Zak's Guide to Trolls

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Zak's Guide to Trolls; how NOT to do it.
Tweet Topic Started: Feb 23 2011, 04:30 PM (636 Views)
Zak	Feb 23 2011, 04:30 PM Post #1
For The Circle Posts: 4,002 Group: D Rank Legend Member #9,748 Joined: February 10, 2009 3DS Friend Code: 1118-0225-4062 Steam ID: zakth686	Urban Dictionary Troll:One who purposely and deliberately (that purpose usually being self-amusement) starts an argument in a manner which attacks others on a forum without in any way listening to the arguments proposed by his or her peers. He will spark of such an argument via the use of ad hominem attacks (i.e. 'you're nothing but a fanboy' is a popular phrase) with no substance or relevance to back them up as well as straw man arguments, which he uses to simply avoid addressing the essence of the issue. That is what a troll is. A troll is NOT: Someone you don't like someone who hates on you or your work someone who annoys you someone who gives constructive criticism in a hateful manner I saw something today. I frequent a webcomic site called Smackjeeves. This site is populated by a diverse group of individuals. Traditional artists, Manga/Anime artists, Digital artists, and an especially large population of spriters. There are Advanced sprites(If any of you know Dregan), Moderate spriters (like myself), but mostly amateur spriters. these "Newbies" are generally also new to the internet and how society works digitally. Now, to get more to the point, what I saw was a comic called an "author comic". This is a collaboration comic where newbies generally go to grow and improve by supporting each other. Sometimes they tend to post "comment comics" that is to say, a comic that is only a screen shot showing a user comment of the comic or another comic. The comment comic I saw in this comic had a title that read "Figures. I'm being trolled again, and I'll be hated throughtout the internet. Yeah, that's how much power Syeed has. " The comic showed syeed's comic, the latest entry of which, was a screen cap of the author comic's banner and an author comment that said "What the hell happened to smackjeeves?" The various members of the author comment then posted comments about how much smarter they were than syeed or how immature he was, or how much of a failtroll he is. This is the exact OPPOSITE of what you should do. 1:What you SHOULD do. You have no doubt heard before the phrase "Don't feed the troll". Everyone seems to know this phrase, and every one seems to know what it means. Yet very few people I see seem to actually follow this procedure. It's like catching fire, if your clothes ignite, you've been told to Stop, drop, and roll. If one day you do accidental catch yourself aflame, what do you do? You don't yell that your on fire, you don't ask why the fire is spreading, and you don't take the time to acknowledge that you are ablaze. You stop what you're doing, drop to the ground, and mother-fracking roll! Too many times have I seen people react to a troll by posting "gtfo troll no one likes you" or "why do you find trolling fun? its so stupid!" or even "guys, hold up, I think this may be a troll." Again, you don't do these things to a fire, so don't do them to a troll. You simply, do not feed the troll. A troll is a person who finds joy in causing arguments. So if you argue, you feed him. If you fight back, you feed him. If you even so much as acknowledge his presence, you feed him. What you do, and I know you've heard this before, is you hit the report button, and move on without saying a word. The above example was a whole comic dedicated to a troll, and from that comic, spawned more comments from the trolled. What they did was give Syeed a troll feast of ignorance and hostility. By fighting back, the troll wins, so don't fight back. 2: How to spot a Troll The internet is full of idiots, but note than some of these idiots are not what they seem. Think of all the stupid people you've ever met. Quite a lot, right? but, think of how many of them would spend time on the internet nearly daily. Trolls seem to be very stupid people, but in reality, it takes a very smart person to be a successful troll. A successful troll can troll people without them even knowing they are being trolled. A good example I can give is Shadow's Quest Adventure. Take a few minutes and try to read the thing. You'll be greeted by over-the top characters, horribly thrown together comics, and flame-wars in every comment section. The author made a story that basically boils down to Shadow likes to kill and is awesome and loves Cream the rabbit and is the best hero ever. The author also took his annoyance one step further by rejecting all criticism as flaming, advertising on others' comics, and insulting annoy other comic while stating his is the best comic ever. All this seems like a very stupid child is behind this. It almost seems to stupid to be true, and in fact, it is. The reality is that Shadowfan, the author of the comic, is a troll. And probably one of the best trolls I've ever seen. he managed to get almost the entire newbie and some of the moderate spriting community to feed him by the hundreds with every comic he threw out. He intentionally made horrid looking pages, he intentionally made horrid dialogue, and he intentionally pissed people off, because he knew they would react like a wildfire! Now not all Trolls are geniuses. if you all recall Shadow-kun, our recently banned member, she was a failtroll. Yes, she had the art of posting things to piss people off and acting stupid down, but she was too obvious. Contrary to popular belief, a troll does not join a forum to see how fast they can bee banned. They actually want to see how far they can take it before the admins catch on tho their plan and shut them down. Shadowfan was so successful he is to this day still an active member, despite numerous reportings. it can be hard at times, but it's important to know how to realize when you are being trolled so that you can stop feeding them. Most of the time, if the person sounds to stupid to be true, they are. 3:Trolling as a hobby Now why do I know so much about trolls? Well, smackjeeves is very abundant in trolls, so after a while you learn their patterns. But the better reason is I am a troll. Not to this community of course, here I always try to be as productive as possible, but know that there are other communities where I have indulged in the art of trolling and caused quite a few flame wars. Trolling is obviously not something that you do all day, so yes, most trolls have separate communities in which they are productive and generally friendly members. But some people, and call use sick, find watching others argue amusing. Trolling can be fun at times, but it's always at the delivering end. I wrote this to help those on the receiving end, because while someone might find it all good fun, trolls can cause stressful ties for some people, and even cause un-deserving members to be banned. In the same way that one might find hunting, or boxing fun, trolling is a hobby in which people take joy in others pain. Just know that there is more to the troll that a crooked smile and squiggly arms.
	"Ati Ramar, In defeat we learn."


Fwiss	Apr 2 2011, 07:57 PM Post #2
Sandopolis Act 1 Posts: 1,567 Group: S Rank Hero Member #9,080 Joined: June 18, 2008 Gender: Male Steam ID: fwiss1174	I like this article. I already knew all this, but I was on the fence between recognizing a troll or ignoring him. Thanks, and I'm glad you informed other members, especially the ones newer to the tubes.
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