An analysis of Internet trolling and why they do it | Hacker News Reader

An analysis of Internet trolling and why they do it

thepinchandzoom.com

Years ago, I was seriously involved in trolling, here's why: some people behaved in ways that I found painful, and I wanted to be as ugly to them as they were to me.

Someone actually beat another person in the face over who would get to buy Tickle Me Elmo or the latest Harry Potter book? I found stuff like that really disgusting, and I wanted them to feel disgusted, too. I wanted them to think about how disgusting they were.

Over the years, as I got a little better control over my mind and feelings, I stopped behaving like that. I realize now that my behavior was not constructive, and I'm sorry. But I couldn't just know what was at the end of that road without walking it.

I think I'm extremely un-sadistic. If anything, I'm unusually empathetic. And I don't enjoy, much less need, attention. If anything, I'm unusually motivated by my internal self-assessment. I know from times when other members of the troll gang I was in would break character that I'm not the only (former) troll of this type.

There seems to be an idea flying around lately that trolling is just a safe, cowardly way of being sadistic, but I find that really simplistic. In some cases trolling seems closer to a weird kind of performance art by people with surplus brain cycles, motivation, initiative, and creativity.

I like your "performance art" comparison.

The other day, a user posted a topic in a sub-forum I follow. I cited the sub-forum's criteria and recommended posting elsewhere. The admins agreed, killing the post. The user responded with floral appreciation for the admins stewardship and bowed out.

Detecting something was off, I checked the user's post-history. I discovered he'd pivoted into this elaborate troll routine, crafting well-made Photoshopped summary screenshots, baiting the admins into commenting, then parsing and sub-parsing their comments with disregard for truth, all the while he cross-posted his progress with a "counter-culture" sub-forum to get their approval.

It struck me as a lonely exercise for him, however, it seemed like he was seeking an outlet for his creativity. Looking back, it's almost as if what happened didn't even matter, he could/would run the same routine.

Flaming is often a creative exercise because it can mean writing with full consciousness of its effect on the audience. A lot of flaming behavior is generated in an effort to create interesting discussions in the midst of cliche or superficial analysis. In many communities flame wars are some of the most interesting content and that's why it becomes an acceptable pattern.

One of the things I love about HN is that there are so many Really Fucking Smart People® with something interesting to say that flaming [along with inside jokes] constitutes some of the least interesting content. Indeed HN has even suppressed snark.

You didn't say it explicitly, but I believe trolling does include a strong orientation toward justice and punishment. This isn't incompatible with empathy, but having empathy will change how the troll operates. There are definitely cowardly and sadistic trolls, but that's because Sturgeon's Law applies, 90% of everything is crap, including trolls, being abusive is the only tool in their toolbox. I'm making an assumption here, that some form of trolling is "good", but I'm ok with that. Throughout history some of the best writers trolled the shit out of their ideological opponents for the greater good without being anonymous or sadistic. Jonathan Swift, Sam Clemens, Socrates, etc.

The performance art bit resonates with me. To a large extent, it was a way to play with how to elicit reactions from people. Do something interesting, get social feedback, use that cycle to build models of people.

I think a big part of why trolling appealed to me is simply an appreciation of surreal humor and situations. As an example, secretly installing a bidet in the shared men's restroom. That, to me, is the positive way to behave trollishly - putting people in strange situations and seeing what happens.

As an aside, It seems like the definition of trolling has grown to encompass all manner of uncivil or argumentative behavior online, but it used to be more narrow than that.

The ambiguity of text + the physical separation from others opens the door for all manner of 'bad' behavior, but also for more playful stuff like pranks, practical jokes, and garden variety "teasing". I think the April Fools culture on the web is an outgrowth of this, and from human behavior generally. Another example would be GroupOn's press releases. Or more locally, your friend's fake life announcement on Facebook.

This is all different from people being incendiary and rude for the sake of their own attention or venting needs. It's just regrettable this scales better than someone pretending to argue something stupid as a joke for the amusement of others.

A portion of the reason why trolls exist is for the same reason fighting exists in hockey. It's a valid method of self-policing. There are so many people peddling so many forms of b.s. on the internet, that there has to be a mechanism for calling them on it.

Now, that's the highest form of trolling. Many trolls are just nasty lonely people.

Older study with classifications http://www.flamewarriorsguide.com/

The Great thing about the Flame Warriors is it captures trolling, XKD 386'ing, and many other reasons people write for effect. It captures the idea that people write for sport and that the simplest form is little but gamesmanship.

This is why gamification can work to reduce bad behavior. It encourages people to write within community standards and provides incentives for the community to discuss, publicise and enforce standards. Without gamification, flaming and banning are about the limits of the arsenal against bad behavior.

Thanks for this, great resource - although a little saddening there so many different categories! Updated the original article to include the link.

I didn't expect to like this article, but the author did a good job of describing trolling patterns that were clearly not simply posting opposing views. I also liked this inspirational quote:

If you're out there trying to build, write or draw something, be proud of that - it's not easy. Doing something means actually trying and not wasting your life watching repeats of Friends on Comedy Central, an example that is not at all autobiographical.

FYI, the share icons sit on top of the text on a Nexus 7. Makes reading the article difficult when you can't easily make out the first word or so of every line.

It's something to do when my IBS flares up.

Hmm they should have performed the analysis on the HN posts. We have a series of troll bots - a couple who randomly post recommending Rust and Go as the saviour to any posted problem or query, one bot occasionally posts claiming to know all about IT security, another had a moment of bingo success and then posts job wisdom pearls, a mixed bag really!

Provocative criticism implying conspiracy and unsupported by evidence.

And there is one who always posts the contrary point of view - argues for the sake of it - "no I don't they say". They were quick to respond just now!

Just a professional foul to break up the play.

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