Trolls

rogerjolly

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There has been much ado on the forum recently about trolls.

In my view a troll is very like an uninvited rabbit in the garden. At first you might think he is ever so cute but then he starts munching away at your over-wintering pansies.

There are three potential ways of dealing with such a rabbit. (1) Tolerate him. (2) Fence him out. (3) Shoot him.

Which option should be used with trolls?

Perhaps the only problem with my analogy is that a bunny is instantly recognisable while a troll is a master of disguise.

Roger.
 
I used to be an admin on two forums and mod on several. Trolls are simply a fact of Internet forums. Normally, people (members) would flag their posts, and we mods/admin would either edit the post or delete it, depending on the post. Then we'd usually ban the troll, depending on the severity of the offense. The problem with this, in my own experience is, when someone (troll) really wants back to cause trouble, there's really not a lot can be done about it.

I've had some trolls even stalk me on other forums, tracking down my username, etc. One guy even impersonated a mod from another forum on a forum I used to go to. It totally fooled me, the little sh*t. Spoofing an IP is child's play with a VPN. Where there's a will there's way.
 
Well vegans don't shoot bunnies so that's out. It really depends on the troll. I've been members of forums since around 2009-2010 and found some trolls are funny, cute-acting and smart, and some are monsters ...and ironically the monsters are more likely to stick around, because they know how to work around the "rules" and just fall under the radar of doing wrong. People who are genuinely upset may throw tantrums, call names, or cuss people out - but the most evil troll is so calculating that they do very nasty things to other members JUST WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF THE RULES so that no one feels 100% justified banning them.

I have lots of opinions about the latter kind of troll,but I've found them more problematic on MBTI forums than vegan forums.
 
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Thank dog that there's no flame wars on here. I can remember some legendary flame wars from the early millennium years on a couple different file sharing forums....back in the Napster days of glory ;)

Even though they were quite entertaining. I mean, as long as it wasn't You being flamed, or I should say, as long as you could dish it out in a more clever and entertaining way. haha
 
Are trolls considered edible? I mean, they are neither meat, dairy, nor plant. They are fictional. They are like eating dragons, unicorns, and pixies. While these various beasties take the form of living creatures, they are only figments of our imaginations and therefore fair game for our vegan dinner tables. I'm going to eat a big old plate of ogre with a side of yeti tonight and still wake up tomorrow morning and call myself a vegan. Try and stop me you big bad troll. :p
 
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i have 2 'pet' rabbits and yes, they are a pain in the ***. fencing is the only option but it doesn't make the garden look very pretty :-(
i love my bunnies tho.
 
My ex used to have a pet bunny. What an adorable thing, but wow, they are just a little bit destructive. Hers was not caged, but it had a hutch she would lock it in at night to protect it from the local wildlife...mainly raccoons. Her lawn went from a lovely green patch of grass to a litter box of dead, brown and yellow grass. The bunny, as cute as he was, also pillaged her veggie and flower garden beds.

In my observation they are little pooping machines. They eat a lot too. That cute thing killed more kale than all the vegans I know, combined. Okay, I don't know many vegans in the real world, but still...
 
It totally fooled me

There are some people, often the elderly, who have lost large parts of their savings through scams. But they frequently do not report such frauds because the embarrassment of being conned is more painful than the financial loss.

Similarly with trolls. You might think you are ever so astute and could not possibly be taken in. But you can be led on and on until eventually (hopefully) the truth dawns on you. You feel somewhat foolish.

It is always far easier to vandalise rather than build. That is what makes me think what very sad and unproductive lives trolls must lead.

Similarly with the fraudsters. They are obviously very intelligent and skilled individuals. If only they could put their talents to doing something positive. Then they could go to sleep at night feeling they were doing something constructive they could be really proud of.

Roger.
 
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I could not agree more Roger. You sound like you're speaking from experience.

I've spent many hours of my time on Internet forums back in the early 2000's. It was a lot of fun, and we mostly had a really cool, dysfunctional, family-like community. *laughs* You really got to see many people's true colors after a while. Much like in real life, the mix was as diverse. Perhaps even more so, as people tend to be bigger asshats on the Internet.

When I was personally trolled, this guy really had a lot of time on his hands. We had repeatedly banned him. He would go away for a while, and then return, either begging the site owner, personally, or the forum admins. For some reason, he really liked me. Anyways, he was given another chance, and another chance, until it became abundantly clear, he was never going to change. So he didn't like the perm-ban.

So, this is what he did: He knew all the admin and mods on this particular forum, so he must have googled searched out my user name and found me on another unrelated forum. So he joins it under the same name as one of our moderators. He started bantering back and forth to me in PM', pretending to be this mod. He knew enough about me from browsing the forum's lounge and reading my posts to really fake his way through this well. I was had, hook, line and sinker. He reeled me in like a big fat flounder.

There is no question he was very intelligent...if he was really even a "he". There's no way of knowing much of anything, unless you are a skilled hacker, and risk doing those sorts of things. We all knew that he was very determined, if anything. Why me...why that forum, and just why, period?
 
I've been a troll on a specific forum (can't say which one). It was the only forum I've ever posted at that I got a great satisfaction from trolling it. Basically the admin decided to take a heavy hand with me, play favorites and even allow various members to slander me outright on the open forum spewing lies and insinuations.

Not only did I troll the forum mercilessly exposing certain members for who they really were (hypocrites, mainly, people who created sock accounts but pretended not to), I found out who a bunch of them were. Never have used that information, nor plan to unless I really feel it's needed.

Since being on the net since it's inception (public inception anyway), and message boards aplenty, I've never felt the need to do that except with this one particular forum.
 
I've been a troll on a specific forum (can't say which one).

Hmm, so it was you all along...I knew it! ;)

I've ditched pretty well every forum I used to browse, with the exception of this one. I should say, many of the forums I used to enjoy have gone, folded. My motorcycle forum still exists, which I rarely browse these days.

What I noticed on my old forums was that trolls don't necessarily possess superior intelligence. A lot of them, in fact most, were extremely immature and seemed inept with literary skills. They got under one's skin by pure persistence alone.

Now we also had many very skilled flamers, which in my opinion requires a certain amount of intelligence. It comes down to possessing a skilled command of the English language. In my humble opinion, a little wit goes a lot further than cheap insults. Nonetheless, there's no need to belittle people in such ways. It kinda defeats the entire purpose of a discussion forum.



*
 
@ plantmuncher

Its been over 20 years since I watcher Rodger and Me. What was the point of the segment? To show how bad the people have Flint have it that they are reduced to raising rabbits?
 
Oi, you lot. This is a thread about trolls. The clue is in the title! If you want to talk about rabbits why don’t you hop off and make your own bunny thread? ;)

Roger.
 
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@ Rodger.
No fair. You were the one who brought up rabbits in the first place. Your first post includes the words "rabbits" and "bunny" 3 three times. Just as often as you use the word "trolls". It's your own fault we got mixed up. ;)
 
What I noticed on my old forums was that trolls don't necessarily possess superior intelligence. A lot of them, in fact most, were extremely immature and seemed inept with literary skills. They got under one's skin by pure persistence alone.

Now we also had many very skilled flamers, which in my opinion requires a certain amount of intelligence. It comes down to possessing a skilled command of the English language. In my humble opinion, a little wit goes a lot further than cheap insults. Nonetheless, there's no need to belittle people in such ways. It kinda defeats the entire purpose of a discussion forum.



*


Depends on what the purpose of the person behind a troll account is. On this website I used to be a part of, it was so easy to get banned and mods and admin (yes, there were numerous staff) often eager to “move up the ranks” and shove their weight around that people often got banned, often unfairly.

To add insult to injury, you could be perma banned if you created a sock and modified your IP and was caught at it, but most of the staff was doing it as well!

One of the results was an abundance of trolls of different types from numerous banned members. Accounts spilling personal information on the public forum, some people posting pornographic gifs (even child porn), DDOS attacks that kept the site down for days, women posting as men and men posting as women for various purposes, including entrapment through private messaging.

Now the site is so heavily protected that you need special network knowledge to get in if you’re trying to remain anonymous.

To this end, they are better equipped to keep out many of the former members who were banned for whatever reason, but their site traffic also takes a hit in the process. That means lower rankings and consequently lower market appeal for advertisers. Can’t say I’m particularly sad they are generating less money, given what type of site it was.
 
I am constantly amazed at the garbage that comes out of my mouth. I have only participated in one other forum. I would say some crazy stuff and people would defend me and say. "He is not a troll or a flamer." Sometimes, we have to entertain some crazy ideas in order to figure things out.

In real life, I frequently feel amused when a person tries to attack me. Some people have insinuated that I am a racist bigot, a sexist, a lazy bum, insensitive, and just about everything else. They are correct. By the way, I also wear shoes possibly made from puppy skin and I constantly trash the environment.

I worked for a quarter-century in special education in the United States. I have done numerous disgusting vile things to keep my job. Very early in my career, I referred to my job as a "sham". I got in a boatload of trouble for that statement. I also told my closest friends that I was a prostitute who would do anything for a buck.

I recall one child advocate who provided specialized services to a student with severe disabilities. We will call this educational expert, Sally. I once asked Sally if playing the television might contribute to the student's vocalizations and self-stimulating behaviors. (I am speaking in code.) Sally was not interested in pursuing this line of discussion. So, I politely decided to discuss something else and look the other way about the problem.

I hereby give anybody permission to troll me, attack my character, and try to inflame me. My response is simple. It takes an a$$h01e to recognize and a$$h01e. I will evaluate your accusations carefully. If you are enough of a jerk, I might be willing to sponsor your membership to the American A$$h01e Association (AAA). My word means something in the AAA. Trust me. I am an exemplary member in good standing.
 
In more recent times I've seen the term 'troll' sometimes used surprisingly liberally. However, in my view the word has a very specific meaning, and it obviously means something more than just being in disagreement with someone: One is not a troll simply because of breaking some rules or occasionally being a little bit of an arsehat.

In my view, a troll in the context of Internet forums can be said to be a sinister member who either openly or covertly attempts to do one or more of the following:
  • stir up trouble with other members
  • disrupt the conversations
  • chase away other members
  • divide the community through inflammatory rhetoric, which is why they're attracted to controversial topics; make enemies and sometimes unwitting "allies".
  • Spread FUD: fear, uncertainty, doubt (i.e. "concern trolling")
... where their ultimate goal is to harm the particular community and/or to oppose the goals/objectives of the forum.