[Note-I do not, nor do I EVER condone trolling and viscious destruction of MBs. I’m talking more along the lines of pranks and stuff-like the Left Behind BB fiasco]
No, not here at the SDMB!!!
I mean, have you ever, been to a really stupid, really lame message board, and just started argueing for the hell of it?
I remember the time Smile and Act Nice was constantly invaded by stupid trolls from other message boards, posting goatsec and porn and YU0=fag0t every other post. We got so sick of it, we reinvaded their boards, bombing them with huge pictures of bunnies and kittens and Hello Kitty and teddy bears and Care Bears and My Little Pony and saying things like ~HuGgLeZ~ and WE LUB YOOO!!! And HUGGY BEARS!!! We called it Huggy Wars, and it worked. The board was shut down, after our cutsey smiles and cyber hugs bombs and the spam war was called off. In fact, the very first time we did this-I didn’t participate the first time-was at the notorious Something Awful forums. We OWNED them!
The second time was the Off Topic forum at the Counter Strike forums…the mods and admins were ENCOURAGING them to spam our boards…oh, did we show them!
It wasn’t exactly a message board. More of a newsgroup. It was for Magic: The Gathering. I was involved in the group for awhile and then, one day, I was bored. So I posted:
“Magic is like my dick. It’s red, green, blue, white, and black.”
I thought it was insanely funny. Hell, I’m still chuckling. The thing is, I posted it using my real SN and with my real e-mail address. A few of my friends who also read the group said “what in the hell did you post that for?”
“I dunno, 'cause it’s funny?”
“Damnit. Do that shit anonymously.”
“Oh…um…good point.”
Anyway, I got bored with the group and didn’t post there much after that.
well, I don’t know if this actually qualifies as trolling, as I wasn’t arguing… but…
I used to be a pretty big participant on the wedding newsgroups. But I got mighty sick of the endless yammering and fretting over ridiculous details. So, under a different account, I signed on one day and asked a question revealing the angst or a prospective bride over the fact that I wanted green beans amandine on our menu for the reception dinner, but thought that the green of the beans would clash with our tablecloths and the bridesmaids dresses.
Woefully, I got some serious, heartfelt replies of encouragement and commiseration. But some of my better newsgroup friends smelled the rat and played along.
No, but I’ve been tempted. I think my motives were justifiable but I’m sure the folks on the board in question would have seen it as trolling.
I don’t remember the link off the top of my head, but someone here a long time ago posted a link to another MB she (or he) enjoyed. So I popped over to lurk. The place had forums divided, supposedly, by age groups but evidently the moderators were either dead or incapacitated. There was this influx of obviously older posters in the kids’ section, spewing nastiness far and wide, and making fun of the younger posters. The only excuse I could think of for their behavior (though not for the moderators allowing it) was that maybe at some point the younger ones had invaded the others’ territory. It was the most clique-ish place I have ever visited on line.
I so very much wanted to register and give the older jerks a taste of their own medicine. What stopped me was the fact that the mods over there did sometimes ban people, if temporarily, rarely and with no lasting effect. Knowing that the mods here can notify a troll’s ISP if things get out of hand, I didn’t want to risk getting in serious trouble just to tell a bunch of idiots off. Plus I knew they wouldn’t give a damn what I had to say.
I used to have several trolling handles at mrcranky.com, in fact my main SN was considered pretty trollish by a lot of people. I’ve also made quite a few troll-like posts at somethingawful.com, but that’s the norm there.
Despite my previous history at SomethingAwful, I didn’t go for any of the trolling there.
However, I used to troll usenet. I got pissed off at how inane alt.folklore.urban was, and since they prided themselves on being untrollable, I thought I’d rise to the challenge. I posted about an urban legend I’d heard, and if it was prevalent around the country. The urban legend I described was actually a Mentos commercial, the one with the kid cutting through the guy’s car to cross the street. About eight people took the bait, including one or two of the inner circle, which made me feel good.
I’d troll on the action figure newsgroups and Magic newsgroups, even thgouh I was interested in them, because so many of the people there were idiots. I remember starting a post on the Magic NG with “Despite this newsgroup, I don’t think all Magic players are morons…”
I’d also troll on some of the Star Trek NGs, but that’s shooting fish in a barrel.
Badtz Maru, I don’t know if I could stoop to trolling on the Mrcranky board. That group is the lamest form of lame, I feel I’d be lowering myself just by posting there anonymously.
Trolling is often in the eye of the beholder. I occasionally go to a message board for a specific breed of dog, and admit that I bought my dog at a (gasp!) PET STORE. It’s always good for an argument. The board is frequented by dog breeders who think that putting a puppy in a pet store is akin to putting their children for sale in a store. You won’t believe the hatred I have directed towards me.
The funny thing is, if I’d just spin it as “I saw a poor, abused puppy in the store, and I HAAAAD to get it out of that horrrrrribbbllle place” I’d be a hero on the board. Ha!
This sounds so much like something that happened over at the Left Behind boards.
I’m still a member over there-there have been times that I’ve wanted to troll there, but I think too much about it, so I end up deleting the posts before I submit them.
Dammit. I want to troll there and get banned, but I don’t need problems with my ISP.
Every once in a while when I want a good laugh I’ll go over to Yahoo Chat and say “Canada sucks.” I start ripping on Canada and their stereotypes (pretty much just regurgitating the movie Canadian Bacon), Canada sucks, your country sucks, hey are you guys wearing any flannel, you stupid hosers, socialized medicine is a bad idea, etc.
I don’t actually believe any of that, and I really like Canada, and if I ever have to leave the country that’s the place I’m going (so maybe I shouldn’t be making fun of them!). I just think it’s funny that people get upset over something as stupid and juvenile as some a guy in a chat room they don’t know making completely unfounded negative comments. This also works for other countries, like France, but usually there are more Canadians, so they’re an easier targets. You also get a fair share of Americans saying how my opinions don’t represent the U.S…
Yes. On the largest Star Wars group on Yahoo! Club, about a year ago. It was mostly targeted towards one person, whom me and a few others hated because he was one of those, “Well I’m better than everyone else because I’ve loved Star Wars since it first came out. All the later fans are scum” people. He would put down newbies, etc. I admit now that was I did was out of line and am ashamed of it (sort of; I’m not going to get into details about what I did), but I managed to set him up through IM, trying to make him look bad at the club. Needless to say, my plan backfired a bit (a few people sided with me, most didn’t) and I was seen as a troll and banned.
I have “picked” fights in every BDSM(yes those letters are in the right order) club I have ever joined. I get so fed up with the pretentious, better than thou attitudes I find on them. Yuck… but damn its fun!
As I first discovered message boards and was posting here, I also happened to join the online community for RebelAct’s frankly superb dungeon slasher Severance (Blade of Darkness in the US). One of the main topics of concern was newbies showing up and posting spoiler requests for help on the normal conversation board - rather than on the spoiler board. This went on for some time until a chap calling himself MarcusParcus (I think) came up with a killer revenge ploy. He invented fake game secrets. He was a bit of a hand with Photoshop too, so he even posted a screenshot showing a hidden “bar” in one of the castles, and giving intensely detailed, gruelling, interminable, entirely fictional details of how to get there.
I thought it was hilarious. Unfortunately he eventually came to his senses and admitted his ploy (which everyone with any sense of irony had spotted at once, and joined in with), but not before sending more than a few newbies off on fruitless hours of searching. It got genuinely complex. People got genuinely annoyed. He remains one of my greatest heroes.
The board was technically speaking moderated, but as the moderators were also the game creators they never showed up.
As a BB sysadmin I’ll weigh in and say that trolling is never justifiable. If what people are saying is irritating you, then don’t read those threads. I know it’s hard to sit on your hands, especially after pages of drivel, but what’s drivel to you is lifeblood to those others. My own board has its share of trolls (including one or two who habituate here at SDMB as well), and they are incredibly annoying, as we all know. Yet to them, my board is the one full of drivelers.