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  • Subject: Forum Psychology - What You Should Know
Subject: Forum Psychology - What You Should Know
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My friend, you would not tell with ſuch high zeſt
To children ardent for ſome deſperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum eſt
Pro patria mori.

The internet is an extremely large and mostly anonymous place. Within its digital borders the perception of one's physical being can be removed from that of one’s self identity.

"In the physical world there is an inherent unity to the self, for the body provides a compelling and convenient definition of identity. The norm is: one body, one identity. ... The virtual world is different. It is composed of information rather than matter."
- Judith Donath


Providing you are able to sustain a series of plausible lies, you can be whoever you want to be in the eyes of your fellow internet goers. Normally, this will result in a rose tinted but harmless image of oneself being portrayed; but occasionally some may turn to malice.

In recent years the language of digital fora has been expanded by a variety of terms reacting to the malicious abuse of internet anonymity. “Troll” and “flamebait” are perhaps the most notorious of these.

A Troll is a person whose posts are designed to be inflammatory and/or disruptive to the operation of the forum within which it is located. The motivations of the Troll can be assumed to fall into several categories.

* Attention seeking. Many younger users will have an inflated sense of entitlement that drives them to have others view all things in relation to themselves.
* Amusement. Some may find in the ability to enrage others with little effort on their part a kind of pleasure.
* Devil’s advocacy. In certain situations, some will use deliberately controversial topics or responses in order to ‘shake-up’ the existing regime and the phenomena of ‘group-think’. Typically though, devil’s advocates will follow etiquette and announce their role beforehand.
* Industrial sabotage. In extremely rare cases, trolls may in fact be acting on behalf of rival organisations with the aim of diminishing the prestige or efficiency of the target’s digital presence.

The presence of Trolls inevitably leads to the establishment of other users into 'classes' which vary in their reactions to said Trolls. Troll Hunters, those who actively seek out and ‘flame’ those perceived to be Trolling, can often appear indistinguishable from the Trolls themselves. Ignorers are those who will seek to continue discussions as if the Trolls were not present, occasionally giving advice such as “Don’t feed the Trolls”. Diplomats are those who will try and reason with the Trolls, attempting to find common ground between all parties. In cases where the Trolls’ motives are less defined, this solution may prove effective. In others it could serve to fuel the actions of the Troll. Bystanders are those who will simply withdraw from the discussion, perhaps even leaving the forum altogether.

Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between genuinely new members of a forum unaccustomed to the local etiquette, and genuine Trolls. The worst case scenario is that a newcomer will turn to Trolling as a counter-reaction against an overzealous Troll-branding of one of their past posts. Efforts to identify and control Trolling could therefore create the very Trolls the community seeks to avoid.

It is therefore imperative that the Troll label is not wielded lightly. As responsible members of Bungie.net, it is important that we take into account the past behaviour and other circumstances of a poster before excluding them from the ‘digital society’. Younger and non-internet savvy members stand a greater chance of being mistaken for Trolls, so this must be taken into account.

Prime examples of Trolling in the recent past can be seen in the halo2sucks.com and MLG debates which managed to infiltrate all eight of the major sub-fora. A large portion of those involved in both debates were certainly Trolls in that their cassus operandi was to cause as much disruption to Bungie.net as possible; but within those groups was a significant demographic who genuinely wished to offer constructive criticism of the current system. Even with Shiska’s decision to outlaw the almost entirely pointless debates on both subjects, Trolling and Troll Hunting still focuses around both subjects.

It might be viewed as the domain of the Forum Ninjas to keep the lid on such Trolling, but us regular Members [and Theme Masters ;-)] can do an awful lot to prevent genuine newcomers and the less extreme Trolls from falling through the system to become serial Trollers and general forum Griefers. Ultimately we are the people these present and potential miscreants will be dealing with, and it is we who set the tone for the entire community. We shouldn’t be so quick to sound the Troll alarm; instead we should observe these new users to determine their intentions, and try whenever possible to help mould them into productive members of the community. When in doubt, imagine yourself as the user in question. Try to imagine your own reaction to a mob of angry ‘locals’ who ostracise you for what you perceive to be a legitimate question or a minor violation of the rules...



Anyhow, that's just something that's been mulling on my mind recently.

  • 07.04.2005 4:26 PM PDT
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I've gone from a Diplomat, to an Ignorer. Snitch would be a better title, one who tells the true Troll Hunters (Moderators) where the Trolls are.

And yes, if people were nice all the time on the forums, there'd be less trolls.

[Edited on 7/4/2005]

  • 07.04.2005 4:38 PM PDT
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Ignore and report. I'll stick by that. Or maybe just ignore. Or maybe neither, whatever.

Wasn't there some dude who would repeatedly argue with trolls back in the days of old? You know, this guy? Or maybe sinister, I forget.

[Edited on 7/4/2005]

  • 07.04.2005 4:54 PM PDT

I'm an Ignore Helper! Anyway, I think you should add a category who's great symbol is the no-reply button.
There are good souls who just go around answering the HELP ME! threads. (Like me). I've given up on entering the discussion flow in the big threads.

  • 07.06.2005 8:36 AM PDT

*Sgt

Woah, East I haven't seen you in a long time. Anyways, I think I'd be an ignorer..! "Don't feed the trolls!"

  • 07.06.2005 9:26 AM PDT
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"Don't feed the trolls!"I feed them PM, it doesn't say about replying to bad posts in the code-o'-conduct does it? I think remember reading it somewhere else... Flame wars go on h2s.com, normal posts about the game that appeal to fans go in "New Mombasa" It gets hard when theres 100,000 people for every ninja.

I considered taking my 100,000 members out for pizza once, but the delivery guy just hung up the phone and laughed.I remember that one... :D

  • 07.06.2005 1:41 PM PDT

Handling Bad Posts
The Bungie.net Community Watch Program

* Don't reply to spam.
* Tell new posters what they may have done wrong, but do so politely. Don't flame.
* For significant violations, inform a moderator directly via PM. If you think it's an emergency matter, contact more than one of us.

(taken from the Forum Rules)

[Edited on 7/6/2005]

  • 07.06.2005 1:44 PM PDT
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I'm a ignorer.

  • 07.06.2005 1:48 PM PDT
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Posted by: goweb
Handling Bad Posts
The Bungie.net Community Watch Program

* Don't reply to spam.
* Tell new posters what they may have done wrong, but do so politely. Don't flame.
* For significant violations, inform a moderator directly via PM. If you think it's an emergency matter, contact more than one of us.

(taken from the Forum Rules)
...Thats what I was talking about, so b.net has about four different rule pages or something?

- link test -

  • 07.06.2005 2:23 PM PDT