Trolling

[defstartrooper]

I posted this question the thread titled " banned member question " which was locked for discussing banned members after 6 pages :wacko
Anyway it never got answered so i opened this one to ask.

Can someone clarify what trolling is and expressing an opinion is then, and what seperates the two ?
I have my own personal definition of the two but i'd like an official RPF clarification on what's what.
In the time i've been here i've had several occasions where people have accused me of trolling or flaming, even by a staff member before.
I have never myself thought that i troll or flame though, don't get me wrong i'm not oblivious to the fact that i'm an opinionated sod and i'll let that opinion be known even if it does go against the grain of popular opinion.
On the whole though i think i express my view in a polite non offensive manner, at least i try to and am more than willing to apologise if i do unintentionally cause offense, so does that make me a troll ?

P.S this is not a trolling post it's a serious question as i say i've had several people tell me im a troll yet have never recieved any infraction points since i've been here to the best of my knowledge which leads me to believe that the definition of trolling is not the same across the whole board.

 

[amish]

In my opinion I am a troll if I come in here and start calling you a doo-doo head just to get you all worked up, otherwise, if I am disagreeing with you, I am just having a discussion.

Just my opinion on trolling.

 

[defstartrooper]

In my opinion I am a troll if I come in here and start calling you a doo-doo head just to get you all worked up, otherwise, if I am disagreeing with you, I am just having a discussion.

Just my opinion on trolling.

Well that's what i think too but seriously i've had 3 or 4 occasions where people have actually outright called me a troll for not agreeing with them and offering a different point of view.
Curiously these posts are usually accompanied with personal comments or name calling.

 

[KnightAsylum]

This is completely just my view of it - and not in anything specific to any incident or person.

I think it is not the most clear cut thing, but it is all in the type of response and what the intent "seems" to be. Not that sometimes folks misread something, or read into something but if I came in her and replied to your question with...
"only a moron would not get the difference"
That seem like a troll response to me
but if I said...
"I don't understand what is confusing about it for you?"
That is just a question. I still don't understand what you don't, get but I said it in a different way.

Also you see posts from the same people that say the same thing regardless of the actual topic. Those try to come off as "feedback" when it is just being negative. Although this one seems like easy to confuse, i think many times you can guess intent - especially when you see patterns from some people.

Even if a mistake is made on the intent you can usually tell based on the response to the trolling allegation. People that get overly defensive or try and justify there negative remarks look like they really were trolling.

I don't mean "negative" as not being critical. being critical is fine, when I say negative I mean being nasty about it. I tend to think would that person have worded it that way if they were standing face to face with the person? - you can be critical without being an A$$ (and most would be more tactful in person ) Being an A$$ on a thread makes you a troll.

Trolling responses seem to me not to be about the topic but generated just to be confrontational and/or in the hopes of starting an argument. The same type of responses you see in real life much less frequent because they are typically rude and most people are not that way face to face without the anonymity and protection the internet provides.

What the statement seems to intend by its posting makes it trolling. While subjective in degree, I think it is not difficult to identify potential posts. Once may just be bad wording or foul mood, but repetitive behavior makes the person a troll.
Just my thoughts on the subject at the moment. I do think it is a good question.:thumbsup

 

[franz bolo]

Can someone clarify what trolling is and expressing an opinion is then, and what seperates the two ?

Trolling is when someone who doesn't contribute to this forum, other than rants and poor comedy, posts an opposing view. An opinion is when some one who does contribute to this forum posts an opposing view.

You can spot the troll by viewing their post history. They are mostly in the OT forum.

FB

 

[Emeldahay]

A genuine poster posts to engage.

A troll posts to anger and disrupt.

How to spot which is which comes down to gut feel. There can be no scientific process applied to weed out the troll.

 

[defstartrooper]

Interesting thanks for the input.

Something else if for example someone were to call me a moron or make personal remarks and name calling toward me i personally wouldn't be that phased whatever the intent were.
I get called allsorts all the time by friends and of course it's in jest and taken as such, if i were having a discussion/debate with someone i don't know though and they started calling me names to insult me i still wouldn't say i was offended cos to me that just shows that i'm winning and they have nowhere else to go with their side of the debate.
Now if that were to happen here on the RPF i'd not be happy to see someone get punished by the staff for calling me names which is against the rules even though it doesn't bother me.
Yes i know it's in the rules and they are punished for breaking the rule but the rule is there to protect those that are offended or intimidated by that behaviour right ?

 

[defstartrooper]

Trolling is when someone who doesn't contribute to this forum, other than rants and poor comedy, posts an opposing view. An opinion is when some one who does contribute to this forum posts an opposing view.

You can spot the troll by viewing their post history. They are mostly in the OT forum.

FB

Define contribute please ?

 

[defstartrooper]

A genuine poster posts to engage.

A troll posts to anger and disrupt.

How to spot which is which comes down to gut feel. There can be no scientific process applied to weed out the troll.

So people are banned or punished on nothing more than a gut feeling i feel that's unfair don't you ?

 

[Emeldahay]

So people are banned or punished on nothing more than a gut feeling i feel that's unfair don't you ?

I thought this thread was discussing what constitutes a troll rather than what to do with a troll?

At the end of a day unless someone admits to deliberatly stirring the shatner then it always comes down to how you feel about the post after youve read it and ultimately what else you think you know about the poster.

As I said there can be no scientific way to distinguish the two - call it gut feel, intuition, experience or pure brain power - something makes you feel youve read a troll post when they come along.

Its up to the mods to decide what to do.

 

[KnightAsylum]

So people are banned or punished on nothing more than a gut feeling i feel that's unfair don't you ?

I know you were not asking me...but it does not happen after the first time, so it is not just an innocent mistake (if it did, that would seem to be unfair - to me) You get a few warnings. Combine that with the fact that not one person decides to ban someone and you are talking the gut feeling of several people, in this case the mods and really part of what I expect from them is the use of that gut. I can only speak for me, but I don't find the process of trolling/banning unfair.

 

[defstartrooper]

I thought this thread was discussing what constitutes a troll rather than what to do with a troll?

At the end of a day unless someone admits to deliberatly stirring the shatner then it always comes down to how you feel about the post after youve read it and ultimately what else you think you know about the poster.

As I said there can be no scientific way to distinguish the two - call it gut feel, intuition, experience or pure brain power - something makes you feel youve read a troll post when they come along.

Its up to the mods to decide what to do.

No no my friend the threads just called trolling feel free to throw up any questions or issues related to the topic

Well that's just my issue you see i've had several people call me a troll even though trolling was the furthest thing from my mind but clearly they had a reason for saying it.
Now they could just have a different definition of trolling to me, or they might just have called me that to be arsey who knows :lol
Now if it were the former and it were a mod who had a different definition of trolling than i and i were to recieve a warning or suspended or worse for it that would be annoying.