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Advanced Troll theory
Notes by Jenn Wilde
So for this latest social experiment on troll theory RTJ, Kay and I decided to tap into the true depths of what it means
to be a troll. Darien had began to get the hang of what it truly meant to be a troll before he started to troll message board
help, at which point the concept of trolling without trolling was no longer possible for him to keep up. We decided to continue
his research in the field with our latest efforts, a true venture into the essence of trolling itself.
To do this, we each embarked on a specific user group and tried to understand what the depths of trolling really are.
Before I continue Id like to point out that most of the people that are considered trolls on forums today are really not trolls,
or to be more specific they arent very talented at all. During my trolling of the sports and racing NBA board, I encountered
several examples of this. Derek Jeter NY, Legend of Zelda and Foecious are all examples of poor trolls. Their comments were
no more inflammatory than that of a child, even though Foecious in particular backed up his trolls with facts.
In case no one understands what Im saying at this point, Im saying that a trolls role is to annoy and inspire heated
arguments and debates, frequently those that cross the line into unacceptable according to a forums Terms of Service. A troll
can be entertaining, but that is not its primary goal. A trolls primary goal is to annoy and inspire genuine hatred. That
is what Kay, RTJ and I set out to do with this experiment.
I took the sports and racing NBA board, Kay took the martial arts board and RTJ targeted a forum called NARC and began
harassing users of that forum over AIM. We carefully screened and selected which forums we would troll. They couldnt be forums
that were frequented by moderators (except in the case of RTJ with NARC), and each forum had to capture a different demographic.
As for the social experiment itself, the goal was to <b>figure out how to troll each general demographic according to
Dariens method of trolling without trolling</b>.
It is important to understand what trolling without trolling is. The very goal of a troll is to go undetected as a troll.
You see, a troll ultimately becomes useless in its very purpose the moment the board populace as a whole identifies it as
a troll, since at this point the troll is no longer capable of annoying and otherwise enraging the forum posters, since they
dont taken them seriously and thus arent aggravated by their topics. As a result, trolling under the Lionheart moniker that
I and my brother (among others) shared for years was unacceptable. In analyzing the concept of trolling without trolling,
back in 2002 and 2003 team Lionheart as a whole was effective at trolling all of the users at the various forums it frequented
(including message board help and several moderators, including Tiger8191) up until the moment that we were identified as
trolls, at which point our gradual eradication as users was inevitable. Once identified as trolls, we were no longer afforded
fair treatment, and our post were deleted for trolling even though they didnt actually violate any rules of the site, simply
because wed been pegged as rule breakers and what we were trying to do was apparent.
As a result, for the purpose of this experiment all of us would assume the role of enthusiastic forum newcomers who demonstrated
extensive knowledge in our respective fields. As a result, we decided that for the purposes of this experiment we would troll
forums that focused on topics that we were knowledgeable about. The reasoning behind this is that users that are seen as being
knowledgeable or respectable in the primary field of discussion on a board are taken far more seriously, since their post
come across as credible, and at that sincere.
For my part I tackled the sports and racing NBA forums, a collection of casual users that for the most part didnt have
any close ties to a forum community outside of that one, and by and large would fit the profile of normal everyday adolescents
between the ages of 12-18 or so. I chose this forum because in addition to tackling one of the three general forum communities
(Darien demonstrated that there are many types of users, but closer introspection revealed that there are only 3 types of
forum communities: casual, moderate and elite), Im a huge basketball buff. I grew up with three brothers, one of them older
than me and all of them live and breathe basketball. As a result I can speak competently and even decidedly knowledgeably
about anything in the field. Anyway, the goal here was to figure out how to effectively troll the board populace (annoy, and
otherwise inspire heated debate).
Upon my arrival on the forum I immediately noticed a few things: The first of which was that the board was sharply divided
on one issue: Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. I would have to take a side, as there was no neutral ground and the
forum essentially revolved around this player.
It is important to note that I was not a Laker fan (although my time on the forums admittedly made me a rabid one), but
I am and always have been a Kobe Bryant fan. My knowledge on him as a player was extensive before my decision to troll this
forum, and it only grew as I continued to troll it. That said, deciding to align myself with the Lakers side of the board
was not a difficult one, although it immediately expectedly made me enemies with have of the forums populace. Further, all
of the talented trolls (Rashidi, radioraheem and to a far lesser extent Foecious) were anti Laker/Kobe. Legend of Zelda, Dark
Moogle and the rest of the Laker trolling posse, while well meaning in their attempt at trolling, were simply not very skilled
at it. Their trolling attempts were thinly veiled and annoyed no one. The good trolls like Rashidi posted well documented
facts that inspired debate and genuine hatred among the users. However, they did their homework perhaps a bit too much, and
their emotional investment in the outcome caused them to go overboard at times, and be trolled themselves.
For my part, I was going to be one of the talented trolls, although on the Lakers side. My biggest obstacle would be
users like BigSix316, users who were intelligent, well versed Laker/Kobe fans, but not trolls. His posts in my topics frequently
took the heat out of mine, and as a result turned my solid trolling topics into topics in which calm, intelligent debate occurred.
This was a problem, and ultimately to distance myself from him I began to create an online persona that was so icy, distant
and otherwise out of control that the other laker fans stayed away from my topics entirely for fear of being associated with
my craziness.
Anyway, I have a few accounts in the realm of 900 to as much as 1800 karma, but I seldom posts with them (Id seldom visited
gamefaqs period over the past several years before the experiment), and I didnt want them to ultimately be linked to the lionheart
account persona in the event that the mods started to look too closely if my trolling drew attention to itself. So I made
a new account called jwilde17, but I needed to build credibility with it.
As a consequence, I and RTJ worked together on a FAQ for an NBA video game and posted in on gamefaqs in order to bolster
our credibility. It took about 4 hours total to complete, but it allowed me to come in as a new user and immediately garner
the respect of my peers couple with my thought provoking (and trolling) post that formed solid arguments proving Kobe Bryant
to be one the league top 20 players ever. This is of course subjective, but on a forum with so many young, casual fans there
were few that could refute my claims, and on a board where half the board populace hated Bryant this quickly created an intense
dislike among me. The goal (which I think I accomplished quite well) was to ultimately create a dislike for me even among
the Laker populace as my ideas grew more and more radical and I grew more and more out of control. This would cause me to
lose some credibility, but the general idea here was to create a hostile environment in which the board became poisoned with
a bad vibe, and in which bitter arguments would become the norm more often than not. I wanted almost all of the users on the
forums to eventually succumb to this quasi trolling, with the ultimate goal to turn the board from a place where intelligent
discussion could take place to a joke board (I succeeded quite admirably).
I took my first steps towards this a few months in when the users Mustachioed Plumber, kmiles, SS4Stepehen, poopdamoop,
Steve Nash and a number of other users began to develop an intense dislike for me. Kmiles went as far as to bet his account
and my stay on the board that Kobe Bryant would not win MVP. I consented to the bet since it was a win win situation for me.
First off kmiles got so out of control in his anger at me that he allowed me to get some much needed good will back with the
forums users (in order to continue to troll the forum effectively for a few more months), and secondly it put me in prime
position after the MVP awards. Should Bryant win I would allow him to stay on at the forum and troll him even more, and should
he lose I could either refuse to leave and inspire a great deal more anger, come back under another alt and continue to troll,
or abandon the experiment if I chose. There was nothing to lose here. I strung him along for a bit, alternating pretending
to be upset by his actions and amused by them at my leisure, and depending on what way it helped me (he was a very poor troll,
probably around 15 or so and his speech indicated poor mental and emotional development). This also allowed me to play the
role of the martyr a bit.
Afterward a number of other users fell in line, including Mustachioed Plumber, poopdamoop, Stephen and Steve Nash. They
all posted inflammatory remarks, and I responded in a hostile, belligerent manner that furthered my dislike among them and
caused them to respond negatively even more. They even began to become quasi trolls, the beginning of the boards continuing
downward spiral. You see I didnt just want to make this place a joke board (it somewhat was before, as are all casual forums
occupied by young adolescents for the most part), but I was also wanted to make the place full of negative vibes, and these
guys were helping me do this.
Additionally, as I turned these guys into trolls then other users recognized the change in their behavior and responded
accordingly, allowing me to lessen the amount of time spent of the forum considerably. Im a journalism major and I spend a
lot of time on the computer writing and researching anyway, but in the beginning I had to spend more time than I would have
liked to continue the experiment, going so far as to have RTJ and Kay at times fill in for me and try to play up my role by
logging into the account and trolling with it.
Later however, the users that Id turned into trolls did a fine job of poisoning the board by themselves. At the time
of this writing the once respected user SSJ4 Stephen is beginning to become the boards dominant troll, admirable considering
what he was upon my arrival.
Anyway, my plans were somewhat disturbed when a user name Shinnoxyz appeared on the forum and identified me as Lionheart
(something he was able to do since RTJ ended up revealing who I was during his trolling of NARC and the forums regulars—more
on that later). As a result, I began to lose credibility. My first thought was to try and sweet talk him into backing down.
RTJ who is a psychology major identified him as a loner, probably very dependant on the internet and what people on it
thought of him for validation. (He called himself a gamefaqss anomaly, showing that he places a good deal of value in his
board status and user id of 13). So I attempted to befriend him, supplicated to him a little (I asked for his account in an
effort to appear to be interested in him and raise his value). However, probably largely due to the fact that Im female this
only caused him to become more blatant in his attempts to sabotage my reputation, a reaction likely largely based on the fact
that he has had very little contact with a woman in his life (his website and speech indicate and extreme anti-social with
low self worth and value in the real world), so he attempted to keep this status by trying to make me continue to supplicate
to him and beg him.
Once I realized what he was doing I attempted to troll him, sighting that he probably didnt have a life outside the net
and that he was a stalker. I got the desired effect, and he responded emotionally (when you say things about a person that
are true they will always respond negatively), and he was consequently moderated after I contacted one of my pocket moderators
to get them to punish him accordingly for harassment and flaming. Id hoped that this would dissuade him from further trying
to discredit me, and badly needing a credibility boost to continue my trolling of the forum I posted a seemingly impassioned
post on the forum begging forgiveness of the members for my actions. However, Shinnoxzy had not been deterred and he appeared
in the topic and by lowering my value and again pointing out my trolling past he effectively eliminated the small amount of
catharsis Id garnered. Id wounded his pride and his ego with my comment and the coupled moderation, and he wasnt reacting
rationally anymore. I was effectively stuck with him. It occurred to me to flood hi website (which he put a good deal of effort
into), as well as to personally harass him with a number of high karma alts on the forums he frequented, but this was outside
of the original plan (to effectively troll the forum regulars of a casual forum, generate angry responses and a host of new
trolls, and ultimately disrupt board vibe and turn it into a joke board). Ultimately, I decided to end the experiment citing
the unforeseen variable of a user that could identify me. I saw and see no further reason to attack or otherwise wound his
pride, since the goal of this experiment was never to negatively harm a person in any meaningful way. I actually think I may
have gone too far with him to begin with.
Anyway, as of right now I intend to slowly eject out of the board, as my latest impassioned post allowed me to do when
I falsely claimed I spent 10 hours a day on the net (I spend a quarter of that) as a reason to leave, and Kay will slowly
retake my place on the forum to continue the experiment, with her work on the martial arts forums done.
Overall, I feel like Ive taken major steps in exploring the psych of the casual message board poster and dissecting what
makes them angry. Ive identified a few key points. To effectively troll a casual base social board one must:
1. Appear sincere in the trolling post one makes, and not appear to be inciting flames deliberately.
2. Come across as knowledgeable and respectable.
3. Create a poisonous environment for the user base by creating a large following among some and a dislike with others.
4. Infuriate at least one high status user.
5. Effectively use the less skilled trolls around you.
6. Come across as someone with a vested emotional attachment to forum regulars, the comments they make and the forum itself
(I pretended to be angry and upset many times when in reality I was neutral throughout). This can be accomplished by posting
long, thought provoking post and appearing to be as hot headed and irrational as the other posters at times.
A report on Kays attempts (under 2 different accounts) at trolling moderate level user bases is forthcoming as her time
in the field is coming to an end. RTJ will make a similar report on his experience trolling the elite (and often times more
social and less topic single topic oriented) user bases. His experiences have been less encouraging as a whole, and more research
needs to be done on the thought process of the elite user bases.
It was thought that the best way to break these users down and troll them was to target their own insecurities and lack
of social lives outside of the forums (much like Darien did on the fighting game forums he used to troll, and I did with Shinnox),
however catcaclysms, ricky williams and a number of other users that he continued to troll didnt really respond extremely
negatively to these criticisms (although the user drunky did from reports and AIM logs hes shown me). This suggest to me that
some of the elite users targeted for trolling by RTJ may have had more enriching social lives than initially believed, although
my own time spent trolling the user Cataclysms suggest contrary. Like I said, his report, as well as Kays is forthcoming when
their time in the field ends.
It is possible that I may continue in the sports and racing nba field for a while longer, perhaps under a different name
as Ive grown attached to a few of the users there who have demonstrated that they arent susceptible to trolling so easily,
such as BigSix, thebusiness and will2win two users who are simply misguided and fail to understand that the environment they
are attempting to post in is simply too far gone for intelligent debate (partially my own doing, partially that of other trolls
such as GPLA, a user before my time there who is frequently spoken of).
Further, Ive grown fond of some pleasant personalities: LOZ, jonblaze, delfonic and a few others. I enjoy their post
and their pleasant spirits.
Anyway, for now that concludes my seven month social experiment of these users. Ive actually shown the experiment to
several psychology professors at the university and theyre quite interested in the data itself and may begin to monitor the
experiment in the future.
Advanced Troll theory
Notes by Jenn Wilde
Contact me @ jwilde86@sbcglobal.net if you have questions. ^_^
So for this latest social experiment on troll theory RTJ, Kay and I decided to tap into the true depths of what it means
to be a troll. Darien had began to get the hang of what it truly meant to be a troll before he started to troll message board
help, at which point the concept of trolling without trolling was no longer possible for him to keep up. We decided to continue
his research in the field with our latest efforts, a true venture into the essence of trolling itself.
To do this, we each embarked on a specific user group and tried to understand what the depths of trolling really are.
Before I continue Id like to point out that most of the people that are considered trolls on forums today are really not trolls,
or to be more specific they arent very talented at all. During my trolling of the sports and racing NBA board, I encountered
several examples of this. Derek Jeter NY, Legend of Zelda and Foecious are all examples of poor trolls. Their comments were
no more inflammatory than that of a child, even though Foecious in particular backed up his trolls with facts.
In case no one understands what Im saying at this point, Im saying that a trolls role is to annoy and inspire heated
arguments and debates, frequently those that cross the line into unacceptable according to a forums Terms of Service. A troll
can be entertaining, but that is not its primary goal. A trolls primary goal is to annoy and inspire genuine hatred. That
is what Kay, RTJ and I set out to do with this experiment.
I took the sports and racing NBA board, Kay took the martial arts board and RTJ targeted a forum called NARC and began
harassing users of that forum over AIM. We carefully screened and selected which forums we would troll. They couldnt be forums
that were frequented by moderators (except in the case of RTJ with NARC), and each forum had to capture a different demographic.
As for the social experiment itself, the goal was to <b>figure out how to troll each general demographic according to
Dariens method of trolling without trolling</b>.
It is important to understand what trolling without trolling is. The very goal of a troll is to go undetected as a troll.
You see, a troll ultimately becomes useless in its very purpose the moment the board populace as a whole identifies it as
a troll, since at this point the troll is no longer capable of annoying and otherwise enraging the forum posters, since they
dont taken them seriously and thus arent aggravated by their topics. As a result, trolling under the Lionheart moniker that
I and my brother (among others) shared for years was unacceptable. In analyzing the concept of trolling without trolling,
back in 2002 and 2003 team Lionheart as a whole was effective at trolling all of the users at the various forums it frequented
(including message board help and several moderators, including Tiger8191) up until the moment that we were identified as
trolls, at which point our gradual eradication as users was inevitable. Once identified as trolls, we were no longer afforded
fair treatment, and our post were deleted for trolling even though they didnt actually violate any rules of the site, simply
because wed been pegged as rule breakers and what we were trying to do was apparent.
As a result, for the purpose of this experiment all of us would assume the role of enthusiastic forum newcomers who demonstrated
extensive knowledge in our respective fields. As a result, we decided that for the purposes of this experiment we would troll
forums that focused on topics that we were knowledgeable about. The reasoning behind this is that users that are seen as being
knowledgeable or respectable in the primary field of discussion on a board are taken far more seriously, since their post
come across as credible, and at that sincere.
For my part I tackled the sports and racing NBA forums, a collection of casual users that for the most part didnt have
any close ties to a forum community outside of that one, and by and large would fit the profile of normal everyday adolescents
between the ages of 12-18 or so. I chose this forum because in addition to tackling one of the three general forum communities
(Darien demonstrated that there are many types of users, but closer introspection revealed that there are only 3 types of
forum communities: casual, moderate and elite), Im a huge basketball buff. I grew up with three brothers, one of them older
than me and all of them live and breathe basketball. As a result I can speak competently and even decidedly knowledgeably
about anything in the field. Anyway, the goal here was to figure out how to effectively troll the board populace (annoy, and
otherwise inspire heated debate).
Upon my arrival on the forum I immediately noticed a few things: The first of which was that the board was sharply divided
on one issue: Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. I would have to take a side, as there was no neutral ground and the
forum essentially revolved around this player.
It is important to note that I was not a Laker fan (although my time on the forums admittedly made me a rabid one), but
I am and always have been a Kobe Bryant fan. My knowledge on him as a player was extensive before my decision to troll this
forum, and it only grew as I continued to troll it. That said, deciding to align myself with the Lakers side of the board
was not a difficult one, although it immediately expectedly made me enemies with have of the forums populace. Further, all
of the talented trolls (Rashidi, radioraheem and to a far lesser extent Foecious) were anti Laker/Kobe. Legend of Zelda, Dark
Moogle and the rest of the Laker trolling posse, while well meaning in their attempt at trolling, were simply not very skilled
at it. Their trolling attempts were thinly veiled and annoyed no one. The good trolls like Rashidi posted well documented
facts that inspired debate and genuine hatred among the users. However, they did their homework perhaps a bit too much, and
their emotional investment in the outcome caused them to go overboard at times, and be trolled themselves.
For my part, I was going to be one of the talented trolls, although on the Lakers side. My biggest obstacle would be
users like BigSix316, users who were intelligent, well versed Laker/Kobe fans, but not trolls. His posts in my topics frequently
took the heat out of mine, and as a result turned my solid trolling topics into topics in which calm, intelligent debate occurred.
This was a problem, and ultimately to distance myself from him I began to create an online persona that was so icy, distant
and otherwise out of control that the other laker fans stayed away from my topics entirely for fear of being associated with
my craziness.
Anyway, I have a few accounts in the realm of 900 to as much as 1800 karma, but I seldom posts with them (Id seldom visited
gamefaqs period over the past several years before the experiment), and I didnt want them to ultimately be linked to the lionheart
account persona in the event that the mods started to look too closely if my trolling drew attention to itself. So I made
a new account called jwilde17, but I needed to build credibility with it.
As a consequence, I and RTJ worked together on a FAQ for an NBA video game and posted in on gamefaqs in order to bolster
our credibility. It took about 4 hours total to complete, but it allowed me to come in as a new user and immediately garner
the respect of my peers couple with my thought provoking (and trolling) post that formed solid arguments proving Kobe Bryant
to be one the league top 20 players ever. This is of course subjective, but on a forum with so many young, casual fans there
were few that could refute my claims, and on a board where half the board populace hated Bryant this quickly created an intense
dislike among me. The goal (which I think I accomplished quite well) was to ultimately create a dislike for me even among
the Laker populace as my ideas grew more and more radical and I grew more and more out of control. This would cause me to
lose some credibility, but the general idea here was to create a hostile environment in which the board became poisoned with
a bad vibe, and in which bitter arguments would become the norm more often than not. I wanted almost all of the users on the
forums to eventually succumb to this quasi trolling, with the ultimate goal to turn the board from a place where intelligent
discussion could take place to a joke board (I succeeded quite admirably).
I took my first steps towards this a few months in when the users Mustachioed Plumber, kmiles, SS4Stepehen, poopdamoop,
Steve Nash and a number of other users began to develop an intense dislike for me. Kmiles went as far as to bet his account
and my stay on the board that Kobe Bryant would not win MVP. I consented to the bet since it was a win win situation for me.
First off kmiles got so out of control in his anger at me that he allowed me to get some much needed good will back with the
forums users (in order to continue to troll the forum effectively for a few more months), and secondly it put me in prime
position after the MVP awards. Should Bryant win I would allow him to stay on at the forum and troll him even more, and should
he lose I could either refuse to leave and inspire a great deal more anger, come back under another alt and continue to troll,
or abandon the experiment if I chose. There was nothing to lose here. I strung him along for a bit, alternating pretending
to be upset by his actions and amused by them at my leisure, and depending on what way it helped me (he was a very poor troll,
probably around 15 or so and his speech indicated poor mental and emotional development). This also allowed me to play the
role of the martyr a bit.
Afterward a number of other users fell in line, including Mustachioed Plumber, poopdamoop, Stephen and Steve Nash. They
all posted inflammatory remarks, and I responded in a hostile, belligerent manner that furthered my dislike among them and
caused them to respond negatively even more. They even began to become quasi trolls, the beginning of the boards continuing
downward spiral. You see I didnt just want to make this place a joke board (it somewhat was before, as are all casual forums
occupied by young adolescents for the most part), but I was also wanted to make the place full of negative vibes, and these
guys were helping me do this.
Additionally, as I turned these guys into trolls then other users recognized the change in their behavior and responded
accordingly, allowing me to lessen the amount of time spent of the forum considerably. Im a journalism major and I spend a
lot of time on the computer writing and researching anyway, but in the beginning I had to spend more time than I would have
liked to continue the experiment, going so far as to have RTJ and Kay at times fill in for me and try to play up my role by
logging into the account and trolling with it.
Later however, the users that Id turned into trolls did a fine job of poisoning the board by themselves. At the time
of this writing the once respected user SSJ4 Stephen is beginning to become the boards dominant troll, admirable considering
what he was upon my arrival.
Anyway, my plans were somewhat disturbed when a user name Shinnoxyz appeared on the forum and identified me as Lionheart
(something he was able to do since RTJ ended up revealing who I was during his trolling of NARC and the forums regulars—more
on that later). As a result, I began to lose credibility. My first thought was to try and sweet talk him into backing down.
RTJ who is a psychology major identified him as a loner, probably very dependant on the internet and what people on it
thought of him for validation. (He called himself a gamefaqss anomaly, showing that he places a good deal of value in his
board status and user id of 13). So I attempted to befriend him, supplicated to him a little (I asked for his account in an
effort to appear to be interested in him and raise his value). However, probably largely due to the fact that Im female this
only caused him to become more blatant in his attempts to sabotage my reputation, a reaction likely largely based on the fact
that he has had very little contact with a woman in his life (his website and speech indicate and extreme anti-social with
low self worth and value in the real world), so he attempted to keep this status by trying to make me continue to supplicate
to him and beg him.
Once I realized what he was doing I attempted to troll him, sighting that he probably didnt have a life outside the net
and that he was a stalker. I got the desired effect, and he responded emotionally (when you say things about a person that
are true they will always respond negatively), and he was consequently moderated after I contacted one of my pocket moderators
to get them to punish him accordingly for harassment and flaming. Id hoped that this would dissuade him from further trying
to discredit me, and badly needing a credibility boost to continue my trolling of the forum I posted a seemingly impassioned
post on the forum begging forgiveness of the members for my actions. However, Shinnoxzy had not been deterred and he appeared
in the topic and by lowering my value and again pointing out my trolling past he effectively eliminated the small amount of
catharsis Id garnered. Id wounded his pride and his ego with my comment and the coupled moderation, and he wasnt reacting
rationally anymore. I was effectively stuck with him. It occurred to me to flood hi website (which he put a good deal of effort
into), as well as to personally harass him with a number of high karma alts on the forums he frequented, but this was outside
of the original plan (to effectively troll the forum regulars of a casual forum, generate angry responses and a host of new
trolls, and ultimately disrupt board vibe and turn it into a joke board). Ultimately, I decided to end the experiment citing
the unforeseen variable of a user that could identify me. I saw and see no further reason to attack or otherwise wound his
pride, since the goal of this experiment was never to negatively harm a person in any meaningful way. I actually think I may
have gone too far with him to begin with.
Anyway, as of right now I intend to slowly eject out of the board, as my latest impassioned post allowed me to do when
I falsely claimed I spent 10 hours a day on the net (I spend a quarter of that) as a reason to leave, and Kay will slowly
retake my place on the forum to continue the experiment, with her work on the martial arts forums done.
Overall, I feel like Ive taken major steps in exploring the psych of the casual message board poster and dissecting what
makes them angry. Ive identified a few key points. To effectively troll a casual base social board one must:
1. Appear sincere in the trolling post one makes, and not appear to be inciting flames deliberately.
2. Come across as knowledgeable and respectable.
3. Create a poisonous environment for the user base by creating a large following among some and a dislike with others.
4. Infuriate at least one high status user.
5. Effectively use the less skilled trolls around you.
6. Come across as someone with a vested emotional attachment to forum regulars, the comments they make and the forum itself
(I pretended to be angry and upset many times when in reality I was neutral throughout). This can be accomplished by posting
long, thought provoking post and appearing to be as hot headed and irrational as the other posters at times.
A report on Kays attempts (under 2 different accounts) at trolling moderate level user bases is forthcoming as her time
in the field is coming to an end. RTJ will make a similar report on his experience trolling the elite (and often times more
social and less topic single topic oriented) user bases. His experiences have been less encouraging as a whole, and more research
needs to be done on the thought process of the elite user bases.
It was thought that the best way to break these users down and troll them was to target their own insecurities and lack
of social lives outside of the forums (much like Darien did on the fighting game forums he used to troll, and I did with Shinnox),
however catcaclysms, ricky williams and a number of other users that he continued to troll didnt really respond extremely
negatively to these criticisms (although the user drunky did from reports and AIM logs hes shown me). This suggest to me that
some of the elite users targeted for trolling by RTJ may have had more enriching social lives than initially believed, although
my own time spent trolling the user Cataclysms suggest contrary. Like I said, his report, as well as Kays is forthcoming when
their time in the field ends.
It is possible that I may continue in the sports and racing nba field for a while longer, perhaps under a different name
as Ive grown attached to a few of the users there who have demonstrated that they arent susceptible to trolling so easily,
such as BigSix, thebusiness and will2win two users who are simply misguided and fail to understand that the environment they
are attempting to post in is simply too far gone for intelligent debate (partially my own doing, partially that of other trolls
such as GPLA, a user before my time there who is frequently spoken of).
Further, Ive grown fond of some pleasant personalities: LOZ, jonblaze, delfonic and a few others. I enjoy their post
and their pleasant spirits.
Btw everyone sorry if I hurt anyones feelings, I didn't mean too. ^_^
Anyway, for now that concludes my seven month social experiment of these users. Ive actually shown the experiment to
several psychology professors at the university and theyre quite interested in the data itself and may begin to monitor the
experiment in the future.
The trolling of the elitest forums, what Ive garnered from the experience.
Notes: rory t
Isnt it funny how even with a limited knowledge of the net you identify a person who lives within the drama of a given
community and who just doesnt give a fuck?
I think so, and the more you look at it the more youll agree with me.
Over the course of my experiment I trolled 6 users for the most part. Lisanne, rickywilliams, drunky, auronthon, tiger8191
and cataclysms.
Its funny, but each of these users have very little in common, something that went against the initial thesis that users
who partake in elite message board communities are all brooding anti-socials with nothing meaningful to take from life per
se.
Its funny but while darien wildes work in the field of trolling and observing the human psyche of the message board user
has proved to be invaluable to both the field of psychology and trolling over the years, I find that in my case with the users
I was trolling and studying his research in the field was of little use.
You see, in a turn of events that I couldnt have anticipated the elite message board community had evolved over the past
several years.
See this phenomenon happened because the elite message board community grew older but it didnt dissipate. Whereas with
the casual and moderate level communities the user base outgrew and continue to outgrow gamefaqs and its adolescent social
makeup with the onset of adulthood, the elite message board group populace continues to stay on the forums.
I hypothesize that the reason that these posters continue to post on gamefaqs well into their late teens and even their
mid to late 20s is because of an awkward social upbringing and a solace that they find in the companions they meet online
absent in other parts of their lives.
If you think about it this makes sense, since the median age of gamefaqs users continues to remain in the 12-17 age range
as MOST of these users leave. However in the case of guys like cataclysms, and moderator staff like sashanan they stay on
at gamefaqs well into adulthood since their social lives never really blossom outside of the net.
So then what we have is a host of social introverts who find acceptance among one another. But this does not explain in
what way the userbase had evolved.
See what I found and what youll find if you do the research as well, is that these elite userbases have developed something
of a more mature though process than that of the other user bases.
Its fascinating, because when I first started to troll these elite users I noticed that many of the tactics that darien
wilde used to effectively use no longer worked, and not just because these people had already seen them.
And I think youll find this somewhat astounding, but much to my chagrin these users began to attempt to troll ME, a phenomena
that can only be explained by their advanced age and having spent so much time on the net that they now used trolling as a
form of amusement.
Auronthon, lisanne, tiger, sashanan, drunky and cataclysms are all already in their late teens or older, with some being
in their mid to late 20s. of the group, rickywilliams was the youngest, likely in only his mid teens.
Id like to post some of the aim conversations that I had with him in the future, as I think youll reach the same conclusions
that I did from reading them.
This young man is afflicted with all of the same teenage angst that most users who join these elite user based have. Hes
insecure, verbally abusive, very socially introverted and probably a virgin.
Not surprisingly, of all of the 5-7 users I trolled this one was the one I had the most success aggravating. He insisted
to the end, and still insist that I am darien wilde, which allowed me to effectively troll him a lot more efficiently by playing
off of his beliefs that I was a troll that forum users have built to mythical like proportions.
Im gong to detail my experiences with each of these users though and have you draw your own conclusions about my research.
First I would like to credit those that helped me, Jennifer wilde and Kay , to brilliant minds that helped me along when
I was unsure of how to proceed. There can be no doubt that without their help I could not have completed the research.
To begin with we had to decide how I would approach this elite user group and who I would target.
Its interesting that it played out so well considering that these guys are old enough that we thought it would be harder
to effectively troll them but everything went according to plan.
Youll find that our primary motivation was for me to come across as stupid as possible. I spoke urban slang, pretended
to be borderline illiterate and I responded as if everything they said and did to troll me affected me.
The goal of this was for me to come across as a newbie and for the targeted users to post all of our exchanges on their
private message board help shield forums.
The thinking behind this was that the more users were entertained by my bafoonery, the more likely they were to attempt
to have a laugh at my expense and allow me to troll them by targeting what we hypothesized the group would be insecure about
(social status, women, how introverted they were etc.)
It really isnt surprising at all but I found that rickywilliams was the most insecure and most easy to manipulate of
the bunch, probably because he is still a child and still had emotional scars from his ongoing negative social experiences
in highschool.
In any event, the only real hitch came when we tried to get me into the message board shield forums. Jenn wilde used a
few of her high karma accounts to try and get in but was me with failure, and my attempts to befriend the user drunnky werent
enough to get me inside, most probably because a part of him correctly detected that I wasnt as stupid as I was pretending
to be.
I think youll find it interesting to note that lisanne, drunky, cataclysms and rickywilliams all attempted to troll me
and manipulate me while I was in the process of doing the same to them during our initial reactions.
This was more intelligence and savvy than I expected them to demonstrate, and as I hypothesized I attribute this to boredom
with the same day to day social environment that years of this had afforded these young adults.
The group is antisocial, socially introverted and perhaps susceptible to trolling to be sure, but years of this had removed
their insecurities with this, and had created something of a complacence with their status in life.
In this my initial hypothesis was somewhat off, but it explains why cataclysms lisanne and a few of the others remained
relatively unaffected by my highlighting of their inherent social flaws.
Theyd simply grown content with them. I offered cataclysm, drunky and ricky williams dating advice under the guise of
being sincere in an effort to bring down their self esteem and social value. At the conclusion of the experiment I intend
to reveal what I did to try and undo the damage, but for the purposes of the experiment at the time it was needed.
I think you would find the chats interesting, but cataclysms grew defensive and otherwise angry at my declarations that
he was socially and physically inadequate, ideas that jenn wilde had been reinforcing in him for months before. At this point
his self esteem had reached lows and he was a very disconcerted man.
At 20 something years old, with very few friends and no romance life to speak of (as he revealed to jenn wilde a year
or so ago) my comments were resonating with him.
Predictably, he frequently signed off or blocked me when I said these things to him after a period of time that he no
longer wanted to hear them, or else he grew belligerent or sarcastic, his normal defensive response.
Whats interesting about this is that towards the end I firmly believe that he was finally beginning to understand that
it was us who had been playing with him all along, a sharp contrast to what he, drunky, liasnne and the rest of the elite
initially believed, per our plans.
Whats really frustrating about this however, is that outside of lowering this person self value and making his life less
enjoyable, we werent really able to see what effect this had on the message board communities he frequented or his roles in
them, since the elite gate themselves into invite only forums that we were never able to penetrate.
To be certain, I can say with great certainty that in the beginning before what I did began to take a psychological effect
cataclysm and the others took great amusement in the things that I said and did.
I found that my assumptions were correct by simply posting on their public forum NARC, at which point a host of people
that I never trolled would come in and make jabs about different things Id said to the control group via aim.
So they were posting our conversations as we wanted, and in doing so providing us with new elitist subjects to troll.
I would like to say however, that the experiment was really a failure since outside of the reactions that we got from
the subjects on aim we couldnt really see the effect that it had on the elitest community.
Im going to write a general synopsis to what I said to each person and how they reacted though.
Cataclysms: this user I know for a fact has a very limited social circle outside of the net, as documented by jenn and
darien wildes previous work on him and things that he divulged to them. Their work was very helpful to me, since it allowed
me to attack things in his life that I knew he would be insecure about. He responded with cynicism as he does most things
which made his emotions easier to document.
What you have to understand though is that the key to all that as opposed to trolling casual and moderate user groups
where the main goal is to form a mob mentality, much more individual work and emotional degradation was required for working
on these elitest users.
Drunky: I actually liked drunky. I know that youll find this amusing or perhaps disconcerting, but I found it difficult
to continue to break him down mentally and emotionally because of the fact that unlike the others, he wasnt driven by an innate
desire to pet his ego, and as a result was a more likeable person.
Drunky was misguided in that he failed to understand the complete irrelevance of the internet. As I continued to talk
to him, I found that like users cataclysms, auronthon and sashanan, he seemed to place a great deal of value on the amount
of power he wielded over others on the internet, failing to understand that complete lack of value in said power.
Like auronthon, drunky seemed to place a sort of relevance on the power he had over others on the net. In an effort to
make him validate himself to me, I had him have a moderator delete one of my messages on the forums.
Id signed off on the aol instant messenger service by the time hed had it done, but when I next signed on he eagerly contacted
me to flex his metaphorical muscles as if to say look at the power I wield.
Now I know that this I somewhat ridiculous considering that I was going to debrief him after the experiment, but I felt
bad for this kid. Here he was, obviously a young man with little social status in the real world, attempting to validate himself
to man that he perceived to be an illiterate, bumbling fool.
Towards the end of our experiment when I brought up his obvious inadequacy with women he responded defensively. I actually
have him some reading materials that would help him improve his station in life, feeling a sort of sympathy for him despite
my role as a researcher. I can only hope that he makes good use of them. Unfortunately, the fact that I couldnt break character
made it difficult for him to take me seriously, but as the only person of the group of high character, I sincerely hope that
he heeds some of my advice.
Of all the subjects, he responded most frequently and in the most sad ways to my attacks on his value as a person. Eventually
he began to supplicate to me constantly, and began to seek my approval. Further, only he and rickywilliams never began to
realize the true nature of our experiment.
Lisanne proved to be interesting as well. Here was a woman in her mid 20s who was attempting to validate herself to me
by flaunting her femininity and saying that she wasnt like the others, as if to raise herself above what even she perceived
to be the low social status of drunky, rickywilliams cataclysms and the others.
Upon realizing that I was playing games with the group, she hastily insisted that this was just something that she merely
did when she was bored on rainy evenings and that she unlike the others she had a life outside of the internet.
I think that its fascinating, as should you, that these people who so ardently attempted to troll me were also almost
always validating themselves to me. This brings me to my next subject auronthon.
Aurnonthon was the first subject that I debriefed, and what I found fascinating about him was that almost as soon as I
began trying to debrief him he began validating himself.
Like lisanne, he was hasty to say im not like the others, and that he didnt care about them he seemed oblivious to the
similarities they shared.
Very much like drunky and the others, he placed a great deal of his self worth on his accomplishments on the internet,
such as receiving a cease and desist order from a forum he trolled, something that he brought up no less than 4 times over
the course of our 2 month long or so correspondence.
He was quick to point out that he very much had a life outside of the net, and did not even know of its existence before
2002.
His past actions, and present words made his pride in his actions all too clear however, as did his frequent seeking of
validation from me.
I hypothesize that the realization that I was probably of a higher social status than them, or the fact that they perceived
my own comments as a damning of their lifestyles causes them to transition from trying to troll me to trying to validate themselves
to me and supplicate themselves to me.
On that front, I believe that Ive broken down the most efficient way to troll elite message board users and communities.
It is vital to target their own insecurities with their lacking social lives, although more research is needed to be done
to understand how to break up and cause discord among the communities themselves.
In truth, destroying gated communities such as message board help shield may be all but impossible, and further ill advised
since breaking apart the very community in which a group of people depend on their livelihood for is irresponsible at best.
Id love to offer further commentaries in the future, and I welcome other troll theories the elite message board communities.
Some follow up notes:
What is perhaps the most profound think that I discovered over the course of my trolling was that to be effective at it
I had to begin to blur the line of what was real and what wasnt.
Its intriguing and I think that youll agree, that jenn wilde and Kay reported similar experiences.
Its also fascinating that all three of us found a growing attachment to a few of the forum users that we were trolling
in the social experiment, and we began to general root for their social rehabilitation, and in my case even try and push it
along.
Also Id like to note that it was pointed out that I seem to contradict myself a little, and in the sense that I say the
users seemed to be complacent with their situation yet insecure at the same time, while at the same time citing the lack of
insecurities in some I suppose that these people are accurate.
However, I think youll find that really I was just comparing these people against one another. For instance, while all
of the subjects demonstrated insecurities some showed a lot less compared to others.
Lisanne and Auronthon, while insecure werent as acutely aware of their lacking socials status as say, Ricky Williams.
This isnt to say that their feelings of inadequacy werent notable, they simply werent profound.
In addition Id like to note that the purpose of the experiment was never to really harm anyone, even in my own case where
the trolling of the elite users that I was doing specifically called for a sort of psychological and emotional harm.
Also, with the debriefing now over I found it interesting as I think you will to note this morning that my forum account
created for the in field experiment was suspended, and likely soon to be banned. A call to Jenn Wilde revealed a similar experience,
and I anticipate that Kays account used for the experiment may be suspended as well assuming she wasnt careful about the use
of proxies.
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