The Imminent Death Of The Internet Troll

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Raise your hand if you think we will see the end of internet trolls in our life time. Anyone?

In a Pew Research Center survey of 2,849 Internet users, one out of every four women between 18 years old and 24 years old reports having been stalked or sexually harassed online. Two out of five people said they'd been victims of some form of online harassment. And nearly three-quarters of responders said they'd witnessed harassment online.
 
I take huge exception to lumping sexual harassment and other nefarious stuff in with trolling. It gives us good-hearted evil trolls a bad name and just perpetuates the myth that everything that comes out from under its bridge in a comments section of news sites or posts randomly on forums is sexually harssing people, sending death threats, or attempting to overthrow something.

Seriously, trolls are gonna hafta create an angry hashtag and go on some flipout rampage under the guise of a lack of journalism ethics. :mad: #TrollGate
 
I take huge exception to lumping sexual harassment and other nefarious stuff in with trolling. It gives us good-hearted evil trolls a bad name and just perpetuates the myth that everything that comes out from under its bridge in a comments section of news sites or posts randomly on forums is sexually harssing people, sending death threats, or attempting to overthrow something.

Seriously, trolls are gonna hafta create an angry hashtag and go on some flipout rampage under the guise of a lack of journalism ethics. :mad: #TrollGate

Yea this wins.

Anyway, yea there's no stopping trolls, everyone knows that.
 
I take huge exception to lumping sexual harassment and other nefarious stuff in with trolling. It gives us good-hearted evil trolls a bad name and just perpetuates the myth that everything that comes out from under its bridge in a comments section of news sites or posts randomly on forums is sexually harssing people, sending death threats, or attempting to overthrow something.
I agree. Another recent story on this site even lumped rape threats against a woman into the "trolling" bin. Bottom line imo: there is no such thing as trolling. There is only rudeness when visiting other peoples' living rooms. Every private site should be treated as such.
 
I take huge exception to lumping sexual harassment and other nefarious stuff in with trolling. It gives us good-hearted evil trolls a bad name and just perpetuates the myth that everything that comes out from under its bridge in a comments section of news sites or posts randomly on forums is sexually harssing people, sending death threats, or attempting to overthrow something.

Seriously, trolls are gonna hafta create an angry hashtag and go on some flipout rampage under the guise of a lack of journalism ethics. :mad: #TrollGate

It Deeply bothers me that this is almost exactly what I was going to post. Yet another "journalist" who is confused on the act of trolling on the internet vs straight up harassment.
 
Also, after looking over the data from that report---

I think this is what happens when you mix anonymous folks with real folks.

If you don't want to be an easy target, don't share your name, sex, photos, dinner plans, etc.

Also, develop some thicker skin.
 
Pretty soon you won't be allowed to interact with anybody. Humans will all live in their own little safety bubbles so nobody gets offended and everybody feels equally excluded from all opportunities in life.

The end of the world can't come soon enough, all the whiners will die off after they realize farm-ville doesn't teach you any actual farming skills.
 
Also, after looking over the data from that report---

I think this is what happens when you mix anonymous folks with real folks.

If you don't want to be an easy target, don't share your name, sex, photos, dinner plans, etc.

Also, develop some thicker skin.
True, but we shouldn't blame the victims. People shouldn't have to be constant fear of these jerkwads, but it is sadly the world we live in.
 
True, but we shouldn't blame the victims. People shouldn't have to be constant fear of these jerkwads, but it is sadly the world we live in.

Learning to protect yourself is not victim-blaming, but damn you see this sentiment a lot lately.
 
Learning to protect yourself is not victim-blaming, but damn you see this sentiment a lot lately.
It is victim blaming when learning to protect yourself is pretty much "don't do anything online, and if you get hacked or harassed you should have known better."
 
It is victim blaming when learning to protect yourself is pretty much "don't do anything online, and if you get hacked or harassed you should have known better."

Is that what my comment sounded like? That wasn't the intent.

Simply don't give people ammunition.

I used to see my sister ask for it. She'd be playing WoW, and start conversations with strangers... "Hey my brother is letting me play!"

Which would end up with her divulging her sex and age, and all other sorts of nonsense.

Just don't; use anonymity to protect yourself.
 
I see that the actual meaning of troll is lost once again. Soon enough, you'll be called a troll just because you're a couple of minutes late to a meeting or eat unhealthy foods.
 
I take huge exception to lumping sexual harassment and other nefarious stuff in with trolling. It gives us good-hearted evil trolls a bad name and just perpetuates the myth that everything that comes out from under its bridge in a comments section of news sites or posts randomly on forums is sexually harssing people, sending death threats, or attempting to overthrow something.

Seriously, trolls are gonna hafta create an angry hashtag and go on some flipout rampage under the guise of a lack of journalism ethics. :mad: #TrollGate

Yeah, trolling may seem like it borders on harassment on occasion, but stalking and sexual harassment? Hardly trolling.

These are different things. Another news outlet that has no idea what it is talking about.
 
The difference between trolling and bullying is punching up versus punching down.
 
Also, after looking over the data from that report---

I think this is what happens when you mix anonymous folks with real folks.

If you don't want to be an easy target, don't share your name, sex, photos, dinner plans, etc.

Also, develop some thicker skin.

So very true.

I grew up when the internet was considered the wild west. You DO NOT PUT YOUR REAL NAME OUT THERE. Absolutely not. We didn't call it spear phishing, just regular phishing back then. You associate your real name with your "handle" and you're asking for trouble. This is why I don't have a facebook or other social media/real life associated accounts (to my social detriment). I'm from the school of thought that if you don't want your real life fubar'd, you don't put it online. I guess I'm an old-fashioned internet user. Paradoxically, an old fashioned offline user too, now that I refuse to join the "Hey, here's every detail about my life in convenient online record" movement.

I've been threatened with all manner of bodily harm while gaming. Death threats of the "I will kill you!" variety are so common they're not worth mentioning; I expect the most graphic is being threatened with "face rape". As in "I will rape your face you fucking hacker!" after dominating someone in some multiplayer FPS. So far, in 20 years of gaming, I have never been raped in the face. While this is anecdotal evidence, I do feel it points towards the lack of conviction behind anonymous online threats, particularly amongst gamers.
 
As long as there is an Apple forum somewhere on the internet there will I be also!! ;)
 
I've been threatened with all manner of bodily harm while gaming. Death threats of the "I will kill you!" variety are so common they're not worth mentioning; I expect the most graphic is being threatened with "face rape". As in "I will rape your face you fucking hacker!" after dominating someone in some multiplayer FPS. So far, in 20 years of gaming, I have never been raped in the face. While this is anecdotal evidence, I do feel it points towards the lack of conviction behind anonymous online threats, particularly amongst gamers.

I think the circumstances around the threat are important. In a live setting, it can be pretty easy to tell someone is being a sore loser and making empty threats. If some one send me a message without any prior contact demonstrates they know where I live and says they're going to harm me, that's a lot different (and I'd be calling law enforcement or at least accuse contracts for the site, idp, etc
 
IPV6 will kill internet trolls.

Every device will have a unique IP address.

NAT will no longer be necessary and / or used
 
It Deeply bothers me that this is almost exactly what I was going to post. Yet another "journalist" who is confused on the act of trolling on the internet vs straight up harassment.

Maybe this "journalist" is actually a troll :D
 
It's just people being people. If some folks think this is just something that happens on the internet and that some day they will be able to force the general population to meet their ideals, it will be a sad day for them when they realize this is just all part of life.
 
Trolls are sad lonely people for sure, but they are not sick sexual predators, just sad little people.
 
.... oh yeah, and everyone knows if you don't feed the trolls they die. ;)
 
I think the jury is still out on exactly WHAT trolling is.
I have been accused of a being a troll just because I had a different opinion than everyone else.
I was just challenging to obvious group think that was going on all without name calling etc.

Now in my opinion a troll is someone that is out to behave like an ass-clown no matter what, and is not interested in a rational discussion. Like a Intel fanboy trolling a AMD forum and posting things like "AMD Sucks and you know it! Quit pretending you have a real CPU in your box and go buy Intel!!"

As far as leaving what sexual harassment is to a poll; forget it. Most woman think they are being harassed if they get attention from some guy they don't think is good looking. Regardless they are wearing something low cut and slinky to attract attention. Same with online. Any unwanted attention they get regardless of their own online behavior is harassment. I'm glad I'm happily married and have been for over 10 years now. I don't even notice other women much anymore and really I'm glad of that fact. I would hate to be a young guy now in this day and age trying to find a descent woman to date. It was hard enough 20 years ago, must be a nightmare now these facebook addicted women what always have their phone stuck in their face. (don't be offended, just and old guy's observation)
 
As far as leaving what sexual harassment is to a poll; forget it. Most woman think they are being harassed if they get attention from some guy they don't think is good looking. Regardless they are wearing something low cut and slinky to attract attention. Same with online. Any unwanted attention they get regardless of their own online behavior is harassment. I'm glad I'm happily married and have been for over 10 years now. I don't even notice other women much anymore and really I'm glad of that fact. I would hate to be a young guy now in this day and age trying to find a descent woman to date. It was hard enough 20 years ago, must be a nightmare now these facebook addicted women what always have their phone stuck in their face. (don't be offended, just and old guy's observation)

A lot of men are phone-infatuated too or spend their evenings and weekends crawling around under a car instead of interacting with other people. Or they're watching a bunch of sweaty fat guys chase each other and fight over a non-spherical "ball." Is that somehow not as bad as Facebook because the stereotypical woman isn't doing it, but the stereotypical man is? It doesn't even sound rational, but perspective is important.

Also most women do not think they're being harassed when someone pays the slightest bit of attention. If that was the case, there'd be a lot more nasty stuff happening in workplaces where there are policies against it because people would be making tons of reports. People feel harassed when there's a bad vibe, inappropriate and uninvited physical contact, or just downright creepy stuff going on and that's genuinely a rare thing which has nothing at all to do with whether or not a guy has a case of mister ugly face or a problem with his weight/doesn't exercise.

You're assigning some really unrealistic stuff to people who don't deserve it because, I think, you've never been there or had to feel that way or just don't have the ability to feel any empathy for other people. Don't give your kind a bad name by saying silly stuff like this because you want to ignore or write off legitimately creepy stuff as just someone making an unreasonable complaint.
 
Gonna get PTSD from people being mean on twitter?

Harassment has been run roughshod through the mud so much that now it means name calling.

People need to grow up and learn to roll with the punches. Now if someone is actually being harassed online it should be taken care of. However a random tweet that calls someone a name is not harassment.
 
You're assigning some really unrealistic stuff to people who don't deserve it because, I think, you've never been there or had to feel that way or just don't have the ability to feel any empathy for other people..


Don't miss the point.
If you conduct a poll and ask 100% if they have ever been sexually harassed you are likely going to get near 100% saying yes.

If you narrowly define sexual harassment as someone physically accosting you in a sexual manner, that is a different story. Assault punishable under the law. But that being the cause it carries a burden of proof.

Well because of the mindset of many, sexual harassment is ANY unwanted attention. That include communication, or someone making a gesture, etc.
Because of this you get results like THIS:

http://wavy.com/2014/04/24/boy-accused-of-sexually-harassing-teacher/

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/1...rassment-for-kissing-girl-on-cheek-148424908/

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AsSeenOnGMA/story?id=4585388
 
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