What makes a troll tick? Trolls exist on article comment threads and internet forums around the world. They’re often rude, green and argumentative and show no constraint in their attacking nature. EOSHD.com explains how trolls operate and why the phenomena has come about so readily in the world of DSLRs.
Trolls are anonymous
Trolls do not feel a personal duty to the other person’s feelings because they are anonymous in front of a screen. They are personally insulting (which is totally unacceptable) because the insults are often in an open forum rather than in a personal face-to-face. Trolls can be genuinely upsetting and memorable for victims.
The facts don’t matter
I am not a pedantic fact guy and I do readily change my mind when I hear new information. However trolls are really into facts. They’re pedantic to the point of infuriating, often with facts totally unrelated to the topic of discussion or big picture. They never change their mind when a situation changes. To avoid a situation where they run out of ammunition or the argument ends, they invent paranoid conspiracies instead.
The bigger the target, the bigger the satisfaction
Trolls sometimes attack each other, but they gain more satisfaction from attacking someone with a reputation or a larger presence than they have, because like all of us they want their own status to be on an upward climb and not to diminish.
They are not directly responsible or accountable for anything
As with the Nazi Party terrible behaviour was deemed acceptable and it is a similar mechanism on internet forums, because nobody is accountable as individuals, their actions are all part of the combined effort in the ‘war’ or what they perceive as a battle of wits. There is no punishment for the troll in losing an argument, because they get satisfaction the attack itself. The logic of the argument means nothing. There is no punishment for the troll attacking because it is over the internet and he does not risk social exclusion or a punch in the face. There isn’t any consequence to being a troll.
Gaining a response validates their presence and ego
A troll gains attention through outrageously stupid statements, by being argumentative or by being insulting. It is not easy to ignore, and subsequently people pick up the bait and engage the troll. This validates their presence because they realise that their arguments are taking effect and being listened to.
They have ammunition
Trolls have plenty of ammunition because many artists put their work and reputation out into public forums. Trolls can directly view our work and be insulting about it. By doing this they know that it has a greater attacking power than the original narrow focus of the topic at hand.
They will argue that black is white
Trolls are totally ignorant of the relevance of the conversation and genuinely believe they have an argument. Sometimes they are selective and ignore elephants in the room, and sometimes they like to dwell on pedantic details in an effort to ‘catch you out’.
They try to justify equipment purchases because their results don’t speak for themselves
For many people a camera is a luxury investment. Trolls need to defend the decision they have made because they are in their heart of hearts unhappy with the results. This is why trolls hang about ‘hot topics’ so much but all for the wrong reasons. First, they gain the most attention from busy areas of a website. Second, a hot topic usually always concerns new camera releases – a popular troll battleground. For example on Philip Bloom’s website, over 150 people commented on the Canon 60D release despite it having no ground breaking new interesting technology, yet around 20 people commented on the videos on display in the Philip Bloom London meet-up competition. Trolls are not genuinely interested in socialising, or in art or new technology. They’re only interested in the next purchase they think will help them become an expert. But there is no substitute for real talent, experience and the ability to learn. Artists rarely become successful simply by buying new paintbrushes!
They are fanatically loyal to one brand
Being fanatical about camera brands has the same effect as constantly justifying their purchases. They need to enforce a positive view of their investment. Being fanatical or loyal to a brand helps them believe in their tools when their work itself is not good enough to generate any confidence in their camera.
They can feel like they’re standing up for their own tribal clique or community against outside views
Trolls often use their strange opinions (even when it doesn’t fit the logic of a topic) to justify their links to other members of the clique. Trolls often agree with each other more than they do fight each other. They’re like playground gangs or tribes. I have often see moderating teams behave like trolls themselves!
They are bored and have nothing better to do
It may just be as simple as that!
[SIZE=”5″>How to solve the problem of trolls[/SIZE]
Make people relax
If people get to know people as people and not as assholes with opinions, people tend to like people better.
Make people accountable for what they say
Having a direct link between a member’s real employment and workplace helps encourage good behaviour, because if something backfires on the forum it may effect their real life. The link is direct and it has a potentially serious impact.
Bring in the girlfriends and wives
Facebook is relatively free of trolling, because people are all connected to close friends and family, and do not want to bring embarrassment to their family through harassing a stranger. It causes them to think twice about A) bad behaviour towards other real people and B) that the other person is not just an anonymous avatar.
Stop segmenting forums into equipment type or brands to prevent cliques from forming and to reduce brand fanaticism.
If forums are organised more loosely, it tends to be that people share their positive experience of different brands together and do not form cliques in certain walled areas which automatically make everybody else an outsider when they enter that part of the website.
An an example – posting something negative about Canon on the Canon Forum is seen as trolling, because it is an invitation to start a fight. Writing something negative about Canon on a more general and open forum catering for lots of different brands is seen as more constructive because it encourages debate not just against Canon equipment owners, but amongst everyone. You then get more varied viewpoints, a greater mix of people and it is not seen as a ‘brand X versus brand Y’ battle of wits.
Encourage more positivity
Vimeo is very good at doing this. I think it is because people know the value of positive feedback and nothing else is tolerated or accepted. Once the majority start slinging mud like on the YouTube comments system, the place descends into hell. Vimeo has resisted this to a remarkable degree, as have other artist communes.
Also it is quite hard to start an argument on Vimeo, because what people post tends to be less opinionated and more artful. Vimeo is also not really a forum, so by it’s very nature it doesn’t have the kind of discussion that, say, a DSLR forum would have – and it doesn’t encourage a crowd of brand fanatics and fan-boys.
Remove reputations and labels
Having a class system on a forum is a bad idea, because it encourages cliques to form and it makes certain members feel like they can ‘get away’ with more. A moderator label also means that more junior members feel looked down on and they are more likely to feel excluded if the moderator disagrees with them. Often trolls can actually just be people who want to fight the general consensus or challenge the moderating team, and this should be allowed. Some places with over-bearing mods or class systems feel like a private clique of rulers and king-makers.
Sex
Everybody get away from the screen, and go and make love.
