Via Boing-Boing, an provocative essay on trolling from Lord Andrew J. Andrews II.
First, Drew admits to trolling in the past. Second, he reflects on the troll as trickster.
Drew writes:
I do not deny that a certain nostalgia colours this imagery: the truth is, I was once an Internet troll, “back in the day” when I was an angry, atheist teenager on an AOL account. You know the type, I’m sure. Let me tell you: I trolled pretty hard. That’s all behind me, of course, and I don’t regret having outgrown the adrenaline rush of just rolling out and pissing off some Christian group, a WebTV board or a wrestling forum. It had its thrill at the time, but I eventually just figured out I would probably piss more people off writing my own blog than I would trolling anyone else’s.
Haven't we all stooped to petty acts of destruction and incivility? I know I have, and I probably will again.
But Drew goes on to say:
There are troublemakers in all sorts of settings, in all sorts of mythologies - a troll can be equated to Loki or Anansi just as easily as they could a vitriolic bigot. Who knows? All I understand is that the Internet troll exists by the grace of those who give him a voice; without that, he is nothing.
Hah! A breath of air, a pause in the knee-jerk reaction. The next time I'm vexed by a troll (or other form of internet incivility) perhaps I will recall Drew's words, and take a moment to wonder: what benefit is the troll bringing to the discussion? What new way of seeing, of doing, is being brought in?
I think the term "troll" is often overused, especially for people who present different points of view. The troll lives for a reaction that is only ire or despair, however. Where there is a doubt, I leave the comment up. But when I see a lot of spelling mistakes, I know it is time to use the delete button.
Posted by: Joel | Sunday, June 03, 2007 at 03:58 PM
Yikes Joel, that's pretty harsh. Spelling mistakes?? I'm pretty strict about spelling, but I wouldn't delete a post for it.
There are places (like perlmonks.com or digg.com) that use a sort of rating system on posts. This tends to minimize trolling somewhat -- a sort of description of what the community thinks of your posts. Perlmonks even links the user's rating to privileges on their site, like the ability to include a picture in your profile, or the ability to review others' posts.
Posted by: CrypticLife | Monday, June 04, 2007 at 04:03 PM