Comments on: NYT Magazine: Trolls Tell Us Not To Feed Them

By: MarktheSpark

MarktheSpark — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:36:00 +0000

I got attacked by a troll recently (on another site) for saying something negative about the late Andrea Dworkin, comparing her appearance and sex-phobia (her belief was that all hetorosexual coitus =”rape”) to Kathryn J. Lopez of Nat’l. Review online. It’s easy to offend someone with what one would assume is a relatively straightforward, noncontroversial statement.

The taunts were so childish that after a moment of dismay all I could do was laugh. Why let someone else’s psychosis bother you, esp. when you’ll never interact w/ that person in any way in the real world?

By: PJEvans

PJEvans — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:56:12 +0000

I noticed that paragraph too. He does stuff that results in other people being threatened, and that’s fine with him, but when someone does it to him, it’s a different story.
Yup, he’s a troll.

(Oh, and his beanball analogy sucks rocks. He clearly never heard of Conigliaro. Or Darrell Stingley, in football.)

By: Ian Welsh

Ian Welsh — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:33:35 +0000

In my experience you either:

a) ignore them completely, or;
b) mock them relentlessly.

the goal of (b) btw, is to get the pack of trolls to turn on their own or at the very least to count your own lulz. But if you do (b) you must know that you have iron control and will not allow yourself to ever lose amused contemptuous detatchment.

By: Eli

Eli — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:26:22 +0000

I’m pretty skeptical of everything they claimed about themselves, but I think they’re telling the truth that any reaction to their comments constitutes a win.

By: Kitt

Kitt — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:23:44 +0000

Eli,
Since trolls are liars and manipulators, why would you think that these particular trolls were telling you the truth? What makes you think that they don’t go crawling off with their tails between their legs, crying for their mommies when some really astute and up to speed snark master gives them the back of his or her hand?

By: Mukei

Mukei — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:25:26 +0000

Anthropologist Edward T. Hall specializes in unconscious aspects of culture. The chapter “Action Chains” in Beyond Culture discusses culturally determined chains of behavior and expected response, and how the expected response is necessary for eliciting the next action in the chain.

An example of a simple action chain is calling someone on the phone and expecting to hear “hello?” from the other end before you speak. All it takes to disrupt it is being met with nothing but apparently dead air, when the other end has obviously picked up. Other kinds of action chains can be far more complex.

Hall’s work is really interesting. The Silent Language is about body language, The Hidden Dimension is about the ways cultures use space, including personal space around one’s body dictating different distances for different kinds of interactions, and how architectural space is used to convey things like meaning and status in a culture.

His autobiography, An Anthropology of Everyday Life, is excellent, detailing how his encounters with a variety of cultures growing up led him to this field of study.

By: Loo Hoo.

Loo Hoo. — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:17:13 +0000

You are so clever!

By: Loo Hoo.

Loo Hoo. — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:13:16 +0000

Yay, SUZANNE!!

By: bobschacht

bobschacht — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:09:51 +0000

*Ooops* (ducking into closet)

Bob in HI

By: bobschacht

bobschacht — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:08:08 +0000

A little more to the left.

*smack*

There. Feel better now?

(*g*)

Bob in HI