Blogs are intoxicating words of trolls. Trolling: stupid fun or useful skill

For many people, forums are now a permanent place of communication. People get to know each other, discuss painful issues, and share their experiences. And he doesn’t even suspect that sharks are sitting very close by, lurking in ambush. They show up in the middle of a conversation, throw out a few well-aimed phrases, and friendly get-togethers instantly turn into a storm of flames and showdowns. These sharks, not without pride, call themselves “trolls” and believe that they have no equal in the forum battlefield.

Historical roots

The phrase "forum troll" supposedly originated in the late 80s, but the phenomenon itself is as old as BBS and Usenet. It is believed that the term was borrowed from fishing, where a “troll” refers to a bait on a hook. Trolling on forums is also similar to fishing. A provocative post (bait) is presented to naive users, they react to it emotionally and thereby resemble a caught fish in the flamer’s net.

On February 8, 1990, a certain Mark Miller mentioned the term “troll” in his post on Usenet, addressing the user Tad: “You are simply not able to understand what everyone is trying to explain to you, it is useless to explain anything to you at all. But the saddest thing is that you are also absolutely sure that you are right. You just clear example mistakes of nature - do us all a favor and finish your way up the food chain. Die, you mindless pompous troll." This was the first recorded mention of the word “troll” in relation to flamers. Since then it has become increasingly used.

In the early 90s, at the alt.folklore.urban conference, the expression “trolling for newbies” gained popularity, which referred to the jokes of Usenet veterans towards newcomers who took hackneyed posts and threads too seriously.

For a long time, trolling was considered a harmless activity for debaters, a game of arguments. Only in the second half of the 90s did it appear new variety trolls who aim to purposefully destroy a selected conference or news group. This is achieved by a massive flood of meaningless messages or correspondence that are not interesting to regular readers. When the amount of such spam begins to exceed 75% of all posts, readers usually simply unsubscribe and traffic to the conference disappears. Examples include the Usenet conferences uk.local.birmingham and alt.astrology.metapsych, which completely ceased to exist due to attacks by forum trolls.

Probably one of the most active trolls of the second half of the 90s was a user with the nickname Callidice, who lived on the largest political forum Guardian Unlimited. He personally managed to quarrel with a huge number of subscribers, launch hundreds of provocative topics and sow real paranoia in the community - people thought that Callidice was behind every new thread. Of course, he was banned several times and even tried to be found in real life, but the flamer remained anonymous and always found a way to return and continue his business. In the end, due to mistrust and constant racist disputes that flared up with or without reason, the site was closed.

The task of any troll is to turn a calm thread into a furious argument, a conflict in which as many readers as possible will get involved, and the original topic of conversation will be completely forgotten. The motives may be different. Some people simply enjoy arguing and entertaining themselves and the audience at the expense of others; others try in this way to prevent discussion on an objectionable topic; There are people for whom trolling is self-affirmation, a game, a battle of intellect. It is believed that only kids with complexes engage in trolling, but in reality this is far from the case. Sometimes among the best trolls there are adult, serious people who occupy respectable positions (professors at institutes, politicians, television people) and thus prefer to relieve their brains.

Troll tactics

Different trolls behave differently. Some people are only smart enough to respond to all remarks with monosyllabic phrases, others like to intellectually and beautifully trample their opponents into the dirt. But there are some techniques that are used by most experienced trolls. Here are a few of them:

1. “Who’s the troll here?” A popular tactic of forum trolls is to accuse their opponents of being trolls. Since the very concept of “troll” is subjective, and there are no clear criteria for identifying trolls, it is enough to simply accuse a person of the fact that all his statements and arguments are nothing more than a provocation, and that he himself is a terrorist flamer who came only to flood. Inexperienced forum users will begin to make excuses, but this is always a dead end.

2. “Just a joke.” If the argument reaches its peak and the entire forum is up in arms against the troll, he can simply declare that everything he said is a joke and the debaters who took everything too seriously are stupid.

3. “Two acrobat brothers.” A fairly effective way, especially on forums and IRC, is to create a double of yourself under a different pseudonym, with which you can provide support to yourself. When a third party appears in a dispute between two opponents, who completely takes the side of one of the participants and ridicules the second, this gives a fairly strong psychological effect. Moreover, the double may be completely different from the troll’s main character, posing as some authoritative, serious person.

4. “Do you know that...” Experienced flamers often refer to known facts or cases to confirm or support your words. For example, somewhere on the #anti-gay channel a troll begins to polemicize that gays are not so bad, and cites a bunch of famous personalities as proof who have achieved success despite their sexual preferences.

5. “Chill out, kid.” A very effective tactic is in which the troll first pisses off some forum reader (to do this, it is enough to ridicule reasonable, logical arguments), and then, when he speaks emotionally and gets personal, he plays on contrasts: he speaks deliberately calmly, with looking smart indicating the opponent's mental disorder.

6. “Evidence.” Experienced trolls love to ask for proof of any sayings addressed to them. No matter what they tell him, no matter what they accuse him of, the troll will demand irrefutable evidence, otherwise “these are just words.” Needless to say, whatever the evidence presented, it will be ridiculed along with its author?

7. “The Silence of the Lambs.” Silence is a troll's most powerful weapon. During an argument, an opponent can make a brilliant argument, but a smart troll will simply leave it unanswered, commenting instead on completely unimportant fragments. But as soon as the opponent makes a mistake or makes a weak argument, then the eloquence of the troll will manifest itself in all its glory.

There are even flame competitions where the most seasoned debaters are recognized as winners. You can watch it and maybe even participate at www.flamechampsnetwork.com.

The best way to deal with a troll is to not respond to their posts. Over the hill, the expression is very common: “Don’t feed forum trolls” (“Don’t feed forum trolls”), because the trolls’ food is precisely the answers of excited users. And the more the flame grows, the more satisfying the troll becomes. Of course, you can get involved in a debate and try to “defeat” the provocateur, but it should be borne in mind that usually professional flamers have a lot of experience in arguing and they simply do not recognize their opponent’s arguments, no matter how convincing they turn out to be. And any attempts to point out that the troll is wrong end with your ridicule. This is the same as trying to beat a fish in a competition for the longest breath hold under water: arguments and verbal skirmishes are as natural to a troll as water is to a fish. And usually all that a person involved in a controversy can expect is irritation and a spoiled mood.

Organizations

Trolls are a fairly close-knit community. Thanks to established methods and well-known provocative phrases, experienced flamers quickly recognize brothers by reason when they interfere in a calm discussion. And by teaming up, they can ignite the dispute even faster. There are even official troll organizations whose members work hard to ensure that the lives of online users are not too calm. Here is a list of the most famous troll organizations:

(censored) Pump (http://www.dieforirc.com) is the most active group of trolls specializing in IRC networks. They can be seen especially often on EFnet, on popular channels, such as #microsoft, #science, #math, #computers, #politics, #christian, #irchelp, etc. Having enjoyed the fruits of their presence, members of the group leave their signature slogan PP4L ((censored) Pump 4 Life) and leave, leaving users to disentangle the flame. Also (censored) Pump managed to appear on popular service MySpace.com, attacking user pages.

American Nihilist Underground Society (www.anus.com) is a very old organization, dating back to 1987. It includes activists of various Nazi, nihilist and other extremist movements. With the advent of the Internet, ANUS members happily moved to promote their slogans on forums and IRC channels. The group’s favorite places are news groups dedicated to heavy music, philosophy and religion, where trolls like to not only provoke, but rather shock people with their statements. The organization is hated by many fan sites and simply fans of Metal music because they constantly throw mud at their idol musicians.

Gay Nigger Association of America (www.gnaa.us) – группа деструктивных троллей, целенаправленно сеющих хаос в сетевых комьюнити. In addition to flooding, on forums and web blogs, guys engage in telephone pranks and create provocative websites. Unlike ANUS, GNAA does not promote fascism, racism and other extremist movements, but, on the contrary, selects their sites as targets for its attacks. Posts from the organization were first seen on Slashdot in January 2003, and since then GNAA has become one of the most prominent and active trolling groups in the world, causing dozens of websites, blogs, and IRC channels to either shut down completely or temporarily.

The World Internet Troll Union (www.witu.net) is a young organization of Internet trolls attacking forums, chatrooms and 4fun sites. She has not yet gained wide popularity, but the guys still have a long way to go.

Myg0t (www.myg0t.com) is a team specializing in trolling online games. Its representatives say: “We have our own methods of legal gaming, which involve enjoying a quiet evening after a hard day at work.” These methods, as you might guess, are not entirely legal and cause a strong negative reaction among ordinary gamers. These include various hacks, cheats, exploits, flooding on game channels, and even installing Trojans on game servers. The organization dates back to 1998 and has grown considerably since then. The procedure adopted here for initiating new members is interesting: recruits must post a photo of themselves holding a pie in their hands, baked especially for Myg0t, on a closed forum. According to rumors, only 3% of all who apply succeed in becoming an official member.

Sacred Jihad against Slashdot (www.anti-slash.org) is an organization fighting against bad moderators and editors of Slashdot and exposing their illegal bans/punishments. She does this by creating provocative posts in the comments of Slashdot articles and collecting dirt on the site’s staff.

There are many other smaller trolling organizations. Some of them unite for more “fruitful” work, some, on the contrary, conflict. For example, there has been a squabble between GNAA and Myg0t for a long time. It all started with the fact that GNAA opened its own page on Wikipedia and ridiculed Myg0t, who had not yet managed to do this by that time. However, the Wiki text, both for GNAA and Myg0t, was deleted dozens of times and distorted, but members of the organizations quickly restored the original. Both teams compete for the title of "Who is More Famous". Myg0t has appeared several times in major magazines (Rolling Stone, PC Zone, PC Format), and has been mentioned on CNN and other sources. GNAA is also not deprived of the attention of journalists, and as soon as a note appears about one of its representatives, trolls immediately gladly throw links to their rivals.

Trolling in Russian

Trolling and flame wars came to Russia with the advent of FIDOnet, and this phenomenon was especially popular in 1995-1997. I just caught those times when the SU.NAEZD, TYT.BCE.HACPEM, SU.FLAME conferences flourished - then the central places for flooding and flame. The third is not so remarkable, but the other two are worth telling in more detail.

SU.NAEZD was created for “intellectual debate”. Although swearing was not prohibited there, it was not encouraged, and ordinary flooders, who cannot connect two words without “f#k,” did not stay long. There were about 40 in the conference active subscribers, who made up the elite of the “sunriding”. Every new person, who came to flirt, was tested by the regulars for strength. Everyone usually turned against him - it quickly became clear what to expect from him. Those who enjoyed long polemics tended to stay and join the "old guard." The conference was not dedicated to any specific topic - disputes and heated flames arose out of the blue, the size of some answers often reached 50-80 KB (including quotes from the previous post)! This place, despite its specifics, was quite friendly - there was even talk of getting together from all over Russia and drinking beer together, but, as far as I know, it didn’t come to that. Regular participants in their own way they respected each other, although they did not miss the opportunity to tease and sub (censor) anyone at any opportunity.

TYT.BCE.HACPEM was the exact opposite of sunriding. There were practically no long tirades and multi-kilobyte intellectual polemics here - they simply sent everyone and everything in the most obscene and florid ways, and the rules encouraged everything that was strictly prohibited in other conferences. It also had its own regulars, it had its own elite club, which spent most of its time ridiculing and expelling lamers. TVN was well known throughout the Russian FIDOnet due to the huge traffic that circulated in the conference and the subversive activities of its subscribers. The favorite pastime of TVN people was to go in a crowd to one of the popular conferences (RU.ANEKDOT, RU.HIP-HOP, RU.COCA-COLA) and, by charging subscribers, doom it to collapse. After such invasions, conferences were usually declared “branches” of TVN.

In 1999-2002, when the popularity of FIDOnet began to wane and the Internet came to our country, many of the old FIDOnet flamers settled on IRC and forums, conducting subversive activities in crowded places. Livejournal, as well as the sensational portal Udaff.com, have become especially convenient places for flamers and trolls to work.

Nowadays trolls can be found everywhere. Wherever a sufficiently large audience gathers, sooner or later a flamer appears, sowing seeds of discord and watching with pleasure the results of his work. According to some network analysts, trolling is a real plague of the computer age, on a par with spam. And it is impossible to eradicate this phenomenon while forums, communication channels and websites exist.

From the official TBH history

“On the network for poor nerds, which was FIDOnet, there were always people who cared about foundations and rules. They sent everything that had some value to someone. Over time, their number increased, and their influence on the Network also grew. In October 1994, in order to reduce the flow of crap in the echoes, a certain Dmitry Orel created the TYT.BCE.HACPEM conference. It was not based in Fido, but worked on the same FTN technology. However, over time, a gate was built between the two networks, and an army of TVN people invaded the domain of the fidoshniks, wreaking havoc and destruction. TVN was banned on most FIDOnet nodes as a corrupting and immoral phenomenon, contrary to the charter and policy. TVN people were banned and disconnected from the network, but they returned and continued their work. Thanks to the efforts of our brothers, moderators, sysops and other gray masses were convinced that if there was no such echo as TVN, there would be no peaceful life for any FIDOnet conference. Only then did TYT.BCE.HACPEM appear officially on the network backbone.

In subsequent years, the echo turned into a trash heap, where various young lamer flocked, flooding and spamming with meaningless posts and expelled by veterans tired of them. In order to separate the lameriers from the honorary TVN people, an organization was organized, which included everyone who did something for the echo and fought the invasion of the lamerish spawn.

Rules for a competent flamer from Mindwork

1. A competent flamer should not care about absolutely everything. He should not care about his loved ones, relatives, complexes and shortcomings, social status and everything else on which his evil acorns can base him (censorship). When the evil acorn says: “I fried your mother,” you should answer: “Yes, I fried her myself, what’s the problem?” Then the evil acorn will understand: there is nothing to catch here.

2. Better protection a competent flamer cannot have it. Because evil acorns defend themselves, and competent flamers only attack. If the evil acorn attacks and forces you to defend yourself/make excuses, you should immediately turn the discussion around so that the evil acorn has to defend yourself/make excuses.

3. Brevity of speech and syllable capacity are the key to success in flame. Let the evil acorns write kilobytes of treatises, if they don’t care. A competent flamer will say only one word, one phrase, and all the stench of the evil acorn will pour out on him.

4. A competent flamer should always be able to prove that the Earth is square and people descended from earthworms. There are no unprovable things, only weak arguments.

5. A competent flamer must quickly find inconsistencies and inconsistencies in the arguments of the evil acorn and immediately use them to prove his inferiority. A competent flamer must find inconsistencies even where there are none. And if you come across a particularly evil acorn who doesn’t want to screw up, a competent flamer should help him, so that he can then laughingly point out the inconsistency and loudly call him an evil acorn who lied.

6. A competent flamer must remember that in a flame he is the wise monk, and the evil acorn is just a bleating sheep. And the flamer must behave accordingly. With dignity, condescendingly, touchingly looking at the naive jokes.

7. Every evil acorn has vulnerabilities- his values, which stand above all else. A competent flamer should be able to identify these places and immediately play on them. Moreover, it is always better not to say: “What a freak,” but to show and prove it so that the audience can see it clearly and have no doubts.

8. A competent flamer should not waste his time on stupid goldfinches. A competent flamer respects himself and only teases brainy, worthy acorns. And it’s easier to send stupid goldfinches to Bobruisk and laugh at them, pointing your finger.

More about trolls on Wikipedia - http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D1%80%...%B8%D0%BD%D0%B3

Who are trolls and how to identify them

You've probably met them many times before. These are the ones who come to the forum in order to write a controversial definition, deliberate stupidity, to be rude or simply curse at you or one of the forum members. Typically, trolls use clearly provocative phrases (“beat the Jews,” “I hate @!#$s,” “Japanese women are crap,” etc.) in order to start a scandal. The term “troll” comes from the English to trawl, “to catch with a net” - trolls comb online forums in search of attention (trawl for the attention).

The troll is completely indifferent to what the conversation is actually about. He has nothing substantive to say, or simply report anything interesting. He is only interested in attention to his person - and he will do anything to attract attention to himself. If you answer the troll, he will completely ignore the content of your letter and write either another stupidity in response or simply be rude. If you do not answer him, he will be rude even more intensely, trying to provoke you into rudeness or a thoughtless statement. A classic troll trick is to claim that you are scared of him or that you have nothing to answer if you decide to stop talking to him. Sometimes a troll, offended by the lack of attention, begins to systematically litter the forum with garbage (“flood”).

Trolls often come into active discussions in order to turn them into a massive explanation to them, the trolls, that they are wrong and, thereby, completely destroy the meaning of the discussion and turn it into an ugly scandal.

Many forum participants simply prefer not to notice trolls, considering them a necessary evil. Unfortunately, negative emotions from contemplating troll writings tend to spill over into discussions with reasonable people.

Why do they need this?

Trolls seek attention in such a perverted form simply because they have extremely low self-esteem and do not have any other ways to attract attention to themselves (among trolls there are almost never smart or interesting people- they simply have nothing to say). As a rule, in real life trolls are sociopathic and often have problems in their personal lives. The very fact that someone noticed the troll and responded to him increases the troll’s self-esteem. The troll's next desire is to pull the interlocutor down to his level (and, if possible, humiliate him with a stream of rudeness and innuendo).

Due to inadequate socialization, trolls do not perceive their interlocutors as people; for them, you are just an abstract picture on the screen. Therefore, they do not consider it necessary to be polite, show respect to their interlocutors, or bother to understand what they are trying to explain. A typical troll is completely impervious to criticism of himself, to reason, to logic, or to appeals to morality. Therefore, it is impossible to convince or re-educate a troll.

What NOT to do if you come across a troll

Do not engage in any discussions with the troll. If you tried to explain something to him, he won, because you spent effort, time and attention on him, which he will pointedly ignore. If you tried to insult him, he won, because he pulled you down to his level of communication. If you started to answer him, but then stopped talking, he won, because he decided that he managed to offend you or that you have nothing to answer (and he will then brag that he “leaked” you).

The most useful thing you can write is to remind other participants in the discussion that there is no need to engage in punctuation with the troll (increasingly on online forums this is formulated as “DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS!”).

A big mistake would be to demonstratively complain about the troll to the forum admins, who will most likely “ban” him. As a result, the troll will not only receive more attention than his worthless person will ever deserve, but also a crowd of “free speech” defenders will form around him - many of whom are lazy to figure out who is right and who is wrong. As a result, you will receive nothing but a portion of dirt addressed to you.

Is it possible to get rid of trolls?

Trolls, like cockroaches, cannot be completely eradicated. Get rid of one, a new one will always take its place; There are a lot of idiots and sociopaths. But like cockroaches, trolls can be warded off.

The worst thing for a troll is when no one pays attention to him. The troll will simply get bored and go off to new “pastures”. But before that, he will go out of his way to still attract attention to himself - personal insults, flooding, etc., etc. will be used.

Therefore, the only sure way to deal with a troll is to “ban” without getting into a fight. To do this, forum administrators need to monitor such things and take care of the cleanliness of their forum. Unfortunately, this is a very rare occurrence... What a pity! Regularly deleting troll posts from the forum is a sign of good manners and respect for your readers (as well as their time - many of us simply do not have time to read streams of nonsense from trolls).

Sure, back-and-forth with trolls can be entertaining and quite lively, but remember the old saying: "If you're arguing with an idiot, think about how he might be doing the same thing!"

There is an opinion that banning a troll is an admission that he has won. Trolls brag to each other about being banned, presenting this as their “victory” because they “didn’t have anything to answer.” In fact, this is their game - they do this in order not to be banned by everyone except those as wretched as themselves. Playing along with them in this is not only stupid, but also antisocial. The more actively the community bans trolls, the sooner they will remain isolated and leave. Often, serious, creative people stop reading those forums that allow trolls, where they multiply at a terrible speed... And from this, all the forum users who really came for useful information lose.

Dear admins! When adding another troll to the list of banned people, you need to remember that it was not he who “defeated” you, but you who decided that his worthless person does not deserve a minute of your time and the time of your forum members to read his nonsense and write a response. Banning him is faster and easier. He has nothing to be proud of. If you encounter a troll in someone else's forum, pay attention to the forum owner and ask him to ban the troll, as a matter of social hygiene.

Trolling in VK is now a widely popular entertainment among young people and others. Today it is so common that when observing interactions on social networks, it can be very difficult to tell who is a troll and who is simply actively defending their position.

In fact, trolling on VK or anywhere else is nothing more than sophistry that arose in Ancient Greece. However, if the sophists of Ancient Greece, indeed, possessed the art of eloquence, arousing admiration, the modern “thrall” is sometimes not even able to compose a full sentence, so he uses ordinary copy-paste in an argument or simply slides into insults. What are they worth? words for trolling on VK And pictures for trolling on VK? Apparently, some trolls are so “smart” that they are not even able to figure out on their own “how to troll a person with clever words.”

Thick and thin trolling: words for trolling

Usually, heavy trolling is understood as rude insults to the interlocutor, blatant inversion of facts, forging someone else’s account, posting inappropriate offensive pictures and other nonsense that only interferes with communication.

Thick trolling on VK ends very quickly: an administrator or moderator comes and, seeing a littered thread, simply bans the inappropriate person. The rest of the users breathe a sigh of relief and continue to communicate further. Such “trolling” does not indicate anything other than the presence of low intelligence. These are the types of Internet personalities people are looking for in Google words for trolling or asking how to troll a person with clever words, since they are not able to come up with something on their own.

The same thick trolling includes the so-called wiping, when a public or group is simply littered with copy-paste or pictures that do not carry any meaning. In these cases, a bot is usually used for trolling on VK.

More subtle trolling is the raising of a controversial topic in discussions on which all participants will definitely want to speak out. If we talk about SEO forums, a striking example of such a thread can be disputes like “Where is it better to promote – in Yandex or Google?”, “Is it relevant now”. The troll, pretending to be a noob, often simply asks the necessary question, after which the participants do everything for him. Such trolling is often even called nanotrolling, since the “green” simply gives the participants a topic for discussion, and then watches them swear and quarrel with each other.

Also interesting is the type of trolling that is often called so thick that it is even thin. In public discussions on VK, on ​​a forum or LiveJournal, a certain sociable character appears, distinguished by radical views and an allegedly complete lack of understanding of the situation under discussion. Subsequently, he begins to actively defend his point of view and argue with everyone who disagrees with him. At the same time, he knows very well the rules accepted in the community and the point of view of the administration, so there are no apparent reasons for his ban. Quickly gaining a reputation as a local “fool”, such a troll at the same time acquires supporters, of course, of a narrow mind.

Often this method is used for the so-called. A troll (or rather, even an experienced marketer) simply interests a large group of people in this way, after which he often lures them from someone else’s resource to his own. At first, his supporters and opponents simply visit his public page or blog with a half-empty forum attached to it, then they begin to mock and ridicule him and, in the end, some of his supporters remain on his new resource.

Why people engage in trolling and what feelings they experience can only be answered by the trolls themselves. Some of them like to feel like a kind of intellectual elite, completely changing the mood of the crowd with one message, others just want to amuse those around them, some pour out their anger and negative emotions on the Internet. Some, having heard people talking about trolling on VK, simply want to try to troll someone themselves and start posting in public provocative messages.

To summarize our comic article, we note that trolling is, of course, a much more interesting and useful hobby than stupidly sitting in front of the TV, but it is also much more stupid and destructive than communicating with normal people, reading books, playing sports and walking in the fresh air. air.

Don't get carried away 😉

A person must communicate. Even the most closed people who consider themselves a foreign body in society cannot fully live without verbal contacts, let alone extroverts:

Freedom of speech is one of the fundamental principles of the modern world, but there are topics or certain expressions that are unacceptable and unacceptable in society. Also, we must not forget about the principles of subordination: a friend can calmly endure the address “hey, you idiot! “, but the boss is unlikely to find this funny.

The Internet erases all restrictions of the real world, giving users an omnipotent anonymity. This creates a favorable environment both for intellectuals, who can finally freely express progressive ideas, and for the opposite camp, whose representatives are ashamed to voice their thoughts outside the virtual space.

Communication on the World Wide Web can both bring pleasure and become a real challenge. Many users fall for the tricks of Internet trolls and waste their nerve cells in vain. Some become trolls themselves and take advantage of of this type Web communications have certain benefits.

This article will discuss the concept of trolling: what it is, why it is needed, and how to become a real professional in this activity:

What is trolling

If you look into the English-Russian dictionary, the concept of “trolling” will be associated with fishing ( to be precise - lure fishing). Based on this, we can already conclude that someone is throwing bait, and someone is “biting” on it.

Trolling can only exist in those places World Wide Web where people communicate with each other. The essence of trolling is to write provocative messages that egg on your interlocutor ( or interlocutors) to response statements ( most often quite aggressive). The more the confrontation flares up, the more profitable it is for the troll, because attracting attention to oneself means the main task any web provocateur.

One of the fundamental conditions of trolling is anonymity. After all, the whole point of an aggressive skirmish is that the troll cannot be punished, it is impossible to argue with him or “ put in place».

Of course, there are exceptions: some are quite famous people not only know what trolling on the Internet is, but also actively use this method communication to maintain increased interest in your person. However, such PR should certainly be classified as “black” and resort to it only in extreme cases.

Where did trolling come from?

The concept of “trolling” arose back in the 1990s on the Usenet computer network ( who gave birth to such attributes modern Internet like nicknames, emoticons, spam and much more). The phenomenon aroused interest even among researchers ( The first to study this was the American Judith Donat, who considered trolling as one of the phenomena of the World Wide Web).

Today, trolling is often associated with a mystical creature - the troll, which, of course, has some basis. After all, a troll is, traditionally, an aggressive, uncontrollable creature that does not encounter any obstacles on its way:

Why troll?

When we communicate offline, most dialogues take place in a mutually polite environment. No one wants to offend their interlocutor, because being in a tense atmosphere is an extra psychological cost. In addition, confrontation rarely promotes quick solution problems, and in our time it is important to deal with matters as quickly as possible.

Once in the online community, a person feels completely different. When communicating on Skype with a stranger, you can indulge in something that in reality is considered stupid and awkward. At first glance, trolling appears to have no purpose, but the points listed below will prove otherwise.

So people become trolls to:

• Self-assertion. Many engage in web aggression simply to achieve something in the virtual world that is much more difficult to achieve in real life. It is quite convenient to use obscene expressions when no one will ever punish you for it. This goal, as a rule, is pursued by people under 18 years of age, but there are also much older troll-aggressors;
• Increase your own popularity. In this case, we are no longer talking about anonymous trolling. As mentioned above, this is a “black” PR technique used by some famous people. This type of trolling is usually a little less aggressive;
• Win the argument. There is such a thing as “subtle” trolling. This type of communication on the Internet does not imply open aggression; on the contrary, the conversation proceeds quite calmly, and trolling manifests itself in rare, but very accurate “injections” of the interlocutors towards each other;
• Generate interest in the web resource. Very often there are examples when the owners of Internet resources or forum administrators deliberately incite visitors to conduct an active discussion by creating provocative topics or messages:

This approach, of course, can cause user activity, but after this it is difficult to talk about the high authority of the resource.

Troll Rules

Of course, there is no set of laws by which online predators operate. On the contrary, we can talk about complete absence Most trolls have no moral or ethical standards.

However, you can troll without resorting to obscene language and impudent insults. Let's consider the rules of trolling that will allow you to masterfully emerge victorious from any Internet dispute:

• Address your opponents using “you”. This simple technique will in many cases cause terrible irritation in your opponents;
• Don't give "direct" answers. In any dispute, you should not be tied to your judgment. Try to make vague arguments that do not clearly indicate anything;
• It's up to you to prove it, not you. The one who asks questions always looks smarter than the one who answers them ( except in cases with a significant difference in the intelligence of the interlocutors). Build the conversation so that your opponent has much more opportunities to turn out to be a fool than you;
• Try to avoid other trolls. If you stumble upon a seasoned Internet provocateur, you risk being disgraced in the eyes of the public. Select and attack users who you think are less experienced;
• Be calm. You don't owe anything " unsettle" Even if your interlocutor provides “iron” evidence that he is right ( or your wrong), follow your line, that’s why you bear the proud “title” of a troll;
• Try to piss off your interlocutor. At the same time, you should stay within the framework of “subtle” trolling, and when your opponent bursts into streams of “dirt” at you, declare that this attitude does not suit you at all. It will be a clear victory;
• Fuck the facts. Since you are a troll, you can safely tell everything the way you want ( even if it's complete nonsense). There is a high probability that your opponent will not be able to catch you in a lie due to his own ignorance. If he does catch it, then you know what to do ( turn on equanimity);
• Ideally, your message should be the last one in the discussion. In this case, you can safely declare victory over your opponent ( literally write it like that separate message ) even if the dispute was not in your favor.

Trolling phrases

If you are a novice troll, then at first you may make a mistake and launch into the usual aggressive distribution of insults. Don't judge yourself too harshly in this case. Everyone started with this and only over time learned the fine art of “subtle” calm trolling.

Let's look at some popular trolling phrases that will help a beginner quickly get on the path to success in verbal battles:

• « Any child will tell you this" You must create in your interlocutor a feeling of obviousness of your statements. In this case, weak opponents may no longer insist on their point of view so confidently;
• « You look like a completely reasonable person" If after this the opponent begins to object, he will involuntarily question his intelligence ( naturally, in the context of your dispute). Many may even perceive the phrase as a compliment addressed to themselves and respond “Thank you” ( which can also be an element of retaliatory trolling).
• « This is complete nonsense" Use this phrase when you cannot constructively object to your opponent. An instant and categorical denial of an opponent's point of view can return the conversation to the troll's control.
• « You haven't made a single compelling argument." Another phrase similar to that proposed in the previous paragraph. In response to it, your opponent may begin to re-present his arguments, thus bending to the troll ( and you can say again that you didn’t hear anything sensible in the explanations).
• “Justify.” This expression is considered quite harsh among trolls. “Justify” is a transitional stage from a more or less decent discussion to insults and “ mud flows».

How to become a successful troll

By studying the theory outlined in this article, as well as with the help of other sources of information, you can accumulate a fairly large knowledge base. Also, you should not neglect the advice of experienced trolls who have pissed off more than one Internet user.

However, the best trolling lessons will come from practicing on your own on various forums, websites and social networks.

It should be remembered that rude and groundless insults towards Internet users are an example of low-quality trolling. If you want to be known as a true master of this difficult task, then use more elegant techniques of “subtle” trolling.

Trolling at its best

Here's an example of trolling an imaginary Internet user:

• I declare with full responsibility that this dress is red and green!
• You're wrong! This dress is actually black and blue. Many people see it as white and gold, but this is due to an optical illusion. But it clearly cannot be red-green.
• I'm sorry, but any sighted person can tell you that the dress is red and green.
• Have you gone completely crazy? The whole world sees only two options that I named. There cannot be a third!
• I don't understand. You seem to look fine educated person, you write competently, but you don’t notice the obvious. The dress is red and green.
• Yes, take a test in Photoshop! If you don’t believe me, trust the program, it’s impartial.
• This is complete nonsense. Your arguments don't make any sense.
• Justify! (What follows is a play on words, inappropriate for this article, flavored with national flavor).

Thus, trolling acts as a means of self-affirmation and “black” PR. There are standard trolling words that can be used in an argument in order to piss off your opponent.

Initially, social networks were created so that people who are at a great distance from each other could freely, and most importantly, freely communicate with each other, exchange information, emotions, and so on. At first, the matter was limited to correspondence, then services with voice and visual communication operating online appeared. Unfortunately, today all these resources are often used, to put it mildly, for other purposes. Judge for yourself: on VKontakte, on Facebook, on Skype, and on all other services, they simply chat with each other, making fun of each other, or even openly ridiculing the qualities of their interlocutor. This kind virtual communication in violation of site rules and network ethics, which most often manifests itself in the form of bullying and offensive behavior, is usually called trolling. And in Lately This phenomenon is gaining momentum.

Getting to know the youth concept

It is worth noting that trolling can also have, so to speak, friendly overtones, that is, your close people simply came up with some kind of joke for you so that everyone would have fun and laugh. In this article we will look at how to troll a person, what dialogues you should be careful of, so as not to become a victim of such a prank. Friends are one thing, and a professional troll is quite another. After all, it also happens that unfamiliar people, or even strangers, try to play a prank on you. They know how to troll a person, what strings they need to grab, so as not to humiliate him, not to offend him, but simply to play him very “hard”. Well, let's move on to a more detailed consideration of this issue.

What should a professional troll remember?

In this type of "art" it is important first of all to keep a person on the hook. For every troll the most important point is a manifestation negative emotions interlocutor, who, in fact, is a victim of his oratorical and logical (and sometimes completely devoid of logic) mockery. Experts in this matter who know how to troll a person say that the main thing is to tease your opponent without truly insulting or humiliating him. But a troll is simply obliged to evoke feelings such as awkwardness, inability to say anything in response, etc., in his victim. It is also worth remembering that a person must certainly be kept in constant voltage, then increasing it, then reducing it, but not completely eliminating this feeling. So, now let’s move on to more specific examples of how to troll a person: let’s look at what you can say and what you can’t.

The basis of any trolling

Let's start with the simplest - with “inconspicuous” remarks that can be thrown as if in passing, by chance. They can relate to a person’s appearance, his mannerisms, clothing, or style of conversation. And if you correspond online, then the main target will be literacy. True, there is one nuance here: when you make fun of someone’s mistakes, don’t get into a puddle yourself! Sometimes we listen to our interlocutor, look at him, accepting everything as it is, and do not look closely at the details. But if you are

If you do, that is, start reading every phrase carefully or pay attention to how the colors are combined in his clothes (or maybe he doesn’t know how to dress stylishly at all), then there will certainly be a reason for trolling. For example, you are attracted to a girl who looks like a goth: black clothes, dark, catchy makeup, etc. As a rule, subcultures suggest that you should definitely wear sneakers or similar not very attractive shoe options. To such a female person, you can subtly hint that it is very difficult to distinguish her from a guy.

How to troll a person on VKontakte

This social network is just a battlefield for various masters of oratory, who take advantage of weaker people in this field of activity full program or simply practicing their eloquence. If you also want to poke fun at someone, here are some tips for using the resource mentioned. The most common ways to troll a person is to find fault with his holy of holies on the Internet, that is, his nickname or avatar. See what exactly causes you the most confusion, and

take action. The second option is to troll in dialogues. You can approach a person with some plausible, but not very decent request. Of course, everyone will refuse, but in response we write: “Okay, I thought you wouldn’t mind receiving a substantial amount.” The conversation will go like clockwork, no doubt about it. The main thing is that you will understand what kind of person is in front of you. Maintain the conversation by constantly making fun of the other person, but without insulting him. True masters can present everything in such a light as if the opponent himself “ran into them”, and they only calmly responded. Yes, and at the end, say that you will post all the correspondence on the popular public page... A new round is guaranteed!

How to influence a person: looking for weak points

This method is a little more complicated, and is designed so that you can identify the real shortcomings of your interlocutor, which really bother him. This may be his inability to write correctly or excessive use. Perhaps your sacrifice will do anything for the sake of money or for the sake of fame, etc. In general, we look for such “Achilles heels” and put pressure on them mercilessly. For example, you are trying to make fun of a pathological liar who, even in small things that make no difference, avoids a direct answer. We tell him that life is probably so easy (without telling the truth); we ask who exactly he is lying to and how, but we ask all these questions with sarcasm. If the victim notices that you are trolling him, deny it and continue with your conversation. Such a liar can also be caught red-handed. Often people who lie do not remember everything that they have already told and to whom. All you have to do is carefully monitor the development of events, and at the right moment remind him of another version that he expressed earlier.

How to troll someone on Skype

Taboo for every troll

When starting to engage (or rather, have fun) with this type of oratory, it is important to know how to troll a person without swearing, without insults and open claims. Otherwise, you risk getting banned, and besides, even people with a low IQ instantly realize that they are being scammed and stop such communication. Who should I troll then? Be polite, gallant, choose your phrases carefully and pay attention to what they say to you. But in no case give in to your interlocutor, always insist on your topic, on your judgments. It is also not advisable for the victim to constantly keep him in suspense, attack him with unexpected questions and statements.

A few final words

In order for trolling to be beautiful and interesting, and first of all for you, be a master of this matter. Don't be rude, don't swear, don't yell at your interlocutor. All you need is to find his weaknesses, read his fears, discover those topics that are “sick” for him. Press on these points during the conversation, look for details that make him fly into a rage, but under no circumstances flare up in aggression and anger yourself.

Live tougher:

10 rules
present
trolling

Living tougher: 10 rules for real trolling

Instructions for using the most accessible and safe entertainment on Earth

Crisis, unemployment, there are more and more upset people on the Internet who are desperately trying to cope with stress. We have already written about how to behave if someone is online, but now we have compiled an extended guide for all participants in the process - those who suddenly came under attack and are forced to defend themselves, and those who want to follow the slippery slope of the Internet warrior. Let’s look point by point at the basics of the worldview of Internet trolls, and how to use them: to fight them or, conversely, to join their ranks is your own business.

Instructions for use are most accessible G o and safe fun on Earth

Crisis, unemployment, there are more and more upset people on the Internet who are desperately trying to cope with stress. We have already written about how to behave if you are on the Internet . Now we have compiled an expanded guide for all participants in the process - those who suddenly came under attack and are forced to defend themselves, and those who want to follow the slippery slope of the Internet warrior. Let’s look point by point at the basics of the worldview of Internet trolls, and how to use them: to fight them or, conversely, to join their ranks is your own business.

1. Be active

A troll is an Internet user who posts provocative posts or comments to attract attention. Trolls often suffer from attention deficit and lack of recognition in the real world, which they try to compensate for virtually. Depending on their working methods, trolls are divided into thick and thin. Fat trolls most often try to provoke aggression with their straightforward, defiant behavior, while thin ones can spend hours preparing for a meal, generously pouring sauce over the victim and seasoning it with various spices.

2. Work on your image

1. Be active

An important quality of any troll is energy and efficiency. This is your foundation, a basic skill with which you can scatter all the amateurs and clear the way for yourself to real prey. Refrain from emotions in everyday life, and now you are ready for a protracted fight. Just imagine a wonderful picture - people are standing on the wall and watching in admiration how caring, diligent and athletic you are. The man has your word - you give him ten. The main thing is not to waste your time on trifles. Your task is to exhaust the victim, and not to waste your strength and make yourself laugh at the chickens.

If you feel that this technique is being used on you, you can try to run at speed and in the event of a decent fight, you will quite possibly become best friends and work like a real army. Otherwise, let the troll find another victim, let him have breakfast with those he doesn’t feel sorry for. After all, trolling is hard work and staying on top isn't easy.

3. Be calm on the outside, but prepared for drama on the inside.

4. Be in charge of the market

2. Work
over the image

The success of the event depends on the image and the ability to adhere to it. Someone chooses the image of a respectful gentleman, someone - a cynical brute, someone - a cute, frivolous cat. But you can’t just show up to people in your mother’s clothes and say: “That’s it, now I’m a redneck.” It will be more pleasant and useful for people to track you down - to connect several facts, to practice deduction. Trolling is like a reality show, give them new facts about yourself, develop as a person, throw out something like that from time to time. The main thing is to play your role to the end, despite any disasters. After all, if, for example, during a conversation, a person addressing his opponent as “you” suddenly makes a familiar jab, it will at least look strange. At most, it will be a death sentence and a reason to end the dispute.

5. Spread your thoughts throughout the tree at the right moment

6. Don't give in

3. Be calm on the outside, but prepared.
to the drama internally

Every time you start a war in a thread, remember that you are on stage and tens, hundreds, or even thousands of spectators are looking at you. Behave with dignity. Keep calm. Don't make a fuss. Everyone is just waiting for you to snap. But you're not a fool. You wouldn't start this if you weren't confident in yourself, right? There is practically no chance to restore authority in the thread, or even in the public. Therefore, the first thing worth improving is the ability to control yourself. The main thing is not to overdo it with calm, otherwise people will think that you are boring and will rush to get rid of you. Sometimes give them a beating and pretend that you are about to lose control. Let them eat popcorn and die slowly.

7. Don't deny anything

Never. No matter what lies and slander are poured into your address, do not even think about denying it and starting to prove something. The burden of proof always lies with the claimant. If baseless, unreasonable accusations are thrown at you, simply do not pay attention to them, because this is most likely your opponent’s way of avoiding the main topic of conversation, or a banal attempt to insult you. Rise above this, develop concentration and equanimity. Plus, in the future, your passive reaction may well bring you an extra dose of fun. Don't forget about the image - in the end, it's not all about you.

8. Curse masterfully

9. Write as you please, but not exactly

4. Be in charge of the market

If you say “a”, be prepared to say “b”. Therefore, think ten times before blurting out something. Although it seems to you that the thread is full of idiots, collectively they definitely know more than you. You definitely shouldn’t count on them not paying attention to a poorly constructed system of arguments. Public conversation is not the place for hasty conclusions and unverified facts. Build a line of accusation, think through possible moves, and only then declare a decisive battle. And most importantly: no matter what you say, never deny it. The boy must be held accountable for his words. One day you can even publicly admit your mistake and apologize. The act will outlive your lyrical hero and this day will be immortalized in the memory of many Internet robbers.

10. Let's have a visual fight

5. Let your thoughts flow
down the tree at the right moment

Sooner or later, the troll is faced with a problem such as the lack of arguments to continue the argument. It would seem that you need to stop and admit that you are a loser, but real troll He doesn’t know how to lose and will fight to the end. Eloquence enters the scene and demagoguery begins. A demagogue doesn’t care about logic, a demagogue ignores obvious things, a demagogue doesn’t care about his opponent’s arguments. The main task of the demagogue is to confuse the interlocutor with pseudological conclusions based on nothing (more precisely, on the conclusions made by the demagogue, but this is the same thing). A demagogue will cling to his opponent’s words, turn them inside out and present the result as a counterargument. The rules of discussion formulated by the ancient Greeks are alien to the demagogue. A demagogue is his own rule.

Setting out to conquer virtual world, do not forget: the Internet is not part of your country, it is an absolutely independent space in which no one cares about the laws of the state in which you live, and specifically your rights. Once you have expressed your point of view here, be prepared to defend it. And defend with arguments, and not with whining about “I live in a free country and I say what I want.” Nobody cares where you live. Welcome to a world without borders, where there is no constitution, police or prisons. You voluntarily gave up all of your rights the moment you opened your browser.

6. Don't give in

One way to gain the upper hand over an opponent is to try to appeal to his social position in the real world. Provocations on the topic “you wouldn’t say that to my face, puppy” most often go unnoticed, but from time to time they still find their victims. Don't give in. Remember: no one cares about your real personality, what matters to the viewer is your virtual image, which you play out so skillfully. Don't let all your efforts be ruined by such a cheap gimmick. In the end, you and your opponent are separated by two monitors and kilometers of wires - he doesn’t see you, breathe evenly.

8. Curse masterfully

Any philologist will tell you that swearing is an integral part of the Russian language. But there are often those who think differently. And if suddenly a foul-mouthed person and one of the representatives of the intelligentsia collide, fun flows like a river. Despite all the arguments and arguments of the boor, no matter how thorough and convincing they may be, all the attention of the “white blood” is focused on the abundance of obscene language in the opponent’s speeches, and this is precisely the main argument in the hands of a secular person in order to immediately stop the argument and leave of him the winner. One cannot expect any other arguments in such a dispute.

What is typical: some immediately begin the debate with swearing and insults, bypassing any arguments. Such people, in principle, do not want to prove anything to anyone, but simply seek to offend everyone. In this case, you can safely conclude that the conversation is over, unless, of course, you want to compete with your opponent in foul language.

9. Write,
as you please
but not really

If you run a blog or public page with an audience of several thousand subscribers, then a competent presentation of thoughts is your direct responsibility, because readers will definitely adopt your punctuation and spelling to one degree or another, because, after all, you are an authoritative person. It's a completely different matter if you are an ordinary commentator. In this case, you do not owe anyone anything and can write as you please. At least without punctuation marks at all, if that’s convenient for you. Your main task is to convey your thought to your interlocutor, and the presence of separating commas is unlikely to affect the content of this very thought.

However, there is a separate category of people, it is useless to argue with them without first passing the Russian language exam with excellent marks. Whatever you claim, no matter how true and ideal your thought may be, all your promises are nothing, because you did not reject Pulkovo. When meeting with such subjects, try to stick to your thought until the end and not stray from the topic of the dispute to talk about the advisability of isolating constructions with compound prepositions. Stand your ground stubbornly, and if you remain persuasive, there will definitely be a sympathizer, with whose support you will cut this literate man to pieces.

10. Let's
visual combat

When not fighting, the troll marks the territory and checks the captured areas. His task is to keep the bulk in a black body and show who is boss. Therefore, he always pretends that he knows a little more, is a little ahead, and a mere mortal simply has no chance of reaching his level. Of course, the latest memes and a set of battle pictures help here. Pry into the srach without special folder with cats is like going to the front with a bare ass. The first shot, you are unarmed, you grab the air with your hand, and the stunned audience is in shock, how could you even screw up like that in a test battle. On the other hand, knowing the latest memes is for a nerd who laughs at his own jokes. You can try a different tactic and hit the old stuff, something that has been tested for more than one generation. Basically, just find your style. And pictures are also a good tool for exhausting. Clearly, quickly, disarmingly. Everyone has at least some words, but the pictures are special forces, this is a rapid response group.

It’s clear that internet fighting is an art just like any other martial arts, and now you have basic knowledge, which will allow you to try yourself in the Internet ring. And no matter what side of the force you choose, no matter what image you try on, never forget the main commandment of an Internet fighter, the reason for which everything, in fact, is done: just for fun. Treat everything like a theater production. Never take what is happening seriously, otherwise failure is guaranteed. If you realize that you are starting to take everything too personally, leave the battlefield before it’s too late. It is better to surrender in time, maintaining your dignity, than to shamefully lose the battle.