Where the Trolls Live.

Giordano said:
They probably are! I have my stereotypic image of who they are and what they look like, but I do wonder what the reality is. And can I presume that they know one another?
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Oh my gosh, what if they don't just know each other, but all those negative comments are directed AT each other? Like, this one epic feud is bringing the whole city down. They're pleasant to most people, but they just. can't. stop. harassing each other.

100% TRUE FACT: Okay AS I WAS TYPING THIS my phone got a call from Illinois. Nobody has ever called me from there. They know, guys. They know I'm talking about them. (I didn't answer, I don't need that kind of negativity.)

EDIT: I looked up the area code and it wasn't quite right but was very close. They didn't leave a message.
 
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SOdhner said:
Oh my gosh, what if they don't just know each other, but all those negative comments are directed AT each other? Like, this one epic feud is bringing the whole city down. They're pleasant to most people, but they just. can't. stop. harassing each other.
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I was involved in a case well over a decade ago where we discovered as a part of discovery that there was a message board for small stocks where one of the companies involved was heavily discussed. As in several threads about this one company and about half of the registered members of the forum were commenting about this one company. It was odd because it was a rather small company but it was really funny when we discovered that 99.99% of all of the comments came from the CEO of the company and a disgruntled former employee. They each had dozens of sock puppets. It was creepy.

I always thought the former employee really won that troll-off since he got the CEO to engage in hours of online discussion in a backwoods forum that had very little traffic. Just reviewing that forum in preparation for depositions cost the company tens of thousands of dollars.
 
And what the hell is up with Bellflower, Ca.?
(I was scanning the West coast first and it really jumped out)


I only know it as the home of several well known large poker rooms (that area probably had lax regs back in the Deukmejian era) but it's called out for being so out of step with the surrounding area, all of California for that matter.

Home to ISPs or traffic routers (how were the trolls ID'd/localized) ?
Or just a few truly prolific posters like the Iowa example?
 
Imhotep said:
Trolling (to me) is intentionally tailoring your post to try to attract the most replies (usually by taking an extreme position on a subject), and then continuing to try to frustrate those replying by using various tactics to keep them responding.
I think (often simulating) feeling strongly about a subject, and vile language and insults, those are just a subset of "various tactics".
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I agree with your definition: trolling as I see it consists of advancing positions on line that are unrelated to the troll's true feelings and are solely intended to upset others and manipulate them to rise to your bait with angry replies. I guess the real purpose is to obtain a feeling of superiority and control. In this way the other posters are dancing to your tune and don't even realize that the troll is not serious and is making monkeys of them.

Really disgusting posts that are vile, disgusting personal attacks I view more as cyber-stalking and cyber-assault than as trolling. I see trolls as juvenile asses who never intellectually made it out of high school, but not as downright disgusting evil slime balls.

However the map I cited appears to use a definition other than ours.
 
marplots said:
If trolling is going to mean rape and death threats, then I am on board. However, I get the sense that trolling has come to mean any irritating comment - annoying, not credibly dangerous.
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If you'd take the time to look at the citation, the OP described the continuum and gave examples of how they rated posts.
 
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William Parcher said:
How did they determine poster location with precision?
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I wished I could see the actual research, the article in the OP didn't have a link to it. But data mining can find your location. My Yahoo page knows the weather report I look at. If I search for a store I reveal the neighborhood I'm looking in. There are many ways.

Heck, your smart phones are now are recording data in real time as to where people stuck in traffic actually are.
 
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Imhotep said:
Trolling (to me) is intentionally tailoring your post to try to attract the most replies (usually by taking an extreme position on a subject), and then continuing to try to frustrate those replying by using various tactics to keep them responding.

I think (often simulating) feeling strongly about a subject, and vile language and insults, those are just a subset of "various tactics".
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My definition of trolling was just that, but more recently the definition has changed to mean more things.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
If you'd take the time to look at the citation, the OP described the continuum and gave examples of how they rated posts.
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Yes, thank you.

I think I must be in a protected bubble of a sort, perhaps self constructed. I don't feel at all put-upon by trolling. I see very little of it and what I do (youtube video comments might count) is easy to dismiss as hyperbole when it drifts into invective.

What I can't tell is whether I'm just not as reactive as others or the problem itself is being overstated and isn't quite the social ill it's presented as.

Maybe the world is just more callous, shallow, and mean than we'd like to think. But it's the same place it was before - isn't it?
 
Dr. Keith said:
I always thought the former employee really won that troll-off since he got the CEO to engage in hours of online discussion in a backwoods forum that had very little traffic. Just reviewing that forum in preparation for depositions cost the company tens of thousands of dollars.
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I don't know if I could call either of those guys a 'winner' but I agree that the CEO for sure lost.
 
Imhotep said:
Trolling (to me) is intentionally tailoring your post to try to attract the most replies (usually by taking an extreme position on a subject), and then continuing to try to frustrate those replying by using various tactics to keep them responding.

I think (often simulating) feeling strongly about a subject, and vile language and insults, those are just a subset of "various tactics".
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This

And it can be extremely funny at times to read, and 99% of the time not really that malicious

But it seems to have been redefined recently (Totally unjustly IMO) to be people trying to write the most disgusting stuff they can, like joking about child abuse etc.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
It's both.

Not all bots are troll-bots.

Not all trolls are bots.

But some bots are trolls, ergo some trolls are bots.
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But what do you think of the two guys in post 11? Bots, or did they actually type so much they could hit 99% ?

But here in lies the rub of the net. A small number can look like a YUGE section of society. Alt Right fersure, but Libruls and SJWs too. Did you notice that the last election was neck and neck again ?
 
casebro said:
But what do you think of the two guys in post 11? Bots, or did they actually type so much they could hit 99% ?
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99% of 34%, or essentially 2 people posted 34% of the comments. That would depend on the denominator. It would also depend on if they used copy/paste on a slew of those which would mean very few keystrokes.

casebro said:
But here in lies the rub of the net. A small number can look like a YUGE section of society. Alt Right fersure, but Libruls and SJWs too. Did you notice that the last election was neck and neck again ?
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Since Bush v Gore I've been amazed at how closely the voting population is divided. But I disagree that the proportion of the alt-right on the right is the same as the proportion of the far left on the left. The 30 or so percent of people who still support Trump suggest the racist white element in the US is fairly substantial. I don't think there is an equivalent far left element in the US. I also don't think the Sanders wing on the left is/was as homogeneous as the Trump faction.

It would be interesting to know the actual proportion. I could be wrong but I don't see it. There are two members in this forum that continue to hold to the narrative that Clinton was 'installed' as the Democratic candidate. There are many more here that still defend Trump.

All speculation mind you.
 
William Parcher said:
How did they determine poster location with precision?
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Using a tool that translates the users IP address to a geographic location.

Right now I am posting from home using a Comcast cable modem. The ISF server knows my IP address. My IP address is in a range used by Comcast to serve residential customers in my town.
 
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