Related tags:
trolls + (5)
internet + (4)

"Note (January 26, 2012): Some people have complained that this site has been sending them texts. If you're one of them, then someone else might be playing a prank on you. This Cat Facts page does not gather people's emails or phone numbers and has no technology capable of sending out messages. Sorry, there is nothing we can do to help since we aren't the ones sending the messages."
posted by Potomac Avenue on Jan 30, 2012 - 48 comments

The Guardian: Online commenting: How the internet created an age of rage
posted by zarq on Jul 25, 2011 - 93 comments

Founded in 2004 as a place to catalog LiveJournal drama rejected from Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Dramatica rapidly became the premier site on the web for all manner of lulz. Intended "in the spirit of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary," ED grew into a sprawling crowdsourced compendium of memes, subcultures, communities, personalities, and the endless feuds and controversies spawned by 4chan and other anonymous imageboards. While comprehensive, the site developed a reputation for nastiness -- full of "ironic" (?) racism, gratuitous porn, organized attacks on other sites, and disturbingly thorough dossiers on perceived enemies, all dripping with vicious snark (just check out their entry on MetaFilter). But now, after more than six years, it appears the troll has become the trolled. Founder Sherrod "Girlvinyl" DeGrippo, allegedly disillusioned by the site's legal woes and nihilistic trajectory, has permanently shuttered the site and replaced it with OhInternet, a slicker, cleaner, Web 2.0 effort modeled after more respectable internet guides like Know Your Meme (which recently sold to Cheezburger Networks for a cool $N million, discussed here). Backups and mirrors abound, but as for the source? Pool's closed... forever.
posted by Rhaomi on Apr 15, 2011 - 85 comments

Author Shlomi Fish offers advice on how to more effectively disarm Internet trolls using techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
posted by ChrisHartley on Mar 6, 2011 - 56 comments

Operation Cornflakes was an action by the United States OSS in World War Two to distribute propaganda in Germany, using the Germany's own mail system with forged stamps and bombed mail trains.
posted by 1f2frfbf on Mar 24, 2010 - 10 comments

A talented Slovenian typographer creates the first handmade subpixel type family, ever.
posted by quoquo on Sep 17, 2009 - 125 comments

Zeno of Elea, Socrates and Jesus, Weev said, are his all-time favorite trolls. He also identifies with Coyote and Loki, the trickster gods, and especially with Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction. “Loki was a hacker. The other gods feared him, but they needed his tools.” The New York Times investigates the ever-evolving, LOL-corrupting, epileptic-seizuring, iPod-leaving-on-gravestone-ing phenomenon of major Internet trolling, featuring interviews with Jason Fortuny, Weev, and a gentleman named Christopher Poole (prev). [more inside]
posted by Sticherbeast on Jul 31, 2008 - 91 comments

The online confession of a childhood murderer. The story behind a trolling comment that caught notice here long ago and I never stopped wondering about.
posted by mathowie on Sep 25, 2006 - 48 comments

Won't somebody call bullshit on Ann Coulter? it is possible to believe that this new level of infamy* is about anything other than book sales.
posted by Hat Maui on Jun 8, 2006 - 170 comments

"For half a nanosecond I was tempted to join in the discussion. And then I remembered that all internet debates, without exception, are entirely futile. So I didn't." - Charlie Brooker on Internet discussions.
posted by Artw on Jun 2, 2006 - 67 comments

The troll gap - Despite heroic American efforts such as the "Kick/nuke their ass and take the gas" troll, "Each year, the Institute for Comparative Troll Studies publishes a report on the state of trolling vis a vis national security of the United States. This year, the outlook is not good..."(via Kuro5hin)
posted by troutfishing on Feb 25, 2003 - 19 comments

Trolling is a lot like flirting. It can be very hard to identify, and when the beloved perpetrator is confronted, he or she may become a little mushmouthed or downright rude. Nevertheless, many still adore these people and their craft, even if we are a bit afraid of them. And for those lucky, wonderful few, it's all just a game....*sigh*...
posted by Settle on Apr 1, 2002 - 17 comments