Am I an internet troll?
Apr 27, 2015, 1:53 am
#1
Moderator: British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges and Environmentally Friendly Travel
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: London, UK
Posts: 22,213
Am I an internet troll?
See what I did there? I provoked your attention with the dramatic title 
What is an internet troll?
As Wikipedia describes it,
We recognise that trolling is not always intentional. Although most trolls have underlying motives that are purposefully disruptive, some internet users can also become unintentional trolls. This is likely especially when someone is experiencing stress or just having a bad day. You may post something out of impulse and regret it afterwards. Unintentional trolling occurs when we do not put much reflection on the things that we post in the forum.
The problem with unintentional trolls is that they may engage in such negative behaviour repeatedly without being aware that they are already trolling. Some people may think of posting irrelevant puns or slurs as witty or unconventional. Some may hammer the same polarised argument in successive posts, over and over in the same thread. Some may post negative off topic remarks relating to a singular issue repeatedly across multiple threads. Some may pattern their behaviour from actual trolls. Some may think that the internet is a free ground, so they can just post anything they want and we all have to deal with it. These unintentional trolls are the same people who would be surprised if they are banned from forums because of trolling.
Even if unintentional trolls do act just because they lack social sensitivity, this doesn’t mean that they are less worrisome. This is because their posts can still result to the same effect on our community. They can sidetrack healthy and useful discussions into heated exchanges of words. Whether intentionally or unintentionally done, trolls can destroy our threads.
Trolling is an abusive behaviour that can tarnish the reputation of our forum.
Excessive background noise diminishes the value and attractiveness of our forum. It can also tarnish the reputation of our forum.
Do you recognise any of the above in your own contributions to this forum?
The reason for posting this memo is to increase awareness across our community of what constitutes good posting etiquette versus what constitutes bad posting etiquette so we can as a community improve the overall health and attractiveness of our forum. In order to reduce the background noise and increase the value of our discussions we need your help by administering a little self control when engaging in controversial topics. A little goes a very long way in a highly trafficked, globally diverse forum such as ours. The moderator team may need to step in with damage control measures, such as gentle thread valeting to keep threads focused on their topics.
Our forum has for as long as I can recall been the home for interesting, objective, refreshing, humourous, irreverent and sanguine debate and long may it continue. We each have a stake in our forum and I'm certain each of us want it to continue to be successful, entertaining, helpful, and healthy.
Thanks for reading. I'll padlock this thread for now but may open it up for discussion later.
What is an internet troll?
As Wikipedia describes it,
In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.
Our advice is to ignore rather than engage with a troll.We recognise that trolling is not always intentional. Although most trolls have underlying motives that are purposefully disruptive, some internet users can also become unintentional trolls. This is likely especially when someone is experiencing stress or just having a bad day. You may post something out of impulse and regret it afterwards. Unintentional trolling occurs when we do not put much reflection on the things that we post in the forum.
The problem with unintentional trolls is that they may engage in such negative behaviour repeatedly without being aware that they are already trolling. Some people may think of posting irrelevant puns or slurs as witty or unconventional. Some may hammer the same polarised argument in successive posts, over and over in the same thread. Some may post negative off topic remarks relating to a singular issue repeatedly across multiple threads. Some may pattern their behaviour from actual trolls. Some may think that the internet is a free ground, so they can just post anything they want and we all have to deal with it. These unintentional trolls are the same people who would be surprised if they are banned from forums because of trolling.
Even if unintentional trolls do act just because they lack social sensitivity, this doesn’t mean that they are less worrisome. This is because their posts can still result to the same effect on our community. They can sidetrack healthy and useful discussions into heated exchanges of words. Whether intentionally or unintentionally done, trolls can destroy our threads.
Trolling is an abusive behaviour that can tarnish the reputation of our forum.
Excessive background noise diminishes the value and attractiveness of our forum. It can also tarnish the reputation of our forum.
Do you recognise any of the above in your own contributions to this forum?
The reason for posting this memo is to increase awareness across our community of what constitutes good posting etiquette versus what constitutes bad posting etiquette so we can as a community improve the overall health and attractiveness of our forum. In order to reduce the background noise and increase the value of our discussions we need your help by administering a little self control when engaging in controversial topics. A little goes a very long way in a highly trafficked, globally diverse forum such as ours. The moderator team may need to step in with damage control measures, such as gentle thread valeting to keep threads focused on their topics.
Our forum has for as long as I can recall been the home for interesting, objective, refreshing, humourous, irreverent and sanguine debate and long may it continue. We each have a stake in our forum and I'm certain each of us want it to continue to be successful, entertaining, helpful, and healthy.
Thanks for reading. I'll padlock this thread for now but may open it up for discussion later.
