Trolls: feed or not feed, ignore or react?

3 August 2012 ,

How best to react to when on the receiving end of online abuse has been rather in the news, courtesy of some high profile recent incidents.

My own view is that ‘don’t feed the trolls’ is far more widely said than is useful, both because ‘trolling’ now means so many different things to different people and also because feeding can be the right approach.

Here’s a round-up of stories that flesh out this point:

  • Why you should feed the trolls (sets out my views in more detail)
  • Problem with the ‘don’t feed the trolls’ line summarised in one tweet
  • Olympic weightlifter takes on the trolls – and prospers
  • Evidence from South Korea: ignore the headline, read the details and the comments – as the evidence really points to the opposite conclusion from that in the headline
  • Trolling for peace (an attempt to do trolling for good)
  • The different ways famous people react to being on the receiving end of online abuse
  • What the father of a ‘Twitter troll’ thinks: “Norman Messer, the father of the teen arrested after insulting [diver Tom Daley], said yesterday that Twitter should have shut down his son Reece’s account a long time ago. Mr Messer, 58, said his son suffers from an extreme form of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. “It’s not just Daley. He’s abused everyone on Twitter. If you go down his tweets you can see he’s got a problem. There should be some way to close down the accounts of people who are not well, like Reece. I also think there should be an age limit. It’s not right that young people should go on there and say things like this.” He said his son is now full of remorse for his tweets to Daley. “He finds comfort going on Twitter – it gives him a buzz. He’s tried to apologise to Tom, but hasn’t got a reply, which has caused him more anxiety – although I’m not trying to blame Tom at all.”"

If you’ve spotted other good recent pieces on the topic let me know and I’ll add them to this list.

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Alex Baldwin
Alex Baldwin

It is useful to have the word "Troll" keep the particular meaning it had originally. That is somebody who pretends to hold a position in order to provoke a response. These trolls should obviously be ignored or managed as silently as is possible. If you're struggling for why that is the case then I encourage you to read the second sentence of this comment again. The guy who abused Tom Daley was closer to the classic troll in this way. Recently, the word "troll" has found its way into popular parlance and now just means "person who says something that I don't like". This is particularly popular with the left. I have no idea why we need a special word for "someone who says something I don't agree with, or who is rude or unpleasant", seeing as this word would then apply to ANYONE from somebody's perspective (or at least anyone interesting, anyway).

Matthew Asher
Matthew Asher

The best part is that Trolling originally meant to walk round known gay areas of town looking to pick up men. So i suppose you could call any person who uses Troll for anybody is a Homophobe (even if that is a wrong word anyway)

Tracy Connell
Tracy Connell

Singer Jonathan Ansell (of the group G4 from X Factor) was subject to a tirade of abuse after his appearance on the show to find Lloyd Webber's Joseph. Obviously it upset him. I found these people did not actually know the full story and didn't know Jonathan at all. I set a few straight on it and one or two actually then apologised to Jonathan and his fans. Personally, I've had mixed experiences with trolls. On facebook with opposition supporters some of them can be quite brutal, but otherwise some will accept your reasoning on issues even if they can't bring themselves to agree. I have had a few constructive discussions on Nick Clegg/Lib Dem facebook pages. Some things did start to get through to one or two people. But is it worth spending all that time when it's more productive to speak to your own residents on the doorstep? I think you should also take time to think about your response calmly. I was recently subjected to bullying by a fellow so-called Lib Dem and unfortunately threw my toys out the pram instead of taking a calm short shrift approach. In this case it would have been best not to feed and just block I think, as he obviously had it in for me for some unknown reason.

C-