# Internet trolls **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 10, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758 "2011-12-10T18:59:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GeddyClaypoolBurton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce7236/32.png) [@GeddyClaypoolBurton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GeddyClaypoolBurton)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/1 "2011-12-10T18:59:21Z")
In my extensive time visiting different forums throughout the internet, as well as Xbox Live, and even Youtube commenters, I have never found a social networking site that does not have at least a handful of “trolls”, people whose sole purpose for being on the forum is to annoy and spam people. As I am certain that everyone is familiar with such persons, I am curious: why do you think people waste their time commiting such frivolous acts of aggravating others? Is it just because they are losers with nothing better to do, or do they have a serious problem? What do you all think? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/2 "2011-12-10T19:08:55Z")
Sometimes I think we’re way to ready to write someone off as a troll, when really they are an idiot. A troll feeds off of reaction and being “crazy”. But I’ve read Yahoo! comments to articles that are 80%-90% full of off-the-wall comments, often of a very racist nature. If all these people are trolls, who in the hell are they trolling? The more parsimonious explanation is that they use the anonymity of the internet to say whatever the hell they want, damn PCness. They _do_ believe what they write and are either too idiotic or too brazen to care. A troll doesn’t believe what they write, however. They just make up opinions to provoke. “He’s a troll!” is just a way to rationalize away idiocy, IMHO. It’s harder to stomach that there actually are people who are as racist/sexist/whatever-ist as they present themselves. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/3 "2011-12-10T22:39:40Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Sometimes I think we’re way to ready to write someone off as a troll, when really they are an idiot. A troll feeds off of reaction and being “crazy”. But I’ve read Yahoo! comments to articles that are 80%-90% full of off-the-wall comments, often of a very racist nature. If all these people are trolls, who in the hell are they trolling? Each other? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/4 "2011-12-10T23:47:17Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Sometimes I think we’re way to ready to write someone off as a troll, when really they are an idiot. A lot of people get labeled as a troll because someone disagrees with them. Many are so certain of their positions, that anyone who has a different opinion simply _ **must** _ be trolling, because there’s no conceivable way that they could think the way they do. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/5 "2011-12-11T00:37:37Z")
I suspect that this will work better in IMHO than in Great Debates. ---
**Author:** ![FlyByNight512](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/82dd89/32.png) [@FlyByNight512](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyByNight512)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/6 "2011-12-11T01:51:45Z")
I suspect a lot of trollish comments are somewhere in the middle. The person in question may very well believe what they’re saying, but it’s also calculated to get a reaction. (For example, showing up on a pit bull rescue forum and saying that all pit bulls should be put down immediately.) Then when people tell them to eff off they act all shocked, because hey, _they_ were being civil, why can’t everyone else? IMHO ‘don’t feed the troll’ signs are quite appropriate for those situations. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/7 "2011-12-11T03:52:14Z")
Were there trolls before the Internet? ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/8 "2011-12-11T04:23:03Z")
The worst I’ve seen is AOL’s message boards, especially now that they have no mods and nobody really gets banned. You can “report post” but it won’t disappear. I think they just flush the board completely every few weeks instead. You can have as many names as you like so trolls will create a new name every few days so filtering is useless. Some are “cause” trolls who love sharing graphic “abortion” pics and calling women who abort murderers. There are the proselytizers who post subject after subject line of scripture or scripture-related glurge. Then there’s the anti-Semites and the people who hate blacks and immigrants. Then you have the really weird ones who have held grudges against regular posters for years and years and seem to keep a file on all of us in case they get the chance to catch us in what they think is a lie. These people are serious about their trolling. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/9 "2011-12-11T04:26:01Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > Were there trolls before the Internet? were there bridges? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/10 "2011-12-11T04:50:19Z")
When I was a kid, my brother and I invented a character with whom we used to wind people up. This was in the late 80s on Prestel. We used to have hours of fun posting outrageous things and watching as people got wound up about it, falling around laughing. We’d never heard of trolling, just came up with it spontaneously. I think it’s the whole anonymity thing that makes people act like dicks. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/11 "2011-12-13T02:04:47Z")
It can be fun watching people get pissed off, especially when you know that you’re not going to suffer any consequences for it. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/12 "2011-12-17T10:12:25Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Sometimes I think we’re way to ready to write someone off as a troll, when really they are an idiot. A troll feeds off of reaction and being “crazy”. But I’ve read Yahoo! comments to articles that are 80%-90% full of off-the-wall comments, often of a very racist nature. If all these people are trolls, who in the hell are they trolling? In a situation like that, I’d guess that they’re competing with each other for who can be the most “outrageous”. I greatly prefer commentators that are competing to be the most clever. ---
**Author:** ![BeaMyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@BeaMyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeaMyra)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/13 "2011-12-17T11:47:39Z")
The OP must’ve been too young to remember Usenet when it was used for something other than P2P. It was so much fun to watch the trolls and those who fed them. I remember a Brady Bunch group and one lady who would go off and everyone knew exactly how to push her buttons. Was she the victim or troll or both? Who knew, who cared, Molly was worth hours of entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/14 "2011-12-17T12:07:43Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/15 "2011-12-17T12:17:52Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > Were there trolls before the Internet? The kids that would dial a random phone number and then ask the person who answered it if their refrigerator was running (You’d better go catch it then!) or if they had Prince Albert in a can (Let him out!) were pre-internet trolls. Perhaps we could include the punks that put flaming bags of dog poo on somone’s porch then rang the bell and hid? That’s certainly trollish. Actually, I think trolls are just the punks of the interwebz. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-trolls/605758/16 "2011-12-17T12:23:43Z")
My friend and I have deliberately trolled an anti-smoking Facebook page (twice, months apart, not for more than two hours), not because we disagree with it, but because 90% of the posts are stupid, absurdly radical, poorly spelled, poorly thought out etc. I normally roll my eyes at trolls and disregard them, but I can say that in some cases, as long as you’re not being TOO much of a dick (i.e. moving your online trolling to real life), and don’t make it your full time hobby, it can be mildly amusing to see how wound up you can get certain brands of idiots. It can be REALLY funny if you make it obvious you’re trolling, and still see people rushing to feed you. Minor trolling isn’t really any more “wrong” than putting Kool-aid powder in the shower heads at summer camp, it’s silly and maybe a little damaging if you push the wrong person’s buttons, but overall it’s just a little bit of dickishness that can be amusing for an hour if it’s not abused. I don’t get the “career trolls” however, that create entire online personas who stick around a message board for months just to push people’s buttons. You see those at GameFAQs from time to time, people who make it their mission to go on the board for some popular franchise and basically just bitch about it and be generally disingenuous in a manner so obvious it’s a wonder people keep feeding them. I don’t think there’s anything WRONG with them, morally or developmentally, I just think they have perhaps a bit too much free time on their hands.