Although it’s true that we all ought to be prepared to expect some negative feedback to any post we make to an online community forum, it’s also true that we ought to be able to cry “foul” and have something done about it when we experience an internet troll.
According to wikipedia, an Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.
The term “troll” can mean a number of different things, but in essence, a troll is a person who aims to have ‘pleasure’ at your expense. They are people who have the psychological need to feel good by making others feel bad.
This is a sort of “psycho troll“, whose deception involves deceiving themselves as well as others. Such people may use their real names on the internet, and they may not even realize that they are “trolling” because it is all subconscious.Blog Comment Trolls
In his post 7 Tips for Handling Flamers and Trolls, Daniel Scocco says: Whatever their motives, though, there are some important things to remember when dealing with flamers and trolls.
Take a deep breath and count to 10.
Be tolerant of criticism.
Censor with care.
Turn the conversation around.
Take the higher ground.
Trolls thrive on attention.
If all else fails, just ignore them.Dating Forum Trolls
A fellow Blog Catalog member, modelelaine shares her experience of trollish behavior on dating forums:
What I have noticed from multiple dating forums is that people have some sort of hatred toward others who are more successful, have more money, have better things, are better looking, etc. Just go on a forum such as Plenty Of Fish dating site. If you are good-looking, have a decent job and are generally a nice person, don’t even try to post on the forums. Seriously. You will be eaten alive by haters and naysayers. There are people on those forums who have no life but to destroy you. If you are pretty, there are always women who will say you are a gold digger, or like you are not intelligent enough, or life you are making stuff up, or like you are an attention-seeking troll. Why do they say it? Even if you are not seeking attention, you are attracting attention. Source
Not all community members can be relied upon to make complaints when a pattern of negative behavior has been established. This is especially true when the member being targeted by a bad actor is someone else. Unless we are willing to speak up then we are, in essence, agreeing to become the next victim.
Social Network Trolls
Another Blog Catalog member, Doc Nicole wrote this in Ten Causes of Social Media Meltdown
Have you ever started what you thought might be a friendly or informative discussion to promote an article, and then returned to find people completely attacking you? Yikes! … When a friendly debate turns ugly and immature it is best for your brand to just walk away. Decent people will see that you were needlessly attacked and the participants will be left looking like the malicious bullies they are. If you feel you must put in your two cents do so and then inform your harassers you will not be returning for more. Be the bigger person and just leave the thread.
Human nature that makes us want to avoid being seen as snitches and self protective behavior inclines us to back away from negative behavior when we witness it. These two phenomena, as well as, the nature of “detachment” created by online communication can lead us to become voyeurs rather than becoming active participators in creating a healthy online community environment by reporting the bad actors, whether or not their behavior is being directed towards ourselves or towards another member.
Attention seeking
Trolls are nothing without attention, just a monster under the bed. While the first post may be camouflaged, it really doesn’t take rocket science to identify an active troll. The best response from fellow members of the group is simply to ignore it. And the best response from moderators is to delete their membership; quickly and cleanly, with no negotiation or second chance. The group is more important than one idiot.
Socially Inept
Trolls have no self respect and low self esteem, and cannot cope with normal human interaction; start with a bit of flattery, and they may be stuck for a response. Even if they recover, they will not able to react appropriately, which should convince everyone of their trollism. Trolls focus on their target, not the issue; additionally, most trolls can only pick on one person at a time. This leaves them wide open to paralysis when you talk about them, but not to them. Published September 2008
Troll Tolerance
If members of any online community condone forum behavior of individual bad actors that they know isn’t proper, it will slowly become acceptable, and will become more commonplace, simply because it’s being tolerated. And if Moderators are not aware and willing to act, then a single negatively focused and manipulative member can create bad will that will have a lasting effect in an online community.
Reference: Communities Online trolling and Harassment
I woke up this morning to find comment in my latest post to “sugar snap peas”.
The comment left was unrelated but it was a hurtful insult to sugar lovers.
It wasn’t a bot because I did follow him to a blog by one of my commentators where too he spread his filth. And he did actually return to my blog “check” on his comment – but fortunately he left.
My God it so ruined my morning I banned him from my site and it feels good !
The Internet is unfortunately the perfect playground for the troll personality. He can stir up trouble and get his attention fix, yet remain physically safe behind a cloak of anonymity. If anyone calls him out on it or if he gets banned, he can just slink away. There are enough new forums to join or proxy servers behind which to set up new accounts on.
TT, an excellent post. It made me think, I have also been a member of various forums, in particular hobby forums and also been a moderator in one once that was a war zone for a while. Model flying forums can become very emotive places, really! After a while you get to recognise people that troll and it is amazing how they work. A bit different in Modelelaines case (it sounds awful) and I would seriously not want to enter that battleground. But, often they are quite subtle in the way that they operate.This can make them difficult for moderators to deal with because they may not be obviously offensive. I no longer moderate so now I have got into the habit of ignoring them because for me it is the most effective method.
Great post. I was reminded of the old news networks days. Alt-feminism was trolled pretty frequently (and, unfortunately, many took the bait).
hi TT, that’s one more thing i learnt from you. thanks. maybe now i’ll be able to ‘use’ BC in a better way.
i dont think that i participate in any forums other than BC and i’d have to say that there are some trolls in bc. something has to be done.
thanks
peace
@Jaffer
“My God it so ruined my morning I banned him from my site and it feels good !”
I am being harassed by former BC members who were given the boot by Admin.They are money grubbing, loud mouthed, link droppers and click fraud artists. The comments I receive which like the one you refer to are NOT related to the post indicate that the persons involved are NOT aware that the BC forum is being monitored by Admin. They are based on the stupid notion that I am the only member reporting link dropping and other breaches in the community guidelines for forum posting.
I feed the whole works into both Defensio and Akismet spam filters. It felt great!
Good post, TT. I am not one for confrontation so if, gosh forbid, I’m “trolled” I’ll know what to do. I would likely run, rather than walk away, but that’s okay. I see that the point is to just leave the troll to sit there by itself until it has no one else to slam!
Trolls are losers and should have the carpet pulled from under them every time they show their impish faces.
When I make smartass comments at least I let everyone know it’s just a joke and not meant to throw off the regular and relevant discussion at hand.
@ian in hamburg
That’s the truth. Trolls just ooze off to infect another forum after being banned from one.
@chrissy
I too have moderated forums and had to deal with these low life. What drove me crazy was that members were reluctant to notify us immediately so we could ban them before their infection spread.
@Jennifer
I have also noticed the trolling on feminist sites. What blows my mind on those sites is that I was able to spot the trolls who were men pretending to be women.
@irtiza
Hello there. I agree that there are trolls at BC. Here’s an example of one that now seems to have set up camp in the political forum. You will notice that the other members took care of the situation. http://www.blogcatalog.com/politics/discuss/entry/treatment-of-traditional-marriage-supporters-a-disgrace The bottom line at BC is that staff will deal properly with trolls, provided they are reported. There seems to be some members with a reluctance to click that button. But if we members are not going to click the button and notify Admin then we are part of the problem, rather than being part of the solution.
@roadgurl
I agree that when a troll post is posted ignoring it is a good practice. The step after that is to click the report button let Admin take care of it.
@faith
Trolls don’t evoke laughter they evoke anger. Your smart apple comments on the BC forum are obvious. They are always made in a good natured way and they always make me laugh. :-)
so very very true.
sometimes, tho, i just gotta leave a community instead of fighting a losing battle constantly. *sigh*
I think all of us have been in that position and that some of us are right now. It’s so freaking sad that these community destroyers exist.
So true TT. Although I will be the first to admit that I love playing with trolls. It’s a sick, sick, sickness of mine. I try not to, I try to be good, but I just…can’t….stop…..
*sigh* Sorry guys.
@Anok
Actually I must admit that you are quite good at it. :-)
Time Thief, thank you for this article. Its funny because I feel like I just had my first newbie-trolling experience today in a community discussion. I KNEW exactly what was happening – I’m no fool – but I went into this emotional… tirade anyway! Maybe I’m more naive than I thought, or not as good at taking criticism as I hoped. Really unpleasant!
When I wrote the post, I was in a genuine state of joy over something that I was wanting to share with people. From now on, my guard is up.
SpiritualBloggerss last blog post..2012 – Era of Light
Is that troll picking his nose? Wherever did you get this little guy? And how did you make him sit still to have his photograph taken?
Hope you are feeling better every day. I just found this web log of yours. You are one bright penny, as my Grandmother, Nannie would say. :D
Theresa111s last blog post..A Pretty Phyllo Fruit Tart
Hmmm.. I remember my few days at BC.
Eeewww TT, that’s a nasty little dude you’ve got pictured there! However, I can deal with a little snot. It’s the stuff that comes out of the ‘other end’ that sends me. Hope all is well, and that you are recovering quickly. I started to just “read and run”, but I have to make a comment: I have never been “trolled”, but have witnessed the damage being done by such beings. Trolls generate so much negative energy in forums that, even though I have never been a target, I tend to leave when things start getting “hot”. Not because I’m scared. It’s just that I don’t need the negativity and refuse to ‘put an additional log onto the fire’. And, it’s a crying shame, when what could be lively discussions, turn into infomercials and uncalled for nastiness. This is one one of the reasons I left BC…Too many trolls under the bridge.
Brava! on your campaign against them…-Nards
Nardss last blog post..Song of the day: What I Did for Love – Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban
Great post! I love the how to handle the trolls part!
This blog is looking so good. I am awed by your talent on blog design. Maybe you should go into exterior blog designing business (their content would be the interior!
Thanks for sharing this information, it will help a lot of people that get hurt by trolls, and don’t understand why or what happened. A real eye opener! :)
~K
K Fieldss last blog post..ARCTICULATES: Cook – Sourdough Starter
@K Fields
You have been around BC for awhile so I guess it will not surprise you to hear that this anti-troll post attracted a troll comment from a member who was banned from BC for chronic link dropping and ridiculous mean spirited posts that he made to the forum there. He and his “friends” some of who are still BC members, and some who have been sent on their way chose to attack me in their blogs, and also chose to complain to BC Admin about opinions I shared on the forum. Rather than caving in to them I simply forwarded copies of their antics to Admin to expose them.
@spiritualbloggers
Keep your guard up and resist the temptation to feed them. :-)
@Theresa111
I’m so happy that you found my blog. The photo credit for the nose picker is at the end of the post where there’s also a reference link. Come again soon. :-)
@Dosox
It’s a shame that you arrived at BC when you did. The truth is that these trolls have already driven several great BC members off the forums. They simply don’t want to waste their time dealing with mean spirited community destroyers. So now they communicate on twitter and that means the BC forum isn’t as lively and interesting as it once was.
As a proud dating site and wikipedia troll, I’m highly offended and demand that you stop talking about the little guy under the bridge. Please feed me, I live off of fish heads and empty cracker jack boxes.
Ironically, this post can apply to bullies in school just as well. There’s not much difference between the two, it seems (except in that ignoring a school bully doesn’t help.)
Lanas last blog post..Award…Thanks!
@River Stixx
I will NOT feed you so behave yourself or else. :-)
@Lana
That’s an interesting observation. You’re right.
timethief, so finally i have found the term for these folks. i can’t tell you how many times i’ve been called fag, faggot, f’in fag, blah, blah, blah.
i have concluded that anonymity in the hands of sociopaths spells trouble.
it is the nature of the internets.
not much can be done except smile (and imagine their bicycles have flat tires)
cranelegss last blog post..769. it’s thankstaking day at cranelegs pond
@cranelegs
Unbelievably the idiot who keeps trolling me (see the personal information above) dropped off another comment today. I found it in the Defensio spam filter and laughed.
timethief, this is an excellent post. I’m going to send the URL to a friend of mine who is having a troll problem right now, on one of the sites she frequents.
Your post is very useful for helping all of us put this kind of immature and pathological behavior in perspective. Thanks!
@Lynda Lehman
The low life who has been spamming both of my blogs began by link dropping every night at Blog Catalog on the forum. He assumed that I was the only one reporting his activity – WRONG!
He then made posts as if he was a Big I AM and projected that he knew a lot more than he actually does. Following that he commenced a pattern of smearing Blog Catalog’s owners and Admin wherever he goes.
I suppose some bloggers haven’t caught on to the fact yet that they are blogging buddies with a dim witted troll. However, there’s little doubt about it.
I have kept a file of his character assignations made in the comments he drops at both of my blogs and I have shared them with the others whose characters were also defamed. What goes around comes around and he’s a very small fish so I expect he will eventually be bitten by a larger one.
This is some SERIOUSLY good advice. I learned a lot here by having things confirmed for me. You’ve confirmed what I did, which was walk away. No response. Nada! I’ve noticed it most in discussion forums. And I leave the discussion immediately. I refuse to repsond or participate. I’ve also had one comment like this on my blog and I knew from the comment that they had not even read the post. So I deleted. I give comment guidelines and state that I can delete abusive comments and I don’t hesitate to use that right. Thank you for making this stronger in me, making me more aware of it and how to handle it. You are the best and continually blow me away with your bold intelligent voice. I love that about you. Mucho hugs and love, Robin
PS I’m so glad you on this journey with me. I’m blessed to know you.
I have to say that my blog seems to be a troll magnet. As the saying goes if I had a dollar for every troll… I think you make a key point about remaining calm. The minute you get upset, they seem to feed on it and their behaviour gets worse. I shall try to remain calm in the future but somehow I suspect that I will fail.
Renees last blog post..When Asian Women Tell It
@Renee
You’re right. They thrive on attention. Don’t give them any and they move on.
@Robin
You are a blessing to me too. When it comes to trolls and comments that have no value – delete them. If they persist feed them to the spam filter and blacklist them. Life is too short for me to even find enough time to reply to all the great comments I receive. I’m not wasting even a second on trolls.
Every time i come here I am not dissapointed, nice post
Thanks. I’m glad to hear that. :)
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