JimmyTwoTimes37
02-02-2012, 10:03 AM
The psychology of a troll, in itself, fascinates me. I wish Sigmund Freud was still alive to witness someone who feels the need to create an alter ego on a message board to wreak havoc. Is it a modern creation due to technology? Or did the fundamental ideas of trolling go way back to our earliest ancestors? Is there a common Trolling 'Bible' in which all Trolls adhere to and/or legislation? Were early homo sapiens going around anonymously messing with Neanderthals cave paintings? Trolling is one of the few things that seems to transcend all ages, race, religion, and gender.
Let me put this out first. The Moderators have done an excellent job swiftly removing the riffraff. Now, with that aside, I think we have seen some pretty remarkable trolling here on the XHoops message board lately. Here are some of the cliffnotes:
1)Library boy who creates dozens of personalities to negative rep people for posts written years ago(Yours truly has been destroyed by him for some reason).
2) Guy creating two simultaneous screen names to curse out each other for the first ever duel simultaneous ban
3) A UC fan still pretending to be a SLU fan(a hundred posts later) to insult Xavier fans
Looking at the negative reputations rankings, this is the Infamous Top 12(Mind you this list does not include banned members):
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab82/NBow37/NegReps.jpg
I break them down into 4 categories
A) Honorable Trolls I call them Honorable Trolls because they are initially well intentioned posts. I nickname these personalities as 'Daywalkers' because they are Half fan, half troll. Legitimate at first but when challenged or disagreed with, they quickly and without warning turn into Meatloaf on an episode of celebrity apprentice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE5KI18Tt4Y&feature=related . They get so entrenched in their opinions that they refuse and fail to see others. Everything becomes completely defensive that almost always ends ugly with a personal insult. Oftentimes, however, their names represent an actual part of their real persona. These people are more often than not long time posters and everyone knows not to take them seriously
B) Impulsive Trolls Some trolls are just doing it because they are bored. Reclusive and usually unfunny, they assume the name of something with no affiliation to the message board they are posting to. They have no plan, no life, no gf, and no emotions. Their primary goal is just to annoy. When left unchecked, they can dominate and overrun the board. Can't imagine many are over the age of 17. Often times tries to insert random things to the topic to take the topic off course
C)TitanXMan
Real C) Psychopathic Troll These guys are the scary Jeffrey Dahmer type ones. They premeditate their troll gameplan(s) and try to execute them to perfection. Their intelligence separates them from the other types of trolls. My guess is they can adapt to any situation and probably get some sick form of sexual satisfaction to getting banned. These guys can lure you into a false sense of security as they can morph into either of the other types of trolls mentioned above.
D) The 'VIP' Troll - A poster whose original name has been put on the ignore list by so many people that they feel the need to create an obvious new screen name of themselves just to contact the people who ignored them. In addition to this, they often time use the original and new name to positively rep oneself. See the textbook example here in this thread on post #134 and #141:
http://www.xavierhoops.com/forums/sh...t=22151&page=4
There really need to be scientific studies of the brain of trolls. I wish we could take a troll and put him in different environments/scenarios to study them.
-What parts of the brain fire up and are dormant when engaging in internet insults?
-Does this temporary satisfaction of the troll release endorphins?
-Is there a primal need to troll in all of us when in a Lord of the Flies type of scenario?
-Is there a website for gateway trolling?
-Do trolls prey on our youth and indoctrinate them from an early age?
-Is there an initiation into the trolling community?
-Are there secret underground societies of trolls with secret handshakes?
We may never know the answers to some of these questions, but I feel science can help us understand the mind of a troll one day
Let me put this out first. The Moderators have done an excellent job swiftly removing the riffraff. Now, with that aside, I think we have seen some pretty remarkable trolling here on the XHoops message board lately. Here are some of the cliffnotes:
1)Library boy who creates dozens of personalities to negative rep people for posts written years ago(Yours truly has been destroyed by him for some reason).
2) Guy creating two simultaneous screen names to curse out each other for the first ever duel simultaneous ban
3) A UC fan still pretending to be a SLU fan(a hundred posts later) to insult Xavier fans
Looking at the negative reputations rankings, this is the Infamous Top 12(Mind you this list does not include banned members):
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab82/NBow37/NegReps.jpg
I break them down into 4 categories
A) Honorable Trolls I call them Honorable Trolls because they are initially well intentioned posts. I nickname these personalities as 'Daywalkers' because they are Half fan, half troll. Legitimate at first but when challenged or disagreed with, they quickly and without warning turn into Meatloaf on an episode of celebrity apprentice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE5KI18Tt4Y&feature=related . They get so entrenched in their opinions that they refuse and fail to see others. Everything becomes completely defensive that almost always ends ugly with a personal insult. Oftentimes, however, their names represent an actual part of their real persona. These people are more often than not long time posters and everyone knows not to take them seriously
B) Impulsive Trolls Some trolls are just doing it because they are bored. Reclusive and usually unfunny, they assume the name of something with no affiliation to the message board they are posting to. They have no plan, no life, no gf, and no emotions. Their primary goal is just to annoy. When left unchecked, they can dominate and overrun the board. Can't imagine many are over the age of 17. Often times tries to insert random things to the topic to take the topic off course
C)TitanXMan
Real C) Psychopathic Troll These guys are the scary Jeffrey Dahmer type ones. They premeditate their troll gameplan(s) and try to execute them to perfection. Their intelligence separates them from the other types of trolls. My guess is they can adapt to any situation and probably get some sick form of sexual satisfaction to getting banned. These guys can lure you into a false sense of security as they can morph into either of the other types of trolls mentioned above.
D) The 'VIP' Troll - A poster whose original name has been put on the ignore list by so many people that they feel the need to create an obvious new screen name of themselves just to contact the people who ignored them. In addition to this, they often time use the original and new name to positively rep oneself. See the textbook example here in this thread on post #134 and #141:
http://www.xavierhoops.com/forums/sh...t=22151&page=4
There really need to be scientific studies of the brain of trolls. I wish we could take a troll and put him in different environments/scenarios to study them.
-What parts of the brain fire up and are dormant when engaging in internet insults?
-Does this temporary satisfaction of the troll release endorphins?
-Is there a primal need to troll in all of us when in a Lord of the Flies type of scenario?
-Is there a website for gateway trolling?
-Do trolls prey on our youth and indoctrinate them from an early age?
-Is there an initiation into the trolling community?
-Are there secret underground societies of trolls with secret handshakes?
We may never know the answers to some of these questions, but I feel science can help us understand the mind of a troll one day