No. Some people enjoy simply wasting other people's time.
Indeed. As a moderator on a fairly active IRC channel (on Rizon!), I've seen my fair share of trolling. I remember an instance a few months ago where the room was engaged in trying to persuade a naive person to some viewpoint, gradually growing increasingly frustrated at his lack of acceptance of any points. Then, after a good 20 minutes, he said something to the effect of "Gotcha! I agree with you, but was just trolling.".
In my experience, the most effective method is to mute a troll before they have a chance to stir anyone up. Unmute them a few hours later to give them another chance to participate.
It also fails to recognize that being an asshole is accepted in many online communities. In part this is because the author treats flaming and trolling as if they were the same thing and implies that they are caused by clinical depression, none of which is the case.
Absolutely. The advice given in the article is great for when you genuinely have a disagreement with someone but maybe less so for when someone is deliberately being a dick about it. For example, I wonder how this approach would work with someone who is trying to wind up fans of a rival sports team.
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[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 25.7 ms ] threadA number of near-trolls are also sincere contributors, but are just incapable of responding to social cues or accepting group consensus.
Indeed. As a moderator on a fairly active IRC channel (on Rizon!), I've seen my fair share of trolling. I remember an instance a few months ago where the room was engaged in trying to persuade a naive person to some viewpoint, gradually growing increasingly frustrated at his lack of acceptance of any points. Then, after a good 20 minutes, he said something to the effect of "Gotcha! I agree with you, but was just trolling.".
In my experience, the most effective method is to mute a troll before they have a chance to stir anyone up. Unmute them a few hours later to give them another chance to participate.