# Would you troll/sock a message board... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 27, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999 "2006-11-27T22:47:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/1 "2006-11-27T22:47:43Z")
…if you knew you wouldn’t get caught? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/2 "2006-11-27T22:51:20Z")
Moved from IMHO to the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/3 "2006-11-27T22:55:22Z")
Why? It’s not worth the time at all. What would the purpose of it be? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/4 "2006-11-27T22:56:24Z")
This thread is, by the way, a parody of [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=397795). ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/5 "2006-11-27T22:58:51Z")
Treating the thread as serious, nope. I’ll certainly argue, but not for the sake of trollery. I just can’t bring myself to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/6 "2006-11-27T23:00:38Z")
[QUOTE=Frank] This thread is, by the way, a parody of [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=397795). [/QUOTE] Dang! How’d you figure that one out? 😛 I, for one, most certainly would, but not intentially. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/7 "2006-11-27T23:11:37Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] Dang! How’d you figure that one out? 😛 I, for one, most certainly would, but not intentially. [/QUOTE] Does it matter in your analysis if the message board consents or not? That is to say, is it just statuatory trolling? ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/8 "2006-11-27T23:14:47Z")
I’ve done it. I socked another board with the username “Satan”. My socking career had a grand total of one post, and it was just a lighthearted comment like “kids! Don’t make me come up there!” in a heated religious thread. Months later, that board had an amnesty on second accounts, so poor ol’ Satan got turned in by me to the feds. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/9 "2006-11-27T23:17:06Z")
Does it matter? Trolling is trolling. Whether or not a message board allows trolling, either tacitly or expressly, once you troll, you have trolled. This has been proven in study after study. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/10 "2006-11-27T23:20:46Z")
Moderators moving joke threads **to** the Pit! **Lynn** would have a cow! 😛 In all seriousness, there is one form of what is often deemed trollery that is not only acceptable but the fair thing to do … argue a point of view not your own, _explicitly disclaiming_ that it is, in the interests of giving completely fair treatment. For example, a hypothetical post fragment from me in a Great Debates religion thread: > [@me](#): > > In the interests of fairness, you do have to look at what the fundamentalists are saying. _ **IF** _ you assume that the Bible is the literal, inerrant word of God, incapable of error, then… Certainly not a view I hold. But one that deserves to be looked at in context. The obvious continuation from that is to demonstrate that the Bible is not what they think it is. But it’s not like they are, e.g., rejecting evolution simply out of stubbornness – it follows logically from false premises (i.e., Genesis 1 as literal verbatim history, explicitly spelled out by God Himself) that it can’t be valid. Know thy enemy. Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity (or ignorance). If you’re going to convince a fundamentalist of anything, you have to understand how he thinks, and why, first, and then work at refuting, not his conclusions, but his premises. This holds true in a variety of areas. For example, there is no question in my mind that Mr. Bush will pursue the current course of effort in Iraq more avidly than any hypothetical Democrat counterpart would. That’s not at issue; what needs refutation is whether the current course of effort is in any way right or productive. And the best way to disprove that may be to do a _reductio ad absurdam_ – which involves arguing Mr. Rumsfeld’s perspective, no matter how strongly you disagree with it, to show how it leads to disaster. Trolling _sensu stricto_, advancing propositions you do not yourself hold to see how much trouble you can cause, should be eradicated root and branch. But arguing fairly a premise you do not yourself hold in order to prove a point, being candid about what you’re doing, is “legitimate trolling.” ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/11 "2006-11-27T23:24:43Z")
As for myself , I would say no. If you don’t have the balls to make smart ass comments in real life , you really don’t have balls afterall . ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/12 "2006-11-27T23:46:47Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] Moderators moving joke threads **to** the Pit! **Lynn** would have a cow! 😛 [/QUOTE] I may be wrong, but I have always thought thread parodies belonged in the Pit. Whether it’s worthy of the Pit is a different question. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/13 "2006-11-27T23:49:13Z")
Do I feel there is some compelling reason that I should deliberately disrupt a board and piss a bunch of people off, more or less solely for my entertainment and because I know they can’t get to me? No, and I think a person who does get off on that is basically a sociopath. Even as much as I might be tempted to troll, say, Stormfront as a form of protest, I still wouldn’t do it. As for our latest guest and his idiotic scattergun posts, whee, another guy who thinks other people are lab animals to be experimented on. He’ll either wise up or move on pretty quick. I’ll consider responding to something he’s posted if and when I think he’s not just takin’ the piss, which isn’t quite yet. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/14 "2006-11-27T23:53:30Z")
[QUOTE=Frank] I may be wrong, but I have always thought thread parodies belonged in the Pit. Whether it’s worthy of the Pit is a different question. [/QUOTE] I don’t think so. No joke threads in the Pit has been a rule for a while. Usually they’re in MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/15 "2006-11-28T00:10:52Z")
Boards that don’t put any effort into shutting down trolls are almost inevitably overrun with them already. Since the purpose of trolling is attention, what would be the point? ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/16 "2006-11-28T00:21:50Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] I don’t think so. No joke threads in the Pit has been a rule for a while. Usually they’re in MPSIMS. [/QUOTE] This thread is mocking the thread of another poster and calling them a troll and/or sock. That makes it Pit material, even if the OP was done in a joking or humorous manner. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/17 "2006-11-28T00:26:25Z")
Back in the days of the Smile and Act Nice boards, we used to sometimes troll. I wasn’t involved, but we got invaded by the Forum Goons from Something Awful. So a bunch of our posters went over there and spammed them with ~_HuGgLeZ_~, with huge pictures of Care Bears and things like that. After a few days, they called uncle, and more than a few of them joined our boards. Sometimes, we’d go and do the “HUGGLES!” thing to other boards, if we found them trolling us. Or whatever. It almost always worked. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/18 "2006-11-28T00:35:24Z")
A long time ago I had a sock on a different board. Back in the college days I loved to debate to dawn till dusk about anything and everything, and Devils advocate was every bit as much fun, so I got on an early MB to do that. But I couldn’t find any oponent with half a thought, just brain-dead pilers-on. So I created a second persona to take the other side. I had a lot of fun with morons from both sides saying that I was a damn idiot and had no clue, while telling the persona side I was a genius. It all crashed down on day while drunk and I posted as the wrong guy, and a typical early internet style debunking-roasting eventually followed. A damn blast while it lasted though. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/19 "2006-11-28T00:38:22Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] I don’t think so. No joke threads in the Pit has been a rule for a while. Usually they’re in MPSIMS. [/QUOTE] Joke threads, yes (if they’re not excessively silly and pointless), but parody threads, along with a link to the original (so as to avoid confusion and a move to MPSIMS–or even an abrupt closure) live in the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999/20 "2006-11-28T02:21:47Z")
Not only would I, I _have_. But only because the board was already well filled with arrogant backstabbing attention seekers (read: college music performance majors). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-troll-sock-a-message-board/381999.md?page=2)