Don't let the trolls get you down

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Internet trolls are maddening, but a lecturer has set up a guide to interacting with them

A new study tries to sharpen our understanding of the highly verbal parasites known as trolls. Trolls – call them internet trolls, if you like – are in some ways quite similar to Plasmodium falciparum, a protozoan parasite that causes malaria in large numbers of human beings. Both kinds of parasite are maddeningly difficult to suppress. They manage, again and again, to return after we thought we'd seen the last of them. Each can, if left untreated, cause agony or worse.

These trolls infect any place where people gather electronically to converse by writing comments to each other. Trolls creep into and crop up anywhere they can, wheedling for attention in chat rooms, Twitter streams, blogs, and, as you may have noticed, in the comments section of online news articles.

One of the many annoying things about internet trolls is that it's difficult to define, with academic rigour, what they do. Claire Hardaker, a lecturer at Lancaster University's department of linguistics and English language, took up the challenge. Her study, Trolling in Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication, is published somewhat counter-intuitively in the Journal of Politeness Research.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jun/13/internet-trolls-improbable-research

[Cleita]

1. Interesting. Thanks for posting n/t

[SecularMotion]

2. This is a fairly accurate definition from the article

A troll is someone "who constructs the identity of sincerely wishing to be part of the group in question, including professing or conveying pseudo-sincere intentions, but whose real intention(s) is/are to cause disruption and/or to trigger or exacerbate conflict for the purposes of their own amusement".

[hfojvt]

6. except that it would not be just amusement

A paid troll would have a purpose - to spread certain talking points and to discredit others

A politically motivated troll would be the same way. Would have a purpose other than just amusement. Presumably a sincere conservative would be similar to a sincere progressive - believe that their policies are good and that the policies of the other side are evil, and otherwise wrong in fact. So they would want to advance the philosophies and policies that they believe in and refudiate the ones they think are wrong. Amusement might be secondary are people do love being right and also seeing their enemies confounded and befuddled.

[SecularMotion]

9. I don't think many Democrats or progressives waste their time trolling right wing boards

The right wing is a minority in our country and their tactics are to attempt to divide and disrupt the majority. It's their only hope to win elections. Democrats and progressives have little to gain by disrupting right wing boards and the teabaggers are already doing a fine job of dividing the right wing

[RSillsbee]

14. Unfourtunately , when I see someone trolling a pro RKBA board

It's generally someone who thinks they're progressive.

Or it's Boxxy

[SecularMotion]

15. Why would someone waste time trolling a pro-RKBA board?

The majority of those people are too far right to bother with.

[RSillsbee]

16. IDK but it happens all the time

Hell, go look in the Gungeon and see how many trolls wander through there

[SecularMotion]

18. This is a board for Democrats and progressives.

There are trolls in the Gungeon, but they're not the progressives.

[petronius]

19. Strangely enough, they are. For whatever reason, some DUers will

wander through the Guns forum posting flamebait, snark, and apparently believing that they're playing whack-a-mole. Because they're regular DUers otherwise, they don't realize the embarrassing trollishness of the behavior.

I think most of the sub-forums and groups - if they're at all controversial - experience similar incursions to some degree. You ever notice the stickies at the tops of various fora, detailing what the purpose is and what's (not) allowed? Those generally aren't for outsiders...

[SecularMotion]

21. So Democrats and progressive members of DU who venture in the sub-forums are trolling?

And DU members who post progressive and Democratic opinions in the sub-forums are posting snark and flamebait? LOL

:crazy:

[petronius]

22. No, that's not what I said at all

:shrug:

My comment was not about people who "post progressive and Democratic opinions" - my comment was about people who deliberately troll, but don't see/admit that they're doing it because it's internal. There's an obvious difference...

[SecularMotion]

23. The fact that the majority of progressives and Democrats on DU don't agree with the denizens

of the sub-forums does not make them trolls.

[petronius]

24. That's still not related to what I actually said

:shrug:

[LAGC]

26. No, but often times certain people just like to post anecdotal spam without commentary.

And this doesn't just happen in the Guns forum, I've seen it in the Israel/Palestine forum and others as well.

It's like they just want to stir the pot, post provocative articles about current events, without having the balls to say what their take is on it.

They just post for the reaction, not to have any serious debate on the topic.

(Edit for typos.)

[SecularMotion]

27. The denizens of the sub-forums hold opinions that are far right of the majority of DU

DU members have every right to post articles and opinions from progressive viewpoints that may be provocative and offensive to the denizens of sub-forums. And the denizens have every right to alert the mods if they consider the posts to be "trollish"

If you're pushing far right views anywhere on a Democratic and progressive website, chances are you're the troll(I'm speaking in general and not accusing any specific member of being a troll.)

[LAGC]

28. Which sub-forums are you referring to?

I can't say I've seen any sub-forums that don't generally represent the same general interests of most DU'ers, unless maybe you count the 9/11 (Conspiracy) forum that always attracts a few weirdos.

If you're referring to the Guns forum, there are millions of gun-owning Democrats. Gun control isn't as partisan of an issue as you may think.

[SecularMotion]

29. All of them

If the opinions being pushed in the sub-forums were in agreement with the majority of DU, there would be no need for sub-forums.

[LAGC]

30. Huh? WHA?!

I thought the main purpose of the sub-forums was just to help keep General Discussion uncluttered from the various topics of concern that various people have.

Do you really think that most people in say the Race/Equality, Education, Women's Rights, GLBT, Religion/Theology forums, etc. etc. are all in disagreement with the majority opinion of most DU'ers? Let alone, "far right" of them?

:crazy:

[SecularMotion]

37. You're right, not all the denizens of sub-forums are in disagreement with the majority opinion of DU

But in general, I find that far right opinions are more tolerated in the sub-forums.

[yawnmaster]

35. Seriously? Is the majority of DU in agreement on every issue? and by majority...

you may find a majority of DU agrees on most issues,
but I doubt that it is the same majority on each issue.

No need for sub-forums?

If all agreed on everything, why have DU at all? to complain and moan? To organize? what?

[SecularMotion]

38. DU has never been in agreement on every issue.

But there was a time when there was more respect for other member's posts and less snark. It was considered rude to disrupt another member's thread simply for the sake of disagreeing as is now the norm on DU.

[petronius]

36. And you don't think it's possible for an otherwise ordinary DUer to go into one of those forums to

'talk trash,' 'stir shit up,' or 'yank some chains?' That there's no such thing as an internal troll? (And to be totally clear, I'm not just talking about Guns - think R/T, I/P, Astrology, GLBT, Animal Rights,...)

I suppose if you've never noticed it, or the discussions about it, that's good for you - it probably makes your experience more pleasant...

[SecularMotion]

39. If someone holds views that are far right to the majority of DU

I'm not surprised that they may consider progressive and Democratic views to be offensive.

[petronius]

40. At least now I know what this smiley is for:

:banghead:

[SecularMotion]

41. Don't hurt yourself

:rofl:

[petronius]

44. Oops, responded to my own post. Maybe I *did* hurt myself...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1289426&mesg_id=1292005

[petronius]

42. No danger, it's a purely digital emotion. But thank you for your concern...

:hi:

[SecularMotion]

45. No problem

Yup

:P

[RSillsbee]

34. You are absolutely correct .

Their disagreement does not make them trolls, they way they frame their disagreement does

[RSillsbee]

31. I'm sorry but the most strident disruptors in the gungeon

are all members in good standing on the rest of the board.

The disruptors I've seen on other boards (orchid hunter from gunrightsmedia.org comes immediately to mind) tend to use some of the same tactics. They show up, drop a drive-by post that is boiler plate VPC (Or in OH's case AHSA) usually clipped verbatium from a press release, make some refference to " A well regulated militia" or "assualt clips"then drive off into the sunset to watch the fun

[Fumesucker]

43. You just about can't troll right wing boards anyway..

Poe's law is an empiric one but I think it's accurate.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Poe's_Law

Once you go beyond a certain point of crazy a difference in degree has already become a difference in kind, many on the right are there already.

[LAGC]

3. We had a live one last night.

He/she/it was posting in the Race/Equality forum, didn't even make 10 posts before he/she/it posted an OP insinuating that Bush did more to soothe race relations in America than Obama, along with links to his blog spouting birther non-sense and what not.

I was just beginning to have some fun toying with him/her/it before the mods tomb-stoned him.

Sometimes I think we should just let them run their course, let everyone have their fun with them, then just ignore them so that they go away on their own.

Oh well. The joys and perils of anonymous web boards.

[eridani]

46. Is there a rule about letting DUers play with their prey before dispatching it?

Maybe there should be.

[emulatorloo]

4. Interesting stuff, I appreciate you posting it n/t

[LoZoccolo]

5. K&R n/t

[aikoaiko]

7. Love and Trolls. boxxy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMLrA_0O5I

[Edweird]

8. Boxy Brown?

[RSillsbee]

10. Boxxy does NOT do drugs NT

[LoZoccolo]

11. She doesn't have ADD either. n/t

[RSillsbee]

13. And she is NOT TROLLIN' NT

[RSillsbee]

12. Boxxy's new video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZrYDwLjbtE&feature=related

[Scuba]

17. Thanks for posting. Sparring with trolls can be fun; exposing them moreso....

....I blog on the Milwaukee Urinal/Sentinel political and (sports, which has a different flavor troll demographic) blogs. The political blogs here are absolutely infested with paid trolls.

Here's a few other ways of outing paid trolls...

...Out of nowhere, everyone shouts the same meme at once. Perhaps David sent an email to "all".

...Frequent circle-jerk endorsements of other right-wing blogger's comments. Apparently the Troll Handbook suggests this builds credibility.

...Not knowing local issues. I had a supposedly Wisconsinite tell me the Green Bay Packers were privately owned.

...And of course, spewing the same old RW talking points that have been discreditied more times than Newt Gingrich.


I've also created a couple little quizzes - local knowledge stuff. I'm waiting for the right moment to pop one on somebody.

[Romulox]

20. First comment on the article is hilarious!

Monchberter
13 June 2011 4:38PM
Best trolling i've ever read about:

On a website where the political debate was carefully balanced between right and left some wag posted;

"I hear Margaret Thatcher is in Hospital. Let's all keep our fingers crossed".

A fine trolling.

Awesome! :thumbsup:

[Nye Bevan]

25. I almost never see true trolls here. The mods are very quick to shut them down (nt)

[marmar]

32. Actually, I love it when a virulent troll posts, and then there's a mass DU attack on it......

...... it brings us all together. :grouphug:

[SidDithers]

33. K&R. We are surrounded by Trolls. We must remain ever vigilant...nt

Sid