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NYT Explores the World of Internet Trolls

prostoalex writes "New York Times magazine explores the history and status quo of Internet trolling. They look at the early days of Usenet trolling, current anonymous forums, and social networking pages as the latest venues for trolls: 'In the late 1980s, Internet users adopted the word troll to denote someone who intentionally disrupts online communities. Early trolling was relatively innocuous, taking place inside of small, single-topic Usenet groups. The trolls employed what the M.I.T. professor Judith Donath calls a pseudo-naïve tactic, asking stupid questions and seeing who would rise to the bait. The game was to find out who would see through this stereotypical newbie behavior, and who would fall for it. As one guide to trolldom puts it, If you don't fall for the joke, you get to be in on it.'"

3 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What's the difference? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Nicely done.

  2. I am with Linus on this one by slack_prad · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I am with Linus on this one. For the life of me I can't understand what this sucking up to RMS is about. Linus himself does not think GPLv3 is a good thing. So why do people keep adopting it.
    Without Linus FOSS is tossed. Not following Linus is dangerous for the survival of FOSS.

    -Aspiring Troll

    --
    Sent from my desktop computer
  3. Re:frosty piss by couchslug · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    You must have sampled American beer.

    --
    "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."