Are internet trolls mentally stable?

[Xenia]

From another thread:



Sounds an awful lot like trolling to me.

LOL yes OK I accept that. Caught!

apart from a bit of fun and teasing, I don't really attack people personally and quick to apologise even in person with a phone call if I do. If you know me in person, I'm very easy going, quick to state facts, but would not (generally) make a person wrong. It's really invalidating another person that I was referring to.

 

[evand]

One persons troll is another's truth speaker. Some people just don't like the truth if it is negative. Nothing to do with "mental instability"

What i find more irritating than trolls is forum members constantly promoting their business on here in a covert way.

 

[Xenia]

hmmmm, just like a fear based suppression of people and keeping them from growing to their full potential "in a covert way". If you keep people at your level there are more people to converse with about getting nowhere except drinking beer and watching football..... not that there is anything wrong with those things, they sometimes are a distraction to an empty, un-wealthy and unhappy life.

 

[Xenia]

nothing more than tall poppy syndrome.

considering over 85% exhibit symptoms of the syndrome, the communist mentality is alive and well and cognitive dissonance is the driving force.

just as much as they are ignoratn of the benefits of investing, i choose to be ignorant of the benefits of not investing.

you mean small poppy syndrome - staying small and fearing that someone can take something away from you. - A true lack of trust in oneself.

 

[jaycee]

hmmmm, just like a fear based suppression of people and keeping them from growing to their full potential "in a covert way". If you keep people at your level there are more people to converse with about getting nowhere except drinking beer and watching football..... not that there is anything wrong with those things, they sometimes are a distraction to an empty, un-wealthy and unhappy life.

hmmm, who suggested anything of the sort , or who ae you implying suggested anything of the sort ? if

 

[Xenia]

subconscious intentions are never suggested consciously.

 

[Piston Broke]

One persons troll is another's truth speaker. Some people just don't like the truth if it is negative. Nothing to do with "mental instability"
What i find more irritating than trolls is forum members constantly promoting their business on here in a covert way.

What he ↑ said but louder lol. It's been done here for years.

hmmmm, just like a fear based suppression of people and keeping them from growing to their full potential "in a covert way". If you keep people at your level there are more people to converse with about getting nowhere except drinking beer and watching football..... not that there is anything wrong with those things, they sometimes are a distraction to an empty, un-wealthy and unhappy life.

Actually it is those who "drink beer and watch football" that appeal to the vendors as they do not take the time to analyse the issues and actually think
for themselves, or realise how silly some vendors sound with their rah rah.
they just drink beer, watch football and think everything they say must be gospel cause they said they are experts, so they must be.
And to make it worse they are very bad at handling criticism.

 

[jaycee]

subconscious intentions are never suggested consciously.

I didn't say anyone suggested it consciously.. I asked who you were talking about

 

[Xenia]

the masses of people who on the one hand want to be wealthy and on the other hand make it wrong when others are being wealthy. This is a paradox of distorted subconscious programmes directing the individual in a self sabotaging pattern of behaviour disrupting their wealth and the wealth of all those around them. It is all mindset.

 

[Xenia]

OK enough of my hippie hype for the day, bye for now.

 

[bluestorm]

What i find more irritating than trolls is forum members constantly promoting their business on here in a covert way.

Sometimes it's not even covert (even Xenia logo is promoting a business).

I have no issue it some people promoting their proprty business in a property forum. It's another avenue to market.
What I do have a problem with is when the comments and posts from some of these self promoters clearly demonstrating a bias view to talk up the market and try and keep the business flowing, regardless of what is actually happening on the streets. (we all know the one name that comes up here in that regard).
Maybe these people don't like the trolls because they sometimes counter their BS biased view.

 

[RumpledElf]

The mentally unstable ones don't do it on purpose. I used to know someone who managed to get himself banned constantly for bad behaviour on forums, and he wasn't trying - it was just his (negative and bitter) personality. He'd rant at great length offline about how moderators were always ganging up on him and were out to get him. He actually took anyone mentioning something good on a forum as bragging to personally rub it in HIS face and he'd go off at them. And then he'd come back with a new login and a new personality and behave himself for a little bit and then something else would set him off and he'd do it all over again.

My eldest daughter also has a very argumentative personality and is quite good at baiting. Get her on the internet and she invariably gets reported as a troll until you explain about her. Once you explain, people are quite willing to tolerate her quirks. There are other children on that server of a similar age so its not just her age doing it, she's just argumentative. Being a gameserver, if she annoys someone of her own age they just kill her, which isn't an option in real life

Now, the career trolls - they're mentally stable. They do it on purpose. You should be questioning their motivation for trolling in the first place, not their mental stability.

 

[RumpledElf]

I've learned to identify quite a few personality types in online forums. Some personality "types" might even be considered personality "disorders" - but that may also be too judgemental, one person's disorder, is another person's quirk. What you might see as being mentally unstable, is just someone's eccentricities, or perhaps a different perspective on life which puts you at odds since you share little in common or have no frame of reference for understanding.

Moderating is an art up there with (and not very different to) disciplining children. Everyone does it differently and plenty people have their opinion how it *should* be done.

We've put moderation systems/guidelines in place for 3 internet communities now with reasonable success and are using what we've learnt while working on two other systems that are quite different. One of these other systems is to stop people abusing a system that involves Real Money so doesn't cross over much, and the other is to stop fear, abuse and harrassment, particularly for women, to make a safe place. We've actually done a fair bit of research on the topic. Not so much anti-trolling though, since trolls rely on being anonymous and once you bring Real Money into the argument its a bit harder to keep coming up with a unique credit card number - and the cash - for each of your online personalities.

 

[redwing]

If you have some spare time there's some amusing internet personality types listed and caricitured here on "Flame Warriors"

i.e. Toxic Granny

Warriors often underestimate Toxic Granny's fighting abilities. She can be very aggressive, and because of the deference paid to the elderly, not only does Toxic Granny easily attract allies to aid in her defense, but her foes are reluctant to employ their strongest weapons against her. Prudent Warriors avoid confrontations with Toxic Granny because there is ignominy in defeat and no glory in victory.

 

[Piston Broke]

Moderating is an art up there with (and not very different to) disciplining children. Everyone does it differently and plenty people have their opinion how it *should* be done.

There's nothing artistic about moderating, nor is there any artistic talent needed.
And moderators are hardly ever chosen for the knowledge on topic in any type of forum.

And maybe biz is a little slow for Xenia

 

[Sunfish]

She can be very aggressive, and because of the deference paid to the elderly,

Dear old TG wouldn't last long here. The thirty somethings would murder her.

 

[evand]

You might have hit the nail on the head there. Beside, wealth is only one measurement of a person. There are plenty of others and its pretty blinkered to think the trolls are "dream stealers" to pinch an incredibly dumb, Henry Kaye era line..

Maybe these people don't like the trolls because they sometimes counter their BS biased view.

 

[Corey Batt]

Xenia, which I would assume to be of Greek heritage, would understand the Greek classical approach to the removal of unwanted individuals through the process of ostracism. Unfortunately we don't have that here (unless you're a mod), so individuals here have instead had to point out the discrepancies of her business practices (Trolling?) to try break up the charade.

I don't find these people to be trolls, but are trying to warn people of the danger of certain individuals who prey on uninformed people to make a profit under the guise of 'education'.

Agree with previous mentioning that ASIC really needs to clamp down on such businesses: I should have thought that professional qualification in the field would be a necessary requirement.

 

[Perp]

If you keep people at your level there are more people to converse with about getting nowhere except drinking beer and watching football..... not that there is anything wrong with those things, they sometimes are a distraction to an empty, un-wealthy and unhappy life.

Wow, Xenia, how ironic...

I dislike the idea that people can be described as being at a certain "level", suggesting that you can rank everybody in a hierarchy of ... not sure what? Worth? Quality? Value? Whatever the supposed metric is, the idea that you can sum up the enormous complexity and varied qualities of a whole human being and rank them as being of more or less worth than another, is anathema to me.

I'm not suggesting that I'm never judgemental - I certainly can be - but I at least recognise it as one of my less desirable traits, and strive to eliminate it, rather than basking smugly in my superiority.

Xenia, I think you are a kind and well-intentioned person. But may I respectfully suggest that just as you would advocate against limited thinking in terms of what's possible for one to achieve, you would be well served to remove the limits in your own thinking in terms of assuming that people fall into only two categories: winners who agree with you, and losers who are only interested in beer and footy.

 

[Sim]

There's nothing artistic about moderating, nor is there any artistic talent needed.
And moderators are hardly ever chosen for the knowledge on topic in any type of forum.

Actually, despite (or because of?) being a qualified (Mathematical and Computer) scientist, I see there is definitely an art to moderating. Indeed, it requires a healthy dose of both art and science.

Any system dealing with people relies heavily on "humanities", or "social sciences" (although I do scoff at the usage of the term "science" there).

Computer programming is all about rules, you can generally predict precisely what a computer program will do in response to a set of rules (hardware or OS bugs notwithstanding).

However, when it comes to dealing with people, you can set as many rules as you like, but there will always be grey areas, interpretations, exceptions, biases. Navigating these grey areas is where the art comes into it.

Like most things in life, moderation is about balance. Moderate too hard and you stifle the community. Moderate too little and you allow destructive behaviours and characters to flourish.

It's not easy, and you can't always get it right. Personalities play a huge part in the tone and vibrancy of a forum community, and everyone is different.

I do try and apply a veneer of science to the moderation of the community here on Somersoft. We use the infraction system as a numeric count of the number of times someone has crossed the line - too many infractions sees a user get banned for a while (too many more and the ban is permanent). The problem is that there is still a subjective "art" to determining when to assign an infraction vs just removing the problem (ie editing or deleting offending posts) and letting things continue. Even a ban is not permanent - you can always register as a new user ... although we tend to be less forgiving with someone who re-registers after being banned, but there have been some people who become model forum citizens after being banned.

You just need to look at the feedback the moderation team get to see the challenges faced in getting the balance right. The same issue will see both praise and condemnation from the community. Some people think we are too harsh, others think we are not harsh enough. Some people think we should ban some individuals for lowering the tone of the forum, while others think we should leave them alone because they add colour to the community. It's often a case of damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don't when it comes to moderation.

There is no easy answer to some of these questions, but that is also why we have a team of moderators - we bounce questions about moderation off each other daily. Other than simple cases of spam, almost all reported posts get several replies discussing how we should approach an issue. It is also useful to have a largely detached "owner" in Ian Somers who can act as a fairly independent arbitrator, since he typically has no personal history with any of the people affected by moderation decisions.

Finally, I am a strong believer in never making permanent changes in the course of moderation. That means making sure that whatever action is taken, that it is largely transparent, and can always be undone or reversed. I do lift bans, I do undo deletions and I do withdraw infractions where I think (or have been convinced) that we overstepped the mark, or decide to give people another chance.

Most things in life are rarely black and white.