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http://m.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/what-makes-troll-tick-you-can-ask-dr-troll-805476

What do you guys think?

alrighty then...

I actually found this article quite interesting. I like to think of my-self as a bit of a troll, but i do draw the line on RIP pages and photos. I only troll for my amusement, not to hurt others.

Well, it's not as if she had given us so much insight in the phenomenon... I could've come up with the same points without meeting any troll. Just spend long enough on 4chan/7chan/any of the overchan's, and you'll know all there is to know about the little pests...

I mean, this is a little bit like an attempt at psychoanalysing phone prankers, and ending up concluding they do it because the phone as a *69 option... (is 'blocking caller ID' still *69? Haven't done a phone prank in a while )

Wait, she got a doctorate for this!? Am I being trolled by the inference that she got a PhD by realising things you would after spending 20 minutes on 4chan?

dæl wrote:Wait, she got a doctorate for this!? Am I being trolled by the inference that she got a PhD by realising things you would after spending 20 minutes on 4chan?

Holy crap I think you are right. This is indeed an epic troll.

Its fething real. This has left me with the feeling I want to kill something, preferably the faculty at whatever joke of an establishment feel that this pile of faeces of so called 'research' warrants a doctorate.

From what I can see of her work, she's an idiot. Claims to understand post irony, then claims people are misogynists.

dæl wrote:Its fething real. This has left me with the feeling I want to kill something, preferably the faculty at whatever joke of an establishment feel that this pile of faeces of so called 'research' warrants a doctorate.

Successful troll is successful...

purplefood wrote:

dæl wrote:Its fething real. This has left me with the feeling I want to kill something, preferably the faculty at whatever joke of an establishment feel that this pile of faeces of so called 'research' warrants a doctorate.

Successful troll is successful...

Absolutely, imagine being rickrolled repeatedly, without respite, no breaks for food or sleep. Well after about 43 years you would hit my current rage level.

dæl wrote:

purplefood wrote:

dæl wrote:Its fething real. This has left me with the feeling I want to kill something, preferably the faculty at whatever joke of an establishment feel that this pile of faeces of so called 'research' warrants a doctorate.

Successful troll is successful...

Absolutely, imagine being rickrolled repeatedly, without respite, no breaks for food or sleep. Well after about 43 years you would hit my current rage level.

And still only half as angry as Whitey at a fair trade market...

Maybe the complete study has more material? Exerts can be very reductive.


Huh. Trolling comes from fishing? No. No way. Nuh huh.

The 'experts' bitchfest in the comments is particularly delicious.

Kovnik Obama wrote:Maybe the complete study has more material? Exerts can be very reductive.

Or maybe there was noone around to challenge her on her findings. It took her 4 years of sitting on /b to talk to 30 people, give me a month and i'll bet I could talk to double that. A sample of 30 is not a sample, as a single anomaly has far more implications than in a real study size, not to mention the fact that things quite prevalent in a subculture can be missed. The worse thing is that this work will go down as gospel on internet humour and the behaviour of trolls.

I agree the media likes to dumb down academic papers but this thing seems farcical.

Well, she's not completely incoherent ;


at 2.48
But I mean, if she doesn't have an 'approach' plan and a mean to check her own biases, after the study...
And a doctorate in English? I would've thought this was sociology, psychology, gender studies even, etc ...

I would expect more professionalism from a post-doc.

dæl wrote:Its fething real. This has left me with the feeling I want to kill something, preferably the faculty at whatever joke of an establishment feel that this pile of faeces of so called 'research' warrants a doctorate.

From what I can see of her work, she's an idiot. Claims to understand post irony, then claims people are misogynists.

if that makes you rage then how about this for you (got no link or anything for proof just a severe pain from the amount of stupid ) Few months back while drivin to work i heard on the radio that there is a professional NAME RATER for animals and shes got a bloody PhD for it..... nearly crashed from the sheer stupidity of it

What in the name of blazes is a "name rater"? Do they rate the names of animals, if so on what scale?

I suppose someone has to name Operating Systems for Apple.

dæl wrote:This has left me with the feeling I want to kill something, preferably the faculty at whatever joke of an establishment feel that this pile of faeces of so called 'research' warrants a doctorate.

Really? Amongst research papers, this is probably one of the more valuable ones. Trolling is a veritable internet phenomenon, and the internet has become incredibly important these days. I also believe the author when she says that this trend is mirroring the evolution of society in general.

There are way, way more crazy and possibly useless research topics that have awarded a doctorate. I know a guy who got his by a paper on comics.

dæl wrote:From what I can see of her work, she's an idiot. Claims to understand post irony, then claims people are misogynists.

Huh? The only reference on misogynists was that they are often "troll bait". Which is true, of course. Some things are easier or more enjoyable to make fun of than others. Like prejudice, regardless of whether it's religious, racial, or sexual. Trolling against females may seem misogynist, but that would likely just be part of the game (its intent being to provoke) rather than a honest opinion - even if it'd be tasteless and disrespectful either way.

I can't help but feel anyone claiming to be a troll "expert" hasn't really gotten out much.

Lynata wrote:

dæl wrote:This has left me with the feeling I want to kill something, preferably the faculty at whatever joke of an establishment feel that this pile of faeces of so called 'research' warrants a doctorate.

Really? Amongst research papers, this is probably one of the more valuable ones. Trolling is a veritable internet phenomenon, and the internet has become incredibly important these days. I also believe the author when she says that this trend is mirroring the evolution of society in general.

There are way, way more crazy and possibly useless research topics that have awarded a doctorate. I know a guy who got his by a paper on comics.

My problem isn't the subject of her research, but the methods of it. There's a reason it is an Arts PhD rather than a Science, she used a study of 30, that can barely be called research for the reasons I mentioned above. And from what I can see, judging on the amount of new information or insight she provides, she would have spent her 4 years better by spending a few days on Encyclopaedia Dramatica, and then going to the pub for the next 1445 days. She didn't tie it in with the Hackers code of ethics, or mention that trolls have helped bring paedophiles to justice, or bringing to light the injustice of "pools closed", I realise these things are tied more to Anon rather than trolling in general but surely they have a common background.

Lynata wrote:

dæl wrote:From what I can see of her work, she's an idiot. Claims to understand post irony, then claims people are misogynists.

Huh? The only reference on misogynists was that they are often "troll bait". Which is true, of course. Some things are easier or more enjoyable to make fun of than others. Like prejudice, regardless of whether it's religious, racial, or sexual. Trolling against females may seem misogynist, but that would likely just be part of the game (its intent being to provoke) rather than a honest opinion - even if it'd be tasteless and disrespectful either way.

The thing with post irony is that you can't, without a insight into the inflection which the internet doesn't allow, be sure whether it is real misogyny or affected misogyny. Is everyone who has ever uttered a Jew joke an anti-semite? Then why would everyone who makes a rape joke be a misogynist.

dæl wrote:I realise these things are tied more to Anon rather than trolling in general [...]

Exactly. I've been on 4chan, and I don't want to get lumped into the same bed with trolls.

Just because some trolls participated in an activity that was by no means limited to them doesn't make it part of general troll agenda or lifestyle, which this research was about. Including it in the paper would be like a claim that, say, military service is part of some political party's agenda just because some of its members were in the army.

dæl wrote:Then why would everyone who makes a rape joke be a misogynist.

The thing is, she never said that.

Lynata wrote:

dæl wrote:Then why would everyone who makes a rape joke be a misogynist.

The thing is, she never said that.

Fair point, I probably inferred more from the final paragraph than was really there.

The spirit of trolling traces its roots to the beginning of the Internet, but organized itself in the online community 4Chan. "4Chan was the place where term 'troll' fixed itself," Phillips says. Trolling lives on in the community today, most prolifically in the /b/ forums — a "trollspace" Phillips describes in a recent paper as "(A)n epicenter (arguably the epicenter) of online trolling activity, and consistently pumps out some of the Internet’s most recognizable, not to mention offensive, viral content."

The author is clueless. Trolling has been around, and named as such, since usenet, and predates the world wide web by years.

Redbeard wrote:

The spirit of trolling traces its roots to the beginning of the Internet, but organized itself in the online community 4Chan. "4Chan was the place where term 'troll' fixed itself," Phillips says. Trolling lives on in the community today, most prolifically in the /b/ forums — a "trollspace" Phillips describes in a recent paper as "(A)n epicenter (arguably the epicenter) of online trolling activity, and consistently pumps out some of the Internet’s most recognizable, not to mention offensive, viral content."

The author is clueless. Trolling has been around, and named as such, since usenet, and predates the world wide web by years.

If you factor in sophistry as an ancestor of trolling, it's been around for much longer than that.

How much of my tax money went to fund this "research?"

It never ceases to amaze me what grand scientific studies are done on a yearly basis. My favourite of all time being the study on flow rate of ketchup.

Redbeard wrote:

The spirit of trolling traces its roots to the beginning of the Internet, but organized itself in the online community 4Chan. "4Chan was the place where term 'troll' fixed itself," Phillips says. Trolling lives on in the community today, most prolifically in the /b/ forums — a "trollspace" Phillips describes in a recent paper as "(A)n epicenter (arguably the epicenter) of online trolling activity, and consistently pumps out some of the Internet’s most recognizable, not to mention offensive, viral content."

The author is clueless. Trolling has been around, and named as such, since usenet, and predates the world wide web by years.

Yep. Someone, somewhere, better make a Troll Doctor meme.

It would a be a person who gets facts about the Internet wrong (Hey guys! Anonymous Forgot and Forgave!) or someone who just points out things that have been around for a while and are obvious (Hey guys! This BBCode stuff is awesome! It's so much better than HTML!).

If you factor in sophistry, then I guess the Greeks are the fathers of trolling. Trolling and democracy.

It all makes sense now.

fluffstalker wrote:If you factor in sophistry, then I guess the Greeks are the fathers of trolling. Trolling and democracy.

It all makes sense now.

And so, a new myth has been created..
Wait.
You say I'm Greek?

Redbeard wrote:

The spirit of trolling traces its roots to the beginning of the Internet, but organized itself in the online community 4Chan. "4Chan was the place where term 'troll' fixed itself," Phillips says. Trolling lives on in the community today, most prolifically in the /b/ forums — a "trollspace" Phillips describes in a recent paper as "(A)n epicenter (arguably the epicenter) of online trolling activity, and consistently pumps out some of the Internet’s most recognizable, not to mention offensive, viral content."

The author is clueless. Trolling has been around, and named as such, since usenet, and predates the world wide web by years.

I remember reading some fairly trolling comments in the letters section of the old Dragon magazine. Before that, some fairly outragious stuff would get printed up in the letters section of the newspapers.
The ultimate troll? The Boyeux Tapestry with it's" ah ha, Saxons can't fight!" theme.