Trolls: An Overview

As an activist, organizer, or someone who frequents the Internet with a specific, constructive purpose, you have very likely experienced a troll in one of the web-communities that you visit. There are some people who go online with the specific purpose of stirring the pot, causing anger and ruckus, and spreading their flavor for disobedience. They can be the bane of any web-organizers’ existence and there are seemingly endless amounts of pages that have how-to info on how to deter them from your web-community. If you have not experienced one, Wikipedia describes a troll as:

Someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

From the Experts: Encyclopedia Dramatica on Trolling

Though for a more authentic definition of the term, it is best to head to the authorities of trolling themselves: the community of Encyclopedia Dramatica. ED is a Bizarro-wiki—the early-Australia of collaborative web-references. It is a penal colony of Wiki-communities, specifically Wikipedia (in addition to the following list, they define trolls as Anyone who disagrees with a Wikipedia administrator and thus, People who edit Encyclopedia Dramatica), edited in the style of an exceedingly politically incorrect The Devil’s Dictionary, and existing as a playground for all wiki-trolls to frolic in accordingly. In their own definition of the term, they offer a list which includes:

• A person who brings life to a tired, dull internet message board by purposeful attempts to start flame wars or Internet drama by posting comments that are patently Fucktarded, yet still inflammatory enough to enrage the stupid, irrational and humorless. The moment someone points out that the troll in question was just gunning for a reaction usually results in a fire drill.
• A person that throws around the troll insult to: anyone who defeats them in an argument, anyone who points out facts the real troll doesn’t want people to know, or someone the real troll picks at random to stick falsely with a troll label for sheer lulz. This second type of troll is 98.9999999% of all trolls now and is often called an Anti-troll.

Meet Our Troll

As previously mentioned, there are a number of websites that explore trolling as a social phenomenon. Some offer psychological explanations for the behavior, tips for managing trolling on feminist forums, and one looks at trolling as a social movement. Others offer a series of how-to-troll tactical suggestions. Many try to offer explanations for the behavior. Out of perverse curiosity, I am more interested in talking with, not reading about trolls to discover their motivations. Thus, I realized that was in luck when I found out that a friend, a 24-year-old administrative worker at a law firm in the Midwest, is a closet troll.

Here, we try to get to the bottom of some of his behavior.

“THIS IS WHAT YOU LIBBERAL MORANS GET 4 ALL YOURE GAY RIGHTS MARCHES”

Troll: I troll everything. If politics is being discussed, I will post as DON ALBERTSON, this crazy conservative, and I will say stuff like THIS IS WHAT YOU LIBBERAL MORANS GET 4 ALL YOURE GAY RIGHTS MARCHES AND ABORTION RALLYS AND ISREAL HATING………SERVES U RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I even hit this wrestling forum I frequent out of my own personal interest. The people there know it’s me, though, so it’s a little different. There, I use this one character called HUGEJOCKBENCHPRESS. He’s is my favorite, though. He is pretty much every dude on the BODYBUILDING.COM forum.

Make Something Happen: Why is he your favorite?

Troll: He is sort of a latent homosexual. His name refers to his strength and size and prowess. Like you’d assume that this guy could bench press more than 200 pounds, but he talks matter-of-factly about only benching 100. He’s clueless. My friend on the site goes as this character Remington T. Prescot (of the London Prescotts). This other guy is ‘the CHICK magnet.’ HJBP sort of idolizes him.

Trolling Etiquette, Humor

MSH: What is your response to this, from Encyclopedia Dramatica’s post on trolling: Most trolls believe, honestly, that they are in fact funny, anyone who does not agree with them is obviously either overly sensitive, has no life, no sense of humour, or is a combination of two or all of these.

Troll: Yes. That’s true. Also, my girlfriend doesn’t think it is funny at all.

MSH: What about forums where people don’t know you? How do you decide what to troll?

Troll: It is usually contingent on how seriously everyone is taking themselves.

Today there was this article about abortion in the local college paper. There was some mention of an abortion rally. All these whack-job right-wing guys got on the boards and they were trying to give non-religious reasons for being against abortion. So basically, I got on there and I backed up all of the conservatives as DON ALBERTSON. I picture this guy [left] as a younger version of Don. Then I added that people shouldnt “commit abortion” because it’s murdering babies and everyone will go to hell for it. I did it to blow their cover.

Stephen Colbert, Socrates: IRL Trolls

MSH: Do you always troll using a conservative persona?

Troll: Mostly. I find it easier to do. Stephen Colbert is sort of the ultimate IRL (in real life) troll.

MSH: Do you have any other heroes in trolling?

Troll: ED has a really great entry on Socrates and about how he was the original troll:

Socrates (pronounced “So-krates”) was a famous IRL troll who lived at least 10 million years ago in ancient Greece. He invented the “Socratic Method” trolling technique, which consists of asking your opponent stupid questions until they leave or go batshit insane, either outcome providing much lulz. That’s what Socrates did. it was a very indirect way of arguing. You sort of just mark points and let people connect the dots themselves.

MSH: How do you decide where you troll?

Troll: Again, It’s based entirely on finding forums in which the participants are taking themselves too seriously.

MSH: Like that part in the ED trolling entry which reads: Novice trolls often experience troll’s remorse. Such feelings tend to pass once they realize that people who take the Internets seriously enough to get upset by trolling really ought to get over themselves.

Troll: Exactly. But I’ve never experienced troll’s remorse. That usually happens to people who troll message boards on memorial sites set up for people who have died or support groups for fat people. It happens when trolls get called out and then feel bad. I don’t do that. I just go to places where people are taking themselves too seriously. Suicide is serious. I can’t mess with that.

More Moral Than the Others

MSH: So that leads to the question, is some sort of moral strata of trolls? Are you more or less moral than other trolls you’ve encountered

Troll: Well, I don’t do the memorial/fat trolling thing so I guess so. I am sort of a nihilist, but I don’t drag other people online into it.

MSH: Finally, a lot of people have these sites about controlling trolling where they offer wisdom and psychological observations about trolls. Do you think there is any point in trying to control trolling? Do you provide any sort of service?

Troll: I mean, trolling is supposed to be subversive so it makes sense that the people in charge of these sorts of websites and discussions don’t want to be subverted. But these people put too much faith in honest, objective discussion, which, in a lot of these forums, anyway, most people aren’t interested in; they’re more interested in spreading their own dogma.

-Filed in People