Trolls

kunst nugget wrote: »

Nah, I didn't need to bring up post history. I just remembered it because I thought it was gas that he was so affronted by being blocked by someone on Twitter for his cogent arguments.

I'm just messing.

the purple tin wrote: »

Were those Westboro Baptists trolls or just loonies?

Grey area, for me.

Sure, they are winding people up but I think trolls have to still be deliberately funny on some level. Like the public reaction to a troll can be funny. Or the troll can be doing things for their own amusement.

It's hard to imagine Westboro Baptists were going home and having a good old laugh about winding folk up. Hateful little people.

A good troll is like the kids who will knock on someone's door and run away. It's not that much of a big deal, the kids laugh about it but nobody get's actually hurt.

Westboro Baptists are more like malicious kids who would turn up at your funeral with banners saying "God Hates Fags" and upset your friends and family...

Sidebaro wrote: »

Is it just me or are trolls usually male, mostly quite young, very often white and frequently straight? At least, that's how they appear from their profiles anyway. I know the straight thing is harder to identify. I'm not on Twitter anymore and I rarely look at the comments on YouTube these days either but it always seemed to be guys that were doing the trolling. Why aren't more women encouraged to follow this online rite of passage?

I'm referring to obvious trolling. The 'jury's out' type trolling complicates things because the 'are they trolling or are they revolutionary minds?' debate derails my original point - I've never seen female trolls.

I swear I'm not trolling, genuine observation I made and want to see am I right or just some old prejudiced fart.

On another message board I have met some female troll and she is from Co. Donegal (which she claimed to live there), is an outspoken Unionist hater (she originally is from NI) and allegedly is a drunk (as it often appeared) and in my imagination she must be some really ugly old woman too. The very only female person over there I really despise. Just some other DUP / UKIP Unionist chap comes right behind her in the negative rankings. But I have to point out that harassment is a thing I include into trolling and it is more that than spoiling threads with rubbish posts.  

I can say that I have observed many things the way you describe them. Trolls are indeed more often male than female posters. On this other board there was some Belfast lad who posed as an psychologist, more acting like a psychopath himself and he did his trolling as well (right in the sense as I have pointed out above), worse so by claiming that he believes in his 'right to offend' which turned out to be his 'right to insult' other people by his remarks. That man was the worst of all, accompanied by another idiot who was his sycophant and who had his own mental problems himself, but telling everyone else that it is not him who is mad but the others. They were both real wretched posters.

One could really write a book about all those characters one meets on the internet, the ones who simply are the way as they are in the real world and the others who can't abide with themselves and invent some 'virtual character' which they live on the internet with. Some others are just funny and have a sense of humour which is sometimes refreshing.

Trolls are very frustrated people, I think. Maybe females have different ways to deal with their frustrations and aggressions than to go on a trolling rampage on the internet. I suppose that this might be some reason for why there are less of them among the trolls.

pleas advice wrote: »

Trolling is a art,

:woot:

There used to be some spectacular trolls on here over the years...
not sure if it's because of other sites, or people get bored... but not a huge amount of quality trolling around here anymore

mcmoustache wrote: »

In my day, trolling was a bit of an art form.

Now it just means "being an assh*le online".

It's not all lost though. There's still a few on here who's troll game is pretty good.

Yes when I think of trolling I think of people winding up groups in a way that is genuinely funny and/or highlights double standards and hypocrisy.

Google KenM as a great example of light hearted trolling.

Nowadays it's just 13 year olds and the mentally disturbed spewing semi literate vitriol.

In addition the term has become a shorthand to oppose any negative or critical commentary online. Recently the Irish Times had a piece by Lorraine Higgins championing her proposed Censorship Bill entitled "stopping the trolls" with sad face emojis around it.