The new face of Internet trolls

First, we need some definitions, nomenclature. What is a troll?

According to a must-read article in Wikipedia, "a troll is someone who comes into an established community such as an online discussion forum, and posts inflammatory, rude, repetitive or offensive messages designed intentionally to annoy and antagonize the existing members or disrupt the flow of discussion, including the personal attack of calling others trolls."

Not only will trolls begin bizarre threads for the purpose of creating dissention, they will hijack threads not about their favorite topics, take on alternate identities in order to keep flames fanned by pretending to carry on discussion, attack others not in complete agreement, and beg for help in defending themselves from the persecution.

The majority of site members try to reason with trolls or give help, regardless of how increasingly absurd the trolls make their situation appear. Members will fall all over each other to be helpful, and rarely does anyone critically analyze the story of the troll, which would not stand scrutiny.

This is a standard description of an Internet troll, a person who comes to a site for the purpose of raising hell and setting members against each other.

Keep in mind that though the Internet is an anonymous place, trolls often are not anonymous. They may be in a position beyond reproach, like one I observed on several food and wine oriented boards. Because this person was rich, confident, and semi-famous, he got deference from board members, moderators, and owners, then immediately started posting absurd threads and hijacking other threads back to a few favorite topics - topics so absurd on their face that no meaningful discussion really could occur - filled with personal attacks on other board members. The length of time it took to ban this person on a board was in proportion to what I would call the "sucking up quotient" of the board owner. In other words, it took about two years. Since the owner of this particular board was a celebrity ass-licker, the person was not banned until after many members had complained and then left, and many members had chosen sides. The two groups were, of course, "he has a right to speak his mind" and "STFU and go start your own board if you don't like it". There were a great many members banned in the rift, and an overhaul of ongoing moderation standards.

In fact, with improved moderation on many boards, trolls like this are rarely seen.

That's not the kind of troll I want to discuss today. I'm thinking of a somewhat different type of forum troll. This person shows up at a forum where they have a sincere interest, but generally is completely ignorant about the topic. They ask for endless advice in dealing with their situation, revealing in excrutiating detail things that just don't add up. Their endless questions are met, again and again, with flurries of posts from helpful board members who, as always, fall all over themselves in what appears to be a helpfulness competition.

The troll in fact never does seem to take any of the advice given. His situation is surrealistically fluid, impossible to pin down. He endlessly floods the board with "pity" posts: Help me!

If someone is to raise a question about a discrepancy ("You're having trouble thinking? Maybe it was all that dope you told us you smoked yesterday...") other board members immediately rise to the aid of this person, demanding that one and all should provide him with unconditional support in this, his time of need.

Board members who disagree with the troll keep their thoughts to themselves or share them in PMs to avoid being attacked themselves.

Ultimately it appears that it is impossible to determine whether the troll is emotionally unstable or merely a fictional device being used by a malicious interloper.

How does it end? I can't say that I know. One board I belonged to I left over a poster who dominated discussion in this way. The board just got too boring. A year later I happened back to that board and saw that that poster was no longer posting but was still a member in good standing. She bored herself off the board?

I'm currently observing two other situations like this on two very different boards I belong to. Ultimately the situations will resolve themselves, but til then, who knows? I will keep you updated.