Comments on: Warning, Conservative Bloggers! Beware of Trolls!

By: TheMadTinFoilHatter

TheMadTinFoilHatter — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:11:59 +0000

…and conservatives don’t troll Left wing sites and blogs? Puh-leeeeaze.

By: David Kramer

David Kramer — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 23:20:49 +0000

There is a new kind of troll they have rolled out this election cycle. They go to high visibility and high hit conservative sites and also aggregate linked articles and comment. They are a version of the concern or Moby troll. They kind of act like they are against the Dems but are completely wacked or insane. They have linked sites that if a psychologist read it, a commitment order would be given. They clog up the comments stating that everyone is a government asset and that everyone is being paid to be trolls. Here is a list of avatars of one such troll.

BObamaNotPresidentClick4Proof
SpyPalinClickHere
CIAtookovermediaClick4Proof
TheresNoPresidentClick4Proof
CIAisNowPresidentClick4Proof
SarahsSecretsOutClickHere
UShasNoPresidentClick4Proof
StateRunMediaClick4Proof
MediaBlackoutExposedClickHere
PoliceStateRunsMediaClickHere

Later

By: Saltwater

Saltwater — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:28:35 +0000

It is time to dust off my primer on dealing with trolls.
Trolls are those individuals who invade chat rooms and comment threads to post off-topic and the most vile of remarks in order to interfere with a free exchange of ideas and information..
Perhaps most important thing to know about most trolls is they are as insecure in their own lives as they are insignificant yours. Their inane rants are the products of weak minds attempting to draw attention to themselves and away from the main topic. Many trolls post their despicable remarks in hopes someone will respond in like prose. That is exactly the recognition they seek, as it fulfills some warped sense of gratification because they have succeeded in hijacking the discussion.
Consider their unwelcome input a form of mental masturbation. So, how does one deal with trolls?
1) NEVER respond to direct personal attacks. Engaging them only feeds into their sick desires.
2) Do not acknowledge them directly. Instead, talk about and around them, but not TO them. Hold them and their posts up for ridicule, but only referenced in the third person. e.g. “Can you folks believe the tripe ‘TimmyTroll’ is spouting? I wish he/she/it would stop the copy and paste of Mother Jones editorials to try and prove his/her/its idiotic point.”
3) Rebuke their assertions with FACTS not opinion. Cite authoritative sources demonstrating the fallacies of their arguments.
4) Stay classy. Remember, you are usually engaging with like minds or those of a differing political philosophy who are truly interested holding intelligent discussion. Using words or phrases that could be construed as misogynistic, homophobic, racist, or otherwise offensive is and intellectually lazy trap you set for yourself, and only invites trolls to attack.
Following these four basic rules marginalises trolls to the point they cease to be a problem.

By: Kira Davis

Kira Davis — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:57:23 +0000

Good post Jeremy. And you can just use “Black”…I’ve never been to Africa.

By: Taqiyyotomist

Taqiyyotomist — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:45:26 +0000

If you want more information on this phenomenon, look up the word “Moby”.

A moby is a type of blog troll, one with the very purpose and behavior you described, named after the guy who first proposed it, the recording artist named “Moby”.

And you are correct, it is indeed insidious. And getting more widespread by the day.

Entire psychology departments of colleges have brought us this phenomenon. They know what works when deceiving people — they’ve advanced their study of psychology for this very reason. “How can we deceive people more effectively? Well, first we need to better know their minds.”

Now they do. Just as every other field of human study has grown and evolved and gotten better, like music, oncology, engineering, and horticulture — so has propaganda and its hundredfold fields of study in every college in the world.

These people will make Mao’s Great Leap Forward seem like a “tiny half-crawl in a general forward direction”, if they get their way. And they sure have been studying ways to do this, these last few decades.