On the Internet, a troll is a user who seeks to provoke, offend or demean the conversation within an online community, such as a blog, forum or social media profile. Their main motivation is usually attention-seeking, so the best way to stop this type of behaviour is usually to ignore them.
what is trolling?
Trolling is simply defined as the attitude that trolls take, i.e. seeking to provoke other users. As a rule, trolling is usually directed at a business, company or brand, but it can also be directed at a specific person, whether famous or not.
If this trolling action is repeated and very persistent, we would be talking about cyberbullying or harassment, a much more serious action that should be dealt with in a completely different way so that the action stops immediately.
how to dodge trolls?
Although there is no clear answer to how to avoid trolls, the media and some corporate blogs are already adding blocking or moderation systems that limit the impact of the problem. Social networks are also trying to stop trolls with large filtering systems, although this is sometimes seen as a problem as it is referred to as censorship.
Another simple but effective method to avoid them is to simply ignore them, a practice that requires a lot of willpower, but if you do it right you will eventually make them go away and win by default.
Finally, if you're dealing with a limited and controlled number of trolls, you can always opt for the option of blocking them, and social networks such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr have excellent blocking features that hide your content from those you don't want to see.
what types of trolls are there?
- Sadistic trolls: The aim of these sadistic trolls is to humiliate and hurt, by focusing their attack on one or a few people, taking out of context any response to their comments and trying to make them look like the bad guys so that other users will attack them too.
- Zombie trolls: The zombie troll is a troll whose posts always harp on the same topics, repeating the same text over and over again. They are not the brightest type of troll, but they are just as annoying as all the others.
- Vampire trolls: This troll becomes obsessed with some of his victims and begins to follow and track them across the Internet, going wherever they have a presence and attacking them continuously.
- Disruptive trolls - Disruptive trolls are those who interrupt the ongoing conversation and make comments that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. They use a variety of techniques, from using very large images in their responses that may obscure other comments, to posting offensive or insulting comments or spamming.
- Erudite trolls: The erudite troll is easy to recognise, because they use their comments in a superior and condescending tone to demonstrate their knowledge of a particular topic or topics. This does not mean that their knowledge and comments are useful or make sense within the conversation itself, because what this type of troll wants to do is to make it clear that they know a lot about something.
- Haters: Haters are driven by hatred of anything, anyone or anything they disagree with, don't like, don't share a point of view with, or just hate, and their attacks are very aggressive and are based on insults and lies, always wanting to be above those who reply to them, to whom they will reply with contempt and more insults.
- Novice or clueless trolls: This type of troll is just starting out in their trolling career and is not usually very effective, in fact, their first attempts usually go unnoticed or are completely ignored.
- Trolls who are "troll-hookers " usually do not have a specific opinion or ideology about anything and their only aim is to gain new followers with their comments. Therefore, they will defend one position or another depending on what they believe will bring them more followers.
- Sarcastic trolls: The sarcastic troll uses irony or humour to create confrontation, using more or less amusing memes and, although they are as annoying as the rest, they are much more ingenious than the other types of trolls we have mentioned in order to sow conflict in the comments section.
- impersonation trolls: Impersonators either impersonate another person to harm them by posting on their behalf or create a fake profile of them to humiliate and/or attack them.
Finally, remember that not everything is allowed on the internet, from an article to a comment, can be considered a crime, so don't be afraid to report trolls who cross the line.
