Pardon me for asking, but in real life, what kind of person *is* a troll?

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You see so many postings on various places, offensive, think they're clever, putting people down to make themselves look smart, all that.

But who are these people? What are they like as actual human beings?

Do I have such a sheltered life that I cannot imagine anyone I come across being like this in private?

Or should this question be deleted before stuff kicks off?

(maybe now is a good time, things are quiet)

― M Grout (Mark Grout), Thursday, 21 December 2006 10:51 (nineteen years ago)

You usually find them at Belle & Sebastian concerts (except me).

― editio princeps (pato.g27), Thursday, 21 December 2006 10:58 (nineteen years ago)

They are sad, twisted individuals incapable of forming lasting relationships and terrified of the outside world.

Or they just think it's funny.

― Fat Lady Wrestler (Modal Fugue), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:13 (nineteen years ago)

People on internet act differently in real life, movie at 11.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

HELL YEAH

― Fat Lady Wrestler (Modal Fugue), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:15 (nineteen years ago)

nude spock was genuinely weird but i don't think that "dom" or "marcello" or "the lex" are too bad.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:15 (nineteen years ago)

What about "enrique"?

― Fat Lady Wrestler (Modal Fugue), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

history will be my judge

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:18 (nineteen years ago)

Troll = LOL

― Fat Lady Wrestler (Modal Fugue), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:18 (nineteen years ago)

enrique is harmless.

unlike some raging assholes.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:19 (nineteen years ago)

Unhealthy levels of this:

http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/TypeEight.asp

I think they're just individuals who have a hard time connecting with other human beings on any genuine level, so feel the need to construct this... exaggerated personna. This, combined with a general lack of empathy for others (unable to see the effects on others of their "bit of fun").

― masonic boom (kate), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:20 (nineteen years ago)

Is raging asshole a medical condition?

lol pop psychology

― Fat Lady Wrestler (Modal Fugue), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:20 (nineteen years ago)

explained with diagrams!

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

bnrq will be my judge.

― teh_kit (g-kit), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

We can't all have your social skills and abilities to form long lasting relationships Kate.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.macquarieinstitute.com.au/expert/EXPManual&CD.jpg

― Fat Lady Wrestler (Modal Fugue), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:22 (nineteen years ago)

People on internet act differently in real life, movie at 11.

-- Dom Passantino (juror8@gm

I've met a few people off the internet now, all of them were exactly the way I expected them to be from their manner online.

― Norman Phay (Pashmina), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:22 (nineteen years ago)

grout is meta-flame-war for life

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:22 (nineteen years ago)

http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/tasksimap/images/selfknowledge.gif

― Fat Lady Wrestler (Modal Fugue), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:23 (nineteen years ago)

That Enneagram thing is awesome. It's like some kind of RPG stats.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:23 (nineteen years ago)

I've met a few people off the internet now, all of them were exactly the way I expected them to be from their manner online.

-- Norman Phay (vietgrov...), December 21st, 2006.

i've met a few and... i kind of don't expect them to be like on the net! so it sort of works out. and tbh only rjg is anything like his online persona (and spookily so).

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:24 (nineteen years ago)

I'm more or less meaning: Present Company Excepted.

― M Grout (Mark Grout), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:25 (nineteen years ago)

but rjg isn't fat!

xpost

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:25 (nineteen years ago)

Trying to avoid the ::

"You a troll"
"I no a troll, you a troll"

continue for 1000 posts

sort of thing.

― M Grout (Mark Grout), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

sometimes one particular aspect of what someone you know online says or does can dominate yr thinking about them. For example, Enrique for me will always be "the guy who lived round the corner from me whom I'd almost certainly seen but who didn't want to meet me IRL".

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

Look under bridges.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:28 (nineteen years ago)

grout is meta-flame-war for life

Hahaha, yes. I was going to say a better qn would be what sort of person *is* a troll-enabler, but then I thought about how much I don't give a fuck. You put it better.

on one of the last big n*d* sp*ck threads, "I shoved a wine cork up my left nostril and really fucked up my nose", I alluded to some troll guy who got an entire mail list shut down and the archives deleted from the list owner's server. The guy self-googled, found the thread and now sends me regular hate-mail about it! Based on this, the answer to the original question would be "a nutter".

― Norman Phay (Pashmina), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:29 (nineteen years ago)

Enrique for me will always be "the guy who lived round the corner from me whom I'd almost certainly seen but who didn't want to meet me IRL".

haha i know right -- i haven't met any locals here either!

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:29 (nineteen years ago)

I never did mention you to Fliss Wy4tt. She's left now.

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:32 (nineteen years ago)

i don't think RJG is much like his online persona really, other than the minimal communication thing. and the murderous rage.

― sede vacante (blueski), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:32 (nineteen years ago)

mark -- the missus designs for your guys quite a bit still! but not for anyone i've met.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:33 (nineteen years ago)

I'm interested in this idea of troll-enabler.

I suspect I've done a lot of this on ILX, simply by not recognising bait for what it is, and rising to it.

How is Grout a troll enabler, though? By asking questions so simple or simplistic that they cannot be taken at face value?

― masonic boom (kate), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:35 (nineteen years ago)

ask her who she deals with here -- I'm curious.

haha, I can just imagine "No we don't use a designer called Mrs Enrique and are you sure her hubby's first name is Temporary?"

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:36 (nineteen years ago)

Grout knows exactly which buttons to push (ALL OF THEM) and when (ALL THE TIME)

― sede vacante (blueski), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:37 (nineteen years ago)

I wonder what trolls did before they had the internet as an outlet for their creativity? Did they shout at people from cars instead?

― C J (C J), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:38 (nineteen years ago)

Still do.

― Fat Lady Wrestler (Modal Fugue), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:39 (nineteen years ago)

Do you think he's deliberately pushing buttons? I mean, the famous Grout thread was that "be cool, just a bit of fun" thing that drove Darnielle off the interweb. And I think he genuinely was innocent of trouble making motives there.

(Oh, BTW, MarkH, since you were asking sede vacante = stevem now)

― masonic boom (kate), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:39 (nineteen years ago)

A mountebank in Leicester-fields had drawn a huge assembly about him. Among the rest, a fat unwieldy fellow, half stifled in the press, would be every fit crying out, Lord! what a filthy crowd is here, pray, good people, give way a little. Bless me! ; that a devil has raked this rabble together, z___ds! what squeezing is this! honest friend, remove your elbow. At last a weaver that stood next him, could hold no longer. A plague confound you (said he,) for an overgrown sloven; and who (in the devil's name) I wonder, helps to make up the crowd half so much as yourself? Don't you consider (with a pox,) that you take up more room with that carcass than any five here? Is not the place as free for us as for you? Bring your own guts to a reasonable compass (and be d___n'd) and then I'll engage we shall have room enough for us all.

― Fat Lady Wrestler (Modal Fugue), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:40 (nineteen years ago)

I'm interested in this idea of troll-enabler.

are we making a distinction between a troll-enabler and a troll-encourager? Coz I have definitely been a troll-encourager back in the day with that b3cky luc4s. I thought "if this person wants war then she's got it" and duelled with her on a thread for the best part of a day. She got more and more ludicrously offensive making all sorts of outlandish claims about how she had the IT skills to sabotage my blog and I thought "Yeah, right. Bring it on!"

Thanks for the new stevedentity, Kate. Sounds a bit LATING to me.

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:41 (nineteen years ago)

Before the internet trolls wrote nasty messages on paper aeroplanes and threw them at people.

We're all different IRL!

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:41 (nineteen years ago)

Kate knows me.

From time to time, soe self reflection is a good thing.

I dont *think* I've made enemies here, and don't have a high enough profile to be that well known.

I do post with my real name, as a mark of honesty. That's not a reflection on those of you who do not, I know there are many reasons why you might not want to.

― M Grout (Mark Grout), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:41 (nineteen years ago)

I wonder what trolls did before they had the internet as an outlet for their creativity? Did they shout at people from cars instead?

-- C J (CJ_The_Unruly@ho

Wrote deranged letters in green-ink to local newspapers, maybe?

― Norman Phay (Pashmina), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:45 (nineteen years ago)

I think yr OK, Mark, really!

― Norman Phay (Pashmina), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:46 (nineteen years ago)

a mark of honesty

Honestly Mr Grout, you should be on the stage!

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:46 (nineteen years ago)

I was having this conversation with someone from here the other day, curiously enough. Not about anyone in particular, but just commenting on how some people can seem quite angry and confrontational online, when they're probably absolute sweethearts in real life.

I suppose a lot of it is to do with wanting or enjoying attention. I'm quite an outgoing fule and have never made any secret of the fact I like bantering back and forth with folk and am not shy in the attention-seeking stakes, but I don't think negative attention via arguments sounds like much fun. Other people don't feel that way, obv. Each to their own though.

I hope I don't deliberately wind people up or upset them, because that's never been my intention. I'm only here for the craic. And the free beer on Hawaiian Shirt Fridays.

― C J (C J), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:48 (nineteen years ago)

Mark you should've just turned on the 'display username' option in Settings. i'm still ~~Still hitting them corners in them low low's girl~~ blueski innit

― sede vacante (blueski), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:49 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think I believe in this 'troll enabler' concept. I suppose there is an element of naivety among some people who are in their view doing no harm but are annoying or irritating other people to the point where they will react against it in a not particularly constructive way, or just go for the zing (sometimes funny, sometimes not).

― sede vacante (blueski), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:53 (nineteen years ago)

You know, I think there are many different varieties of "trolls".

I don't think Grout is a troll at all, though he may be perceived as one. He's more like a big, enthuasistic puppy that comes bounding in, full of energy, and just genuinely wants to have a good time, and everyone else to have a good time. And other people view that as destructive, when there's no malice there, just boisterous high spirits.

Some people are just wind-up artists, it's that sense of trying to get a rise out of others - either for pure puerile enjoyment, or to create "dialogue" or "challenge people's notions" etc. (the former Calum the latter Momus)

Some people are genuinely malicious - those are the ones that I find hardest to understand. Their intention is clearly to hurt, or "score points" off imagined or perceived enemies. They'd be writing letters to the council or the local paper if they didn't have the internet.

And then there are people like your N*de Sp*cks and your Marissas who are actually genuinely mentally ill, and I don't think they ever realise or understand what it is that is going on to get them into the messes they find themselves in, until it's too late. Then they perceive themselves as being attacked, and freak out.

― masonic boom (kate), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:53 (nineteen years ago)

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/3563/image2php6vn.jpg

― Fat Lady Wrestler (Modal Fugue), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:54 (nineteen years ago)

I think Ken C possibly falls into the first of Kate's categories.

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 21 December 2006 11:57 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 385 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Maybe this will tell you guys why wikipedia vandalism can be funny:
http://www.adamcadre.ac/content/brown/

― jw (ex machina), Thursday, 21 December 2006 18:47 (nineteen years ago)

TROLLING OR ART:

He is a former Maxis employee, who was fired after secretly adding code into the game SimCopter, which would cause sprites of males in swimming trunks kissing each other to appear on certain dates. This was not discovered until after the game had been released.

― jw (ex machina), Thursday, 21 December 2006 18:49 (nineteen years ago)

art

― Ms Misery (MsMisery), Thursday, 21 December 2006 18:50 (nineteen years ago)

The Denny Lethargy/Vertigo stuff is outright brilliant.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 21 December 2006 18:54 (nineteen years ago)

I love Esteban's honesty in edit logs!

― jw (ex machina), Thursday, 21 December 2006 18:55 (nineteen years ago)

ssh jaymc

― jw (ex machina), Thursday, 21 December 2006 18:55 (nineteen years ago)

The Quake article claimed it was released in Japan under the name "Hen Fap" for nearly four months.

still funny

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Thursday, 21 December 2006 21:55 (nineteen years ago)

Adam Cadre = HILARIOUS

― Jesus Dan (dan perry), Thursday, 21 December 2006 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

(I totally feel like it's 1996 all over again)

― Jesus Dan (dan perry), Thursday, 21 December 2006 22:18 (nineteen years ago)

the best wikipedia hen fap trolling was the one with the Celtic song

― step hen faps (Curt1s Stephens), Friday, 22 December 2006 01:17 (nineteen years ago)

Why do we have to chronicle reality as if it actually is objective? It makes the world more amazing to me.

^^best part of this thread

― jergins (jergins), Friday, 22 December 2006 01:25 (nineteen years ago)

pointy nose = buttplug

― amon (amon), Friday, 22 December 2006 01:39 (nineteen years ago)

^^2nd best part of this thread

― jergins (jergins), Friday, 22 December 2006 01:45 (nineteen years ago)

ha my gift is baring fruit. i am the Mark Grout of wikipedia:

Alexis Petridis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Alexis Petridish is the chief music writer, as well as a columnist on matters of male fashion, for UK newspaper The Guardian. He is also the "under 50s" music critic for GQ, and was final editor of now defunct music magazine Select. In his writing he has praised a wide variety of musical acts, such as Kasabian, Girls Aloud, and Ricky Shakes, writing: "I have seen the future of ant simulation video games, and his name is Ricky Shakes". Petridis is referenced by Nas in his song "Ether", with the line "Remember Jay when I got you in Select/ Back then not even Petridis give you respect/ So we went to Wagamama's instead/ Awesome chow mein".

Petridis is a regular contributor to the internet forum I Love Music, under the sobriquet "Louis Jagger".

― acrobat (acrobat), Friday, 22 December 2006 02:01 (nineteen years ago)

I lolled and I don't care who knows.

― editio princeps (pato.g27), Friday, 22 December 2006 02:12 (nineteen years ago)

I wonder if the 15-year-old who just blocked me for 48 hours after slightly vandalising the entry for the May 1968 Riots understood the irony in that.

(Probably not.)

Besides, how do they know that Nous voulons le fap de poule! wasn't a student slogan anyway...

― editio princeps (pato.g27), Friday, 22 December 2006 02:15 (nineteen years ago)

the best wikipedia hen fap trolling was the one with the Celtic song

YSI

― jw (ex machina), Friday, 22 December 2006 04:01 (nineteen years ago)

It was me that had the Dirty Vicar name. I changed it as soon as it was pointed out that a another poster had it. Funnily enough on the old board people mistook me for Passatino or even Steve Malkmus. WTF. The internets is an odd place.

― Ice Ice Cream Baby (The Dirty Vicar), Friday, 22 December 2006 04:10 (nineteen years ago)

the best wikipedia hen fap trolling was the one with the Celtic song

link plz

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Friday, 22 December 2006 06:28 (nineteen years ago)

omg:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diplomats

― step hen faps (Curt1s Stephens), Friday, 22 December 2006 08:11 (nineteen years ago)

ok here it is
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bro_Goth_Agan_Tasow&diff=prev&oldid=56303639

― step hen faps (Curt1s Stephens), Friday, 22 December 2006 08:13 (nineteen years ago)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbie_williams

― Fat Lady Wrestler (Modal Fugue), Friday, 22 December 2006 08:59 (nineteen years ago)

I feel this thread ending with a "Matt DC locking it" vibe.

You know, I just spent about 15 minutes fighting off the enormous temptation to delete every post on this thread and replace it with the words OBIE TRICE.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 22 December 2006 15:38 (nineteen years ago)

Or would TALVIN SINGH be funnier?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 22 December 2006 15:39 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.redcamber.com/music/files/Obie%20Trice%20-%20Got%20Some%20Teeth.mp3

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Friday, 22 December 2006 15:40 (nineteen years ago)

i wouldn't 'get' either

anyway thread was pretty fun!

― sede vacante (blueski), Friday, 22 December 2006 15:41 (nineteen years ago)

Anyway Steve why are you wasting your life on this thread rather than coming to meet us in the pub like you should be? (I am leaving now).

Merry Christmas ILE.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 22 December 2006 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

OK who removed "hen fap" from the Spanish Diplomats article >=(

― step hen faps (Curt1s Stephens), Tuesday, 26 December 2006 05:21 (nineteen years ago)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Put_Your_Hands_Up_For_Louis_Jagger%2C_He_Likes_The_Nazis

― 31g (31g), Tuesday, 26 December 2006 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

Matt. Lock. it. Rock. it.

― marianna longmire (marianna lcl), Tuesday, 26 December 2006 21:46 (nineteen years ago)

OMG at wiki

― anointin' yr. pipe (Scourage), Tuesday, 26 December 2006 21:46 (nineteen years ago)

Random wiki vandalism - it wisnae me I was looking for a goose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-billed_Teal

― ledge (ledge), Tuesday, 26 December 2006 23:55 (nineteen years ago)

I love Matthew Perpetua.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 03:14 (nineteen years ago)

what a fucking bore

― electric sound of jim (electric sound of jim), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 03:19 (nineteen years ago)

Didn't PYHUFLJ,HLTN record Scotland's song for the '98 World Cup? Somebody should mention that on the Wikipedia entry.

― editio princeps (pato.g27), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 03:37 (nineteen years ago)

irony indeed

― electric sound of jim (electric sound of jim), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 03:51 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.interfaithforums.com/showthread.php?p=34512

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 27 December 2006 23:51 (nineteen years ago)

Hey, The Entire NHS is no longer banned from editing Wikipedia!

― Michael Annoyman (Michael Annoyman), Thursday, 28 December 2006 11:54 (nineteen years ago)

lol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corey_Taylor

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 28 December 2006 12:25 (nineteen years ago)

still it survives! this edit is here to STAY

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 29 December 2006 11:02 (nineteen years ago)

i don't get it

― electric sound of jim (electric sound of jim), Friday, 29 December 2006 11:11 (nineteen years ago)

I think that, if this thread has conclusively proven anything, the answer is "someone who is very easily amused".

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 29 December 2006 11:12 (nineteen years ago)

esoj: the singer out of slipknot once went to rome to see the pope, and the pope said to his aide "who the fucking hell are slipknot in relation to me getting out of my bed?". it was a heartwarming moment of humanity

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 29 December 2006 13:37 (nineteen years ago)

oic

― electric sound of jim (electric sound of jim), Friday, 29 December 2006 13:39 (nineteen years ago)

For the uninitiated

― ailsa_xx (ailsa_xx), Friday, 29 December 2006 14:03 (nineteen years ago)

discovered this one by accident

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Crosby

― electric sound of jim (electric sound of jim), Friday, 29 December 2006 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

T/S: Being Easily Amused vs Being Easily Po-Faced

― Johnny Cash Rules Everything Around Me (Modal Fugue), Friday, 29 December 2006 15:23 (nineteen years ago)

where's the ILX pines/pwns entry? that was always one of my faves.

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Friday, 29 December 2006 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

-- masonic boom (kateotheremai...), December 21st, 2006.

This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "takes one to know one." Aren't you a junkie in therapy on antidepressants or something?

Speaking of "not understanding," let me quote for you from my pal Jon "Wizard Is Hungry" Guy's old website where he quoted thusly, and I quote:

Advancement is a cultural condition in which an Advanced individualâ€”i.e., a true geniusâ€”creates a piece of art that 99 percent of the population perceives to be bad. However, this is not because the work itself is flawed; this is because most consumers are not Advanced.Now, donâ€™t assume this means that everything terrible is awesome, or vice versa; that contrarianism has no place in Advancement theory. The key to Advancement is that Advanced artists a) do not do what is expected of them but also b) do not do the opposite of what is expected of them. If an artist does the direct opposite of what is anticipated, he is classified as â€œovertâ€ (more on this later). The bottom line is this: When a genius does something that appears idiotic, it does not necessarily mean he suddenly sucks. What it might mean is that heâ€™s doing something you cannot understand, because he has Advanced beyond you.

― Edvard Butt Munchausen (Edvard Butt Munchausen), Friday, 29 December 2006 18:32 (nineteen years ago)

hee hee hee. "Turd Crosby"

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Friday, 29 December 2006 18:51 (nineteen years ago)

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