Shouting ‘LOL’ in a crowded theatre

Trolling, griefing and Web 2.0 dickery

Chris Applegate, SocialMediaCamp London 2009

About me

Chris Applegate@qwghlm

http://qwghlm.co.uk/blog/

I work for We Are Social, but please don’t tell them about this

(A quick warning)

This talk contains strong language, graphic simulacra of

internet shock sites and absolutely no pictures of

kittens.

On the plus side…

I’m not going to bang on about Twitter, monetisation or PR

(PS I lied about the kittens)

Troll n. /trəʊl/

“Someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum

or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an

emotional response.”

-Wikipedia

Many types…

VulgariansWalter MittyContrarians

Agents provocateursSockpuppets

Drama queens

Since when?

Trolling pre-dates the world wide web(Can you imagine such a thing?)

The term has existed since the early 1990s

And the behaviour long before it

A classic example

“Their attack started by first flooding the newsgroup with anti-BCU messages in such

an aggressive way that made any kind of discussion impossible. Then they started with personal attacks on everyone who supported

the BCU […] Finally they invaded threads that had no relevance to the BCU, and they

further disrupted the newsgroup by trying to dictate rules about what was and wasn't on-

topic”

Canoes, FFS

B-b-b-b-but why?

What drives people to cause trouble like this?

Is it because deep down, a lot of people are utter bastards?

Or does the Internet have some magic way of transforming otherwise normal

people into arseholes?

One explanation

© Penny Arcade, 2004

But it’s a bit more complicated than that…

The best trolling isn’t just rude wordsIt’s a lot more subtle than that

There are many ways to rile peopleSo trolls come in many shapes and

sizesEach side adopts tactics, making it a

kind of game

Identity crisis?

“Trolling is a game about identity deception, albeit one that is played without the consent of most of the

players.“ (Donath 1999)Pushing and exploring the barriers of

one’s identity, the Internet allows us to explore new identities with varying

degrees of fuckwaddery

Don’t forget the medium

The Internet allows us unparalleled access to information, and to spread it

quicklyEven when that information is a

picture of a man wearing nothing but a wedding band expanding his… um…

hello.jpg

(I think you know what I’m talking about)

Hit & Run

Freedom to explore social boundariesFree access to information

Means and ability to assume multiple identities and behaviours and instantly

switch between them at onceBut it’s up to us to decide what to do

with them

But why does this matter?

This is just online!A few freaks here or there on some

board doesn’t really matter, does it?We have moderators, filter

technology, mindbleach (TBC)It’s just another annoyance like spam,

right?

Trolling 2.0

It’s not as simple as it once wasOne or two anons on a BBS can’t do

muchBut things are a lot more sophisticated

these days…

What happens when you give them all this?

Oh Christ. 4chan

Where overgrown teenagers come to

share their frustration, deviance and brilliance

They even have a wiki!

OK, they can be funny some of the time

This guy owes them abunch of hugs

The sad case of Mitchell Henderson

Teenage suicide victim4chan found his memorial

MySpace and references to his lost iPod hilarious

Cue hacks, video remixes, prank phone calls… and a

visit to his grave :(

‘Virtual’ and ‘real’ are now meaningless

Our ‘real’ & ‘virtual’ lives now intertwine

Pushing social boundaries in cyberspace has social effects in

meatspace tooWeb 2.0 allows these efforts to be

distributed and collectivised

To sum up…

Trolling isn’t just an internet problem any more, it’s an everything problem

The tools we use to do cool or fun stuff with are morality-agnostic

Troll-proofing should be as important as anti-spam or security

(But let’s not get obsessed about it!)

Thank you!

Chris Applegate@qwghlm

http://qwghlm.co.uk/blog/