What do you consider trolling?

[Nacku]

I consider trolling when a troll goes into a forum with the SOLE purpose to harass another. Post outrageous lies about someone and makes it a point to keep returning and zero in on the person(s) they are trolling.

A troll also repeats itself alot and likes to repeat what others have already said (maybe about them) but repeats things because, as a rule, trolls have very little substance.

[banasbud]

AMEN Nacky! I hate it when that happens. You and other members are talking about a subject and up comes a troll that just posts things to get someone on the defensive and all het up. They don't think before they go in and cause trouble. They just want attention because they're being ignored everywhere else. I got his troll who won't stop bugging me.

[Nacku]

Usenet was one of the first internet highways that brought on all kinds of trolls. Some were so out there that contests were held and it was (for them) an honor to win the #1 Troll Award. Not sure if that was before they came up with the Darwin Awards or after but I remember reading about that. I may post that article if I come across it again. It was wild!

[rackvin]

Geez, now it seems we don't even know what a troll is. This is the first time I've heard of trouble makers or instigators being called trolls. I've always known trolling as sitting in a chat room or browsing through a forum for long periods of time but never posting. I guess I can't really add anything since the term troll has no definition. But I still figured it was worth a post to raise awareness that there are obviously more than one thing being given the name troll. What is a troll? Obviously we don't know.

The trouble makers and instigators are bad. The ones who quietly browse around are no harm.

PS, I won't give away my age, but I've been on the internet for a looong time. I do know what I'm talking about.

[Nacku]

I think the noun; Troll, comes from the mythical creature that used to hide nearby bridges and whenever someone would try to cross the bridge, the troll would then accost the traveller(s) and collect money from them for crossing the bridge. Usually in the stories, the troll had no ownership of the bridge but no one could stop trolls from "highway robbery"...

Another terminology is the "Fisherman" analogy, whereas a fisherman will troll for fish, casting a wide net and gathering as much as he can - the more fish he catches, the more money he makes. So in a sense, if someone is trolling websites and gathering info to increase their knowledge or just trivial knowledge - I guess that could be, in a sense trolling.

But internet slang describes the troll more like the medieval creature who treats any passerbys in a way that is to get them to respond to the troll's wants. You need to cross a bridge; Give it your money, and in Cyber Space, the troll's disposition is; Give me your attention. But roundabout, the same thing.

[CrimsonNightWind]

Rackvin, I've always heard people who quietly browse and never post referred to as "Lurkers", which always made more sense to me. I have also, in passing, heard of Lurkers being referred to as Trolls, but it never made much sense to me. The word "Troll" seems to have a negative affliation to it (especially if you refer to some of the information Nacky just provided), especially if you play any MMORPGS (massive multiplayer online roleplay game) in which there is a chat function. People will sit in these chatboxs (sometimes for hours) and repeat meaningless things just to rile people up. This to me seems more Troll-ish than the harmless lurkers who just are there to read the site and comments.

[rackvin]

Thanks CrimsonNightWind, the distinction between Troll and Lurker seems to explain things. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has heard 'lurkers' called 'trolls'. And yeah, I've played MMORPG's and experienced these trouble makers in the chat channels. A very bad instance involved a player from another linkshell group who had acquired one of our linkshells. The person hid among us for weeks with a second character or 'mule' and very craftily created arguments between our members based on lies. As time went on and suspicions arose, the person finally went on an all out rampage blasting obscenities and insults both in the group and pm-ing many members. Finally they were exposed and kicked, but much damage had been done. Many members were lost, one of our leaders was brought to tears, and everyone was pissed off.

[Micko70]

An Internet troll is someone who posts offensive, controversial, or divisive material on an Internet community.
Trolls are an unfortunately common occurrence on many communities across the Internet, and there are various steps which can be taken to combat them.
If you are currently struggling with an Internet troll, the best thing to do is to walk away, since trolls feed on attention, and they will usually disappear if they are ignored.

The evolution of the Internet troll was a slow process which began as computer users started to more widely adopt the Internet.
At first, the term referred merely to someone who was “trolling” for a response or opinion, in the same way that fishing boats cast out large nets to troll for a catch.
Over time, trolls grew more aggressive, and the term began to be used specifically to refer to someone irritating or hurtful.
In this sense, a troll could be compared to the nasty creatures of Scandinavian mythology which are also known as trolls.

There are a number of different types of trolls.
In the most classic case, a troll harasses an Internet community for a few weeks, posting contradictory opinions or statements on bulletin boards in an attempt to stimulate a response.
Internet trolls are differentiated from people who genuinely wish to present a different viewpoint by their attitudes and aggressiveness; their goal is not to discuss a situation, but to frustrate the members of a discussion board.
They often use fallacious arguments or attack the users of a site when they attempt to defend themselves from the troll's activities.

In some cases, a troll becomes a recurring figure who is well known by long-term members of a bulletin board.
The individuals often tell newcomers to the community to ignore the troll, who may use various tactics to get a rise from newbies.
In more serious cases, an Internet troll may try to drive a wedge through a community, often with the assistance of sock puppet accounts.
A sock puppet is a fake identity which is used by someone who does not want to post under his or her regular name; some trolls have multitudes of sock puppets to make their side of an argument look like it has a large number of supporters.

Trolls can be extremely frustrating. Especially when trolls use hate speech and stalkerlike tactics, they can cross the line to being dangerous in addition to being aggravating.
If you are the administrator of a website, there are a number of ways to deal with trolls, from IP blocking to reporting them to the authorities if they threaten users of your site.
As a site user, the best response to a troll is no response, which will ultimately drive the Internet troll into moving on in search of fresh prey



You can find more details here - www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-internet-troll.htm
Where the above quote was taken from

[jadw2k9]

I think there's a lot of grey areas and variations with what is considered as trolling and there are people out there who will cry "troll" to almost anything, even if it's genuine.

First of all, I don't consider it a troll if

• The person appears to be posting out of inexperience (they haven't read or fully understood the rules yet)
  
• The person stops when told to stop
  
• The person had signed up with genuine details / no proxy
  
• The person started a thread where the motive is unclear (i.e. I'd rather give the benefit of the doubt)
  

If someone starts a debate or states an opinion and it's on topic with the forum/board/thread, I'm not one of those who yell "troll" just because I or some percentage of the community don't agree with the views expressed.

I consider obvious trolling as:

• Using fake details / impersonating other members (admins or otherwise)
  
• Using display names or other profile info. that is deliberately made to be offensive (i.e. using a name like "linux_sucks" on a pro-Linux forum.
  
• Not knowing when to stop / not listening to what admins/mods tell them
  
• Posting obviously illegal or bannable content (i.e. child abuse, porn in general, links to bullying/hate videos, personal info, hacking, etc)
  
• Posting false claims about topics in discussion / posting off-topic stuff persistently
  
• Evading bans or exploiting the post count / points system
  
• Spamming and advertising even when warned/banned
  
• Harassing or showing foul attitude towards members/admins, or trying to start flame wars
  
• Reposting the same old stuff over and over again or bumping threads that are old or spam.
  
• Moaning about the admins/mods (unless the admins/mods are being unreasonable and plenty of others are complaining too)
  

Trolls will always try to work around rules. If your Rules post(s) is/are clear-cut and follproof, trolls will still look for loopholes that they can abuse.

[theweatherman]

"Trolling" is a vague term allowing a moderator to delete you according to whether or not he (or she) has a hangover. If you go to a site and post dissent, you are likely to be accused of "trolling" by a poster or moderator who doesn't want the club or prayer meeting to be challenged. Remember, some moderators are neo-Nazis hiding behind a computer, so look over the site carefully and see if you can determine if the administrator of the site is "preaching to the choir" and it's a lock-out social club. Free speech in this country is no longer "free." A better word than "trollers" is "flamers." You can spot them easily...

[viruszero]

Jul 23, 2009 15:11:11 GMT -8 theweatherman said:

"Trolling" is a vague term allowing a moderator to delete you according to whether or not he (or she) has a hangover. If you go to a site and post dissent, you are likely to be accused of "trolling" by a poster or moderator who doesn't want the club or prayer meeting to be challenged. Remember, some moderators are neo-Nazis hiding behind a computer, so look over the site carefully and see if you can determine if the administrator of the site is "preaching to the choir" and it's a lock-out social club. Free speech in this country is no longer "free." A better word than "trollers" is "flamers." You can spot them easily...

I don't think it's quite like that... Trolling is a very real thing and has been defined accurately by several people in this topic. Such as the two people who replied above you. (As well as others, such as myself, who have included a definition...)

If you go to a forum where the staff is as you say, then it isn't trolling so much as abusive staff. Though it is just as bad as having to deal with a persistent troll... But if you're looking for prospective sites to join then you have it easier if you can figure out not to join because the staff are abusive. It would only be trolling if the abusive staff followed you to sites you are a member of and harassed you there.

[Nacku]

Jul 26, 2009 11:07:39 GMT -8 viruszero said:

If you go to a forum where the staff is as you say, then it isn't trolling so much as abusive staff. Though it is just as bad as having to deal with a persistent troll... But if you're looking for prospective sites to join then you have it easier if you can figure out not to join because the staff are abusive. It would only be trolling if the abusive staff followed you to sites you are a member of and harassed you there.

Ditto! Yes absolutely. Though theweatherman did make some valid points, it was more or less about an abusive staff rather than trolls in general. Someone said some time back that a person who lies about things and their status in society and are trolls, makes it even worse. And something about; are especially given to troll-like tendencies.

[aaronm]

To me, a troll is essentially someone with blatant disregard for the forum and isn't afraid to show it. I have a very tightly wound guests-must-be-approved system to help protect me for that very reason; my forums are considered to be very precious, and I'd prefer none of them are to be affected by spamming the website or ticking the members and myself in any form or manner. At that point, I ban and delete them right off of the spot without any further questioning. In general, an overall dork with nothing else better to do on their spare time but to run rampant to attack anything that moves.

Now, I am ashamed to admit that I've been a troll myself. On the other hand, my targets have always been forums that haven't seen life as far back as 2004, 2006, and so on. By then I'm mostly just posting random nonsense and fooling around, and in one point, an Oliver and Company forum was actually rather easy to break into after a few guesses. I didn't bother to mess with the persons e-mail; instead, I simply changed it to mine and made a comical mess of re-ordering the boards and edited this and that and called it a day. So to me... a funny troll attack is finding what can be best described as the Proboards graveyard. Chances are it's gone and it'll never be seen again until someone, if anyone at all, makes something like that.

[ily 'TIL THE end]

Apr 29, 2009 10:39:14 GMT -8 Patrick [ASE] said:

When you are on the internet, you run into various types of people from around the world. Some people are very friendly, while some are not. To the latter, the most common term applied to them is "troll."

As a staff member, how do you determine "trolling? What are your different levels of it? How does your forum handle "trolls?" Are there stipulations in your rules in regards to "trolling?" Why or why not?


Submitted by HoudiniDerek

I consider trolling to be what wikipedia defines it as:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29

Also, I agree with what this article says about it:
www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/a-mollycoddling-internet-policy-is-just-feeding-the-trolls-20100328-r535.html

Trolling over the internet is labeled as a personality disorder:
encyclopediadramatica.com/Internet_troll_personality_disorder

If you don't take the above link seriously, your first most likely reaction would be to laugh and disagree with it. But they use those words for a meaning, not for a joke.

There are some people who don't know they troll or if they are told they do, they deny it. There are just some people that misuse that term to make others believe the person they are accusing of trolling did troll when they never did.

[Toothless!the!Dragon]

I find when people come on just to be rude, obviously, but another thing that really irks me is when people seriously post telling you what you did wrong on your site. Yes, I accept constructive critisism, but a lot of people take it personally. If you are going to state your opinion about something, and make it a negative comment, then you should at least first ask if the staff want suggestions. Oh, and don't go overboard, otherwise it sounds nitpicky. lol =]