7 ms·

Online Trolls Just Assholes All the Time, Study Finds

61 points by mmhsieh 5y ago

xupybd 5y ago
It's sad the Troll now means asshole. Ken M [1] style trolling is one of my favorite things on the internet. Even David Thorne's [2] slightly more aggressive Trolling is fantastic. I think we need to separate this from online bullies. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_M https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_M [2] https://27bslash6.com/missy.html https://27bslash6.com/missy.html
- elliekelly 5y ago
  And Fansy the Bard. Sometimes trolls really can make an online community a better place.
- arp242 5y ago
  Trolling is essentially online pranking. There's good-natured "smile, you're on candid camera" pranks, and then there's just being an asshole.
  - bb88 5y ago
    I wouldn't call it "pranking". I would call it a subversive action from a deep sarcastic view. E.g. I'm pretty sure some people might think that "swatting" is a form of trolling.
    - perl4ever 5y ago
      https://thewestlakereview.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/review-help-i-am-being-held-prisoner/ https://thewestlakereview.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/review-he...
    - klyrs 5y ago
      Trolling is a spectrum, people
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - adingus 5y ago
        Trolling is a art
    - me_me_me 5y ago
      "Ken's comments are usually benign, with his comments displaying a complete lack of understanding of the featured topic, while other commenters take him seriously" That was the OG trolling, you were wasting peoples time for laugh while they were educating you about something. Term got hijacked and morphed into causing mental trauma to people. One was harmless prank causing eye rolling, other mental trauma.
- toiletaccount 5y ago
  My personal fav was the guy on craigslist that pretended to be an attractive young woman looking for sex w randos. All 'she' needed was a photo of their drivers license to make sure they weren't creeps/as insurance. This guy tracked down every man's spouse and told them what was up. He was sued (and lost, iirc, after about 100 men were divorced), and ended up being interviewed by the nyt. BUT he picks up the interviewer in a limo with his gf near an abandoned mall or something. he thought trolling was going to change the world, his gf thought he was jesus, there was champagne and it was an all around weird experience for the reporter. They honestly sounded like real live discordians. This is probably getting close to being 15 or 20 years old now, but it was pioneering. Yeah I had a few what of it.
  - moron4hire 5y ago
    That sounds like weev
    - toiletaccount 5y ago
      Thank you, I'm pretty sure this was it. Pure gold.
      - moron4hire 5y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev Just your regular, garden variety rapscallion, right there. Not at all a perfect example of the title thread's point.
  - smt88 5y ago
    It's interesting that, on a thread about how trolling used to be good-natured, you brought up a literal neo-Nazi[1]. So it seems like this study's findings are probably not far from the truth. 1. https://www.newsweek.com/neo-nazi-andrew-weev-auernheimer-daily-stormer-jewish-descent-768805 https://www.newsweek.com/neo-nazi-andrew-weev-auernheimer-da...
    - toiletaccount 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- danwills 5y ago
  Wow! I haven't uncontrollably cried with laughter like that for so long, KenM is my new hero. Thank you so much for the recommendation!
- blondin 5y ago
  you are quite right. i remember a time when seeing the troll emoji meant someone was being pranked and the small communities i was part of enjoyed the laughter. nowadays, i wouldn't bother using that emoji. besides, i don't think it made it to the standard emojis. there is... just something about things becoming popular or going mainstream and turning bad. countless of benign things became harmful once they went mainstream.
- O_H_E 5y ago
  Wow, I had no idea troll carried a similar connotation problem as hacker
  - nieve 5y ago
    It doesn't, we didn't call them trolls on Usenet as a positive thing. The first trolls were still assholes and existed mainly to disrupt conversation and try to start fights between each other. If the height of your personal accomplishments was starting a vicious flamewar you were just a jerk. Hacker on the other hand did not involve the current negative connotations.
    - xupybd 5y ago
      Ah ok, so maybe there is a need of a term for online pranksters.
- spfzero 5y ago
  Thanks for reminding me about David Thorne. Priceless.
- moepstar 5y ago
  Oh wow, that's quite a blast from the past - haven't read David Thornes antics in a while.. Also, it reminded me of http://dontevenreply.com/ http://dontevenreply.com/
  - xupybd 5y ago
    I'm so glad you shared that. It's brilliant.
- moron4hire 5y ago
  Troll always meant asshole. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/7/12/17561768/dont-feed-the-trolls-online-harassment-abuse https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2... The only people who cling to this idea are the ones who need it to excuse their own shitty behavior.
koheripbal 5y ago
> The study found that those who are hostile in political discussions on the internet report to be just as hostile in political discussions face-to-face. They asked people to SELF REPORT if they held the same attitudes offline as online, and of course they all said YES. This is like asking people if they are honest people. This study is worthless.
JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/325699-greater-internet-fuckwad-theory https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/325699-greater-internet-fuck... This theory may be in jeopardy.
France_is_bacon 5y ago
I agree with what others are saying here. I usually give thoughtful responses, but I am for sure can be satirical and can be pretty iron harsh when I think someone is an idiot. I have been called a troll many times, when I know I have not been one. Many others have liked my comments. Unfortunately, there is no studies on humorless assholes. There's that study that shows that 80% of drivers think that they are above average drivers. I think that is the same with humor. Except 97.9% of people think that they have an above average sense of humor. I like what one of the sentence in the wikipedia entry says under "satire". "Common uncomprehending responses to satire include revulsion (accusations of poor taste, or that "it's just not funny" for instance) and the idea that the satirist actually does support the ideas, policies, or people he is attacking." Voltaire wrote the greatest satirical work in Western Civilization - "Candide". Voltaire signed with a pseudonym: "Monsieur le docteur Ralph", or "Doctor Ralph". Candide was in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the Roman Catholic Church's list of prohibited books. Candide's ban lasted into the twentieth century in the United States. For example, Candide was barred from entering America: in February 1929, a US customs official in Boston prevented a number of copies of the book, deemed "obscene". So, I'm SURE that all those stiff humorless assh-les thought Voltaire was a troll and an assh-le. So, really, my take on it is, that I don't give one little sh-t what people think of me, beyond a certain point. If I know I'm not being an assh-le, then that is all that counts to me, and everyone else is wrong, even if it is 95% of reddit, haha.
SixDouble5321 5y ago
Thought this was from The Onion.

61 points by mmhsieh 5y ago

It's sad the Troll now means asshole. Ken M [1] style trolling is one of my favorite things on the internet. Even David Thorne's [2] slightly more aggressive Trolling is fantastic. I think we need to separate this from online bullies. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_M https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_M [2] https://27bslash6.com/missy.html https://27bslash6.com/missy.html

elliekelly 5y ago
And Fansy the Bard. Sometimes trolls really can make an online community a better place.
arp242 5y ago
Trolling is essentially online pranking. There's good-natured "smile, you're on candid camera" pranks, and then there's just being an asshole.
- bb88 5y ago
  I wouldn't call it "pranking". I would call it a subversive action from a deep sarcastic view. E.g. I'm pretty sure some people might think that "swatting" is a form of trolling.
  - perl4ever 5y ago
    https://thewestlakereview.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/review-help-i-am-being-held-prisoner/ https://thewestlakereview.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/review-he...
  - klyrs 5y ago
    Trolling is a spectrum, people
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - adingus 5y ago
      Trolling is a art
  - me_me_me 5y ago
    "Ken's comments are usually benign, with his comments displaying a complete lack of understanding of the featured topic, while other commenters take him seriously" That was the OG trolling, you were wasting peoples time for laugh while they were educating you about something. Term got hijacked and morphed into causing mental trauma to people. One was harmless prank causing eye rolling, other mental trauma.
toiletaccount 5y ago
My personal fav was the guy on craigslist that pretended to be an attractive young woman looking for sex w randos. All 'she' needed was a photo of their drivers license to make sure they weren't creeps/as insurance. This guy tracked down every man's spouse and told them what was up. He was sued (and lost, iirc, after about 100 men were divorced), and ended up being interviewed by the nyt. BUT he picks up the interviewer in a limo with his gf near an abandoned mall or something. he thought trolling was going to change the world, his gf thought he was jesus, there was champagne and it was an all around weird experience for the reporter. They honestly sounded like real live discordians. This is probably getting close to being 15 or 20 years old now, but it was pioneering. Yeah I had a few what of it.
- moron4hire 5y ago
  That sounds like weev
  - toiletaccount 5y ago
    Thank you, I'm pretty sure this was it. Pure gold.
    - moron4hire 5y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev Just your regular, garden variety rapscallion, right there. Not at all a perfect example of the title thread's point.
- smt88 5y ago
  It's interesting that, on a thread about how trolling used to be good-natured, you brought up a literal neo-Nazi[1]. So it seems like this study's findings are probably not far from the truth. 1. https://www.newsweek.com/neo-nazi-andrew-weev-auernheimer-daily-stormer-jewish-descent-768805 https://www.newsweek.com/neo-nazi-andrew-weev-auernheimer-da...
  - toiletaccount 5y ago
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
danwills 5y ago
Wow! I haven't uncontrollably cried with laughter like that for so long, KenM is my new hero. Thank you so much for the recommendation!
blondin 5y ago
you are quite right. i remember a time when seeing the troll emoji meant someone was being pranked and the small communities i was part of enjoyed the laughter. nowadays, i wouldn't bother using that emoji. besides, i don't think it made it to the standard emojis. there is... just something about things becoming popular or going mainstream and turning bad. countless of benign things became harmful once they went mainstream.
O_H_E 5y ago
Wow, I had no idea troll carried a similar connotation problem as hacker
- nieve 5y ago
  It doesn't, we didn't call them trolls on Usenet as a positive thing. The first trolls were still assholes and existed mainly to disrupt conversation and try to start fights between each other. If the height of your personal accomplishments was starting a vicious flamewar you were just a jerk. Hacker on the other hand did not involve the current negative connotations.
  - xupybd 5y ago
    Ah ok, so maybe there is a need of a term for online pranksters.
spfzero 5y ago
Thanks for reminding me about David Thorne. Priceless.
moepstar 5y ago
Oh wow, that's quite a blast from the past - haven't read David Thornes antics in a while.. Also, it reminded me of http://dontevenreply.com/ http://dontevenreply.com/
- xupybd 5y ago
  I'm so glad you shared that. It's brilliant.
moron4hire 5y ago
Troll always meant asshole. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/7/12/17561768/dont-feed-the-trolls-online-harassment-abuse https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2... The only people who cling to this idea are the ones who need it to excuse their own shitty behavior.

koheripbal 5y ago

> The study found that those who are hostile in political discussions on the internet report to be just as hostile in political discussions face-to-face. They asked people to SELF REPORT if they held the same attitudes offline as online, and of course they all said YES. This is like asking people if they are honest people. This study is worthless.

JohnJamesRambo 5y ago

https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/325699-greater-internet-fuckwad-theory https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/325699-greater-internet-fuck... This theory may be in jeopardy.

France_is_bacon 5y ago

I agree with what others are saying here. I usually give thoughtful responses, but I am for sure can be satirical and can be pretty iron harsh when I think someone is an idiot. I have been called a troll many times, when I know I have not been one. Many others have liked my comments. Unfortunately, there is no studies on humorless assholes. There's that study that shows that 80% of drivers think that they are above average drivers. I think that is the same with humor. Except 97.9% of people think that they have an above average sense of humor. I like what one of the sentence in the wikipedia entry says under "satire". "Common uncomprehending responses to satire include revulsion (accusations of poor taste, or that "it's just not funny" for instance) and the idea that the satirist actually does support the ideas, policies, or people he is attacking." Voltaire wrote the greatest satirical work in Western Civilization - "Candide". Voltaire signed with a pseudonym: "Monsieur le docteur Ralph", or "Doctor Ralph". Candide was in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the Roman Catholic Church's list of prohibited books. Candide's ban lasted into the twentieth century in the United States. For example, Candide was barred from entering America: in February 1929, a US customs official in Boston prevented a number of copies of the book, deemed "obscene". So, I'm SURE that all those stiff humorless assh-les thought Voltaire was a troll and an assh-le. So, really, my take on it is, that I don't give one little sh-t what people think of me, beyond a certain point. If I know I'm not being an assh-le, then that is all that counts to me, and everyone else is wrong, even if it is 95% of reddit, haha.

SixDouble5321 5y ago

Thought this was from The Onion.