Saturday, August 28, 2010

Understanding Trolls

Thank you for enrolling in webinomics 101. Today we will talk about the workings of the internet troll.


Kevin said...

Trolls used to be so much nicer in the old days. All they ever did was eat the odd goat.

You didn't mention the "expert" troll at all, just the abusive troll. These can be so much more annoying as they pop up in discussions leaving what appear to be useful critiques on a subject, but they deliberately throw in "facts" that are either plain wrong, offensive or support some wacked out branch of pseudo-science.

They then sit back and watch people who actually care about the topic leap to the attack (or to defend the ramparts). Then anger dissipates, things get back to normal, then up he/she(?)* pops with another post, perhaps supported by "evidence" or claims of academic brilliance and the whole thing starts again.

* Question: are there any female trolls?

My theory is that they are all male and reproduce asexually by the hitherto unknown biological process of emulation.

J-Dubb said...

Yeah, I alluded to the expert troll when I mentioned avoiding arguing with a troll, but in retrospect I realized I didn't really explain it.

Apparently, rule number 30 of the internet is "there are no girls on the internet."