Internet Trolls, how pathetic are they?

Lol! We really need a "funny" button here! The "like" button just isn't sufficient sometimes!

 

Hours & hours of basement mouth breathing, hot pockets, Corn chips, & the energy drinks on sale.

 

Now we all know ChrisL is the biggest troll on this site.

 

Speaking of this, a few years back some sick minds started a "gossip blog" about people in my town and they posted some reeeeaaaaally messed up stuff about alot of people that I know and/or knew. They even had a mail asking people to "send in their juicy stuff". Of course it did not survive for too long as people reported it, but they did come back at least three times.

 

Probably the smallest actually.

 

Ehrm. You are a clever agitator and a great teaser. I have seen it in multiple threads and know your kind very well.

 

I'm innocent, mista!

 

I'm just sarcastic is all.

 

My definition of "troll" is broad and you definitely fall into that umbrella with your - occasional - snarky remarks and your recurrent Liberal-bashing.

It is obvious you are just joking and don't mean to be mean, but it - nonetheless - falls under "trolling" imo.

 

That is the word! Thanks.

 

It goes to show that trolling can be a subjective measure. Just where do we draw the line between the usual picking on someone and outright trolling? Is it the severity? The frequency? The motivation of the troll?

 

I would say that when it crosses the line and becomes straight-out bullying, it ceases to be trolling. For me trolling is when you are pushing sarcasm in absurdum, but always in control and never with the intention to hurt anyone. A troll wants to annoy his opponent by being silly.

 

Makes sense. I've seen people take it pretty far, probably to a point where you would call it bullying rather than trolling, as they would get very personal, talk crap about family members, on and on. It has mostly been done on a backwater forum and these people will drive other posters nuts, even to the point of leaving or, if they won't do it willingly, getting banned, because the place is run by people who tolerate it and even engage in it themselves. But that's bound to be a remarkable case, as most websites are better moderated than that.

 

How about things like character assassination? Or spreading lies about a person that you don't really know anything about? Or making up an identity, pretending to be a male or a female (such as what usually would happen with dating site trolls). When you are confronting a person's post or argument, then it would not be trolling. When you make personal comments about a person (if you know nothing about that person), then that would be out of line.

 

Okay, then maybe online bullies would be a better term, but if you read my opening post link, the trolls are in that category. I definitely think there are "levels" of trolling. Lol.

 

Yeah. This blog I mentioned in previous post was a perfect example of what trolling is not. It was nothing like a project "just for fun" or with the intention of spreading innocent rumours/gossip like "Ritter once cheated on a test" or "Durandal secretly likes xxx". It was a blog that breathed pure hatered and it even had it's own e-mail to which it asked everyone to send their "juicy stuff".

The posts were waaay over the top (even for my taste, would you believe it?) and with the sole purpose to ridicule, bully and spread insane rumours about random individuals. It contained stuff like:"This girl is a real sl*t who can't keep her legs shut; she cheated on her bf x with a, b and c and is now wh-ring around the clubs. Act like a lady, bi-tch!" and "X got beat up by his gf and was too afraid to hit her back because her brother blah blah blah."

They included victim's names, surnames and even Facebook profiles.

Really ambitious project I have to say, how much must your life suck for you start something like this? What is even more sick is that they kept starting new blogs every second month or so each time they got taken down by all the reporting they received.

 

That is borderline-criminal and just insane.

You mean like all of those celebrity-magazines do?

Depends how far you push it.

 

There was a site I heard about before where disgruntled boyfriends/husbands would post compromising photos of their exes and say mean things about them, or whatever. That's pretty crappy too, when you don't get the other person's side of the story. Of course, the jilted lover is going to be angry and maybe even vengeful. I hate people that talk about their exes negatively all the time. That is SO annoying. The posting nude photos, etc., could be crossing the line into law breaking, depending on the circumstances though, so that is a bit more serious than your typical trolling.

 

As Elven Lord High Feces_Flinger, I do proclaim & acknowledge you all have a great grasp of Teh trolling way.

May Teh LuLz be with you.

/b/

 

As I see it, all of these behaviours a clear signs of some sort of personality disorder.

 

These things can and do happen offline as well. Are they trolling then?

 

Yep.

I call it IRL_Trolling.

I do it to my wife all the time! Well, not too insulting mind you.

 

I was trolled relentlessly on another board. I ignored it over and over, but that seemed to amp up the hate. I could care less how petty someone is on a public forum. ...what happened in my life I wouldn't wish on anyone.
I cant imagine how many teens deal with it.

hacking, effecting my kids and family. If Im ever "shunned" for telling the truth...so be it.

 

Well, it sure wasn't called trolling before the net came along. So maybe trolling is just slang for something else?

 

That's not trolling. Trolling is the attempt to instigate others based upon the reaction of someone else to you. "Trevor's Axiom" from south park defined it pretty well.