what is a troll?

a troll is someone (usually working alone) you encounter in online forums (usenet, message boards, blogs, etc.) who makes contentious or downright inflamatory posts with the express purpose of getting a reaction out of one or more people...

trolls can be a rather pernicious problem, especially in unmoderated forums where there are no direct controls to keep them in line... they change the signal-to-noise ratio and interfer with the normal operation and enjoyment of the forum (even community driven support forums) if they are allowed to practice their trolling ways... however, even in the absense of direct controls on their behaviour such as one would encounter in an unmoderated forum there are still some effective ways of dealing with them...

a troll's primary motivation is entertainment - they don't care about what they're arguing about or whether it's an obvious lost cause, so long as they can get their mark(s) to react and in so doing give them the satisfaction of knowing they successfully manipulated the mark and caused that reaction to occur they're happy... not caring about what they're arguing about or in fact anything else is a rather important part of being a successful troll: not only does caring distract one from the act of trolling, it opens the troll up to being counter-trolled and thus becoming a mark themselves - something that is humiliating to a troll...

while it may occasionally be possible to counter-troll a troll, it generally takes a while, allows the damage to be done, and is no guarantee the troll will stop - it's actually more effective to attack their primary motivation... they can't derive enjoyment from trolling if people don't react to their bait and if they can't derive enjoyment they will move on to another forum in search of easier prey... they are human after all and as lazy as humans are they won't want to work hard if they don't have to and they don't have to because there is always easier prey out there... strange as it may sound, this is one problem where ignoring it really will make it go away, hence the oft repeated advice of don't feed the trolls...

while trolls are generally solitary (occassionally finding a kindred spirit here an there) there is a rare variation where a group of trolls will actually form a pack and troll together... pack trolls in sufficient numbers can have the same deleterious effect on a forum by trolling a single individual as a solitary troll has when trolling a group... however, despite this apparent performance advantage, pack trolls are individually failures as trolls... the deleterious effects to the signal-to-noise ratio caused by a pack of trolls are mostly the result of the messages from the trolls themselves whereas a single successful troll is able to get the group of marks to do most of the damage for him/her... additionally, in forming a social group tightly knit enough to stay together they invariably form connections to their cohorts and in so doing reveal something they care about (even if only a little bit) and open themselves up to counter-trolling and inevitable humiliation... when they realize their weakness their only real recourse is to insulate themselves from the rest of the pack but by doing so they break the ties that hold the pack together (which is why troll packs are rare)...

counter-trolling an entire pack of trolls is a fools errand... as always, don't feed the trolls...

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