alt title(s): Troller; Social Experiment
"Problem, Moderators?"
You see the happy people's biggest problem is
They're never fearing the worst
While the rest of us will never sleep until
Your happy bubbles are burst.
Barenaked Ladies, "Angry People"
Try to post a comment on youtube that is [a] so stupid and offensive that it cannot be taken seriously
and [b] immediately recognised as a parody of youtube comments. You will fail.
For an article about mythological trolls, see All Trolls Are Different.
All tropers are complete losers with no friends.
A malcontent that deceptively posts a message or messages specifically designed to enrage and infuriate as many people on a given forum as possible. Truly talented trolls may even enter the realm of
Stealth Parody.
A case-in-point of the
GIFT, the troll delights in
sowing chaos; he is enamored by the thought that he can set off total strangers and derail entire forum topics by posting one simple message. At the same time, anonymity shields him from the uncomfortable realization that total strangers are currently fantasizing about his brutal and painful death.
The easiest way for a troll to set off an argument is to find a forum devoted to a specific point-of-view — fandom, hobbyists, politics, what have you — and post something inflamatory and profane holding an opposite viewpoint. An experienced troll makes sure to hit as many buttons as possible in a single post, making sure that others on the forum spend an equal amount of time responding to and refuting each point. I.E., on a fan forum for "X", a beginning troll may simply post "X Sucks", while an experienced troll may post a long essay on
why "X Sucks" (usually full of lies and mischaracterizations, but using the truth makes it all the more frustrating for the regulars,) and a very experienced troll will even use
Sock Puppets to anger
both sides of an argument at once. Troll messages are often characterized by poor grammar, poor punctuation, excessive use of net slang and CAPS. Whether this is real illiteracy or an additional attempt to garner a response depends on the individual.
In the world of fan fiction, an author who intentionally posts a story that is stupid, badly spelled, or otherwise insincere is also referred to as a “troll” (as are the stories in question themselves.) The goal of such trolls seems to be to either laugh at the
people who like their fic, because they're obviously
stupid, or to laugh at the possibly self-righteous criticism they receive from more “serious” fic writers. See
Troll Fic.
The recommended path for a responsible netizen when confronted with a troll is to ignore him. Replying to a troll is referred to as “feeding” him, and may earn the admonishment of one's peers. Most forums have rules for dealing with trolls, but there is little that can be done to shut one out without setting up significant barriers to new members, so they still trickle in.
Also note that a genuine troll doesn't need to be announced as such. One fallacious use of the term "troll" is to mean "somebody I disagree with". When you see somebody declare their opposition a troll during a debate (especially if it's later in the debate or it's against an established member of the community), it's an
Ad Hominem attack as a desperate ploy to win. In most civilized communities, it is similar to
Godwin's Law in its ability to automatically derail the argument and destroy the respectability of the invoker.
This is a close cousin to the
Wiki Vandal, and sometimes another facet of the
Single Issue Wonk. May be the same people, for all we know. Contrast with the
Internet (not so) Tough Guy: the troll does not go beyond insults, the Internet Tough Guy will add threats, and sometimes (albeit rarely) acts.
One may think that the term “Trolling” comes from the way that people verb every noun they can get their metaphorical hands on, but it's actually the other way around: The (by now, mostly forgotten) origin of the term “Trolling” comes from the phrase "trolling for
suckers," a reference to trolling as a technique in fishing, where a baited hook is slowly drawn through the water rather than simply being cast and allowed to stay in one place — the idea being that the troll drags his bait through the group without staying around himself. The use of the term "troll" as a noun, and the attachment of mythical beastly
trolls to the concept are all more recent additions.
Interestingly, other forums may take a different tack to dealing with Trolls.
Certain forums cannot simply remove the trolls, as they consist of a large portion of their userbase. Instead, they defuse trolling with critical analysis of the trolls in question. Certain trolls may even earn renown for consistently posting high-grade trolls.
Note that if what somebody says is truly their honest opinion, no matter how dumb or
incomprehensible, they are not a troll.
They may still be idiots.
Trolls are a form of griefer.
Griefer as a specific term often refers to a person who trolls people in online video games by interfering with play and doing everything they possibly can to ruin the fun of other people trying to play the game normally (
or stupidly.)
Pictured at the top of the page is Trollface, created by Whynne in this comic explaining trolling better than any in recent history.
[1]
He has since become the symbol of trolling on most of the internet.
Examples
Anime & Manga
- Cromartie High School had an episode about a gang leader that administrates a web forum and is incredibly polite. After running into a Troll, he restrains himself. However, the troll later bumps into him in person, and is kicked to the ground by the gang leader without either knowing who the other really is.
- Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has Meru Otonashi, who (true to her name) is extremely shy around others, and only communicates through text messages... pretty much all of which consist entirely of outrageous slander of the recipient. And don't even think about taking her phone away, because she has extras.
- And don't bother waiting for the battery to die. She has extras. Many extras.
- And if she loses reception, the results may make you wish she'd just kept trolling instead.
- Beatrice in Umineko No Naku Koro Ni. Oh, let me count the ways...
- The fact that one of her in-game facial expressions so closely resembles the infamous Trollface meme only furthers the connection.
- Lambdadelta and Bernkastel, too. There's a reason she's called "Trollkastel" by the fandom. . .
Film
- In Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, the plot is kicked off by the duo's reaction to trolls on a movie review site. The movie also ends with them flying to each troll's house and beating the ever loving hell out of them.
- In Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen goes around America as a Funny Foreigner trolling people in the name of Kazakhstan to show how big of dicks some people can be.
- Same thing with his other film, Bruno. Just replace Kazakhstan with fashion.
- This Troper has actually encountered a Troll whose name is Borat. This Troll even goes so far as to speak and act as the character (for example: he says that women shouldn't be allowed to drive).
Literature
- In Ender's Game, Peter and Valentine troll message boards in order to learn from the angry responses.
Live Action TV
- Andy Kaufman
- Kaitou from Kamen Rider Decade is a mild example in that he only purposely trolls one particular person, but everytime he's onscreen with Tsukasa, he takes the opportunity to mess with him and try to ruin his plans, complete with a grin on his face. As the show continues, he eventually becomes a bit more friendly, but then in the finale, after tearful confessions of camaraderie, he beautifully comes full circle when he unexpectedly shoots Tsukasa in the face for a season-ending cliffhanger.
Video Games
- In The Sims 3, Sims with certain traits, evil most notably, can troll forums, and derive fun from doing so.
Webcomics
