Lessons in Troll Spotting

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Posted by cwatbay on October 16, 2000 at 22:38:02:

In Reply to: Off Topic, but important question..... posted by JNelson on October 16, 2000 at 21:28:04:

Here is the criteria I use for spotting those persistant and troublesome trolls:

1. Is their screen name the same one they use at the monitor forum
2. Do they only post once per month ( ie: this forum pretty much lists all the post for the last 30 days). They usually wait until their last post is not longer visable.
3. Is it a hot subject that was just recently debated ( like diet, housing, light, heat, whatever ). They usually like hitting on up to the minute "hot topics" or "hot button" to get everyone's attention and get people riled up.
4. They usually use words to describe themselves such as: expert, professional, experienced, "long time reptile owner", or making some statement that they have owner a lot of reptiles.
5. Their statements or questions are so obviously dumb, stupid, inflammatory or insulting that they have to be made up - just for the purpose of causing trouble
6. The misspelled words are interesting. Simple words are misspelled, complex words are not - demonstrating that the writer purposely misspelled certain words.
7. The logic of the sentence structure. I know this sounds complicated, but -- what it means is that the way in which the statements are organized within the post suggest that the person is trying hard to hide the fact that they are fairly intelligent - but try to word the post to make it look like they aren't that bright. Or that they are being facitious(sic)or sarcastic.
8. I look at the source code for similarities in the source of the post - most trolls are AOL proxy sources - however some are not - if all the previous indicators suggest that the post is a troll, then I will look up the source code and see if it is familiar or matches other source codes on this or some other ( monitor ) forum.

All this sounds complicated, but I usually get a gut feeling when someone is troll. If I have the time or inclination, then I will check the source code and see if it look familiar. A lot of these trolls are high school or college students that use library computers. Also, after a while their comments start to look familiar - regardless of their screen names, and, the attitude of their posts start to show through.

Of course it also helps if you have a degree in behavioral science/psychology and interned as a therapist like I did. Not that it really helps.

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Thanks...that explains it. Like Dishy said...... JNelson 10/17/00 (0)
That's what I was trying to say! Dishy 10/16/00 (0)

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: Here is the criteria I use for spotting those persistant and troublesome trolls: : 1. Is their screen name the same one they use at the monitor forum : 2. Do they only post once per month ( ie: this forum pretty much lists all the post for the last 30 days). They usually wait until their last post is not longer visable. : 3. Is it a hot subject that was just recently debated ( like diet, housing, light, heat, whatever ). They usually like hitting on up to the minute "hot topics" or "hot button" to get everyone's attention and get people riled up. : 4. They usually use words to describe themselves such as: expert, professional, experienced, "long time reptile owner", or making some statement that they have owner a lot of reptiles. : 5. Their statements or questions are so obviously dumb, stupid, inflammatory or insulting that they have to be made up - just for the purpose of causing trouble : 6. The misspelled words are interesting. Simple words are misspelled, complex words are not - demonstrating that the writer purposely misspelled certain words. : 7. The logic of the sentence structure. I know this sounds complicated, but -- what it means is that the way in which the statements are organized within the post suggest that the person is trying hard to hide the fact that they are fairly intelligent - but try to word the post to make it look like they aren't that bright. Or that they are being facitious(sic)or sarcastic. : 8. I look at the source code for similarities in the source of the post - most trolls are AOL proxy sources - however some are not - if all the previous indicators suggest that the post is a troll, then I will look up the source code and see if it is familiar or matches other source codes on this or some other ( monitor ) forum. : All this sounds complicated, but I usually get a gut feeling when someone is troll. If I have the time or inclination, then I will check the source code and see if it look familiar. A lot of these trolls are high school or college students that use library computers. Also, after a while their comments start to look familiar - regardless of their screen names, and, the attitude of their posts start to show through. : Of course it also helps if you have a degree in behavioral science/psychology and interned as a therapist like I did. Not that it really helps. : CW

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