Well it's been certainly an interesting week. The Daily Telegraph launched a campaign on Monday to take on the faceless twitter-trolls that plague our precious Internet. It was all a pretty sensationalist beat-up, and a pretty brainless one at that, but it did get me thinking about the evolution of the term 'troll.'
Once only a concept only a hardened Internet-geek would understand, trolls in all their various forms have now emerged from the Usenet groups, the forums, and the chat rooms, and entered the very new and very public world of social media.
What was once a very calculated move by a person to slowly but surely infuriate whoever they were interacting with, the term 'trolling' has now been extended to mean any kind of negative or inflammatory remark made on the Internet, usually made by an anonymous screen name. With the rise in Web 2.0 the amount of these kinds of comments and posts exploded exponentionally.
The question I have to ask is, is anyone not used to this shit by now?
I mean, I know people say some pretty god-awful stuff online sometimes. I play DotA and HoN, online videogames that require intense teamwork and precision between a team of five players. Often these guys are strangers, and as they literally know nothing about the person they are playing with/against, there is no real social ettiquette in how to treat them. So needless to say, the trolls are often out in force. When a microphone headset and high-speed play is involved, you hear a lot of rage. The players rub it in each others faces when they are winning, and rage and insult their team when they are losing. The angrier they get, the funnier it is for the other team.
The stuff that comes out of some peoples mouths in that game is scary. I fucked your mother, I hope you get cancer. That kinda jazz. Pretty awful stuff. However, I bet most of you read that and weren't "offended". And you know why? Because... you've probably seen stuff like that on the Internet already. A lot. Twitter, facebook, WoW, news website comment sections, YouTube comments sections... everywhere. It's kind of desensitising.
But yet, people are still getting trolled. On a daily basis. The Internet-lingo for being angry and upset by the comments of another user is 'butthurt', and it is immediately directed at anyone who obviously does not possess enough testicular fortitude to simply laugh off any and all trolls and their insults, no matter how deeply their words cut to the core.
There's no twitter campaign that's going to stop trolls, you idiots. They are trolls. They probably aren't always trolls, but every now and then as they move about their daily lives, you will see someone post something inflammatory. Here's what you do: IGNORE IT.
That's right, ignore the troll. IGNORE IT. YOU IDIOT. DON'T FEED THE TROLL, IF YOU WERE RAISED BY THE INTERNET LIKE I WAS, YOU WOULD KNOW THIS ONE SIMPLE TRUTH.
Trolls thrive on attention. Think of them as vampires who feed on butthurt, not blood. Ignoring them serves TWO simple functions. One, you get to take the high road and go on your merry way. Also, they get no response, and become bored because they have not rustled anyone's jimmies. They move on. TROLL SORTED. No need for banning, no need to start a flame war (you'll lose, they need no logic). Just ignore them.
But no. There's always some stupid twonk who decides they have to fight for truth and justice on the internet. They have to correct this person and prove their superiority to them. So they start a fight in the comment box and give everyone a terribly not-worth-it piece of reading material, just because they didn't know not to feed the troll.
I think the Daily Telegraph should start a campaign against these guys. The Troll Enablers. Not the trolls themselves. You'll never catch those cheeky fuckers.
Anyway, feel free to attempt to troll me in the comments, as usual.
Peace,
Willskis
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