Let’s create a website where everyone can write the most hateful comments, the most horrible things, on a black canvas. Like a graffiti wall of hate. Then, whatever is written on this wall is vanishing after a few moments, let’s say 10 seconds, then it’s gone. Gone forever. Swallowed by the black canvas, swallowed by the black hole. Let it all out, give haters a place to vent until their fingers hurt and they get tired of it. Let it out, get it out of your system and move on with your life. Trolling is just a symptom of something being not right with the poster, some emotional issues, unhappiness about life. But that’s OK, let it all out, like punching a bag of beans. No need to attack anyone. Write it in public, but stay anonymous. Let it all out and get over it. Isn’t that a brilliant idea…
I posted a very ordinary comment on someone’s Youtube channel yesterday. Then someone replied: “Fuck your existence, Asian!” I resisted the urge to respond, write something clever, write something hurtful. I resisted. Didn’t respond. Don’t feed the trolls. Trolls are poor chaps asking for help. If you respond to them, you don’t help them, but encourage them to keep on asking for help in the wrong place. If you don’t respond they might get tired and go away, they might go back to address the real issues in their lives find real help. Good luck, poor chaps!
This, I assume, you would classify as ‘trolling the trolls’?
Or is the golden rule that it’s only trolling when someone else does it?
If it is trolling, then does that mean your colourful metaphor is also applicable to what you wrote?
Or is it then a case of: ‘See Rule 1’
To get some perspective, I wonder how someone like John Oliver would go on Forumosa? He makes biting, funny comments all the time - should he be banned from posting?
Would he be howled down as being outside the Forumosa culture?
So a classic troll would be Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. He’s the neighborhood milkman who knows everyone and discussions form around him or people meet each other while getting the milk.
He takes advantage of this situation by reigniting an old argument about a horse or mule (or the price of a horse depending upon the version).
If that is trolling, let it be. It’s the person reacting that is too sensitive.
Unless we use the Forumosan mind meld, generally it’s impossible to know another person’s intent. If we judge someone is “trolling” it’s based on their overall pattern of posting behavior.
If we think someone is a troll, the best reaction is just to ignore it without calling the person a troll, as hannes did.
Btw, trolls are not only someone who seek their amusement, but sometimes have intention to destroy the discussion or community with a certain purpose. From Wikipedia.
Guys, read or listen to the book End of Discussion. I feel listening to it is better because it is read by the authors who are journalists and presenters so you get the full emotional package.
The point of the book is how we should accept the right of the other guy to express his or her opinion and your right to refute what they have to say. There are tons of examples of free discussion and debate gone wrong.
My question is, if the topic the troll puts forth gets people debating and expressing opinions what’s the harm? I love a good debate and argument and often get changed a little by my opposition.
Didn’t anyone remember in English Speech Class when you were studying debating being forced to argue a side that you totally disagreed with? You had to reply with real source based facts (from reference books or articles) and you could not call people names.
Obviously some people these days are very much sweating the small stuff, which is why they’re triggered so easily. It could be a troll going onto a Star Wars forum and saying “Star Trek is much better than SW” (nerd rage incoming) or saying to a SJW that there’s only two genders and Bernie would have lost to Trump anyway.
People flip out over this kind of stuff. Maybe it’s because they’re coming from the culture of safe spaces and online echo chambers, whereas I suspect most us think of bomb shelters, golf courses, and the local bar as a safe space, and we had to do debate in school.
The thing about trolls is that if you don’t feed them, they won’t grow to Hulk-like proportions and significance. You can’t control other people’s behavior, short of implementing some burdensome fascist regime, which nobody (well, no reasonable person) wants. But you can (hopefully) control your own behavior. If people want a space where ideas can be freely and openly exchanged, they all need to show a little self-restraint. Otherwise, you end up with either chaos or a suffocating forum controlled by Nazi-mods (no offense intended ).
Thanks, greenocelot! If I try to hide my identity, I am definitively not doing a good job.
Back to topic. I find the term troll actually quite cute.
“…trolls dwell in isolated rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings.” (Wiki about “Trolls”)
I wonder who made the connection between the original trolls and Internet trolls. Quite fitting.
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