Ledger

When most people think of trolls, they usually think of a character from "Lord of The Rings" or "The Hobbit" - a hideous, mischievous little beast that hides under a bridge waiting for a sneak attack. In today’s world, one can cross a bridge with little fear of running into these beasts. However, if you travel the world of the information highway, especially on discussion boards, you won’t have to look too far to run into an "Internet Troll."

So, what is an Internet Troll? Well, think of the term "trolling." Imagine a boat with a baited fish hook dragging the bottom of a lake or ocean trying to snag something. That’s what Internet trolls do in chat rooms. From the safety of their keyboards, these individuals like to use flaming instant messages to attack people for their own sadistic pleasure.

Most discussion boards online involve a lot of people wanting to have meaningful discussions about their interests. For a troll, it’s not about their opinions, if they even have any. Their goal is simply to incite angry replies from people by submitting contrary opinions designed to garner the most anger and outrage from a particular discussion group.

Even worse than Internet trolls are the so-called "Fake Trolls." These individuals not only flame people, but will take on false identities and sometimes do research to make them sound legitimate. One "Fake Troll" on Yahoo’s News discussion board always claims to be an "Ex Green Beret Kernel." He continues to post despite the fact that many on the discussion board have sent him a news flash that "kernel" is actually spelled "colonel."

Another troll claims to have a Ph.D. as well as a career flying Stealth bombers. Other members of the Yahoo discussion board with real military backgrounds have relegated him to troll status by pointing out that the ship he claims to take off from never carries Stealth bombers. His frequent misspellings are pointed out as well. The troll angrily fires back claiming he is dyslexic but it doesn’t mean that he isn’t genius.

A lot of trolls can be real people looking for sympathy and depend on victim status as an identity. Sometimes they exaggerate their claims of suffering and compete with other trolls by one-upping them with exaggerated claims of tragedy and loss.

Others are simply gossipers who like to make fun of people and talk behind people’s backs. A discussion board with no obscenity filter allows them to take the gloves off and rip into people without mercy.

So, what makes up the psyche of a troll? It could be the fact that they are missing something in their lives and they need a place to go. Others might suffer from a mental illness and may be desperately seeking any kind of attention, even if it’s negative.

A lot of trolls are teenagers who want to be mischievous without fear of repercussions. These people are pretty easy to spot since you can notice that their trolling time ends during school hours.

Others might find pleasure in getting people to believe they are who they claim to be. A sense of power is gained not by actually believing they are who they claim they are, but from being clever enough to fool people.

If someone wants to enjoy discussion boards but is afraid of Trolls, there is a fairly simple way to make them go away. Trolls may come in different shapes or sizes, but they all seem to have one thing in common. They all crave attention like you wouldn’t believe. They are so desperate that if lucid, semi-intelligent posts don’t elicit a response they will step up the heat, sometimes even getting to the point of outrageous claims and innuendos. On discussion boards, particularly ones that are political in nature, threats of bodily harm, wishing for someone’s demise and claiming a desire to do unspeakable things to someone’s family members are not that uncommon. So the phrase "ignore the problem and it will go away" is a good slogan to remember. In most discussion boards a lot of individuals will be branded as a troll by other board members and the number of their replies will greatly diminish. If you try and fight them at their game, you will lose and you’ll be giving them exactly what they want. Just shut them off, be indifferent, and they will crawl back under their bridge, hopefully to stay.