Weird Question - What Are "trolls" ?

[The Albatross]

"Trolling" is hardly a scientific term.

 

[whserenitynluv]

A science view,

Trolls – call them Internet trolls, if you like – are distant behavioural kin toPlasmodium falciparum, a protozoan parasite that causes malaria in large numbers of human beings. Both kinds of parasite are maddeningly difficult to suppress. They manage, again and again, to return after we thought we’d seen the last of them. Each can, if left untreated, cause agony or worse.

These trolls infect any place where people gather electronically to converse by writing comments to each other. Trolls creep into and crop up anywhere they can, wheedling for attention in chat rooms, listservs, twitter streams, blogs, and as you may have noticed, in the comments section of online news articles.

One of the many annoying things about Internet trolls is that it’s difficult to define precisely, with academic rigour, what they do. Claire Hardaker, a lecturer at University of Central Lancashire’s department of linguistics and English language, took up the challenge. Her study called ‘Trolling in Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication’ is published somewhat counter-intuitively in the Journal of Politeness Research.

Hardaker presented an early form of the paper to a mostly troll-free audience at the Linguistic Impoliteness and Rudeness conference held at her university in 2009.

After much research and hard work, Hardaker came up with a working definition. A troll is someone 'who constructs the identity of sincerely wishing to be part of the group in question, including professing, or conveying pseudo-sincere intentions, but whose real intention(s) is/are to cause disruption and/or to trigger or exacerbate conflict for the purposes of their own amusement'.

She arrived at this after much trolling (in a very different sense of that word) through data. Lots of data. A '172-million-word corpus of unmoderated, asynchronous computer-mediated communication', a nine-year collection of commentary in an online discussion group about horseback riding. She focused in on the huge number of passages where people mentioned trolls, trolling, trolled, trollish, trolldom, and other variations on the key word ‘troll’.

Distilling the wisdom of the horse-talk crowd, Hardaker set up this handy guide to interacting with trolls: 'Trolling can (1) be frustrated if users correctly interpret an intent to troll, but are not provoked into responding, (2) bethwarted, if users correctly interpret an intent to troll, but counter in such a way as to curtail or neutralize the success of the troller, (3) fail, if users do not correctly interpret an intent to troll and are not provoked by the troller, or, (4)succeed, if users are deceived into believing the troller’s pseudo-intention(s), and are provoked into responding sincerely. Finally, users can mock troll. That is, they may undertake what appears to be trolling with the aim of enhancing or increasing affect, or group cohesion.

Any comments?

Hardaker, Claire (2010). ‘Trolling in Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication: From User Discussions To Academic Definitions.’ Journal of Politeness Research 6 (2): 215–42.

 

[whserenitynluv]

@The Albatross it wasn't created scientifically but maybe it has become a scientific term, because of the way over used dynamic and diagnosis, sometimes damaging that people try to give it

 

[The Albatross]

As you wish/prefer... as you are not the initial poster your comment is as valid as my own.

 

[whserenitynluv]

Lol I see that now, doh! :D

 

[TonyG]

As far as game play goes I disagree as I am a gamer and have been for the last 35 years, Trolls ruin games there's no hero villan involved, most games involve you and a opponent both on a equal playing field trying to beat eachother, Trolls on the other hand are a third party mind bent on ruining your game play, they are hated for there interference in game play and in most cases both competing teams will turn there attention to the troll,
Example 1.
If I was playing a car racing and qualifying for poll position the troll would be going around the track the wrong way and take me out, there's no fun in that, But they seem to get enjoyment from you pain,
Example 2.
Playing BlackOps2 search and destroy two teams, one team has to plant the bomb the other has to defuse it, team one plant and team one with a troll being the last man standing defuses with 30 seconds remaining and drops the Bomb so you loose,

Trolls are not part of the game as a player

 

[whserenitynluv]

Tony that makes so much sense it's kinda like the guy looking at your girl across the room winking at her while you slow dance, then repeatedly asks to interrupt . And enjoys asking with no regard of what the moment brought for you two, sound like my ex actually...no names but oh ,an

 

[Changing4Best]

A different kind of troll: These were dolls that I used to play with as a kid. They were thought to look ugly, but I thought they were cute and so I bought many of them and had them play together. They are short, have soft colorful hair, wide pug noses and they are smiling. There was even a company that made cloths for them! I still have some of them now. Usually if you do find them for sale, they will be in Thrift Stores or yard sales, etc.

I'm relating them to this thread by noting that they did not match or come close to any other doll that one might have had as a child. They were also considered ugly, which is what modern day trolls' activity is considered to be these days. I am in my 60s, so you can imagine how long ago they were created and also popular in certain groups of children.

 

[whserenitynluv]

Lol@sheila awesome I expression