What is Trolling Exactly?

Andrew, a psychologist would have a field day with you.

This is one of the side effects of trolling on a site like this. Itā€™s pretty secluded to the Taiwanese English speaking community. So most people seeing this either is stupid enough to come in or are just out off by the whole site and wonā€™t ever post again.

Believe me, Iā€™ve seen my fair share and non have been able to help me. Narcissistic anti social traits are some of the hardest behavioral traits to correct. Come on man. Troll me back. This is no fun.

I stop seeing therapists and shrinks a long time ago. I just manipulate them. I have fun messing with them like a game. The only thing that keeps me sane is punching things or sometimes people ( imagine the joy where I found a sport that allows me and celebrates me doing that) working out in general. Driving a car. And now it seems trolling is very therapeutic actually. I also like to do arts and crafts.

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Lols andrew you arenā€™t that good at trolling

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It seems Iā€™m failing. I will go back to my cave and come back later.

Isnā€™t that part of online forum culture though? Itā€™s not normal social life where you need to behave extra-politely all the time - especially if itā€™s a thread discussing politics or a moral issue

In some ways itā€™s similar to contact sport - in ā€˜normal lifeā€™ I wouldnā€™t rugby tackle someone to the ground - but itā€™s ok when you are playing rugby

Obviously, there are times when people go beyond the pale, but I have seen occasions where a poster has made an unsubstantiated, offensive comment, and then cried foul when someone has picked them up on it - especially when the picker-uperer is a bit more adept at the witty putdown

Personally, being trolled doesnā€™t bother me - more often than not it just opens up a few possibilities to further explore the point Iā€™m interested in

Threads are a battle of ideas at their best, and transcend one-on-one spats - thereā€™s an audience - if someone starts swearing and abusing me and calling me a ā€˜dumb-assā€™ (the usual thing, haha), I assume that most of the audience will see that for what it is

I read and participate in Forumosa primarily as a form of casual entertainment - and good entertainment will usually contain an element of conflict. The question is, I suppose, where are the boundaries?

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I think the boundaries are set by posters. Of course there are rules. But itā€™s not difficult to come at someone just above the rules but enough to piss people off. I guess in some ways we are discussing the culture of forumosa posters. Where are we comfortable saying thatā€™s enough or thatā€™s just the way the internet is.

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insert Gerald Broflovski pic here

Andrew, I think youā€™ve nailed it

What is the culture of Forumosa?

A culture within the internet culture within the larger societal culture within the world and the cosmos and so onā€¦

Thereā€™s the stereotype Forumosan I suppose, but if youā€™re from Kenya for example, you are part of what it means to be a Kenyan, whether you fit the stereotype or not. Itā€™s the same with a person who uses Forumosa

Is it owned and settled? Or is it still a dynamic evolving thing?

Anyway, it would be good to hear what usersā€™ ideas are about the culture of Forumosa

Let me give you an example:

itā€™s like if A said xxx and then B said yyy because asdjdfjbhd and then s;kdfjnbewr;gbhrb;k

Sorry, I was going to quote a real case but I donā€™t want this post to be removed.

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Itā€™s always going to evolve i suppose as new users come in and some older ones move on.
I guess what some people like myself are seeing that we donā€™t like is the level of hostility rising lately. Some small, some big. More threads are being split and side tracked, more post edited or removed.

And it really depends on the kind of user you are i suppose. Some people might not care at all and only come on here for questions like about ARC. Some people talk about the weather. Some people like to talk about politics. I think @hansioux doesnā€™t live in Taiwan anymore? But likes to come in here and there talking about baseball like myself.
But for me, I like forumosa as somewhat personal and I like contributing to a community in ways I can and even making myself available in person and sharing a bit more of my personal life. So It sucks when some of it become used as personal attacks. It makes me not want to contribute and help out a I see more and more threads that I donā€™t even want to get involved in.
Mods can only do so much as some of it does come with being on the internet. But this whole thing was about just asking mods to try to check things and try to calm things down. And to be fair, i think most of the time they do a pretty good job. But this time in all honesty, I think they did a poor job in nipping it in the bud and made it worst. You canā€™t remove every troll posts, and I certainly donā€™t want that as some of it is funny. But I think the mods could have just said we will watch out for it and tone it down vs saying itā€™s just the internet.

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For some people - a troll is someone you disagree with but you are losing an argument against.

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I think that trolling is trying to rile attention to a comment in an inflammatory way for the purpose of seeking attention

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I welcome Trolls. Big time savers. Once you identify yourself thus, I need not take you seriously nor even pay attention to you ever again.

Same with Gretzkys.

A troll is like a cat that pisses all over your clothes and bed just because it needs to and had the opportunity because you left the bedroom door open.

They love their own stink though and sometimes others get used to the smell and also ask whatā€™s the problem?

This is our policy on trolling, for reference: