Internet trolls post offensive or controversial material to provoke a response. They can be combated by ignoring them, and website administrators can block them or report them to authorities. Trolls evolved from those “trolling” for an answer, and can use sock puppets to appear to have more supporters.
An internet troll is someone who posts offensive, controversial or controversial material to an internet community. Trolls are unfortunately a common occurrence in many internet communities and there are various steps that can be taken to combat them. If you are currently in the throes of an internet troll, your best bet is to walk away, as trolls feed on attention and usually disappear if ignored.
The evolution of the internet troll has been a slow process that started as computer users began to adopt the internet more broadly. At first, the term simply referred to someone who was “trolling” for an answer or opinion, in the same way that fishing boats cast large nets to haul in their catch. Over time, trolls became more aggressive and the term started to be used specifically to refer to someone annoying or offensive. In this sense, a troll could be compared to the ugly creatures from Scandinavian mythology which are also known as trolls.
There are different types of trolls. In the most classic case, a troll harasses an Internet community for a few weeks, posting contradictory opinions or statements on message boards in an attempt to elicit a response. Internet trolls differ from people who sincerely wish to present a different point of view by their attitudes and aggression; their goal is not to discuss a situation, but to frustrate members of a discussion forum. They often use fallacious arguments or attack a site’s users when they try to defend themselves against the troll’s activities.
In some cases, a troll becomes a recurring figure, well known to longtime members of a message board. Individuals often tell newcomers to the community to ignore the troll, who may use various tactics to get a raise from newbies. In severe cases, an Internet troll may try to drive a wedge through a community, often with the assistance of puppet accounts. A sock puppet is a fake identity that is used by someone who doesn’t want to publish under their normal name; some trolls have a multitude of sock puppets to make it appear that their version of an argument has a large number of supporters.
Trolls can be extremely frustrating. Especially when trolls use hate speech and stalker tactics, they can cross the line into being dangerous as well as being annoying. If you’re a website administrator, there are several ways to deal with trolls, from blocking IPs to reporting to authorities if they threaten your site’s users. As a user of the site, the best response to a troll is no response, which will ultimately prompt the internet troll to move on in search of new prey.
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