Clarification: Trolling. · 8:13pm Mar 18th, 2015
I made a blog about this subject awhile ago, but I feel like I overcomplicated it, and didn't get my point across as well as I intended. This blog isn't really for anything at the moment, effectively just for reference in the occasion I need to explain it but am too stressed to do so.
Trolling, or the act of being a 'troll', a reference to the story of a beast that lives under a bridge and taxes people attempting to cross--or eats them if they refuse--is actually just a bastardization of the original term, which is actually trawling. As in, like, a tuna trawler. The concept is the same however. Trolling is old, as far as the internet goes. As hard as it may be to believe, there was a time when the Internet wasn't mainstream. However, as time passed, it eventually became as such. This is when trolling was 'created', or rather, adapted from its real world applications that are around as old as human culture. If you've ever been in a small forum, guild, gaming clan, or the like, you've probably experienced this: The group slowly gets larger to the point that the core of the community starts to feel like it's losing it's identity, the 'big names' are starting to leave, or are becoming outnumbered. The influx of new people with no idea what they're doing is tolerable at first, but rapidly becomes frustrating as you're forced to answer the same questions over and over again. Moreover, there's that fear of losing your original community to the 'invading' one, or at the very least, the fear of no longer being recognized like you used to be.
That is what the original users of the internet, in general, experienced. Their response, was trolling. The well known activity of making misleading, or flawed arguments, or points of view with the intention of sparking argument and conflict from the gullible. However, trolling, as a concept, has a beginning and an end. Someone 'initiates' a troll on a group of new people, and teases them, plays with them with their intentionally flawed posts, manipulates them... both for stress relief, and to see how they react. If the individual(s) on the receiving end of the troll dealt with the entire process well and took it in stride, the trolling would end, and the individual(s) would be considered initiated as part of the internet regulars, allowed to play with the big boys, to speak.
... And that's all it ever was, or is. Trolling is the act of messing with someone as a form of initiation. It's nothing new, college dorms, military groups, religions, cultures and the like have been doing it for centuries. Trolling is an activity used by veterans of an internet community to categorize new comers or strangers, and potentially screen them into their specific group. At worst, it's a bit of annoyance, at best, it tells a community what they're dealing with for new comers. Whether someone is easily offended, whether they're observant, if they can take a joke, and all that.
When people say trolling, what they are usually actually referring to is flamebaiting, or just 'flamers'. If trolling is the act of initiating a new comer into a community, then the flamers is what happens to people who don't get in due to their toxic behavior for the health of a community. They're not witty, observant, or intelligent. They're not constructive, and their overall behavior is unpleasant. They try to force reactions out of people for self-gain, much like a troll, but unlike a troll, it's not about being able to feel like being part of a community, it's about the rush of feeling like you can control people, or inciting emotions from them in order to feel an emotional sensation of superiority. There is no definitive 'end' to a flamebaiting because it's about nothing more than the flamers self-destructive tendencies and insecure ego.
If you're unsure about how the two terms got mixed up... if you've ever played an online game, you're most likely aware of the term 'newb'--which refers to a new player--and 'noob'--which refers to a new player who's a toxic asshole and refuses to learn--and as such, you're most likely also aware that, out of anyone else, the people who use the term 'noob' to refer to people most are legitimate noobs, and the manner of which they use it, is as an insult. Which... doesn't really work, for the obvious reason of the words definition. However, they use it anyway, because, by the nature of being toxic, they pick up the word out of context of which they hear it used, and put absolutely no effort into actually understanding what it means. It's the same principle here. The vast majority of the people who use the term 'troll', used it out of context of just not being exposed to the actual definition--since it's always a minority that is 'initiated'--until enough time passed that using the term incorrectly no longer results in correction, as enough of the majority does so that it's entirely possible to go years without seeing an actual troll. Or, at the very least, one interested in explaining the difference.
To summarize: Trolls are there as veteran representatives of an internet community when it transitions from being small to large, and cope by messing around with the newcomers to relieve stress and initiate new members to the original community while the majority just kind of mucks about. Flamebaiters are emotionally insecure assholes.
That is all, please return to your regularly scheduled blogs and fanfiction reading.
I love this blog so much.
2889308 That was fast.
2889313 It's because I like you.
2889330 I see. That's good to know.
*tips nonexistent hat*
2889710
Hopefully, this time, you understood my point, and I won't have to keep arguing with you when you use the terms interchangeably.
2889827
The initiation thing is new to me, and the analogy is quite informative. Thank you. I'll make sure not to mix the terms up again.
Can the same distinction apply if the troll/flamer is the newcomer testing the waters of an established community, instead of the other way around? Or are they automatically just flamers (i.e assholes)?
2891840 It works both ways, it's just that the concept and motivation is born in the act of initiation, and that's where most trolls learn their craft, but they can apply it in other contexts and still be trolls, as the motivation is to profile, develop a closer community, and relieve stress.
While a flamer, in any circumstance is just trying to handle serious emotional instabilities.