How Trolls Highlight Your Individual Creativity
Many people like the kinds of things I write and you write and the kind of value that it provides to various online and offline communities. But some people don’t, and that’s fine. Some people disagree with blog posts or the content of people’s talks, and that’s fine too. Some people take it even a step further, sniping in a passive-agressive manner online, in public, or even going out of their way to criticize everything someone does.
The last class of people are called “trolls” in geek-speak.I like trolls. They let you know people are paying attention even when they don’t like you. They hang on your every word. They remind you that you’re being controversial. They’re evidence that you’re challenging the status quo in a community, and forcing people to reconsider the way they think. They let you know that the content you create is alive.
Don’t let trolls get you down. Your content probably has reach; theirs tends not to. Haters are very interesting… but only to their ten best friends. Once in a while their criticisms are valid, but tend to get lost in a sea of uselessness. So when something’s targeted directly at you, take it with a grain of salt - probably, no one else even saw it.
Posted via email from Mark’s Cheeky Posterous
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You’re an idiot. I question your intelligence for what you wrote. I devalue your gender, religious and political views, ethnicity and your correct use of grammar……….. Hope that helps you out!
But seriously, maybe I take things too personally but I dislike trolls. I don’t find value in their input and question if what they say is their opinion or just trying to be a jerk and an attempt to harm others (my vote is for the later). They are often a disruption to a nice conversation and can ruin a positive online community.
I also think engaging them in any way is useless and can be a bit scary. Even T/S has a link to FB for users, if you so choose. It is conceivable that one of these folks could seek a person out easier than you might think. Considering the venom that these folks can spew and irrational behaviors, I would guess that some of them are mentally unstable and would take action against someone for an imagined slight or argument.
Full Disclosure: It helps that you’re in a business/profession where number of website hits matters.
For the rest of us, the social value of a troll is somewhat less certain.
The only value I find among trolls is that sometimes, if they’re being very creative, they can actually be quite funny.
However, most of the time, they’re rude, ignorant, abrasive, or even stupid. Why celebrate them?
I ESPECIALLY LIKE IT WHEN THEY DISPLAY THEIR INTELLECTUAL SUPERIORITY AND MORAL DECENCY THROUGH THEIR ABSOLUTE MASTERY OF THE CAPS-LOCK BUTTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND EXCLAIMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Trolling is not limited to commentators.
I’ve had the misfortune to encounter an author here on this site who posts controversial articles and then waits for dissenting commentators to post an opposing view so that he can then gleefully attack them. In the rudest ways possible.
At first I thought it was just me he was being abusive to, so I went back and read most of his other posts and discovered that he does it to almost everyone.
Trolling is the bane of discussion forums, but it is particularly offensive when a community “leader” engages in it.
Would not have imagined that a blogger could or would want to make hay out of a troll’s comments. An oh yes, I’ve seen the more subtle trolls (passive-aggressive) actually gang up on a blogger, pulling him in, setting him up, and together in unison stomping all over his ego. This I know: responding to them in any way only encourages further grunts and knuckledragging and other disturbing and distracting behaviors. They’ll ruin everything given half a chance. Look what they’re doing in Congress.