UK KEN
03-29-2005, 08:33 AM
Hello All!
I do not want to cause a panic but knowledge is power and this information might be useful in the current climate. Some here might consider me to be a suspicious old sod, that’s fine, I am! ;)
About six years ago in the UK a new type of Troll appeared! They seem to have the intention of destroying a specific target forum or newsgroup. They attempt to do this in a variety of different ways but primarily intended to drive normal posters away from the site! When the percentage of Troll posts, including follow-ups exceeds 60% to 75% of the total posts, most readers seem to just give up and unsubscribe. A number of sites have “folded” as a result of this type of activity, I would hate to see it happen here!
I understand that by making people aware of the Troll tactics I may well be putting myself in the firing line. So be it!
I have friends on other forums who have suffered intimidation from these individuals to try to stop them posting. They have used methods like sending hundreds of garbage emails, unwanted pornographic material and even telephone calls in the dead of night.
Who are they?
They visit a Forum frequently before joining to learn which designed identity will be most easily accepted by well established members. They exhibit some interest in the forum both on and off topic sometimes asking for help, on other occasions listing a posting containing praise for (in our case) a Spyderco product. They will purport to have hobbies, interests, culture and even beliefs that will speed up their acceptance with other users. Some try to adopt a weak persona taking advantage of the more sympathetic and supportive members.
To reinforce their identity they will respond fiercely to any negative post about a product or member, often this post actually made by them in the first place under yet another identity!
By nature a Troll is impatient and can sometimes be identified by the volume of posts made in a very short time. He needs to establish a plausible identity quickly in order to use it to instigate the unrest from which he gets his kicks! After all in a lot of cases Trolls have a limited time, they will be back to school soon! There can often be a feel of familiarity in there posts for a recent recruit but this shouldn’t be a surprise, they have most likely been around the forum for a good time using another identity!
Generally they think of themselves as being something special. They aren’t! They are like the disruptive child in a class room, they want to be heard though they have little of any value to add. They have poor interpersonal skills and find it difficult coming to terms with the fact that groups of like minded people can maintain good reasonable relationships. They have no idea of how to build friendships so prefer to try to destroying others.
Whooaaa! I was starting to get carried away!
How do the operate?
Some of them use private list servers to communicate between
themselves or for less volatile communications they use Troll Communication Newsgroups.
The list server must have an owner(s) who can approve or
deny access. Other than that anarchy reigns where each
member does what he/she thinks fit. Thus because no leader
or committee exists coordination with the group is
impossible. Any agreement reached with one or more can
instantly be abrogated by others.
Coordinated action can occur where it forwards their
general aims.
What do they do?
There are several quite formalized methods of trolling.
Non of these actions occurring singly or in moderation
indicate a troll attack. When they occur in combination or
large amounts they may indicate a troll attack.
Generate splits among subscribers.
Any tensions within a newsgroup are deliberately increased.
The cross post Troll
This is perhaps the most effective Troll in that it
produces large numbers of posts with little effort from the
Troll. An inflammatory post is made to a group of Sub
Target newsgroups, knives, politics or guns. The
Target Newsgroup is included in the ng list. The innocent
posters to the Sub Target newsgroup continue to discuss
this in the normal way without noticing that the posts are
also going to the Target Newsgroup.
This is commonly combined with The Request for Assistance
troll
------------------------------
The Request for Assistance.
This is similar to The cross post Troll but it is
Cross posted to Troll Communications newsgroup(s). Thus any
Troll subscribed to a Troll Communications Newsgroup(s),
may troll newsgroups to which he/she is not subscribed.
It is commonly combined with The cross post Troll
General nastiness
The Target newsgroup is flooded with nastiness, name
calling and swearing, and flame wars, mostly between
themselves. This can be a great off put to new
subscribers.
An interesting variation is for one of their number
purports to object to swearing, while encouraging others,
off newsgroup, in the practice.
Personal attacks on individuals and groups.
Selected individuals are subjected to quite vicious
personal attacks throughout the forum.
Groups such as the regular posters are attacked similarly,
Forgeries
They regularly forge the identities of posters who they do
not like. This can vary from badly spelled versions of
their name and/or email address, to forgeries which the
average reader would not be able to detect.
At times this can reach a bizarre condition where they
troll using a forged identity at a Breidbart Index of well
over 20. They then at every opportunity call the victim a
troll.
Bullying
The Trolls often demand the right to post anything and
everything to a newsgroup. If anyone or any group opposes
them they threaten to continue, for longer.
Threaten to infect computers with viruses.
They regularly threaten to infect opponent’s computers with
Viruses and/or Trojans. It is difficult to prove where a
Virus or Trojan originated, so I cannot prove that they have
ever carried out this threat.
Running one of the commercial anti virus programs to
permanently monitor incoming newsgroups, email, etc is
always a Good Thing and to be recommended.
What can be done about them?
The actions taken by a person, or a group, against Trolls
depends on many factors, technical expertise, personality,
equipment available to name but a few.
Below are listed some possible actions with advantages
(Pro) and disadvantages (Con) given for each.
Ignore them and they will go away.
This is the traditional method of dealing with
Trolls, and is regularly suggested.
It is similar to the method use to train dogs, and very
young children, ignore bad behavior and reward good
behavior. Thus it is only likely to work if the, The Infant
or Attention Seeker theory, is true
Pro:
If you are subscribed to a Sub Target newsgroup this is
quite a reasonable method. The normal change of Sub
Targets will ensure that they do "go away", convincing you
that this is an effective way of dealing with the problem.
It however leaves the Target newsgroup in exactly the same
mess as it was before.
If you are confronted with a minor attack by merely
Irritating Trolls, or inexperienced and disorganized Trolls,
this may also work.
Con:
If you are subscribed to a Target newsgroup, this is
impossible, as up to 90% of posts may be trolls. As the
Intension is to destroy the Target Newsgroup, they will
*never* go away.
On any newsgroup there are a mixture of subscribers, non of
whom has any ability to control the postings of other
subscribers. Human nature dictates that someone will
*always* reply to a good troll. Arguably this section
should be headed "If *everyone* ignores them and they will
go away." which is arguably impossible to attain.
A moderated newsgroup
A well moderated newsgroup is almost impossible to troll.
Cancel posts
It gets rid of offending posts.
The Trolls hate it.
For forgeries of oneself there is good justification for
cancellation.
LART (report to ISP)
Where a Troll breaks the rules of UseNet or their ISP an
email or "LART" to abuse@ISP,name will often persuade the Troll to go elsewhere!
So, we know what you are up to!
Ken
I do not want to cause a panic but knowledge is power and this information might be useful in the current climate. Some here might consider me to be a suspicious old sod, that’s fine, I am! ;)
About six years ago in the UK a new type of Troll appeared! They seem to have the intention of destroying a specific target forum or newsgroup. They attempt to do this in a variety of different ways but primarily intended to drive normal posters away from the site! When the percentage of Troll posts, including follow-ups exceeds 60% to 75% of the total posts, most readers seem to just give up and unsubscribe. A number of sites have “folded” as a result of this type of activity, I would hate to see it happen here!
I understand that by making people aware of the Troll tactics I may well be putting myself in the firing line. So be it!
I have friends on other forums who have suffered intimidation from these individuals to try to stop them posting. They have used methods like sending hundreds of garbage emails, unwanted pornographic material and even telephone calls in the dead of night.
Who are they?
They visit a Forum frequently before joining to learn which designed identity will be most easily accepted by well established members. They exhibit some interest in the forum both on and off topic sometimes asking for help, on other occasions listing a posting containing praise for (in our case) a Spyderco product. They will purport to have hobbies, interests, culture and even beliefs that will speed up their acceptance with other users. Some try to adopt a weak persona taking advantage of the more sympathetic and supportive members.
To reinforce their identity they will respond fiercely to any negative post about a product or member, often this post actually made by them in the first place under yet another identity!
By nature a Troll is impatient and can sometimes be identified by the volume of posts made in a very short time. He needs to establish a plausible identity quickly in order to use it to instigate the unrest from which he gets his kicks! After all in a lot of cases Trolls have a limited time, they will be back to school soon! There can often be a feel of familiarity in there posts for a recent recruit but this shouldn’t be a surprise, they have most likely been around the forum for a good time using another identity!
Generally they think of themselves as being something special. They aren’t! They are like the disruptive child in a class room, they want to be heard though they have little of any value to add. They have poor interpersonal skills and find it difficult coming to terms with the fact that groups of like minded people can maintain good reasonable relationships. They have no idea of how to build friendships so prefer to try to destroying others.
Whooaaa! I was starting to get carried away!
How do the operate?
Some of them use private list servers to communicate between
themselves or for less volatile communications they use Troll Communication Newsgroups.
The list server must have an owner(s) who can approve or
deny access. Other than that anarchy reigns where each
member does what he/she thinks fit. Thus because no leader
or committee exists coordination with the group is
impossible. Any agreement reached with one or more can
instantly be abrogated by others.
Coordinated action can occur where it forwards their
general aims.
What do they do?
There are several quite formalized methods of trolling.
Non of these actions occurring singly or in moderation
indicate a troll attack. When they occur in combination or
large amounts they may indicate a troll attack.
Generate splits among subscribers.
Any tensions within a newsgroup are deliberately increased.
The cross post Troll
This is perhaps the most effective Troll in that it
produces large numbers of posts with little effort from the
Troll. An inflammatory post is made to a group of Sub
Target newsgroups, knives, politics or guns. The
Target Newsgroup is included in the ng list. The innocent
posters to the Sub Target newsgroup continue to discuss
this in the normal way without noticing that the posts are
also going to the Target Newsgroup.
This is commonly combined with The Request for Assistance
troll
------------------------------
The Request for Assistance.
This is similar to The cross post Troll but it is
Cross posted to Troll Communications newsgroup(s). Thus any
Troll subscribed to a Troll Communications Newsgroup(s),
may troll newsgroups to which he/she is not subscribed.
It is commonly combined with The cross post Troll
General nastiness
The Target newsgroup is flooded with nastiness, name
calling and swearing, and flame wars, mostly between
themselves. This can be a great off put to new
subscribers.
An interesting variation is for one of their number
purports to object to swearing, while encouraging others,
off newsgroup, in the practice.
Personal attacks on individuals and groups.
Selected individuals are subjected to quite vicious
personal attacks throughout the forum.
Groups such as the regular posters are attacked similarly,
Forgeries
They regularly forge the identities of posters who they do
not like. This can vary from badly spelled versions of
their name and/or email address, to forgeries which the
average reader would not be able to detect.
At times this can reach a bizarre condition where they
troll using a forged identity at a Breidbart Index of well
over 20. They then at every opportunity call the victim a
troll.
Bullying
The Trolls often demand the right to post anything and
everything to a newsgroup. If anyone or any group opposes
them they threaten to continue, for longer.
Threaten to infect computers with viruses.
They regularly threaten to infect opponent’s computers with
Viruses and/or Trojans. It is difficult to prove where a
Virus or Trojan originated, so I cannot prove that they have
ever carried out this threat.
Running one of the commercial anti virus programs to
permanently monitor incoming newsgroups, email, etc is
always a Good Thing and to be recommended.
What can be done about them?
The actions taken by a person, or a group, against Trolls
depends on many factors, technical expertise, personality,
equipment available to name but a few.
Below are listed some possible actions with advantages
(Pro) and disadvantages (Con) given for each.
Ignore them and they will go away.
This is the traditional method of dealing with
Trolls, and is regularly suggested.
It is similar to the method use to train dogs, and very
young children, ignore bad behavior and reward good
behavior. Thus it is only likely to work if the, The Infant
or Attention Seeker theory, is true
Pro:
If you are subscribed to a Sub Target newsgroup this is
quite a reasonable method. The normal change of Sub
Targets will ensure that they do "go away", convincing you
that this is an effective way of dealing with the problem.
It however leaves the Target newsgroup in exactly the same
mess as it was before.
If you are confronted with a minor attack by merely
Irritating Trolls, or inexperienced and disorganized Trolls,
this may also work.
Con:
If you are subscribed to a Target newsgroup, this is
impossible, as up to 90% of posts may be trolls. As the
Intension is to destroy the Target Newsgroup, they will
*never* go away.
On any newsgroup there are a mixture of subscribers, non of
whom has any ability to control the postings of other
subscribers. Human nature dictates that someone will
*always* reply to a good troll. Arguably this section
should be headed "If *everyone* ignores them and they will
go away." which is arguably impossible to attain.
A moderated newsgroup
A well moderated newsgroup is almost impossible to troll.
Cancel posts
It gets rid of offending posts.
The Trolls hate it.
For forgeries of oneself there is good justification for
cancellation.
LART (report to ISP)
Where a Troll breaks the rules of UseNet or their ISP an
email or "LART" to abuse@ISP,name will often persuade the Troll to go elsewhere!
So, we know what you are up to!
Ken