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A journey through a history of trolling, griefing before moving onto: why do people do it? Does it really matter? And what challenges does Web 2.0 bring to the mix?
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Shouting ‘LOL’ in a crowded theatre
Trolling, griefing and Web 2.0 dickery
Chris Applegate, SocialMediaCamp London 2009
About me
Chris Applegate@qwghlm
http://qwghlm.co.uk/blog/
I work for We Are Social, but please don’t tell them about this
(A quick warning)
This talk contains strong language, graphic simulacra of
internet shock sites and absolutely no pictures of
kittens.
On the plus side…
I’m not going to bang on about Twitter, monetisation or PR
(PS I lied about the kittens)
Troll n. /trəʊl/
“Someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum
or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an
emotional response.”
-Wikipedia
Many types…
VulgariansWalter MittyContrarians
Agents provocateursSockpuppets
Drama queens
Since when?
Trolling pre-dates the world wide web(Can you imagine such a thing?)
The term has existed since the early 1990s
And the behaviour long before it
A classic example
“Their attack started by first flooding the newsgroup with anti-BCU messages in such
an aggressive way that made any kind of discussion impossible. Then they started with personal attacks on everyone who supported
the BCU […] Finally they invaded threads that had no relevance to the BCU, and they
further disrupted the newsgroup by trying to dictate rules about what was and wasn't on-
topic”
Canoes, FFS
B-b-b-b-but why?
What drives people to cause trouble like this?
Is it because deep down, a lot of people are utter bastards?
Or does the Internet have some magic way of transforming otherwise normal
people into arseholes?
One explanation
© Penny Arcade, 2004
But it’s a bit more complicated than that…
The best trolling isn’t just rude wordsIt’s a lot more subtle than that
There are many ways to rile peopleSo trolls come in many shapes and
sizesEach side adopts tactics, making it a
kind of game
Identity crisis?
“Trolling is a game about identity deception, albeit one that is played without the consent of most of the
players.“ (Donath 1999)Pushing and exploring the barriers of
one’s identity, the Internet allows us to explore new identities with varying
degrees of fuckwaddery
Don’t forget the medium
The Internet allows us unparalleled access to information, and to spread it
quicklyEven when that information is a
picture of a man wearing nothing but a wedding band expanding his… um…
hello.jpg
(I think you know what I’m talking about)
Hit & Run
Freedom to explore social boundariesFree access to information
Means and ability to assume multiple identities and behaviours and instantly
switch between them at onceBut it’s up to us to decide what to do
with them
But why does this matter?
This is just online!A few freaks here or there on some
board doesn’t really matter, does it?We have moderators, filter
technology, mindbleach (TBC)It’s just another annoyance like spam,
right?
Trolling 2.0
It’s not as simple as it once wasOne or two anons on a BBS can’t do
muchBut things are a lot more sophisticated
these days…
What happens when you give them all this?
Oh Christ. 4chan
Where overgrown teenagers come to
share their frustration, deviance and brilliance
They even have a wiki!
OK, they can be funny some of the time
This guy owes them abunch of hugs
The sad case of Mitchell Henderson
Teenage suicide victim4chan found his memorial
MySpace and references to his lost iPod hilarious
Cue hacks, video remixes, prank phone calls… and a
visit to his grave :(
‘Virtual’ and ‘real’ are now meaningless
Our ‘real’ & ‘virtual’ lives now intertwine
Pushing social boundaries in cyberspace has social effects in
meatspace tooWeb 2.0 allows these efforts to be
distributed and collectivised
To sum up…
Trolling isn’t just an internet problem any more, it’s an everything problem
The tools we use to do cool or fun stuff with are morality-agnostic
Troll-proofing should be as important as anti-spam or security
(But let’s not get obsessed about it!)
Thank you!
Chris Applegate@qwghlm
http://qwghlm.co.uk/blog/