Trolling is like playing chess – there is a point to the game, and that point is
to win. Unlike chess, though, there are various ways of winning for the internet
troll. These might include:
- gaining credence for false and invidious ideas
- driving bona fide list members, and/or particular groups, out of the mailing
list- dominating the list with messages/posts that they have generated
- gaining recognition or an award for their trolling from fellow trollers
- getting reprimanded by individuals, list managers or internet authorities
- gaining the confidence, trust and support of bona fide list members
- distracting list members from their own bona fide discussions or objectives.
- gaining attention that they cannot get using their real personalities
Sometimes trolls operate alone, and sometimes they operate in groups,
but for all of them trolling is a game.
—Beware the Troll (Team Technology)
One of my first experiences with Usenet involved being baited by a troll. I had just written a paper on some subject that was being discussed on a group, and I posted a general inquiry asking whether it would be appropriate to post a paper of X length on the site. I was probably too timid about mentioning the length, because a troll replied with, “sure,” and then promptly attacked me for posting “lengthy bullshit.” I was very new to newsgroup culture, and it was years before I realized I had been trolled.
I first started teaching with this handout in 1999 and posted it on my blog…
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. @thepublicpgh
[A] popular type of generative AI model can provide turn-by-turn driving directions in New York City…
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That's interesting. Thanks for the explanation. Obviously I'm only marginally part of online culture, and not even for that long. I don't remember for sure--and the article isn't online anymore--but I think it was the police who officially started calling these people trolls. They probably used the term in order to get some attention for the issue--give it a new name and it becomes a new category and stops being the same old thing, something like that.
Katja, the term has been around since the 80s (and possibly before then). If you've heard the term applied to offline culture it's probably just because more people have been exposed to it. While a troll does prey on gaining a victim's confidence and then exploiting it, much like the con artist who wants money, I think "parking troll" is misapplying the term. An online troll isn't trying to steal money; he/she is simply hoping to be amused by upsetting a community and getting people angry. But the offline world defines "hacker" very differently than the online culture that invented the term. (A "hacker" is a skilled programmer who may perhaps be prone to mischief; one who hacks maliciously is a "cracker".)
Hmm, I'd never heard of this kind of trolling before. I wonder why it's becoming so popular, the term I mean. I few weeks ago I read about something called parking trolls in downtown Vancouver. Panhandlers, essentially, who try to extort money from people by threatening to damage their car while they're away. Or who come up with a fictitious story--how they urgently need money for a cab ride to follow their wife to the hospital, something like that--in order to get some money. This latter version seems quite close to web trolling. People responded to that news story by saying these people shouldn't be given a fairy tale name, but instead be called by the criminal vocabulary we already have. So . . . I wonder, why do we suddenly like the word "trolling" so much? (Or maybe it's not suddenly, and I've just not been paying attention?)
This is completely the wrong category, but I thought you might be interested in this link. NASA's doing another space project.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/01/0129_040129_deepimpact.html#main
I'm not very good with the various forms of internet communication. Long ago I participated heavily in sf fanzines, many of which were very like usenet-by-mail with people contributing to letter columns full of discussions. However, although letter writers to a zine could have been scattered over the world, some attended conventions, traveled, lived near to one another, so usually, everyone was known to someone, everyone could be "vouched" for by someone else. Even so there were a few succesful invented personalties - not troll-like- just good humored hoaxes. But I'm not used to the total anonymity that prevails in cyberspace and tend to be on my guard.
mmmeh. I've been accused of being a troll more than once. I wasn't, I just had a point that strongly disagreed with the topic I was commenting on. It's amazing how quickly any time you say anything controversial people jump to call you a "troll". They get more elaborate these days. Say anything good about Microsoft on slashdot, and watch people accuse you of being a Microsoft employee.