DIG's SIG

[Luna]

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Trolling and Harassment
What is a troll?


The traditional definition of a troll refers to a member of a community or usenet group who makes posts deliberately designed to attract responses of outrage or indignation. It is the troll's intent to "hook" unsuspecting members into responding, (hence the term "trolling"), thus providing him/her self with the attention they crave.


A distinction must be made between true trolls, newcomers who are merely experiencing growing pains as they attempt to adjust to community standards, and community members who simply have strong but otherwise harmless, dissenting opinions. Trolls should be removed, newcomers assisted, and contributing community members given at least a modicum of respectful distance.


In our experience with online communities, there are four types of trolls...
Types of Trolls:


1) Mischievous: Such trolls have a humorous intent. Often, they are a "regular" who has temporarily adopted a new identity in order to play a good-natured prank. They are not abusive to members and rarely create trouble within a community. Generally there is no harm in responding to them. Some members may find mischievous trolls to be annoying, particularly if their presence leads to lengthy threads that distract the community from its true intent.. Other members inevitably find that the troll's humor and light-hearted antics provide the community with an opportunity to laugh together, thus enhancing and strengthening community bonds.


2) Mindless: Mindless trolls have a tendency to post lengthy stories of questionable belief thus promoting good facial tone in members due to excessive eye-rolling. They are generally harmless. On rare occasion, the ficticious posts of a mindless troll may lead to insightful debate and discussion. Aside from encouraging them, there is generally no harm in responding.


3) Malicious: A malicious troll arrives with the intent of being blatantly abusive to the group and/or specific individuals within the group. One of their characteristics is that within a very short time of gaining access they begin targeting and harassing members using both low-end and high-end tactics. In some cases, the troll has a prior history with the group or someone within the group [Ref: Personality Clashes and Conflicts]. In other scenarios, the troll is simply looking for fresh meat.


4.) Destructive: Around 1999 a new form of troll began to appear on the net in mail groups and online communities. The primary purpose of this type of troll is to completely destroy the group it has infiltrated. Destructive trolls may work on their own, or possibly in teams or gangs.








Personality Clashes and Conflicts:


Personality clashes tend to be one-time events between community members that often result in building familiarity. They are more common among members who have no history of one another such as two newbies, or a newbie and a long-term community resident. Following the incident, the two members may feel they know and understand the other far better than they did before - the disagreement may even pave the way to a friendship forming. In other instances, hard feelings may develop. These can fuel later misunderstandings and conflicts between members.


Personality conflicts involve a period of sustained animosity between two members who have a history of interaction between them. Although each member may be well-known and admired by others they do not get along with one another. There is a strong component of dislike, disrespect or disapproval. Low-end harassment is often exhibited to various degrees by both parties. The conflict may simmer privately for weeks or months and then explode publicly on the boards.


Personality conflicts have the potential to divide the community as friends and admirers line up behind their favored member (or favored ideology), glare offensively at those on the 'other' side, and trade verbal barbs or other forms of mudslinging.


Personality clashes and conflicts may lead to one or more members adopting troll identities in order to flame or harass others without having to be accountable for their actions in their known (possibly respected) identity. This may be especially true in instances where conflict resolution standards are not explicitly understood.








Online Harrassment:


Harassment is not an isolated event, it is not a solitary outburst. Harassment is a pattern of ongoing behavior directed at a specific target. The legal definition of harassment, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is:


"A course of conduct directed at a specific person that causes substantial emotional
distress in such person and serves no legitimate purpose" or "Words, gestures, and
actions which tend to annoy, alarm and abuse (verbally) another person."


We recognize two levels of harassment: low-end and high-end.


Low-End Harassment is comprised of posturing, implication, insults, taunting and forms of baiting. Projection and transference may be involved. The harassment may take place on the boards, in chatrooms, or in private mail. It is a frequent component of unresolved or unacknowledged personality conflicts, or volatile discussion. It may include following a member from post to post, thread to thread, or board to board, and responding to them with a rapid-fire of low-level tactics; this approach in particular can be so aggressive it may well become a form of high-end harassment.


In some cases, low-end harassment is unintentional. It may be teasing gone too far, or a misunderstanding in regard to personal boundaries. Taunting, on the other hand, is a form of low-end harassment. Consider the differences...


Teasing:
Allows the teaser and the person teased to swap roles
Isn't intended to hurt the other person
Maintains the basic dignity of everyone involved.
Pokes fun in a lighthearted, clever and benign way.
Is meant to get both parties to laugh.
Is only a small part of the activities shared by those who have something in common.
Is innocent in motive.
Is discontinued when the person teased becomes upset or objects to the teasing.


Taunting:
Is one-sided and based on an imbalance of power
Is intended to harm.
Involves humiliating, cruel, demeaning or bigoted comments thinly disguised as jokes.
Includes laughter directed at the target, not with the target.
Is meant to diminish the self-worth of the target.
Induces fear of further taunting.
Is sinister in motive.
Continues especially when the target becomes distressed or objects to the taunt.


While precise definitions of low-end harassment can be subjective according to a member's personal boundaries, high-end harassment tends to be widely recognized as a clear crossing of boundaries and an invasion of privacy. It is common in troll attacks, volatile personality conflicts, and may be a component of online stalking. High-end harassment may include:


Publicly posting private and personal information about a user (pictures, address, phone number, name)
Impersonating (or attempting to impersonate) a member.
Spreading false rumors about another community member
Publicly revealing a sexual liason with a member without their consent.
Publishing private correspondence
Spamming a member's private mailbox.
Sending viruses or trojan horses to a member's private mailbox.
Signing the targeted member up for subscription or free services.
Unprovoked personal attack or sexual overture.
Public or private disclosures of affection that are innappropriate to the circumstance
Attempting to solicit information about a target from other members.
Repeated interactions with a member after they have firmly requested that you stop.
Public attempts to turn other members against the target.
Explicit or implied threats of harm to the target or their loved ones.