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Anonymous Asks

Anonymous Asks

Come ask questions and give answers anonymously!

9354 members
Posted byAnonAttributeChristinain/anonymous_asks-Feb 21 at 11:28 AM

If you ever were one, why did you stop being an online troll and how do you feel about trolling culture today?

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Comments31
  • AnonWiresRobFeb 21 at 2:14 PM

    By the original definition? I grew up. Less flippantly, there really is no challenge to it. Say things, people tend to believe you mean it. The inherently skeptical internet of the 80s and early 90s is dead.

    The premise of a successful troll is causing disruption by announcing positions you don't really hold without being detected as a troll and being able to walk away while unwitting proxies argue for you, draining the community of energy. Given today's online discourse and complete lack of decorum, trolling no longer has a framework to operate in. Literally anyone can do it.

    How do I feel about trolls today? I roll my eyes and mouth the words "grow up".

    I still perform disruptive online behavior. When I'm gaming online and someone drops an n-bomb, I don't bother explaining it any more. I just casually drop pejoratives for white people in the same manner. My favorites are from the Reconstruction era, but sometimes it takes people a while to catch on until I drop something really obvious. I don't think this is trolling in the classical sense, though.

    People tend to call harassment "trolling" and I think that is a disservice to harassment victims. While original trolling ruins entire communities, harassment targets an individual, often hidden from the community. Admins/moderators should be able to detect and shut down toxic behavior like that (there's a huge body of academic work about it), but rooting out PM/DM harassment is more difficult.

    • AnonAttributeChristinaFeb 21 at 3:02 PM

      Do you think that individuals you consider harassers, might possibly consider themselves just trolls?

      • AnonWiresRobFeb 21 at 4:19 PM

        Certainly. Many people perform actions but don't think of them in the same terms as third parties might, and it often justifies or normalizes their action. There's a common idea that the internet is infested with trolls that normalizes certain harassing behaviors as trolling. The idea of a troll as a "joke" or ultimately meaningless/harmless plays into this as well. The idea that the internet is not "real". There are also ideas about "free speech".

        Is someone really trolling when they facetiously threaten to rape someone in a private message? I don't think threats are trolls any more, but these people might. Someone is edgy, calling you slurs in private messages? Some people view the internet in a completely different way. What's the term for a troll that does all of this in "real" life? There isn't one because they're recognized as anti-social behaviors and are opposed by other mechanisms.

      • AnonAttributeChristinaFeb 21 at 4:30 PM

        Thanks. If you want to talk further, feel free to reach out: alex@starfishmediagroup.com.

        Currently I am researching a documentary on cyber hate and would really appreciate getting your perspective noted (even though there is no obligation to speak outside of speaking on background). Let me know. If you prefer to remain purely through Imzy, no worries. Thanks again,

  • AnonCommunicationsBennieFeb 21 at 12:58 PM

    Also, was it trolling when a guy was hitting on me in dms and I kept sending him memes in response? Like that time he clearly deserved it, just wondering.

  • AnonRakeDevinFeb 21 at 4:00 PM

    I think trolling these days has no nuance or real skill involved. It's just, nihilism or something.

    • AnonAttributeChristinaFeb 21 at 4:25 PM

      So have you stopped trolling (presuming that you did) or are the other people trolling around you just being nihilistic, and now you are an outlier?

      • AnonRakeDevinFeb 21 at 4:41 PM

        I occasionally will still "troll the trolls" so to speak. I never really did any trolling with intent to cause harm, which seems to be what a lot of it is these days. Or just nihilistic "nothing matters, lets make people miserable for the lulz" type shit.

      • AnonAttributeChristinaFeb 21 at 4:50 PM

        If you are open to it -- and no worries if you are not -- I am researching cyber culture, and would greatly appreciate your perspective further (though to be clear, this is background research). If so, if you pop over to my profile, you can grab my email: https://www.imzy.com/@SocialAnthropologist.

      • AnonRakeDevinFeb 21 at 4:58 PM

        I'm all set, but you might be interested in this piece I recently was reading.

  • AnonLiningVivianaFeb 21 at 12:29 PM

    I was the overly gay troll. I wasn't about like picking or bullying others. Just shoving my gayness in their face because it made my school yak people so uncomfortable. We could talk about heterosexual bullshit all day long, but the minute anyone would mention any kind of queerness, they would lose their minds. Yes, I'm in the Deep South. The gulf coast is my entire state's coast.

    • AnonAttributeChristinaFeb 21 at 1:28 PM

      Thank you. So the trolling was just on the yak app, and therefore only really trolling people in that you generally knew in your proximity? Also, I'm going with MS as a guess.

      • AnonLiningVivianaFeb 21 at 1:36 PM

        It was only on the yak app, correct. And yes! It was the area around campus. I forgot to mention why I stopped: I got bored of the app. That's the only reason I stopped. I got tired and they introduced DM's and such. I was being harassed and also encountered a pedo. I told him I was 16 and he didn't seem to care. As for trolling now, I find it the same as back then. You shouldn't be an asshole to people. Treat the people you interact on the internet as the same as you do in person. I act overly gay in person too, but it's a joke all my queer friends are in on. I find trolling to be more dangerous now because it's sending a hateful message across that normalizes terrible opinions and gives hateful groups a voice. That's probably why there is a rise in neonazism and what not. I find the type of trolling I did was harmless. Correct me if I'm wrong though. I'm from Louisiana :]

  • AnonDoorsJacobFeb 21 at 12:41 PMΔ

    Sorry, haven't been an online troll, but studied trolls closely & interacted with some. (Often to get rid of them. But also respected them quite often, compared to the enablers who professed to hate them but de facto supported them. Some trolls cared to do a good job.)

    And a lot of it helped for workplace organizing. Because bosses use troll tactics. For fun & profit. :P

    (Might've even used trollish tactics directly against bosses, if I think about it, dunno...)

    Here's some thoughts on online troll culture. I believe it's a shadow of a far larger troll society. And it intersects with fields like magic.

  • AnonLeadVernonMar 07 at 9:42 AM

    I think everybody is someone's troll... some people are more than other but in a way we all are i think.

  • AnonCommunicationsBennieFeb 21 at 12:11 PM

    I don't think I ever did enough to be defined as a troll, but I would occasionally troll people. Usually when they were already being ridiculous. The example I'm thinking of is a particular song that a lot of people interpreted with certainty as being about a specific person based on the scantest of evidence. I just typed up a big long comment using the same kind of reasoning to tell the story of that singer's entire life through the songs. Some people believed my nonsensical claims. I did that because it's fun to be sarcastic and it can be fun to laugh at dumb people. I'm trying to be nicer now because I've realized the importance of being a positive influence, and that I can't excuse being sarcastic in a mean way as out of character for me, because for the people I'm mocking it doesn't matter that I can also be nice. I don't like it when people who don't know me pop up and start bugging me so I don't do that to others anymore.

    • AnonAttributeChristinaFeb 21 at 12:27 PM

      Thanks for the response, I really appreciate it. My account is SocialAnthropologist if you were open to discussing this more fully. If not, no worries. Best.

      • AnonDoorsJacobFeb 21 at 12:43 PM

        Biella Coleman, is that you? ;)

      • AnonCommunicationsBennieFeb 21 at 12:57 PM

        Would it be trolling to give a dishonest answer?

      • AnonDoorsJacobFeb 21 at 1:18 PM

        Yep, and that'd be cool!

      • AnonAttributeChristinaFeb 21 at 1:29 PM

        Well do you think that trolling is based off of motive of the individual (to inflame or elicit a negative reaction) or just to be honest in responding to a question?

      • AnonCommunicationsBennieFeb 21 at 2:25 PM

        Do you mean "just to be DIShonest in responding to a question"? I kind of think of trolling in terms of "messing with people", particularly by stating things you know to be false or opinions you don't hold. For example someone joining a One Direction fan community and saying Zayn Malik was responsible for 9/11, just to upset or trick the fans. If I pretended to be someone other than myself that could perhaps be trolling. But if there's a more technical definition you're asking about I'd love to hear it.

      • AnonAttributeChristinaFeb 21 at 3:00 PM

        There are research/academic definitions of trolling, but as I'm researching, I think it is best to hear from people who have either identified or been themselves a troll, or 'trolled'. Presumably trolling is across a spectrum both in terms of target--an individual vs. a forum--and a level of contempt for the individual--just to cause a stir vs. actual enmity/racism/sexism/etc. Of course, I could be wrong or have a separate opinion than you all.

  • AnonCryEstebanFeb 21 at 7:28 PM

    Folks now say I was a troll. I called myself a flamequeen. I never posted untruths to make folks angry. I never argued something I didn't believe. I just annoyed sexist and racist men. Usually of the religious variety, since I got my start in Holysmoke, the FidoNet food fight echo. I was given "honorary flame retardant underwear". I had men tell my husband to control me. . to which he replied, "YOU try to control her." I graduated to Usenet where I enraged global warming "scientists" by pointing out the 1) this has happened before, so human impact is NOT the only thing going on (unthinkable and outrageous to say at the time), and 2) we should be adapting, because STOPPING climate change was NOT gonna happen. I am proud of thinking folks that 20 years later some of them are catching on.

    I just like to stir stuff up. Posting the Lincoln was a Republican in a Dem forum when someone quoted him. Demanding folks use the proper definition of words . . . my current fight has been to get folks to stop using "pedophilia" when they mean Hebephilia or Ephebophilia. It is a HUGE difference. My step father was a pedophile. Some guy who says he likes 15 yo ISN'T.

    If you know me in real life, I am pretty much the same, although I temper my arguments so as to not hurt feelings. I hate people being upset in my meatspace. But online, if you are an asshole to me and I don't outright block you, I will take your ass down. You will be crying in the corner, licking your wounds. Hehe Just your average middle aged grandma, trying to take over the world . . .of Warcraft.

  • AnonReligionsFinlayFeb 21 at 3:06 PM

    Still a troll, but not as much. The trump election has been my busiest year. I seriously cannot stop trolling people because it would be a disservice to intelligent people everywhere. I purposely spread fake news on twitter so people can use it as propaganda to spread their hate speech or use of freedom of speech to limit/stop the freedom of speech of others.

    So nearly on a week basis I have to point out the fallacies of alt-right groups, extremists, and hypocritical liberals until they either crumble under the weight of logic or are too ashamed and might think about reconsidering what they think or at least shut up about it.

    I don't do it for the pure enjoyment as I once did, but this is what I can do in my minute form of bringing about change through online logical face bashing instead of the real life game of punch a nazi or trigger a liberal.

    • AnonAttributeChristinaFeb 21 at 3:10 PM

      Feel free to toss me a message: https://www.imzy.com/@SocialAnthropologist

      • AnonReligionsFinlayFeb 21 at 3:14 PM

        Ah I can't find a way to toss a message. But about what might I ask?

      • AnonAttributeChristinaFeb 21 at 3:22 PM

        I'm doing documentary research on cyber trolling (hence the thread) and would appreciate getting your perspective without necessarily flooding this conversation, or more or less streamlining ours. I tossed my email into my profile if you would care to chat. (Also, there is obviously no obligation to participate in the documentary, this is more or less to pick your brain and get a firmer understanding of troll culture).

      • AnonReligionsFinlayFeb 21 at 3:27 PM

        Sent.

      • AnonReligionsFinlayFeb 21 at 10:17 PM

        If you sent to the questions can you send them again please. because I am really interested in helping you shine a light on the troll community and culture.

      • AnonReligionsFinlayFeb 22 at 2:10 PM

        Alright had to change emails. Sent you a new email address to reach me at.

Anonymous Asks

Anonymous Asks

Come ask questions and give answers anonymously!

9354 members
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