It is a bit of an aside but Heffalump here is the text of the link with bolding mine
An artificial egg being incubated in preference to the real one.
It is not just the people who frustrate other posters but that they destroy any possibility a thread had, transmorgifying it into a show all about them. I am not sure what the “look at me” routine that you are referring to is, but guessing I think the issue might be what the response is to the question of “what’s going on”.
I am not a mod but I think that such behavior is more destructive than plain vanilla trolling or many other bannable offenses. I would warn once and then ban their sorry asses if I was a mod and made that determination. But I am not a mod.
I think attention whoring is clearly trolling if that person never does anything else except derail threads while whoring for attention. I’ve seen lots of people whore for attention, but many have found ways to do it so it doesn’t derail threads. Some will participate in the thread in a relevant way without derailing it. Some start their own threads about things that concern them. Some garner sympathy. Some write about their circumstances in witty and entertaining ways. Some are natural comedians who like to be up on stage with an audience. People have lots of ways of getting attention while making sure those who give them that attention are also having fun at the same time. But some attention whores do it in ways that annoy or harass other posters. Some do it while clearly intending to inflict pain on others. When the goal is to be center stage while also wielding a flamethrower, baiting and then gleefully singeing someone(everyone?) who nibbles at the bait, that’s clearly a troll.
I also think it’s worth mentioning that the mods take their guidance and instruction from the board owners. What the mods do or don’t do about trolls, including how much is allowed and where to draw the line, ALL of that is determined by the owners of the board, not the mods. In the end the trolls are here because the board owners allow them to be here.
As to “shenpa,” the troll is predatory and is keenly focused on the target’s shenpa. That means the troll knows where the target’s buttons are even better than the targeted person. Most of us have overwhelming triggers like that. I have plenty of my own so I know how strong is the pull when a button is pushed. It’s just that not all our buttons can be triggered by trolls. If you have a self-harming habit, and tried to stop it, but couldn’t, that would be a good example of why some people compulsively and irrationally continue to respond to trolls.