Had an argument about trolls with some of my friends (one of which goes to 4chan). I said people's fear of trolling is ruining the internet, this is my logic:
Poster A, posts normal comment
Poster B, posts normal response
Poster C, posts intended normal response prompted to bring in interesting branch of discussion
poster A and B ignore poster C due to perceived trolling, missing out on potentially interesting discussion
Trolls A through Z win without even attempting to troll, they have officially stunted the internet's potential for intelectual growth, INDIRECTLY.
Are A and B being fucking stupid, insecure, and paranoid? Yes.
The result, if they had given in and responded to 'poster C' and he/she happened to be a troll:
Poster A, posts normal comment
Poster B, posts normal response
Poster C, Posts subtle troll post, that otherwise appears to be a normal response prompted to bring in a interesting branch of discussion
Poster A and B, give in with their intelectual curiousity piqued and respond.
Poster C trails them along for maybe 1-3 more posts before given himself/herself away to any experienced poster.
Poster A and B, hopefully being adults about it, don't have a hissy fit, roll their eyes, and ban/report the fuck and continue their previous discussion maybe losing 5-10 minutes of their time.
A friend of mine's addition: Posters D-Z who are not experienced posters continue to feed the troll for over 100 posts. (Which I say is an ok point, maybe I'm just to used to smaller forums though where this doesn't generally happen, At the same time though is this really worse then lack of deeper intellectual discussion?)
Do trolls win? 1 does, and a minor victory.
Are A and B being too open to discussion on a forum meant for discussion? I fucking doubt it. otherwise what exactly is the point of the forum?
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Another response I got was that a trolls purpose is to make someone online angry. My response is why would anyone get angry? I've been trolled before. I get the responses "OOOOOH you got trolled!" Why am I supposed to feel anything about this? at all... I'm more confused then angry about this. Maybe a little sad that this is what people on the world wide fucking network have decided to spend their time doing.
He said that they just interpret my responses as angry even if the responses aren't. So basically they are just poor delusional fools? I still don't understand why I should be angry... when someone trolls me... Can someone explain this to me? Why do people perpetuate the idea that one should become angry over this?