How to troll people online? A beginner’s guide

What Is Internet Trolling?

In simple terms, trolling is when someone comments or responds to something you post, usually in a confrontational way that is designed to garner a strong, emotional reaction. Although many people use the term in contexts where a sense of humor is appreciated, the truth is that internet trolling can get pretty nasty and isn't always a laughing matter.

The Urban Dictionary has a bunch of definitions under the term “trolling,” but the first one that pops up seems to define it as simply as possible. So, according to the Urban Dictionary’s top-rated definition for “trolling,” it can be defined as:

"the deliberate act, (by a Troll – noun or adjective), of making random unsolicited and/or controversial comments on various internet forums with the intent to provoke an emotional knee jerk reaction from unsuspecting readers to engage in a fight or argument."

Wikipedia defines it as:

"a person who starts quarrels or upsets people on the Internet to distract and sow discord by posting inflammatory and digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses and normalizing tangential discussion, whether for the troll's amusement or a specific gain.”

Those who aren’t quite as familiar with the internet slang definition of “troll” or “trolling” might automatically think of the mythical creature from Scandinavian folklore. The mythological troll is known to be an ugly, dirty, angry creature that lives in dark places, like caves or underneath bridges, waiting to snatch up anything that passed by for a quick meal.

The internet troll is a modern version of the mythological version. They hide behind their computer screens, and actively go out of their way to cause trouble on the internet. Like the mythological troll, the internet troll is angry and disruptive in every possible way — often for no real reason at all.

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Social Media Troll: How to identify them

The first step to beat trolls is recognizing them.

It’s important to differentiate between a real social media troll and someone who is simply using humor.

 

Types of social media trolls

There are plenty of different types of social media trolls, but we have selected some of the most common ones, so you can learn how to identify and classify them.

 

THE METICOLOUS

Those that they are waiting for you to make the smallest mistake to make everybody aware of your error, for example a spelling mistake.

THE INCOHERENT

They write comments that don’t make any sense and their messages don’t provide any value.

THE CLOWN

They make jokes about any publication or topic. They use humor as a way to criticize anything.

THE AGRESIVE

They publish offensive material (racist, sexist, misogynist, etc.) to make noise and create negative reactions and debates.

THE HACKERS BLACK HAT OR CRACKERS

They threaten to break into websites, do negative SEO attacks, create accounts with fake followers or use bots to diminish your brand’s reputation on social networks.

THE INVINCIBLE

More than invincible, they are “tiring”. They constantly target and attack a brand or person and never stop.

THE BIG FAN

It might seem that all of them are “haters” but some of them are unconditional fans of a certain brand or person that will defend it to death.

How to troll people

It’s very simple. People who deserve trolling are all around you. Stick to the etiquette and then look for vulnerable prey. Once you find it, you have two options: Try to use logic to explain to the other party the fallacy of their arguments and opinions, which is always pointless, or throw them off balance with an utterly preposterous and completely opposite stance to whatever they claim, even if you totally disagree with your own rebuttal.

Indeed, people hardly ever listen to others. They sometimes don’t even listen to themselves, they just like the aural harmonics of their mouth spewing verbal diarrhea, or in the case of typing, the awesome sound of self-narration playing inside their heads, also known as the Unwarranted Self-Importance (USI) syndrome. Therefore, you being reasonable and polite in fact strengthens their opinions and perpetuates the problematic elements. Fighting head to head is a lost battle. But using anti-ballistic trolling always works.

For example, how do you argue with someone who claims the Earth is flat or that aliens are visiting us on a daily basis? Do you really think scientific evidence will work at this point? Think carefully. You can ignore them, but silence is acceptance, plus you won’t really feel satisfied until you fire back. Trolling is your special weapon.

Subsection – Rickrolling and Trololol

One of the best way to earn lulgolds is to send links to Youtube videos, claiming they are whatever, but make sure they point to either Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up or Eduard Khil’s Trololol song. If you’re not familiar with either, run away now. You might be excused if you don’t know the latter, but this is a great opportunity to get familiar with some proper Soviet trolling. BTW, Eduard has passed away, may he rest in peace.

For the fun of it, embedded here, plus links for those of you who don’t like embedded stuff. And real links, not links to something else claiming to be something else. This is a case of recursive trolling, also known as divide by zero.

How to deal with social media trolls 

First and the most important thing is to ignore them.

Don´t feed the troll

Trolls are driven by the search for attention. If you don’t show any interest and ignore them, they might back away, although it’s not always the case.

There are some options and tips that you can try to get rid of one or more trolls:

1. Get to know and identify the troll:

Find out what they do and investigate them. Using this method, you will know a bit better what they are trying to troll.

1. Contact the troll

You should try to do it privately. Let them know that their behavior is not correct and if they keep doing so, you might block them or take some measures to solve it.

Sometimes what it works is to take them to your territory and suggest how they could help you to improve whatever was the target of their critiques.

1. Use common sense in your response: Don’t respond to the first thing that crosses your mind. You should be aware that a bad answer can have a negative impact on your reputation.

Tips to Dealing With Trolls

DON´T FEED THE TROLL

The best you can do is not to respond to their comments, wait for them to get tired and stop leaving offensive comments on your profile. If you already contacted them and they keep behaving the same way, ignore them.

Set guidelines for your community

Clearly state the guidelines for your community from the beginning. You can block anyone who is not behaving properly and erase any offensive comment. This will alert trolls and encourage them to stay away from your community.

Don’t take it personal

Social media trolls’ main goal is to generate polemic on social media, they don’t do it in a personal way. If you manage a brand, never answer personally.

Don’t delete the comments

As long as the comments are not extremely offensive don’t delete them. It would mean that the troll is getting what they wanted.

How To Troll People Details

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Why Do People Troll on the Internet?

Every internet troll has a different backstory and therefore different reasons for feeling the need to troll a community or an individual on the internet. They may feel depressed, attention-starved, angry, sad, jealous, narcissistic or some other emotion they may not be entirely conscious of that's influencing their online behavior.

What makes trolling so easy is that anyone can do it, and it can be done from a safe, isolated place as opposed to interacting with others in person. Trolls can hide behind their shiny computers, screen names and avatars when they go out trolling for trouble, and after they’re all done, they can carry on with their real lives without facing any real consequences. Trolling makes a lot of cowardly people feel stronger.

5 signs you’re dealing with a troll

1. They’ll try to make you angry

Trolls exist for the sole purpose of upsetting people.

Got someone on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat stirring up trouble? By starting arguments or posting inflammatory content?

They’re (probably) a troll. Especially if they appear to be insincere in their comments, posts, or statements.

2. They act entitled

Many trolls have an inflated sense of worth. They operate as if the world revolves around them (or that is should).

“Me, me, me… great, great, great. And all you others suck.” Or something like that.

If you get this sense, you’re probably infested with a detested troll.

3. They exaggerate

A lot.

They use strong words like “never” and “every.”

Where most others would say “infrequently” and “some.”

Using extremes and superlatives are ways to inflame people.

And a good sign you have a troll to deal with.

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4. They make it personal

Discussions, debates, arguments—all safe game for healthy talks among your online users.

Until it gets personal.

Which is what trolls do.

Rather than discuss a matter, reasonably and logically, trolls attack an opponent’s character. They’ll call people names and say things to appeal to feelings and prejudices, rather than intellect.

5. They often can’t spell

Trolls seem to suck at spelling and grammar. They…

• Spell words wrong
• Use words wrong
• Don’t capitalize first words of sentences
• Avoid commas and periods
• Mix up words that sound the same, but mean something different
• Say “I” a lot
• Same for “!!!” marks
• Type in all caps
• Use made up and goofy words throughout a nonsensical sentence

Cornell and Stanford researchers did a study about anti-social behavior online.

Trolls fail standard, readability metrics for the stuff they write.

Including, using less positive words and more profanity.

fine that makes it WAAAY EEZIER to spot theez f!@%$%# digital SOCIOpaths!!! yaaaay happy daze!

As you can see, trolls give themselves away pretty easily.

Great. Now that you’ve confidently identified one… what do you do with them?

Do you sell any items you mentioned on your reference for How To Troll People?

Of course not, we offer our suggestions, tips,… only, and we don’t sell or exchange any items on our site. You can refer to the Amazon site to buy the items we mentioned.

Conclusion

That was long, but most necessary. Now, you know what trolling is all about and how it can be used to better the world. Trolling allows you to fight the online pollution on its own terms. Your friendly, conventional and chivalrous methods of yore do not apply here. Trolling is what must be used to sanitize the net. Hopefully, this beautiful guide has provided you with enough data to start enjoy and participating. You know the faces, you know the phrases, you have videos to help you, and two great sites to draw inspiration from. Winning.

There you go. Soon enough, we will have several new websites, specifically dedicated to trolling, added to the Hall of Fame, the Greatest sites but not necessarily THE Greatest Sites section. And so we end this merry chapter.

P.S. The small teaser image used on the index page is in public domain.

Cheers.

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