The internet is a collaborative medium. The Firefox browser, Linux, OpenOffice, Wikipedia - these were all built by people from around the globe working together online, not for financial gain, but for the sheer joy of creating.
On a less altruistic level, visiting a web forum can often be an enriching and mentally stimulating experience. Communities exist for virtually any interest or subject you can think of, giving people who would struggle to find a single, sympathetic, flesh-and-blood ear for their musings on antique hubcaps an audience of dozens. Sounds almost Utopian doesn’t it?
Ah, but the trolls. The trolls.
Anyone who has posted on an internet forum has borne witness to the handiwork of trolls. Trolls are people who turn civilised discussions into slap-fights, who gain enjoyment, not from contributing, but from irritating and distracting.
Any online community that reaches a certain critical mass is bound to attract a few. You’ll be carrying on a perfectly civilised discussion, with give and take and good humour on all sides, when suddenly one comes lurching in, spewing bile, quoting out of context and misspelling commonplace words like “abject” and “failure”. Snickering to themselves as all attempts at reason slide off their greasy hides. And then the worst thing of all happens.
People get mad.
They argue with the troll, return fire in kind. The original point of the discussion is buried under pages of futile bickering. You can see everyone thinking, “I’m so much smarter than this guy. I can tear his argument and his ego to pieces so effectively he’ll never show his ugly opinions here again.” So they do, and the troll just comes back twice as pestilent as before.
Eventually a moderator will arrive to effect something more concrete against the troll, such as removing or restricting their posting privileges. But by then the discussion has been ruined, blood pressures have been raised, time has been wasted and the damage is done.
And you know what? It isn’t because of the troll. It’s because of us.
It’s because we take the bait. We rise to the false challenge of showing off how smart and witty we are, kidding ourselves that we’re going to be so acerbic that the very force of our words will send the troll packing. Instead, the troll feeds off the attention and we end up furthering the chaos we really want to prevent.
There is only one way to stop a troll. If I may butcher a quote from the movie “WarGames”: “When it comes to trolls, the only winning argument is not to argue.”
Do you know what happens when everyone ignores a troll? It’s truly a beautiful thing. First, the troll arrives and posts their usual sputum. Then - the discussion continues as if nothing had happened. The troll posts again, getting even more spiteful and stupid (sometimes hilariously quoting their first post as if unsure if people had “heard”). Again, no response. About half the time there will be one final, whinging volley in the mould of “I’m taking my terrible opinions and going home!”, but then that’s it, it’s over. The troll slinks off with an empty stomach and a wobbling bottom lip. A victory for courtesy and good will.
Some people get this. Maybe you’re one of them. (I must admit, I’ve only just recently grasped the idea myself.) But for it to work as a strategy, EVERYONE has to be in on it. If even one person in a discussion engages a troll, the rest of us might as well go watch funny animal videos on YouTube.
That’s where the "Just Say Nothing" campaign comes in. It’s very simple: sign the petition and promise never to respond to trolling in any way, shape or form (unless you’re a website moderator and can do so effectively). Then, keep that promise. That’s it!
If you want to, though, you can also put a link to this website in your signature, providing that’s permitted where you’re posting. We can always use more recruits.
Let’s be realistic: We will never get rid of trolls. Ultimately, their behaviour is the product of far more deep rooted social ills that we probably won’t see resolved in our lifetimes. But it is within our power to minimise the harm they cause, to starve them of the attention they feed upon until they reform or leave for greener (dumber) pastures.
The internet is becoming more and more important to our everyday lives. Let’s all do our part to make it a better place
When it comes to trolls... JUST SAY NOTHING!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
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