Richard Bacon tries to explore the motivation for the troll. I saw this on the news this morning and there was the usual bleating about nasty comments left on tribute Facebook pages for dead people.
Yes, trolls are odious little creeps looking for attention and to be fair the one they showed was pretty nasty. The trick, therefore is not to indulge them. The owners of Facebook pages have it within their power to control who has access to the site and who can post. And, yes, they can remove content that they don’t like. Why not make such tribute pages invitation only so that only those who were friends and family of the deceased can see it? or is that too much to ask?
Bacon talked of one such case where a troll left a video of himself dancing supposedly on the victim’s grave. I really have no interest in what motivates such obnoxious little shits. What I do know is that Bacon has committed the cardinal sin of giving them the oxygen of publicity they crave – this twat had his video on prime time BBC, FFS!
He said of the parents of the boy whose tribute page it was, that they were middle aged and confused about what to do, poor dears. Well, we middle aged folks were around when the interwebs got started, so most of us are likely to understand perfectly well – and for those who don’t, sure as egg is eggs, they will know someone who will be able to deal with the matter – most likely the nearest twelve year old. It’s simple, really, really simple – delete and ban, delete and ban, delete and ban. Don’t engage, don’t even acknowledge their presence, just delete and ban, just as I have with the recent spate of trolling from Captain Ranty’s stalker.
It could be me and my cynicism, but is it just possible that these regular stories in the MSM about nasty trolls on the internet are merely a Trojan horse for some sort of regulation banning anonymous commenting. Nah… Couldn’t be… Could it?
They wouldn’t…?
“Anonymous commenting” IS fucking annoying though. How much imagination does it need to type in “Fred moggyfucker 32” or something?
But the fact that something is “annoying”, is no excuse to ban it, or I would have most of the bloody world on the banned list.
Oh, I agree, making up a pseudonym isn’t difficult and makes life easier for those involved in the discussion.
They wouldn’t…?
Well, Worsepress kind of have, though it smacks of corporate stupidity rather than anything more sinister.
Yeah, I saw that. Anna Raccoon was making a similar complaint. Sledgehammer to crack a walnut, frankly. A very good incentive to self host.
“It could be me and my cynicism, but is it just possible that these regular stories in the MSM about nasty trolls on the internet are merely a Trojan horse for some sort of regulation banning anonymous commenting.”
It’s more than that. They want control of the internet, full stop.
They do. And they won’t stop trying.
The trojan horse trolling, if that is what it is, then it could be coming from the same powers seeking to control the internet. I.e., the ones wanting to control are most likely the same ones responsible for creating the troll – create the problem then have the solution preplanned in advance to whip out at a moment’s notice and rush into law, or something like that.
Yes. They would. They WILL, given an inch.
Agreed that TPTB would dearly love to control the interweb. But this is, for once, one of those things that is just *never* gonna happen.
In one corner, you have the state. In the other, ‘puter geeks and script kiddies. It’s like a lumbering hairy mammoth trying to beat a SWAT team. That numbers in the thousands. And is invisible and omnipresent. And has hoverpacks and laser-guided shit that fucks with mammoths.
I’m with Bandit 1.
The TPTB will NEVER take over the net.
Over at Safespeed they had a special smiley icon that held a sign that said “Do Not Feed The Trolls”. Wise advice.
Don’t want to say too much but mine seems to have other things to do at the moment. They’re truly a pain in the butt but there are ways to get around them, even Ranty’s troll.
Ranty’s was on here yesterday ranting on this very thread. Unfortunately for him, he is on permanent moderation. Unfortunately, this affects Ranty as well, but he is relaxed about it as his comments will be released and DD’s won’t. So DD is ranting in a silent bubble and no one can hear his screams, which is somewhat amusing, as he claims to be carrying out sanctions against the “smoking blogs”. Given that his comments are deleted without ever seeing the light of day and I don’t give a toss for his opinions and we are laughing at him, I’m not sure his one troll campaign is in any way successful, nor will it be. Still, with an ego the size of a galaxy, I’m sure he will cope.
Well, the troll with the weasels wedding tackle and all the wit and sophistication of a masturbating 12 year old will just have to go in the moderation queue. Ranty knows this, as does Leg-Iron. It’s all cool.
Well, quite. It is no inconvenience whatsoever to them and as selecting “delete” or “accept” is a matter of seconds, it’s no skin off my nose either. All of which comes back to the original point; trolls are easily managed.
Following on from that, there is a simple workaround to separate the wheat from the chaff. It’s a quick and dirty method, but effective. See your email. So, yeah, trolls are easily managed.
BTW – how sure are you that he isn’t a masturbating twelve year old?
Call me paranoid, but since a certain “doctor” (Ex), later only to be identified by initials, has dissapeared into the wild blue, who has been known on many occassions to impersonate a few people, me included, this “Trolling” has blown the proverbial doors off.
Just wondering out loud.