October 27, 2009 at 17:45Trolling and trolls (how to make classification and distinguish groups)
Tired of the abundance of "analytical" articles on such a social phenomenon as trolling, I honestly once again drew up a portrait of the average inhabitant of the network and thought for myself - how much is classification of this phenomenon possible? Naturally, in 99% of the articles I saw, the classification didn’t even try to suffer any kind of scientificness at best remaining at the level of “troll notorious - troll uncomplexed”, and at worst - at the level of “troll is good - troll is bad”. Naturally, on the basis of such a classification, it is practically impossible to deal with this phenomenon.
In addition, I believe that this article will be useful to everyone who somehow tries to approach the issue of classification from a scientific point of view. Based on it, you can get an idea of how to deal with classification, and it will be useful to you even if you saw all these trolls and netrolls in a coffin. You can assume that this is an article on the scientific classification of a phenomenon using the trolling phenomenon as an example.
The topic is in the blog "learn to work" simply because you already learn, damn it, to make classifications!
So, at present, we have a superclass of all the inhabitants of the Network, which we need to classify as “network users”. We will proceed from the definition published on Wikipedia, because it is often referred to, and, thus, it is generally accepted.
Trolling - posting on the Internet (on forums, in Usenet newsgroups, on wikis, LiveJournal, etc.) provocative messages in order to cause a flame, conflicts between participants, insults and the like.
In order to determine the subject of conversation, it is necessary to understand what is being discussed in the definition and highlight the main species characteristics.
So, a troll is a person trolling. Thus, it is determined by the following features:
1. stirs provocative messages
2. aims to cause a flame, conflicts between participants, and the like - we will call it “destructive goals”
Thus, in order to be able to call a person a troll, you need to prove that the message left by him is provocative, and the purpose of posting this message destructive. After realizing this fact, we distinguish four subclasses in the superclass “network users”, each of which we will call according to the behavior model:
1. Do not leave provocative messages and do not pursue destructive goals - Visitors
2. Leave provocative messages, but do not pursue destructive ones goals - morons
3. Leave provocative messages and pursue destructive goals - Trolls
4. Do not leave provocative messages, but pursue destructive goals - Intriguans.
Next, in the “trolls” class, we need to distinguish subclasses based on generic characteristics. To do this, you should consider the definition again and identify motives and aspirations. That is, ask by definition the questions “for what” and “because of what”.
So, the troll posts provocative messages in order to commit destructive actions. For what?
In order to answer this question, it should be understood that destructive actions are conscious and unconscious. Conscious - this is when a person is purposefully engaged in the destruction of his own environment, and unconscious - when he can not foresee the consequences of his own actions. Conscious trolling immediately stands out in a separate category, divided into subcategories “personal” (when I hate the owner of the resource and seek to destroy it) and “custom” (when I carry out destructive actions at someone’s request), the unconscious is further divided.
A person unconsciously engages in destructive actions within the framework of his own environment. Since he does not have destructive goals, it should be assumed that his goals are constructive within the framework of his worldview paradigm and build a number of assumptions about them.
The assumption is pretty simple. A person may consider that the management of the environment is not effective enough, and, not having the appropriate authority, is thus trying to self-manage and regulate the content and population in accordance with personal quality criteria. So, for example, a linuxoid can consider that there are too many winders on the hub, which for some reason no one will deny, and will actively flame with them, trying to achieve minuses in their direction. This is a kind of super-goal of unconscious trolling - to bring the living environment in accordance with its imago (the ideal reflection of the environment in the mind).
Depending on what exactly the person does not like during the habitat, trolls can concentrate on:
1. Posts (down with VKontakte from the Habr!)
2. People (down with DailSoft from the Habr!)
3. Comments (down with the first-timers from the Habr!)
And so on, depending on the type of resource.
So, we have made a classification by purpose, now we have to make a classification for reasons. So, the troll posts provocative messages in order to commit destructive actions. Why?
It should be understood here that we are no longer talking about goals, but about reasons. The reasons are internal attitudes that lead a person to the idea that this model of behavior is effective. Let's try to classify them.
So, personal attitudes can likewise be conscious and unconscious. Conscious personality attitudes - this is when a person believes that trolling is the only effective tool to achieve his goals (see “why”), unconscious - when trolling is the result of any personality attitudes, complexes or phobias.
Naturally, all personal troll attitudes ultimately come down to complexes. However, do not rejoice. Complexes - this is what is in abundance in any person, it’s just that they cannot always be correctly recognized and analyzed. And if you are not a troll, this does not mean that you do not have complexes, and (worst of all) - that you are better than a troll.
Conscious personal attitudes most often come down to the fact that a person himself experienced the effects of trolls on himself or on his own acquaintances and saw how this could be an effective tool. The unconscious traditionally come down to an inferiority complex, a deeper classification will require special knowledge from readers, so I will not give it.
Thus, we got two parallel classifications:
Target level:
1. Conscious (target)
1.1. Personal
1.2. Custom-made
2. Unconscious (socially-conflicting)
2.1. Non-adoption of the communication model
2.2. Failure to adopt a model of behavior
2.3. Non-acceptance of traditions
2.4. ...
Causal level:
1. Conscious (effective)
2. Unconscious (frustrated)
Crossing the classifications, we get 4 categories to which all trolls can be assigned.
1. Troll is an effective target. Trolling for him is a business, nothing personal. He is fluent in tricks and it is incredibly difficult to recognize a troll in him. He is cold, calm and prudent. If you are sure that you see just such a troll in front of you - immediately ban it, otherwise after a while your whole forum will be in ruins.
2. Troll frustrated target. For him, trolling is the sublimation of their own complexes, for which they pay money. Most of all, he looks like a stripper, who at 14 was small, fat and girls did not like him. He loves his favorite work and always does it enthusiastically. Naturally, he is much more emotional than the previous type, often likes to “flirt” with the “victim” and its inhabitants, and sometimes does not hide his own craft. But all this should not prevent you from making the only right decision in the event of the discovery of such a troll - a ban.
3. The troll is an effective social-conflict one. In terms of D&D, this type is best described by the combination of Chaotic Good. He sacredly believes that he understands better than many what people need and acts according to this attitude. In his vision of the habitat, perfectly square people walk along perfectly square streets, drinking a perfectly square cocktail of perfectly square mojito. If you see such a person - do not rush to ban him, first talk to him. Practice shows that if your worldviews coincide, you will get just the perfect moderator who will be devoted to you until the end of his life. Well, or until his or your life paradigm changes. Remember that all the problems are due to the fact that he does not have other regulatory tools, and maybe he deserves to receive them.
4. The troll is frustrated socially-conflict. Most of all it is similar to an adolescent teenager, and, quite often, that is what he is. For him, trolling is revenge for their own grievances and problems. The most numerous class, richly represented on the network - this includes including trolls who do this “for fun” (in an unsportsmanlike version). If you help him get rid of his own problems, then soon he will become a normal user, because trolling is not his fault, but his misfortune. He is an alcoholic, and his attitude should be appropriate. If you cannot help him, break his relationship with your habitat by picking up a Banhammer.
However, in our group there are two more categories of people who stand close to the trolls, but, nevertheless, are not. They are not easy to distinguish from real trolls, and therefore you need to understand how they are similar and how they differ.
1. morons. Often a moron seems to be a frustrated socially-conflict troll from the side, but this is not so. A moron is not an alcoholic who suffers from being held hostage by his own affection, but rather a teenager who drank a bottle of vodka for the first time in his life. He does not avenge anyone for his own grievances and complexes, he just sincerely does not understand you. Perhaps he lacks some knowledge, maybe his parents did not teach him to behave in society, but the reality is that he does not provoke a conflict, he really wonders what the problem is. Explain to him, give links to relevant literature in PM or in private - he will only be grateful to you.
2. Intriguers. An intriguer is a licked-up look of a target effective troll that is good on the table, which can "get lost without undressing." This is a man of thousands of guises, he can be successfully represented by anyone, disguised as anything and say anything. He is able to say “thank you very much” so that the moderator will not stand it and ban him - after which he will be removed from office for abuse of authority. That is why, a conversation with such should be extremely short. The huge problem is that they are almost impossible to recognize. And the best part is that there are practically no such ones.
By the way, a side effect of the classification is the acceptance of the fact that the troll can be not only a person, but also a program. Why? Think about it at your leisure.
In addition, I believe that this article will be useful to everyone who somehow tries to approach the issue of classification from a scientific point of view. Based on it, you can get an idea of how to deal with classification, and it will be useful to you even if you saw all these trolls and netrolls in a coffin. You can assume that this is an article on the scientific classification of a phenomenon using the trolling phenomenon as an example.
The topic is in the blog "learn to work" simply because you already learn, damn it, to make classifications!
So, at present, we have a superclass of all the inhabitants of the Network, which we need to classify as “network users”. We will proceed from the definition published on Wikipedia, because it is often referred to, and, thus, it is generally accepted.
Trolling - posting on the Internet (on forums, in Usenet newsgroups, on wikis, LiveJournal, etc.) provocative messages in order to cause a flame, conflicts between participants, insults and the like.
In order to determine the subject of conversation, it is necessary to understand what is being discussed in the definition and highlight the main species characteristics.
So, a troll is a person trolling. Thus, it is determined by the following features:
1. stirs provocative messages
2. aims to cause a flame, conflicts between participants, and the like - we will call it “destructive goals”
Thus, in order to be able to call a person a troll, you need to prove that the message left by him is provocative, and the purpose of posting this message destructive. After realizing this fact, we distinguish four subclasses in the superclass “network users”, each of which we will call according to the behavior model:
1. Do not leave provocative messages and do not pursue destructive goals - Visitors
2. Leave provocative messages, but do not pursue destructive ones goals - morons
3. Leave provocative messages and pursue destructive goals - Trolls
4. Do not leave provocative messages, but pursue destructive goals - Intriguans.
Next, in the “trolls” class, we need to distinguish subclasses based on generic characteristics. To do this, you should consider the definition again and identify motives and aspirations. That is, ask by definition the questions “for what” and “because of what”.
So, the troll posts provocative messages in order to commit destructive actions. For what?
In order to answer this question, it should be understood that destructive actions are conscious and unconscious. Conscious - this is when a person is purposefully engaged in the destruction of his own environment, and unconscious - when he can not foresee the consequences of his own actions. Conscious trolling immediately stands out in a separate category, divided into subcategories “personal” (when I hate the owner of the resource and seek to destroy it) and “custom” (when I carry out destructive actions at someone’s request), the unconscious is further divided.
A person unconsciously engages in destructive actions within the framework of his own environment. Since he does not have destructive goals, it should be assumed that his goals are constructive within the framework of his worldview paradigm and build a number of assumptions about them.
The assumption is pretty simple. A person may consider that the management of the environment is not effective enough, and, not having the appropriate authority, is thus trying to self-manage and regulate the content and population in accordance with personal quality criteria. So, for example, a linuxoid can consider that there are too many winders on the hub, which for some reason no one will deny, and will actively flame with them, trying to achieve minuses in their direction. This is a kind of super-goal of unconscious trolling - to bring the living environment in accordance with its imago (the ideal reflection of the environment in the mind).
Depending on what exactly the person does not like during the habitat, trolls can concentrate on:
1. Posts (down with VKontakte from the Habr!)
2. People (down with DailSoft from the Habr!)
3. Comments (down with the first-timers from the Habr!)
And so on, depending on the type of resource.
So, we have made a classification by purpose, now we have to make a classification for reasons. So, the troll posts provocative messages in order to commit destructive actions. Why?
It should be understood here that we are no longer talking about goals, but about reasons. The reasons are internal attitudes that lead a person to the idea that this model of behavior is effective. Let's try to classify them.
So, personal attitudes can likewise be conscious and unconscious. Conscious personality attitudes - this is when a person believes that trolling is the only effective tool to achieve his goals (see “why”), unconscious - when trolling is the result of any personality attitudes, complexes or phobias.
Naturally, all personal troll attitudes ultimately come down to complexes. However, do not rejoice. Complexes - this is what is in abundance in any person, it’s just that they cannot always be correctly recognized and analyzed. And if you are not a troll, this does not mean that you do not have complexes, and (worst of all) - that you are better than a troll.
Conscious personal attitudes most often come down to the fact that a person himself experienced the effects of trolls on himself or on his own acquaintances and saw how this could be an effective tool. The unconscious traditionally come down to an inferiority complex, a deeper classification will require special knowledge from readers, so I will not give it.
Thus, we got two parallel classifications:
Target level:
1. Conscious (target)
1.1. Personal
1.2. Custom-made
2. Unconscious (socially-conflicting)
2.1. Non-adoption of the communication model
2.2. Failure to adopt a model of behavior
2.3. Non-acceptance of traditions
2.4. ...
Causal level:
1. Conscious (effective)
2. Unconscious (frustrated)
Crossing the classifications, we get 4 categories to which all trolls can be assigned.
1. Troll is an effective target. Trolling for him is a business, nothing personal. He is fluent in tricks and it is incredibly difficult to recognize a troll in him. He is cold, calm and prudent. If you are sure that you see just such a troll in front of you - immediately ban it, otherwise after a while your whole forum will be in ruins.
2. Troll frustrated target. For him, trolling is the sublimation of their own complexes, for which they pay money. Most of all, he looks like a stripper, who at 14 was small, fat and girls did not like him. He loves his favorite work and always does it enthusiastically. Naturally, he is much more emotional than the previous type, often likes to “flirt” with the “victim” and its inhabitants, and sometimes does not hide his own craft. But all this should not prevent you from making the only right decision in the event of the discovery of such a troll - a ban.
3. The troll is an effective social-conflict one. In terms of D&D, this type is best described by the combination of Chaotic Good. He sacredly believes that he understands better than many what people need and acts according to this attitude. In his vision of the habitat, perfectly square people walk along perfectly square streets, drinking a perfectly square cocktail of perfectly square mojito. If you see such a person - do not rush to ban him, first talk to him. Practice shows that if your worldviews coincide, you will get just the perfect moderator who will be devoted to you until the end of his life. Well, or until his or your life paradigm changes. Remember that all the problems are due to the fact that he does not have other regulatory tools, and maybe he deserves to receive them.
4. The troll is frustrated socially-conflict. Most of all it is similar to an adolescent teenager, and, quite often, that is what he is. For him, trolling is revenge for their own grievances and problems. The most numerous class, richly represented on the network - this includes including trolls who do this “for fun” (in an unsportsmanlike version). If you help him get rid of his own problems, then soon he will become a normal user, because trolling is not his fault, but his misfortune. He is an alcoholic, and his attitude should be appropriate. If you cannot help him, break his relationship with your habitat by picking up a Banhammer.
However, in our group there are two more categories of people who stand close to the trolls, but, nevertheless, are not. They are not easy to distinguish from real trolls, and therefore you need to understand how they are similar and how they differ.
1. morons. Often a moron seems to be a frustrated socially-conflict troll from the side, but this is not so. A moron is not an alcoholic who suffers from being held hostage by his own affection, but rather a teenager who drank a bottle of vodka for the first time in his life. He does not avenge anyone for his own grievances and complexes, he just sincerely does not understand you. Perhaps he lacks some knowledge, maybe his parents did not teach him to behave in society, but the reality is that he does not provoke a conflict, he really wonders what the problem is. Explain to him, give links to relevant literature in PM or in private - he will only be grateful to you.
2. Intriguers. An intriguer is a licked-up look of a target effective troll that is good on the table, which can "get lost without undressing." This is a man of thousands of guises, he can be successfully represented by anyone, disguised as anything and say anything. He is able to say “thank you very much” so that the moderator will not stand it and ban him - after which he will be removed from office for abuse of authority. That is why, a conversation with such should be extremely short. The huge problem is that they are almost impossible to recognize. And the best part is that there are practically no such ones.
By the way, a side effect of the classification is the acceptance of the fact that the troll can be not only a person, but also a program. Why? Think about it at your leisure.
