Excellent! (Click for link to Cartoons by Jim.)
Someone called me a troll yesterday.
Well, he worked up to it. First I was said to “have clear troll like tendencies”, then later, as we discussed my criticisms of how he operates some more, out it came: “You are a troll”.
Mm-bokay. (Suffice to say, that’s not how I see what I do.)
Which reminded me I’d seen this cartoon by Jim satirising troll-speak as part of a promotion for an Auckland Social Media Club event “When Communities Go Bad” …
Join us for a journey into the dark side of social media as we take a look at how community managers and moderators deal with trolling, anonymous commenting and just general nasty stuff in the online world.
Our panel will feature expert guests from online news sources, major commercial Facebook communities and more, all sharing their war stories and tips on what to do when you find a troll under the bridge.
Roll in our now-regular Shiny New Thing segment and generously sponsored refreshments and, as always, you’re sure to “drink something cold, meet someone new and learn something useful!”
Panellists will share their war stories and insights into what works when the hecklers get hairy: …
Full details here
Honestly, they had me at ‘free beer’ (kidding!)
But it was funny, when I signed up to go, to get this:
Pretty low threshold for proving my existence. Whatever happened to “I think. Therefore I am?”
See you there, perhaps?
– P
PS: Considering my condemner is responsible for some of the “general nasty stuff in the online world” (at least locally) we may run into each other again.
i always thought a troll was a creature that lived under bridges and waiting for ‘billy goats gruff…”
Wry, Ivan. Very wry.
Here’s a picture of a troll:
– P
PS I’m unsure of the source of this pic. If anyone knows, please let me know. (It’s here at the memecenter but what’s it’s original source?)
Methinks the internet and its commenters …. ie witness this cartoon … have a very strange idea of how people may allegedly view themselves … its like a bad rock video ..
Still whatever turns the great and godlike on …
As a PS …. i would add … you among others have set up a temporary scaffolding (nice scene with the pharisees from the film Jesus Christ Superstar) of what they view the “internet” as. This has become by default your (and others) “reality”.
In point of fact … communication and interaction has never actually changed. All that has been done is that the architects of internet structures (as it were) then set up a series of unwritten rules that deny the reality of the strange twilight zone of their own self created new medium for an exchange of ideas.
So according to the new prophets of this supposedly “new” digital age … things have changed … humankind have somehow altered and suddenly are different … centuries of cellular memory, tradition and practice have suddenly disappeared.
Enter the Troll … i’ll leave others more intelligent than i to make whatever tenuous connection may be found therein …
Gotta be the making of a self improvement seminar in there …
I think we’re broadly in agreement that the connectivity provided by the www, while exhilarating and powerful, doesn’t/can’t change human nature.
The advent of cyber bullying and other online misdemeanours and delinquencies demonstrate the age-old and tragic ‘curse’ of man’s ready and hot alienation from his fellow man (women too, of course). We argue and fuss and fight, finding reasons to take offence with people with whom we may disagree.
As you say, the content of our communication hasn’t changed. (Nice to remember MLK Jnr’s term: “by the content of their character.”)
The significance of the Internet as we know it now cannot really be overstated … (well, it is by certain spruikers and those selling snake oil and online goldmines).
I’m not offering either cartoon as a holy icon, Ivan. But there is truth in them.
Nor do I buy your projection about my or others’ “reality”. Mate, I’m still exploring — and working out how to relate effectively in this world and with other people, with joy and integrity.
On and offline.
– P
Thanks Pete …
I said “by default” … re the reality issue … i think that whether you see it that way or not … thats the way it fronts …
The cartoon/s is are .. limited in their ability to describe the internet and its grubby nature. They are too one dimensional.
I suspect that face to face – you are not anything like your online persona.
For all of us … this is the biggest worry and conundrum.
Thanks Ivan.
In my view, the internet can’t have a ‘grubby nature’ it’s just a medium populated by human beings with their myriad appetites and agendas.
The way I see it: It’s what’s in the village/marketplace that is grubby and hateful. (What’s ‘in the heart of man’, as someone said.)
Crikey, I’m almost afraid to ask: How do I come across in my ‘online persona’, in your view?
I try to be the same person wherever I am, as an issue of personal integrity. But I am clumsy and I fail.
I think one of the reasons I’m so ‘wordy’ HERE is the effort I make to TRY to communicate clearly. But written communication is very, very imperfect. I see my writing here frequently slides into discursiveness, but I just have to let that be what it is, in this context.
I’m more interested in what you say about ‘temporary scaffolding … of what they view the “internet” as’. I realise I do not actually understand or know what you mean by that.
– P
Joy and integrity … is this your version of the “Strength through Joy” movement or even “Arbeit macht Frei”.
Can i ask you … what is your chosen belief system and how does it manifest itself?
You dont have to answer and i will respect that … but you come across as a mix of “self help guru man” and “nominal catholic church-attender .. bless me father for i have sinned…”
Do you blow black – or white smoke in your vatican chimney??
Smart arse.
There was a cult I visited in Northern California on my way back from a Leonard Cohen concert in Canada … ‘The Fellowship’ … that was a very cool place.
A flying visit was fine, and they didn’t seriously try to recruit me, but I could not stomach the idea of a ‘guru’ making decisions for me.
Like it says on my Twitter profile: Eclectic.
I’m not a believer.*
– P
* Added: But I’ve had some experiences in the ‘spiritual’ realm that it is honestly easier to explain using the language of that world than it is to come up with another ‘rational’ explanation. I allow possibilities and certainly don’t prescribe other people’s beliefs.
[…] That’s really a conversation to be had in person, I think, over a beer, or walking along a beach. But I did say this: […]