User:Vincent E V A N/troll

Here is my opinion on trolls, trolling, and the relationship of "trolls" to an online community. It is very opinionated with some education, real life examples, and philosophical forethought.

Before we get into trolls in today's popular culture, let's look back to where the term, "troll" originated from. It's commonly accepted that during the late 80s/early 90s that the term was coined by people on a usenet called "alt.folklore.urban." A usenet, in simple terms, was basically an Internet inside of the Internet. People could partake in any discussions, e-mails could be sent to others (and were even seen by other people publicly) and definitely was a per-cursor before HTTP came along and fucked this system up. A troll, during this time, was a person who posted the exact same message or topic from earlier (which were already overdone) to bait people into beating a dead horse. This primitive form of trolling was harmless by all means, where which one would "bait" someone else to discuss a topic and make them self look like an ass.

In today's modern internets though, trolling is much more defined. Sure, common elements are still prevalent in forums, but what many fail to realize is that trolling can be a social weapon. It can destroy communities, access personal information, and even spark further insight on why humans are insignificant fucks in the world. Anyone can say "fuck you" to their fellow internet user easily. It won't have much effect on someone, given their shell is strong, but I question how many people on PvX can socially engineer a way into someone's life to give them that glorious message in ways that break someone's ego. Trolling is much more perverse today. Popular culture has glorified the common troll in ways that even the most autistic, pathetic, and dumb-fucked individual is a "troll."

It bothers me when people on sites like this (more so on social networking sites) call other people trolls because of the idiotic cunts who make trolling look like nothing more than a retard shambling around and losing arguments over the Internet. If they don't call them trolls because of that, then it's either because the bait fails to recognize a troll from a flat out retard. Just X calls Y and troll doesn't mean they are. In fact, for most cases, the X person only makes themselves look like a fucking idiot, and thus backfire-trolls them self. There is nothing wrong to play the Devil's advocate for the sake or argument. Playing as such is smart in analyzing a topic because it tests the quality of of the original argument and identify weaknesses in its structure, and to use such information to either improve or abandon the original, opposing position. This is of course, something I enjoy doing. For the sake of argument, people can learn more about their case from its faults rather than its gain.

For those that can't recognize legitimate arguments and blindly (out of fear of the validity of what they say, or just because they're fucking idiots) call someone a troll, get it through your head how much of a fool you make yourself to be. I rather see an amateur troll fuck around than someone blow the troll whistle on a member of a community who enjoy engaging arguments. In retrospect, it almost makes me wonder if people are just more sensitive to an opposing opinion rather than the fear of being butthurt.

Outside of PvX, I actually do debate. It's my fourth year in high school doing so, and I will go onto to college. It's something that I've been skilled in, and my win record is very colorful. My partner and I (or the times when I solo in Lincoln-Douglas) were always the top half and even made some remarkable achievements personally. We've defeated schools with a legion of a debate team numerous of times and have proven ourselves enough to be logically, and analytically superior than them. I take pride in my civil arguing, and from that perspective I've gained advantages to trolling. I am, in a sense, a troll, but I take higher pride than to stroke my ego on a dead, and sub par site such as PvX. I respect the admins here (Edit: I truly do) here and dealing with all the mental retardation, and which I admit, I've lowered myself to doing before, but without ceding any ground on my point, this site is so pathetic that trolling here is just... pointless. My biggest highlight of trolling online, is nothing like some forum post or some long wiki drama, but rather my victory in the Henchman Contest. I did not copy and paste a build from PvX, I made it myself, but the fact that it was on PvX (which ANet said that the build has to be from one's own source) pissed MANY people off. Because I managed to magically get chosen, I pissed of the GW community who partook in such an event by proxy. If you ask me if I'm happy I won, I will by far say yes. I've gotten ghostly heroes, armbraces, obby sets, and chaos gloves. That 3300ecto I got from that was used very liberally, which was collected, distributed, and recollected to the point where I could do whatever my heart desired. To the people who worked so hard for the sets that I've talked to, I always taste the hint of jealousy from their text and voice over vent, and it is awesome. From a more personal perspective, I wanted to make my victory more obnoxious. I wanted people to know me and so, I named my henchman after my main. It was absolute perfect timing to because the guild, [eyes], and its guild leaders and officers hated me. While they led an alliance, I was probably one of the few who managed to get spam PMs from officers on alts, random messages from people asking for money because I was "Quitting the game" and even got a TexMod defamation contest from this alliance. It was lulzy by far, and it is something I am proud to admit.

Do I think highly of myself? Of course. I've my up and down moments like every other human being, my blood runs red like the rest, but I think so high of myself, that the perspective of what the popular definition of what a troll is (retards targetting innocent internet users) actually makes me sad to see how perverse a culture can twist a fucked up method of pissing people off. I would say that I would almost be counter-trolled by it, but that's assuming that the people who proclaim others as trolls actually hold validity in their statements in the beginning, and which, from clear evidence on forums, shows that the average internet user lacks. The group, LulzSec is a true example of what trolls are. They've compromised a mass amount of private information, both government and individual, and spread it over the internet as if they are above anyone. Seeing that I plan on getting into Law, I definitely don't idolize them, but however, from a troll's perspective, I admire their abilities. We should fear the people who can close to us. Sure, we can all brush off the verbal slander that all people can throw at us, but it's the people who are close to us who could be our greatest enemy. You hardily know anyone over the Internet, and with the animosity of the many, can we fully tell what the other's greatest intentions are?

Real trolling takes skill. It takes people skills, the ability to gain social influence, and to have that trait of fickle behavior. I would never hurt the ones close me, but whenever I learn something new about something, I understand the pros and cons of learning it. Would I ever use the fact that a hard working, influential, and high ranking classmate of mine does drugs? No. Do I know the power I have to defame someone by it? By all means and much more. Would I? Never. I'd call it realistic maturity. People can understand the magnitude of a situation, but does everyone know how to use as an effective weapon? Realistically, no, but for us who can, we can be a dangerous sort. I would never in a million years hurt my comrades, but I would hurt my enemies, and very much so. The kicker is, on the internet, with the ability access so much information in such a little amount of time, there is a gray line between who is and who isn't your friend. There is no facial expression, there is no body language, there is only a string of text as means of communication between you and the other person. Real trolls are the twisted folk who will fuck someone up on the inside for means on temporary humor or other conspicuous means, not by acting like a total fucking idiot on a website, trust me.