garfiild

Can someone please explain to me, what the purpose of trolling is or what possible benefit or advantage there is in such behavior? I'm NOT trying to resurrect a closed thread, I'm just really perplexed. I feel a bit silly asking but it makes no sense to me. Thanks in advance.

J

LexieCat

There are some people who get a kick out of making outrageous statements that get members of a forum (like this one or any other) riled up. Example: someone signs onto an Apple forum and proceeds to talk about what garbage Apple products are.

It's kind of pathetic, but when it's a forum like this one, where people pour out their hearts trying to provide support to someone, a troll can be very damaging, causing confusion, hurt feelings, frustration, and anger. Pretty sick, when you consider the purpose of the forum.

Thankfully, our Moderators do a great job of keeping a lid on things before they get out of hand.

It's sometimes difficult to identify a troll, especially when so many people come onto the forum sincerely confused and baffled about a loved one's behavior and believing they have the power to "fix" the alcoholic with enough love and understanding.

I never presume someone is trolling, but sometimes, after enough posts, it becomes pretty clear that that is what's going on. The conventional wisdom is "don't feed the trolls"--don't give them what they want by getting all worked up over what they are saying.

Also, if you suspect someone is trolling, it's always best to alert a Moderator rather than call him/her out and making an accusation. It's possible to misinterpret, and could be very hurtful to be accused of trolling when you are honestly seeking help.

amy55

I would like to add on a little to what Lexie said.

Even if you do respond to a troll, you are still giving info or es&h to other people, so it isn't wasted.

amy

biminiblue

I think people who troll are either very damaged people themselves and are lashing out at others as some sort of sick revenge, or they are bored and have personality disorders and derive pleasure from getting a negative rise out of people.

garfiild

I can completely see how such behavior would be a problem, in a variety of ways. But I cannot comprehend why someone would ever bother - particularly over time? It's different from the behavior that comes off as "baiting" in the comments on large news sites, which reminds me of kids back in high school that liked to instigate. Here it seems like an especially huge waste of time and effort to me (not to mention cruel if the point is to get people in this particular forum "riled up"). Usually, though, there is SOME agenda - political or whatever, even Apple v Android fans - that the "instigator" is trying to push. I don't see that here. If some people simply just enjoy jerking others around so much, wouldn't they be better served by (for example) working customer service for the cable company? (kidding - sort of - it's just such completely irrational and pointless behavior to me).

I know (all too well, having spent my whole life around alcoholism and dysfunction) that some behavior defies rational explanation. Is this behavior tied to any particular personality or mood disorder?

biminiblue

I "know" a woman on another forum whose life philosophy is trolling. She does it with her family (and even calls it trolling - her interactions with her husband and family) she does it on several online forums, and she does it in internet gaming and dating sites. It seems sick to me, but she seems to think of it as an intellectual exercise of some sort. A one-upmanship game where no one's feelings are considered and the object of the "game" is to point out others' flaws and get one over on them.

I've never met her in real life, thank God, but she has maintained this persona over several years in this one forum I frequent. Not for nothing, she is a big drinker. Seems it kind of goes with the territory...delusion, personal grandiosity, superiority, lack of real life interests. Her entire world is in her apartment and on her computer. She doesn't work and she doesn't like anyone. She only leaves the house for food.

LexieCat

Yeah, it's sort of like stalking a whole forum, only for sport.

Whatever, inexplicable conduct R Us.

garfiild

bimini, It helps to have a real-life illustration, thank you. I'm finding this fascinating. Incomprehensible, but also fascinating. I would guess there are a lot of deep-seated control issues in such people.

And LexieCat, I suppose it shows my "codie" colors that I want to sit and analyze the behavior, make sense of it, label it (in terms of related personality issues), and now I'm feeling sad for people who are SO dysfunctional and unhealthy that they would waste their own time and energy on stupid and cruel games - although I have no interest in indulging the behavior and I 100% understand that too.

Thomas45

Well, I wouldn't say that there is any benefit or advantage except the amusement of the person who is trolling, and whoever else may be in on the joke that is spectating.

The purpose of the troll attempt depends on the technique the troll tries to use. The purpose of the kind of trolling that you would likely see on a site like this is to spin a tall tale and have people believe it for as long as possible. It's sort of a game, akin to the child's game "red light, green light" where you're trying to sneak up on a person whose back is turned, and freeze when they turn around so it doesn't appear that you're moving toward them. In troll attempts like this kind, usually there will be some escalation of details that make the story gradually more outlandish, while still trying to keep people believing the story.

Other kinds of trolling would be spam posting, flame-baiting, creating arguments with intentionally flawed logic while pointing out the fallacies in other people's arguments, stealthily editing your previous posts to make someone's replies look absurd, little petty things like that which you'd usually only see on discussion forums for religious or political debate. The 'purpose' of those is pretty much exactly what it looks like, trying to draw out an argument or harass.

When I was much younger, I used to go around with a fairly large group of people from forum to forum and we would compete with each other to see who could come up with the most convincing 'story' troll threads (usually this would be determined by whoever generated the most responses on their threads before they got caught or accused of being a troll). For our group, it was just a bit of mindless fun that wasn't hurting anybody, and we had a sort of unwritten but universally understood rule that nobody would start trolling threads in places like peer support/advice forums, forums with nice people, and discussion boards for mothers. If at any time during a trolling we felt that the people were too genuinely nice, helpful, or motherly, we'd out ourselves as being trolls and leave them in peace.

I'd say that the vast majority of the discussion forums we would go trolling on would be populated by teenagers and young adults discussing things like video games, music, tv shows, pop culture, that sort of thing. And in almost every scenario we'd let them in on the joke after being called out, and a good deal of them would join in on our hijinks and join our little trolling community. And I will say that some of the nicest people I've ever met took part in that little community of ours. In the end, it was just another pastime for us that we all eventually outgrew as we matured into adults.

As to why someone would attempt to troll a peer support forum, I couldn't really offer any explanation as it never appealed to me or that old community of mine. "Some people do irrational and intentionally hurtful things to others and I don't know why" is all the explanation I can think of.

cynical one

The mods here are very good at recognizing and stopping the trolls.

However, sometimes I'm pretty sure disgruntled members who didn't hear what they wanted to hear open another account under a different name to just stir the pot. The mods don't have the time to check the IP address of every new member, so some do get through.

Liveitwell

My ex husbands sister trolled this site taking screen shots of all of my posts - which is why I changed my username many times. I guess she had nothing better to do with her time! Really sick people, y'all. Really sick and evil deriving pleasure from other peoples pain. Can't change em-just thank my God I am not her. Just thought if chime in on what types of people troll and peruse these sites. There are some real sickos out there!!

iamthird

Funny I have been on this site for years and never knew what a troll was. Shows how naive I am!!! lol!!! No wonder I was so gullible with STBAXH. I have that tendency to believe what people say! hahahaha...

I will try to spot them!! Where's Waldo??

garfiild

Thomas - very enlightening. I get it. I should ask my teenager about this, I bet he has an opinion.

Forourgirls - I can definitely see how that could happen. I erase all digital footprints as best I can (no one at my house is particularly tech savvy) and have never mentioned the forum to anyone off line.

iamthird - yep, I was thinking the same thing. Personally, I have a hard time really believing that people do some of the irrational / hurtful / crazy / unacceptable things they do - if there's a reasonable, rational "explanation" hiding somewhere, no matter how unlikely, that's what I'm most likely to believe as the "cause" of the behavior. Case in point, my RABIL (well, sober since his coma last September, recovering is a big stretch) is living in my house, working toward a liver transplant. He is quite unwell. He sometimes cannot make the bathroom and sometimes uses a bottle or a container he got from the hospital for urine. This morning as I was leaving for work, he walked toward me in the kitchen with a jar half full of "pee." I had food in my hands. I froze (grossed out) then walked away with my food. Listened to him dump the jar contents into the sink, NOT RINSE, and walk away. This is how my brain works: after initially freaking out, in the last hour I have managed to persuade myself that MAYBE IT WAS AN EMPTY JAR OF PEPPERCINIS WITH JUST THE JUICE LEFT IN THE JAR. Cuz that's SO much more likely. hahahahahahahaha