Internet Trolls - Where the Fairytale Ends

[Mam]

Mam submitted a new Article:

Internet Trolls - Where the Fairytale Ends

Internet Trolls- Where the Fairytale Ends


According to storybooks, Trolls are disgusting, smelly creatures that live under bridges. Trolls eat goats and small children. Growing up surrounded by fairy tales, what they didn’t explore was a new breed of troll. The Internet Troll. Equally vile and disgusting, if Internet trolls smell, we can’t vouch for that. Nor can we attest that they eat goats or small children. We don’t believe those items appear on their menu. But, we could be wrong.

Moderating a popular forum, we have had to deal with several types of trolls. We would like to introduce you to them now. They are in a class by themselves.

Shock Patroll- Disgusting, and vile, he may just eat goats and small children; we are not convinced he doesn’t. In his resident trashcan he has a vast selection of smut (heavy emphasis on graphic images).

Using popular search engines, he surfs for forums frequented by women and children. Before you can circle the wagons to protect the “wimmenfolk” he attacks.

With deep deception, he opens up countless subjects using innocuous and compelling subject lines; “Help! My 5-year old just swallowed all my medication…!”
Or- “I feel so bad. I just ran-over a dog!”

When the well-meaning folk go running with cyber- Kleenex and support, they are confronted with pornographic images capable of making them heave their cookies.

Dazed and confused they quickly leave, reporting the intruder to the moderators. Worst yet, some folk begin posting on the board: “Eeek! There’s a Troll!” causing the troll to heighten his attack, posting countless porn on the forums. His MO… Target the posts with the most hits. Go in and destroy the thread with smut.

Even the well-seasoned member is sickened by his evil intent. The only fitting punishment is banishment from the community. Or, as Lorena Bobbitt would say: “Off with his head!”


Master of Illusion Troll- Pulling countless white lies out of his hat, this Master of Deceit plays his tricks on the trusting eyes of an established internet community. Targeting those who still believe in the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, his slight of hand in posting can be very deceptive to those members.

Some of the well-seasoned posters are privy to this game of cards. However, trusting souls are sucked quickly into his mind games. The point of controlling his act is, find the weak link in his house of cards, knocking them flat, thus ending...

Read more about this article here...

 

[Kathy]

I love this article. Thanks for the humor in the middle of the hair-pulling sagas of the trolls.... Made me laugh. Good stuff!

 

[PalePhoenix]

This was one of the three for which I voted. Thank you for the humor.

 

[NicoMoon]

It's interesting that while I agree with the description of the various types of posters, I don't like the universal label of "troll". IMO, it's far too widely used, to the point that it ends up describing anyone we don't like and providing an excuse to dehumanize them rather than address them on a case by case basis and address the problems in a productive way.

A "troll" by my understanding is a person whose only purpose is to divert the topic with mindless or insulting gratuitous postings.

Wikepedia has a great article on the topic:

In Internet terminology, a troll is a person who posts rude or offensive messages on the Internet, such as in online discussion forums, to disrupt discussion or to upset its participants

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll"]Troll (Internet) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Trolling_for_bluefish2.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Trolling_for_bluefish2.jpg/220px-Trolling_for_bluefish2.jpg"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/d/d9/Trolling_for_bluefish2.jpg/220px-Trolling_for_bluefish2.jpg[/ame]

We all need prolific posters on our forums, and let's face it, people who are in need of a lot of attention are our best bet to meet those needs.

Isn't it better to try to work with the lesser of these offenders and see if we can inspire something better from them than to lump them with predators, bullies, stalkers, and sadist, each of which is a specific behavior type with a specific definition. And let's face it, as board admins and mods, we should be savvy and responsible enough to identify the worst types quickly and send them packing long before they have even a slight chance to do their dirty deeds.

We all know for sure that the fast way to encourage a huge piling on is to label someone a "troll". Many times I don't totally blame these people for acting out after being labeled and ganged up on. Sure, it's not the most mature way to handle a situation, but none of us likes to be piled on, and let's face it, it happens far too often in an online environment.

All things considered, I think the term "troll" has lost all useful meaning, given how it's used of late. I've posted on boards where I'd be labeled a "troll" just for posting this. It can get to the point where one controversial opinion or contrarian viewpoint can start the whole ugly process of "don't feed the trolls" and what purpose does that serve if we're looking for vibrant and diverse discussions and interactions?

Just my two cents!

 

[StarBuG]

Very nice.

It was a good read and I had quite a few laughs

Thx

StarBuG

 

[hari]

An excellent post by NicoMoon as well.

Of late, I've been thinking that the "accepted/respected" members who over time, evolve into regular forum bullies and gather an army of yes-people to indimidate others by throwing their weight around are more dangerous than isolated, runaway trolls who are ganged upon.

 

[PapillionPurple]

Very interesting article. I recently had a troll who seemed to be a combination of several. Pretty much every post she made was derogatory or abusive. She demanded me to make her avatars the right sizes then and there, and host them on my space. She also routinely insulted the members for being there.
She decided that because I was the admin I had a problem with needing to be praised by members in order for me to be nice to them (which is absolute codswollop) and that I had a vendetta against her because she didn't kiss behind enough.

One night she went absolutely berko on there so we banned her. She then went and tried to incite a raid against our forum on another she is a member of and generally slates me, my appearance (she has only ever seen a cartoon of me - lol) the fact as an admin I must have no life e.t.c

which made me really wonder, if her life was so full how comes she spent it flaming a "kids site" (which by definition it is, most of the membership is over 16 years old!)
Gotta love the scrapings of the internet barral!

 

[democracy]

An excellent post by NicoMoon as well.

Of late, I've been thinking that the "accepted/respected" members who over time, evolve into regular forum bullies and gather an army of yes-people to indimidate others by throwing their weight around are more dangerous than isolated, runaway trolls who are ganged upon.

I AGREE

 

[bsdwork]

Good job !

 

[xxbicceyxx]

interesting stuff

couldn't agree more

 

[MrLeN]

The Stalker Troll- Nothing light-hearted about this troll. He is a scary individual. A Peeping Tom of sorts; looking into Internet windows that have nothing to do with Microsoft. This hard-hearted individual is looking for one thing- victims. Unwanted communications soon follow, anything from PM’s to phone calls as most Internet stalkers are cunning. They are obsessed in getting their own way not caring who they hurt.

Victims of the Stalker Troll find themselves shaken and ill-at-ease being on the boards. They often have to change their phone number and email address, or leave forums to achieve peace of mind. The Stalking Troll is calm and in control. When dismissed from the forums, he will try and re-register immediately or launch an off-board campaign against whoever he believes is responsible for his banishment, because after all he CAN’T possibly be responsible for that!

Ok, who you been talkin' to?

 

[xbicceyx]

most of these terms are so overused

The term "Stalker" can be male or female, theres no stereotype, is it actually possible to be stalked by a female online, on to the next phrases

The various forms of trolls nowadays tend to be thrown on newcomers on forums usually doled out by the "regulars". Highposting regulars tend to marginize the rookies with phrases like "They're ranting and raving'. No matter what they write.

I am a supermoderator on my site and I believe in making the newcomers feel welcome. I have the moderators appoint some of the seniors as counselors of sorts and help guide them. They wouldnt dare jump all over a rookie for asking questions.

Our two adminstrators are cool and dont try to question my ethics because they know they work. We all have differant ways of doing things.

Some of our veterans tend to try to bully each other by complaining to our moderators about being harassed but I make crystal clear that I don't like tattle tales and they can cry all they want. I can't believe they are people that try to get fellows members banned on sites. That is a form of bullying, trying to manipulate the powers that be to muscle them.

Allright this is my rant and rave and yes highposter because I'm a rookie none of this makes sense until I put my time in. Yadad;ya

have good day, cheers where everyone knows youre name

 

[Blind Bandit]

The term "Stalker" can be male or female, theres no stereotype, is it actually possible to be stalked by a female online, on to the next phrases

The various forms of trolls nowadays tend to be thrown on newcomers on forums usually doled out by the "regulars". Highposting regulars tend to marginize the rookies with phrases like "They're ranting and raving'. No matter what they write.

I am a supermoderator on my site and I believe in making the newcomers feel welcome. I have the moderators appoint some of the seniors as counselors of sorts and help guide them. They wouldnt dare jump all over a rookie for asking questions.

Our two adminstrators are cool and dont try to question my ethics because they know they work. We all have differant ways of doing things.

Some of our veterans tend to try to bully each other by complaining to our moderators about being harassed but I make crystal clear that I don't like tattle tales and they can cry all they want. I can't believe they are people that try to get fellows members banned on sites. That is a form of bullying, trying to manipulate the powers that be to muscle them.

Allright this is my rant and rave and yes highposter because I'm a rookie none of this makes sense until I put my time in. Yadad;ya

have good day, cheers where everyone knows youre name

I think many of us have been their in some form or another.

This thread touches on that very issue.

http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26193&p=189571#post189571

 

[sweetmelisa]

Awesome! It gave my friends and I lots of laughs! Good Work!

 

[carita]

Good one! I didn't realize there were so many

 

[Solitary_Seraph]

It's too bad I can look at these types and point out members of my forum. =/

Oh well. We're working on being more user friendly.

 

[xxbicceyxx]

specious logic at best

I have to admit that I don't find it amusing anymore when words of phrase of a paramount natures are being redefined or worse yet even more of a negative slant then its origin. example

Troll: orginal meaninhg angry dwarf. In general i can accept the word more as an adjective then a noun. I think we all have our share of character flaws and ;i think a pharse like "troll behavior" to anyone (s0 including mods /admin when they acting with the intent to be mean to someone(s)

If I view a forum thread where "regulars" in particular are ganging up on a socalled troll and using terms like " did you take youre pills troll" or geta life troll, his/her iq must be around his/her age etc.

those are called potshots/insults. Regulars in general should be the ones that mods and admins should be worried about. Not all these scenarios people post about how an individual troll deeply offended or demoralized they're human decency. I always look for multiple members in unison as much more serious then one person. I never read about seven,eight 15 people teaming up on someone not in they're cliche. Because the admins will never admit that they are greatest candidates for "cyberbullying".

'Comeon ;wake up they're the ones who are never shy about what they can do to youre ISP if you get on they're bad side or a mod/or well like bully member manipulate them into ISPbannerrama while the members around snicker and laugh at youre demise and call you troll. or stalker because youl;d never hear; someone say "geez maybe the admins are the ones in this forum who bully. Not in every case,

But again ISP ban we ;know youre omnipotient admins can do this. I don't need read constant mod or admin "chatbann ban ban ban ban mentioned everytime ayou feel the need to intimindate us.

I"ve gone thru ISP bans before " im sure right away its because i trolled or poddy mouth. always my fault. why dont' you people ever take the time to get the true story on a person instead those quick "ranting and raving phrase s you use on someone who steps out tries to explain possilbe difficult scenario in "Text format> if youre not interested in taking the time and patience to reflect or understand what theyre saying,. dont even type anything. Voice is not an option in mosts posts and some members with ;great writing skills should be more understanding of those with dyslexia or TExt com,munication.

anyways thats my rant and rave. Im just in a bAd mood at the moment because I get fed up with these blog posters who always get appraised for thy're brilliant insights and such maninly due to they';re wellknown status

A someone unknown wrote the same exact type of blog the comments would be like, "another sensitive newbie" rnat and rave., or "do you have a mental problem" .

I m nbot making an effort to appese anyone. I'd like to be impessed once in a while by youre so called experts of internet pyschology . i"d be very surprise if as forum regulars actually made a comments that reflected any positvie insight of whatee ri just typ[ed, instead of that bs "newbie mental " bs

have a nice day and happy thanksgiving. signed the unkown , the one who refuses to write a blog until hes satisfied that these superior beings will actaully give some respect bAck . instead of

Anyone perosn who cannot endure even the nasitst troll . Get off the internet. Yes there are decent folks all around but its not a good place to bare you soul if even a curse word offends you.

 

[xxbicceyxx]

and they lived happily ever after

 

[BlueLeafeon]

This was awesome!

...And now I realize that one of my members is a politically incorrect alien toddler who likes to pretend.

 

[pumpingiron]

I had quite a few laughs
The Great Pretender Troll is a very interesting creature. I like him the most.
I even know one personally. Well, I think most of us do. Haha...