So What's a "Troll" Anyways?

[johnnykillz]

My thoughts conceded defeat so I decided to post a thread relative to my inquisitive mood. I know we have to be on the look out for trolls, as members of the boards, and suspect posters taking on false identities. During an online information technology basic course I took during one of my college academia semesters, we had a discussion on this topic, as the internet had already become the media for the very class I was taking.

I also, just a few minutes ago, googled the term. I think others will come to understand a lot by the following expert's interpretation of the modern coined tag. So who is a troll? Obviously one who participates in trolling.

And trolling is, according to Judith Donath:

...is a game about identity deception, albeit one that is played without the consent of most of the players. The troll attempts to pass as a legitimate participant, sharing the group's common interests and concerns; the newsgroups members, if they are cognizant of trolls and other identity deceptions, attempt to both distinguish real from trolling postings, and upon judging a poster a troll, make the offending poster leave the group. Their success at the former depends on how well they — and the troll — understand identity cues; their success at the latter depends on whether the troll's enjoyment is sufficiently diminished or outweighed by the costs imposed by the group.
Trolls can be costly in several ways. A troll can disrupt the discussion on a newsgroup, disseminate bad advice, and damage the feeling of trust in the newsgroup community. Furthermore, in a group that has become sensitized to trolling — where the rate of deception is high — many honestly naïve questions may be quickly rejected as trollings. This can be quite off-putting to the new user who upon venturing a first posting is immediately bombarded with angry accusations. Even if the accusation is unfounded, being branded a troll is quite damaging to one's online reputation.

I found this great quotation at Wikipedia.

This came across my mind earlier, as I had made an accusation that wasn't necessarily fact given a lack of breadth and quantity concerning the poster's responses. Of course, I would expect without calling a spade a spade, the poster to wittingly reply and in time I still think they will since I'm only testing the waters. I also sought to solicit, as I now do, the other actual trolls to realize others here are empowered with knowledge.

I also find myself trying to circumvent naïvity to trolls, as deep down I want to truly believe these people are who they say they are. Deception is easy if enough information is presented and unavailable to ordinary common folk from referrences. Essentially, if a poster has the common knowledge to make highly educated information relevant, and no source is available to common folk like me, then I'm sold...

But my real question to our board is how can they, the Trolls, harm Irish Envy? I feel like my lack of trust harms my existence here also sometimes, as I seek to fully understand if a poster is who they say they are. As many of you already know about me through other posts, I'm a skeptic way too often.

 

[johnnykillz]

Second thought, maybe this should have started with:

Dear Diary... lol!

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

I tend to classify folks on this board into 5 groups:

Group 1: This group bleeds/sneezes/craps Blue and Gold. The Irish can do no wrong. Even during the hard times, these folks see the glass as being 3/4 full when all they have is 1/2 a cup. Basically the board cheerleaders.....annnoying as hell, but they have their place in our society. One of their posts will likely say, "XXXXX, please come to South Bend. We need you", or one of my all-time favorites, "Do you think we have a chance for XXXXXX?"..."That would be fantastic!" It's basically reading a post from one of those yippy lap dogs that those arrogant bitches in Beverly Hills carry around in their purse. An Example... a "former" member of our board, GoldenDomer93

Group 2: This group also bleeds/sneezes/craps Blue and Gold, however, they take a more analytical approach to what is going on. They tend to take a more realistic approach. They are ever hungry for information and are capable of making realistic/intelligent inferences off of those gatherings. This group includes a great number of posters here, but if you're looking for an excellent example, read some of TDHesus's stuff. Dude is locked in, has great takes and is able to separate the emotional from the actual. Plus, on most topics, he thinks quite a bit like I do.... Which never hurts.

Group 3: Once again, this group tends to bleed/sneeze/crap Blue and Gold, however, they are more of a guarded variety. I like to call this group the "Debbie Downer" grouping. This poster, while they love the university, are never happy with anything. They know it all and are sure they could coach the boys to victory if they were in charge. They've been known to root against the team to force change and much of what they say is nothing more than nonsense. They tend to be the board "jester" as they have nothing better to say. I won't present an example of this poster as I'm not out to give anyone a red ass...but there are a few of them. That's for each individual to decide.

Group 4: This group takes on a general Notre Dame related name which quite frankly makes them easier to pick out, trys to fit in for about 5 minutes and then every following post is nothing but derogatory statements about the Irish and the University. Johnny, here is "Troll #1"...and my personal favorite to launch. A wonderful example would be WeisBankAccount.

Finally.... Group #5: This individual doesn't give a damn what he says or who hears him say it. His screen name, to his credit is usually attributed to who he's affiliated with....That takes some stones as he's usually going to take some from the home crowd, but I guess I can respect that instead of hiding behind a pseudo-name. This individual shoots from the hip, "can have decent takes", however in the end, takes nothing but cheap shots at us and his time with the board is short-lived. While a troll, he's usually able to control himself for a little while, and then, it just happens.... The stupidity cells explode from within their body and they let 'er fly...

My example may be a little off as he hasn't gone nuts yet, however, if your a gambler, take ten bucks and put on Anchorman to win in the 5th race.

Johnny, I hope this helps...

HCTI

 

[TerryTate]

Awesome thread. Where does mbeckha fit in HCTI?

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

Awesome thread. Where does mbeckha fit in HCTI?

LMFAO.....Do you really need to ask? hahaha

 

[TerryTate]

Group 2, obviously....

"I am a District Manager! I drive a Dodge Stratus!"

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

Group 2, obviously....

"I am a District Manager! I drive a Dodge Stratus!"

LMAO..... You may want to look one paragraph down for Mr. Mbeckha

 

[johnnykillz]

I can certainly appreciate your moderator aided point of view and experience. Without this site, I would spend the countless hours of research presented here by our healthiest posters on my own figuring out who's who of ND and what's going on at ND.

I know this site has made me lazy concerning my passion, but I finally get to surround myself with conversation concerning things with other people that share a passion with me. I guard this passion. ND Football is that important to me. When they lose, I lose. I'm lost. People who know me leave me alone. I don't speak much when we lose badly or in bad fashion.

But when we win, victory is tough to remove from my essence. Life is good and balance is restored.

I can tell you this: Irish Envy isn't just a good board, it's a fantastic board. And as far as I am concerned, it's the best. I have no need to search others out to compare. Loyalty is earned, and I am here through thick and thin.

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

Right on Brother....And we're lucky to have you. You bring a lot to this here place and I for one enjoy reading your babbl.....er (J/K), I mean thoughts.

Go Irish!!!!

 

[johnnykillz]

Right... lol! I know you're right. But come season it's all business. Until then, I'm holding onto the fumes of hope.

 

[TerryTate]

I can certainly appreciate your moderator aided point of view and experience. Without this site, I would spend the countless hours of research presented here by our healthiest posters on my own figuring out who's who of ND and what's going on at ND.

I know this site has made me lazy concerning my passion, but I finally get to surround myself with conversation concerning things with other people that share a passion with me. I guard this passion. ND Football is that important to me. When they lose, I lose. I'm lost. People who know me leave me alone. I don't speak much when we lose badly or in bad fashion.

But when we win, victory is tough to remove from my essence. Life is good and balance is restored.

I can tell you this: Irish Envy isn't just a good board, it's a fantastic board. And as far as I am concerned, it's the best. I have no need to search others out to compare. Loyalty is earned, and I am here through thick and thin.

Love havin' you here johnny boy

 

[johnnykillz]

Love havin' you here johnny boy

TerryTate, you da man.

Is this a bromance? Is it official?

 

[TerryTate]

I prefer mutual hetero-mancrush. HCTI can partake if he plays nice

 

[IrishGiant]

I'd quote HerecometheIrish's whole post, but then the thread would take up a whole page, but I think you nailed it. I'm obviously new to this board (and love it already), but I am a member of several other msg boards for my other teams, and the troll's are a major problem in a few of them. It makes me wonder what type of person you have to be to spend time out of your own day trying to antagonize others. Trolls are one of the lowest form of internet scum, along with the "keyboard heros" who act tough behind the anonimity of a computer screen. I have my pic as my Avatar for all to see, makes it more personal IMO.

 

[KPENN]

One of the big reasons I don't post at rivals. Troll's all over the place. Both the Irish and UNC boards are filled with them.

 

[GO IRISH!!!]

johnnykillz and HCTI - great takes!

I would also add another group. Possibly a sub-group of group #1. Call it the HPS-BS group - for "highly placed sources - bull shit" group. This group wants to gain status by pulling info out of their arse and claiming it as fact gleaned from someone in the know. They don't really fit completely in to Group 1 because sometimes their HPS info is negative. They operate with the philosphy that even a broken watch is right twice a day with the hopes that one of their tips or scopps will pay off and gain them respect.

Although rather easy to spot and even easier to dismiss, they can be a very damaging group as well.

Kicker20 was a pretty good example. He claimed to be a former player and said he had a lot of inside knowledge. He caused quite a stir for a time.

Just my thoughts on the subject.

 

[NDinL.A.]

Kicker20 was a pretty good example. He claimed to be a former player and said he had a lot of inside knowledge. He caused quite a stir for a time.

kicker20 - Those types of guys make it very difficult to mod. I wasn't a mod then, but i don't know what I would have done. His info always seemed good enough to be believe, but the guy couldn't spell to save his life and his grammar and sentence structure were impossibly bad. How could ND graduate someone, esp a kicker who tend to be smarter than your average d-linemen (no offense IA!!!), who could barely write the English language. Needless to say if computer literate mods like BGIF, phammer and Polish et al had been around back then he would have been exposed much sooner than he was. The mods we have now, myself excluded, do a GREAT job with the technical aspect, as witnessed by a certain recruit's mother being verified as the real thing (while I, this site's Einstein LOL, was quick to delete her first post ever!!! )

I tend to classify folks on this board into 5 groups:

Group 1: This group bleeds/sneezes/craps Blue and Gold. The Irish can do no wrong. An Example... a "former" member of our board, GoldenDomer93

Great post HTCI!!!

GD93 - I was just thinking about him the other day, and thinking what I would have done had I been a mod. My favorite poster of all-time, only because he was so unbelievably unbelievable with his over-the-top unbridled enthusiasm that he made you want to strangle him, laugh at him, hug him (b/c he obviously needed some love), bag on him and ban him all in the same post. AND HE POSTED THE SAME THING AT LEAST 50 TIMES A DAY, especially when he first joined. And I'm not even exaggerating. He was up to almost 600 posts in a month's time! Most of his posts went like this:

* We will go 11-1 (Clausen's soph season, after we went 3-9)! You heard it here first!
* 1-0 baby! We will go 11-1 and 13-0 next season! Remember, you heard it here first from GD93!
* I love this site!
* Welcome aboard! Post early, post often!
* Just signed up last Friday and 100 posts already. I love this place!
* I agree!

Now, taken one at a time, he sounds like a great, optimistic fan. But take 50 of those per day, and it gets maddening. I'm an a-hole, so I would have banned him after his 10th post if I were a mod LOL. But thankfully the mods are much nicer than I am.

In true wuss fashion though, after bragging on and on about his 11-1 prediction after a 2-0 start, he completely disappeared after ND lost to Michigan St. Wouldn't answer one post. Couldn't take the heat.

But he'll always have a place in IE lore!

 

[dshans]

T rolls – ain't dat da stuff in batrooms nex t' da shittah?

 

[IrishInFl]

What about Champen? He was a troll that the mods let get way out of control before the Kelly hiring. He was banned once for two weeks. When he came back he was still a jackass.