Internet Trolls Really Are Psychos
If you’ve ever managed an online community, a blog, or a brand’s Facebook page, you have encountered the dreaded “troll.” These community members can be provocative and rude, and are known for creating posts for the sole purpose of agitating their fellow members. Trolls add inflammatory comments not because they hope to inform or convince others, but because they know they’ll spark an avalanche of negativity.
Left unchecked, trolls can destroy communities. Helpful members tire of the conflict and eventually leave. Trolls present a challenge to community managers not just because of their toxic behavior, but because they don’t always overtly break community rules. Many people make comments that prove to be inflammatory, often unintentionally. Trollish behavior is evident only after a pattern of such comments emerges.
Conventional wisdom says that the anonymity of the Internet lets people behave in ways they never would in real life, or online if their identity was known. But, if you think that means that trolls are normally nice people who only act out in their online persona, think again. New research shows that internet trolls are, in real life, narcissists, psychopaths, and sadists.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2014/10/06/internet-trolls-really-are-psychos/Discuss
It depends.
You have the "real" troll and the "branded" troll.
What you very often see happen in communities is that people who offer legitimate concerns, but threaten the status quo get immediately get branded as a "troll".
That's the way a person with a legitimate concern can get isolated, and real concerns can be avoided.
I've seen that happen in many communities, including my current on (Nxt) and in other boards I've adminned over the last decades.
That's obviously a bad thing, and it's often difficult to distinguish these people when the emotions have gotten so inflamed the original poster also has reached breaking point.
On the other hand, I think it's good to distinguish between true "trolls" and people who just are incapable of social interaction per se.
The first one trolls out of malice, the second one is someone who in my opinion truly is incapable of seeing his or her actions are wrong.
The effects are the same, the cause is very different.
From a community point of view it matters little. Both these kinds of participants are disruptive, although the malicious troll is often more clever in his tactics and strategies.
He will tend to employ simple, but effective means of turning the attention he or she gets into vicious attacks, using half truths and vague threats that are often enough to deter a lot of people from engaging them.
They will call parents, call employers, post pictures, try to intimidate and often resort to all kind of vague legal mumbo jumbo in the hope they will not be called out on that.
It is indeed very hard to do something about these people, as they usually actually think they are right, and that this "rightness" gives them carte blanche to exhibit the behaviour they do.
They feel they are outside the law, even though they frequently call in legal arguments to "win" flaming battles.
