Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Parking Lot Justice / Trolling

When someone purposefully annoys and/or messes with someone in a multiplayer video-game it's called "griefing." A person who does similar actions on the internet (i.e. forums, blogs, Facebook, etc.) is referred to as a "troll." And yes, there are ways to do this in real life as well.



Here is an example of successful internet "trolling":

Troll: Justin Bieber is evil!
Girl: No he's not! Shut up! I hate you!

The troll has received the usual, angry response. This is called "feeding the troll," because they expect these types of negative feedback, and thrive on them.

Here is an example on unsuccessful "trolling":

Troll: Bieber is not talented!
Girl: I know what your doing. Stop trolling. Get a life.

Notice that the target has addressed the attempt of the troll, thus negating the effect, and "starving" the troll.

However, this is a simpler form of trolling. It is more common that a troll has more than one target. In fact, it is very frequent that trolls find a large community to irritate. When one recognizes what is happening, they say "Please don't feed the troll." And this seems to solve the problem, though there are some cases where people are so angry, they disregard such sound advice.

The reason I am talking about trolling is because it is, more or less, a metaphorical explanation of what happened in the video above.

Henry and Michael are the trolls. McKann and Ms. Henry are the targets. The rest are spectators. McKann, a very experienced high school student, recognized what was happening, saying, "I'm not falling for you're dumb jokes," the internet equivalent of "don't feed the troll." Ms. Henry, on the other hand, seemed to aim a more harsh and negative reply of "you can leave", which is what Henry and Michael wanted. After their contribution, they left the room, as it were, with their stomach satisfied.

4 comments:

Eliza said...

as you know, I am not on facebook so I find this whole trolling thing very interesting. thanks for sharing. I had to watch the video twice to get what was going on and it was funny. thanks for sharing that too!

PK said...

Sorry Lize, I realize that the video itself needs more plot information than theoretical explanation. What is happening is Juniors interested in student government declare what they are interested in running for. Student body president, senior vice president, etc. Other officer names include things like "girls senate," "north-west justice," "South-east Justice," and so on. Parking-Lot Justice is an old joke that developed over the years that not many people know about. Obviously it's not a real student government position, thought people have ran against each other in the past, just for fun, even though (or especially because) the school doesn't endorse it.

PK said...

oh yeah, and it's ok that you don't know anything about trolling. very few facebook users now about it, though many have experienced it. It's kind of an internet subculture, like lolcats. I'd be surprised if even Jan knows about trolling (actually I wouldn't, he probably knows more than me).

It can be annoying if there are people who are unfamiliar with trolls being troll'd. I remember someones fb status was "Jimmer sucks" or something, and there was a lot of negative comments (aka "flame") I had to step in and comment "don't feed the troll," as well as educating them and whatnot. :)

Enoch said...

Hahahahaha! Nice Peaks. I've actually fond this more on Youtube then FB, and it is very interesting and (I'll admit it) slightly entertaining, to be a spectator, watching the responses that the troll will get from his victims. XD Very nicely done!