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Comment by cubano | Hacker News Reader

> In (most) other cases, it's because the troll wants to see you get angry.

Do people really do that?

I've been posting to newsgroups for 35 years...I have never once even considered betraying my personal beliefs just to make someone angry.

I guess that's why I struggle so hard with the whole "troll" meme.

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> Do people really do that?

Yes, though true trolling is actually pretty rare. But yes, trolls try to completely disrupt an otherwise functioning forum by keeping a fake "discussion" going.

The most obvious one I know of is Mike Vandeman who has been trolling mountain bikers online since the 90s: http://www.bicycling.com/blogs/thehub/anti-mountain-bike-vig...

I was a professional gamer for a few years. You have peoples entire personas based on the fact they are good at getting people mad. Even happened at real life LANs too.

Yeah, although I wouldn't call that trolling because it's actually a valid tactic to gain advantage in competition.

Getting called a "nigger" and "faggot" roughly 600 times a day only dulls me, doesn't get in my head.

Yeah, and having a gypsy swab my windshield with a muddy rag doesn't clean my car, that doesn't mean car washes are useless.

Oh yes, and then there are the griefers, who just want to make you sad, afraid and/or frustrated.

I do think trolls have gotten an undeservedly bad reputation because of being conflated with griefers. To me, trolling is relatively harmless attention-seeking vs. GamerGate, which is definitely griefing.

Don't forget the contrarians.

You never read alt.fan.warlord?

Some people may really do that, but whenever I see the troll label applied during a forum discussion it's usually because the "troll" is simply not agreeing with the rest of the hive.

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