More on the Troll

On both of the forums I'm a regular at, there's been a troll lately. I would never dare to say this to either of them because it's not good to feed the trolls, but they're not bad. One alternates inflammatory posts with posts that masquerade as earnest argument. The other does the same, except instead of earnest arguments, they're content posts about liking certain games.



So, two things.

1.


One is pretty much exclusively ad hominem, while the other occasionally makes it up to contradiction before going down the the next two. The second strategy is more useful, since they can then masquerade as poor or disinterested arguers rather than true trolls.

2. A definition of trolling by Judith Donath:
Trolling is a game about identity deception, albeit one that is played without the consent of most of the players. The troll attempts to pass as a legitimate participant, sharing the group's common interests and concerns; the newsgroups members, if they are cognizant of trolls and other identity deceptions, attempt to both distinguish real from trolling postings, and upon judging a poster a troll, make the offending poster leave the group. Their success at the former depends on how well they — and the troll — understand identity cues; their success at the latter depends on whether the troll's enjoyment is sufficiently diminished or outweighed by the costs imposed by the group.

Trolls can be costly in several ways. A troll can disrupt the discussion on a newsgroup, disseminate bad advice, and damage the feeling of trust in the newsgroup community. Furthermore, in a group that has become sensitized to trolling — where the rate of deception is high — many honestly naïve questions may be quickly rejected as trollings. This can be quite off-putting to the new user who upon venturing a first posting is immediately bombarded with angry accusations. Even if the accusation is unfounded, being branded a troll is quite damaging to one's online reputation.

I can't wait until I teach English 101 again. Seriously, they're writing their own lessons for me.