies run riot and dominate everyone.

To butcher an old saying;
"Evil prospers because good men stand by and don't keep the trolls in line".

You're quite welcome to remain passive while someone around you harms others, but some of us may choose a different course of action.
 

t_n_k

Joined Mar 6, 2009
5,455
As one composer cast the troll's song . ...

"Slay him! The Christian's son has bewitched The Mountain King's fairest daughter! Slay him! Slay him! May I hack him on the fingers? May I tug him by the hair? Hu, hey, let me bite him in the haunches! Shall he be boiled into broth and bree to me. Shall he roast on a spit or be browned in a stewpan? Ice to your blood, friends!"

Nasty creatures.
 

Thread Starter

Georacer

Joined Nov 25, 2009
5,182
That SOUNDS really great.

But trolls are bullies. They provoke and cause harm to others.

What you are proposing is to let the bullies win, and offer no resistance.

The schoolkids can only "ignore the bullies" if there is adequate supervision in the playground. Otherwise the bullies run riot and dominate everyone.

To butcher an old saying;
"Evil prospers because good men stand by and don't keep the trolls in line".

You're quite welcome to remain passive while someone around you harms others, but some of us may choose a different course of action.

While the primary goal of a textbook troll is to disrupt and derail conversation and cause "strong feelings", usually via provocative but subtle means, there are cases where it is downright harassment and obscenity.

However, usually people wanting to cause trouble don't come out blazing, they ramp up gradually.

My advice is to NOT answer to trolls and when they cross the line report them to the moderating team. There's almost always one of us online at all times.

I believe in the moto "don't feed the trolls" as a means to keep your sanity, and I affirm that you can count on the supervision to remove the bullies.
 

JoeJester

Joined Apr 26, 2005
4,390
When the moderator "closes" a thread or quickly dispenses the troll, they leave a trail of bread crumbs other trolls can find. This clearly paints a picture for the next troll, and some "don't feed the forum" with their hyperbole and asinine comments because they recognize their eventual fate.

The prime example is beenthere, who quickly closed overunity and hho threads ... then left his thoughts in a sticky on those topics as guidance for all to follow and a warning for the true believers.
 

LvW

Joined Jun 13, 2013
1,752
My advice is to NOT answer to trolls and when they cross the line report them to the moderating team.
I must confess that - due to some linguistic reasons (I am german) - I have some problems following this disussion in detail.
In particular, I really don`t know exactly what a "troll" is and "when they cross the line" (quote Georacer).
Is there something like a threshold (the "line") that can be (not defined like a technical parameter, but) roughly described?
Can somebody give one or two examples, which are rather close to the "line"?
Of course, I can imagine that some "drastic" cases (insult, offence, affront) are beyond the "line".
On the other hand, if - for my opinion - some parts of a forum member´s answer are simply wrong, may I say "wrong"?

LvW
 

Thread Starter

Georacer

Joined Nov 25, 2009
5,182
I must confess that - due to some linguistic reasons (I am german) - I have some problems following this disussion in detail.
In particular, I really don`t know exactly what a "troll" is and "when they cross the line" (quote Georacer).
Is there something like a threshold (the "line") that can be (not defined like a technical parameter, but) roughly described?
Can somebody give one or two examples, which are rather close to the "line"?
Of course, I can imagine that some "drastic" cases (insult, offence, affront) are beyond the "line".
On the other hand, if - for my opinion - some parts of a forum member´s answer are simply wrong, may I say "wrong"?

LvW
Regardless of the definition of the troll, which is not important at the end of the day, discussions in AAC should always be civil and respectful.

If at some point, you meet someone who does one of the following:

  • Attacks you personally
  • Purposefully veers the conversation off-topic
  • Gets on your nerves or tries to
  • Argues with you nit-picking details and words off of your posts
my advice is that you don't get involved with him anymore and, if you want, report his posts.
Then, the moderators will decide whether that user is considered to be provoking and harmful to the AAC community.


If, on the contrary, you decide to make a heated discussion with the said user and answer back with threats and insults there's a good chance that yourself, as well, will be found breaking the ToS!
 

Sparky49

Joined Jul 16, 2011
833
Hi LvW.

A troll is generally described as someone who causes mischief. Online, a troll might be someone who posts something just to provoke an angry response, just for fun. An example might be if someone were to join All About Circuits and started a post called "Electronics is for nerds and stupid people". As a troll, I would get some fun out of watching people getting really cross.

'Crossing the line' is an expression for saying someone's has done or said something really not appropriate.

For example, someone could make a joke about an Irishman;

"What do you call an irishman whos been dead for 50yrs...Peat..."

Might be okay.

But if someone were then to say;

"Irishmen are dumb and stupid and fat and ugly and cannot count to ten", you might say that was 'crossing the line'. It has gone beyond a simple little joke, and is now quite mean.

Sparky
 

sirch2

Joined Jan 21, 2013
1,037
I just listened to the talk and skimmed through this thread. The original derivation of trolling is in the sense of “towing a line behind a boat to catch fish” rather than trolls that live under bridges. I always consider it in that context, something that is a trick designed to catch someone out. As the speaker said, trolling can be “Rick Rolling” links or pictures that are not what they purport to be, as well as text designed to provoke an angry response.

I liked the speaker’s idea of clean and dirty and that these are relative things and you must have certain standards to be able to separate trolling from non-trolling. As other’s have said, this is where consistent moderation comes in. The two sites I currently post on fairly regularly (this being one) are both very well moderated and so are pleasant places to be.

One thing I always wonder about, and which the speaker didn’t address, is where does sarcasm and irony fit in with trolling? E.g. I might post something with the intention to make a witty comment, but you might take it the wrong way. Does trolling come down to my intent or your understanding of my post?
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,712
The use of sarcasm, irony and humor must be done with care on an international forum such as AAC. Many times the intended recipient or reader doesn't get it and can easily be offended.

A special font for sarcastic remarks was suggested. In lieu of that use the emoticons where appropriate.
 

NetDoc

Joined Jan 6, 2014
22
I thought the TED talk to be spot on as well as overly simplistic. She referred to "sub culture trolling" which is just a small percentage of trolls. I own the world's largest forum for Scuba diving and we have seen this subculture come into play. It's an organized and systematic attack on an unsuspecting "NOK"s. NOK is a reference to "Not Our Kind" and the attacks are serial in nature. The point is to elicit a negative response in terms of some kind of melt down of the NOK. It's insidious and it's damaging and quite often the leader will not, or can not see that they are instrumental in orchestrating the abuse. It's not surprising that everyone involved feigns innocence, but actions have to be taken. Our most effective method to date has been to remove their access to the areas they are trolling in. Since most of the trolling takes place in the non-scuba areas, this really hits them below the belt. Think about it, if they are trolling, it usually means that they have grown bored with the actual subject of the forum and have devolved to using the off topic areas. If you simply ban them, then they will create a sock puppet and continue to do so simply to consume your time and energy. They haven't figured out what to do if they only have partial access. Until they do, this strategy seems to work. We've gotten the malicious trolling under control for now.

As for sarcasm, I often use [/sarcasm] after such remarks. I wouldn't want to make that a rule for everyone to use, but it helps me to communicate that I am placing my tongue firmly in cheek when I am making a silly suggestion.
 

LvW

Joined Jun 13, 2013
1,752
The use of sarcasm, irony and humor must be done with care on an international forum such as AAC. Many times the intended recipient or reader doesn't get it and can easily be offended.
Yes, in particular this can apply to forum members who are no native english speakers.

A special font for sarcastic remarks was suggested. In lieu of that use the emoticons where appropriate.
I think that´s a good suggestion.
___________________________
Thank you to all.
LvW
 

Ian Rogers

Joined Dec 12, 2012
1,136
MrChips said:
The use of sarcasm, irony and humor must be done with care on an international forum such as AAC. Many times the intended recipient or reader doesn't get it and can easily be offended.
This also applies to members with a degree of autism.... If there were a sarcasm button I'm sure it would help them as well.
 
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