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Trolling can be as simple as rick rolling someone or telling people that "Alt+F4" will make your game run faster. This is so far past trolling that there shoul

by olympus 11y ago

Trolling can be as simple as rick rolling someone or telling people that "Alt+F4" will make your game run faster. This is so far past trolling that there should be a better descriptor for it. Inciting terrorist activities is criminal, not trolling.

icebraining 11y ago
Trolling is not necessarily harmless - I'd say that parts are still trolling (e.g. the Times of Israel article), while the incitations aren't.
- nicklaf 11y ago
  This is where the definition of 'trolling', as understood in the traditional Usenet sense of the word, diverges from what the media has come to call trolling. In The Times of Israel article, he was impersonating somebody in order to generate anger toward the supposed author. Trolling was originally understood to be more specific than simply doing things that the instigator find amusing at the expense of others.
  - icebraining 11y ago
    Fair enough. I called it trolling since it was posting a message (even if in the Times) with the intention of generating an heated argument and flames. It seemed more or less in line with the definitions I remember (mostly from early 2000s websites).
    - nicklaf 11y ago
      To be honest, I actually think you were right after all. I don't think I was justified in saying he impersonated the author in order to trash his reputation, now that I've looked into it a bit more: he created several personas, mostly for the purpose of getting people's goat. It's just that in this case, his persona happened to be a real person. What mostly bothers me is that the media can't seem to tell the difference between trolling, and what in this case was collateral damage that went far beyond trolling. By the way, telling people that pressing "Alt-F4" makes their game run faster would not have originally been considered trolling.
angelbob 11y ago
There's a movement to start calling such things "abuse" rather than "trolling", but I don't see it picking up much steam.
- generic_user 11y ago
  Because almost everyone who conjurs up that moral authority argument is outed as wild eyed twitter troll themselves engaging in harassment.
Joeboy 11y ago
The guy's activities certainly included trolling. From what I've read so far, if ever there was a troll, it's this guy. I guess incitement to violence or personal abuse[1] might be said to be outside the scope of trolling, but even there it's a matter of having crossed a hazy line (admittedly by some distance in this case) rather than the activity being non-trollish in nature. 1) I don't specifically know he directed such abuse towards people who weren't his sockpuppets, but it doesn't seem improbable
deleted 11y ago
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by olympus 11y ago

icebraining 11y ago

Trolling is not necessarily harmless - I'd say that parts are still trolling (e.g. the Times of Israel article), while the incitations aren't.

nicklaf 11y ago
This is where the definition of 'trolling', as understood in the traditional Usenet sense of the word, diverges from what the media has come to call trolling. In The Times of Israel article, he was impersonating somebody in order to generate anger toward the supposed author. Trolling was originally understood to be more specific than simply doing things that the instigator find amusing at the expense of others.
- icebraining 11y ago
  Fair enough. I called it trolling since it was posting a message (even if in the Times) with the intention of generating an heated argument and flames. It seemed more or less in line with the definitions I remember (mostly from early 2000s websites).
  - nicklaf 11y ago
    To be honest, I actually think you were right after all. I don't think I was justified in saying he impersonated the author in order to trash his reputation, now that I've looked into it a bit more: he created several personas, mostly for the purpose of getting people's goat. It's just that in this case, his persona happened to be a real person. What mostly bothers me is that the media can't seem to tell the difference between trolling, and what in this case was collateral damage that went far beyond trolling. By the way, telling people that pressing "Alt-F4" makes their game run faster would not have originally been considered trolling.

angelbob 11y ago

There's a movement to start calling such things "abuse" rather than "trolling", but I don't see it picking up much steam.

generic_user 11y ago
Because almost everyone who conjurs up that moral authority argument is outed as wild eyed twitter troll themselves engaging in harassment.

Joeboy 11y ago

The guy's activities certainly included trolling. From what I've read so far, if ever there was a troll, it's this guy. I guess incitement to violence or personal abuse[1] might be said to be outside the scope of trolling, but even there it's a matter of having crossed a hazy line (admittedly by some distance in this case) rather than the activity being non-trollish in nature. 1) I don't specifically know he directed such abuse towards people who weren't his sockpuppets, but it doesn't seem improbable

deleted 11y ago

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