TROLLING - k-klassix0r or DUD, d000d.

All in all, I really don't have anything against revenge. Revenge *fantasies* are often more constructive than the real thing (trust me, I've been indulging in some doozies of revenge fantasies lately, and I'm happy just because I've thought up such a devious plan that I would never actually have to implement it). And the funny thing is that karma is a bitch. Give someone enough rope, and they will eventually hang themselves, without your ever having to dirty your hands with getting revenge.

;)

xoxo

It's a hot potato.

Do you have anything to contribute other than that?

Yes.

I meant specifically to this thread. Perhaps you'd like to expand on "it's a hot potato". I mean, that's pretty weak as is, right?

circumsatances?

hhahaah

Wonder how many other threads died on their arse that day?

Blimey, Fred. Good point.

never forget 9/9

http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/ato0061l.jpg

What do you like in a stuffed hot potato??

(Insert favourite "lol dom u fat bastard" zing here)

The New York Times discovers TROLLING:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html?hp

ha, i just read that. my favorite part:

“We are headed for a Malthusian crisis,” he said, with professorial confidence. “Plankton levels are dropping. Bees are dying. There are tortilla riots in Mexico, the highest wheat prices in 30-odd years.” He paused. “The question we have to answer is: How do we kill four of the world’s six billion people in the most just way possible?” He seemed excited to have said this aloud.

Yeah, skimmed that last night. Gotta love Fullerton.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-600.jpg
Weev (not, of course, his real name) is part of a growing Internet subculture with a fluid morality and a disdain for pretty much everyone else online.

"Why don’t people fact-check who this stuff is coming from? Why do they assume it’s true?"

This, from "weev", is very OTM.

truth and source seem like irrelevant concepts to apply to the prank calling of a dead kid's parents:

“They’d say, ‘Hi, this is Mitchell, I’m at the cemetery.’ ‘Hi, I’ve got Mitchell’s iPod.’ ‘Hi, I’m Mitchell’s ghost, the front door is locked. Can you come down and let me in?’ ” He sighed. “It really got to my wife.” The calls continued for a year and a half.

How do we kill four of the world’s six billion people in the most just way possible?

http://www.8notes.com/images/artists/nickelback.jpg

shouldn't be too difficult to excuse

You're not going to look my way and see any new zenith in fashion or anything, but how does that happen.

it's a good story

a good story about douchetards with graduate level computer skills, high school level ethics, and kindergarten level social skills.

are you asking for a /b/ takeover of ILX?

Yeah, really, what is this? Middle class white kids who got touched by daddy as a kid grow up to be sociopaths, story at 10.

http://www.internetseriousbiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/an-hero.jpg

..."the ruin lifestyle" — moving from condo to condo, living out of three bags, no name, no possessions, all assets held offshore. As a member of a group of hackers called "the organization," which, he says, bring in upward of $10 million annually, he says he can wreak ruin from anywhere.

We arrived at a strip mall. Out of the darkness, the coffinlike snout of a new Rolls Royce Phantom materialized. A flying lady winked on the hood. "Your bag, sir?" said the driver, a blond kid in a suit and tie.

This would be pleasingly Gibson/Stephenson as fiction, and luckily enough I'm just about sure it probably is, otherwise... brr.

an 'ero.

The fact that the article fails to make an adequate distinction between trolling and cybercrime is akin to profiling a drug cartel's hitman in a piece on recreational weed use.

was the steampunk article the nyt's first foray into internet pandering

Middle class white kids who got touched by daddy as a kid grow up to be sociopaths

I thought you considered yourself working-class?

lols! Amusing NYT article about pansy-ass douchebags ruining others lives! Can you believe the NYT is reporting on silly message boards that end in death threats and suicides! Way to catch a cute internet trend too late! This is right up there with the O RLY owl. hilarz

Response to NYT article, part 1 FROM WEEV


I typically am cautious of the press. Every time the press and I cross paths, it simply causes trouble for me or those around me. I while ago I met with Matt Schwartz from the New York Times Magazine, under the explicit condition that I would be covering philosophy and history and not my personal business. I feel I didn't really get what I want out of this exchange, as the important philosophy I conveyed to him was only conveyed in short bits that I think were taken out of context. What I feel was most important and totally untouched in the mainstream media so far, the history troll organizations, was not covered at all. I am doing pretty well and I risked a lot to spread a message that was beneficial for humanity to a reporter and he basically just made a short biographical note about me. Nevertheless, people may be googling me and finding my lj, so I have given maybe a very small soapbox to stand on. If any members of the media (old or new) would like to give the real story Matt passed over some coverage, they can contact me by sending an email. Also, if you agree with my vision of the future, are an "accredited investor" according to the SEC's regulations or just an investor who is not a US citizen and would like me to start you a private investment trust, you can email glutt✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧ to chat (minimum startup capital, 700k).

I've got some deeply veiled gnosis to share about the nature of reality, about ancient Gods, and about the future of humanity. I had to watch the market carefully and also join several nearly dead religious cults to completely understand it all. So here goes.

Posit 1: We are living in a simulation

The more I study mathematics, physics, history and the natural world, the more I know that this reality is a construct created to test us. Evidence of this is everywhere-- from "the edge of chaos", and the natural tendencies to sublimate order from chaos and chaos from order in a manner that can only be described as magical. Everything is clearly algorithmically designed. As a hacker, I recognize the spirals, the logarithms, the mmorpg-style reskinning of already finished creatures to place in different areas. I'm not saying natural selection isn't real, and a very true part of the programming of the universe. But there are certain aspects of reality that are too complex to leave to chance. Divine creation and natural selection aren't mutually exclusive: both are correct.

Posit 2: As part of the programming of this simulation, mankind is regularly and rhythmically presented with crisis, and crises precipitate change

Bear with me.

Remember when Moses commanded the Jews to slaughter those who worshipped the calf idols? Let's analyze the reason for this.

This was the age of Taurus, the bull. The cow was sacred to everyone in the age of Taurus. This prohibition upon the slaughter of cattle came out of necessity. A farmer would have his cow, and in times of crop disease or drought, he may out of desperation butcher his cow to feed his family. Next year, he would have no cow to work his fields or to butcher, and thus his family would starve. However, the philosophy of Taurus was not sustainable with the temporary population growth it enabled. This civilization that spawned in the fertile crescent eventually left vast deserts as its legacy, the direct result of this aggressive agrarian expansion. In response came rigid hierarchies, lack of upward mobility, prostitution and slavery.

So Moses saw the long-term destructive nature of the cow worshippers and came down from the mountain to kill them all, blowing the Ram's horn. Thus came the age of Aries, the age of the trader slash herder, the age of the Jews, and the dominant philosophy (pantheistic animal totemism) disappears everywhere but India, where unique environmental conditions (monsoons, heavy phosphorus deposits) make the old agrarian philosophy sustainable. What else can you do in a vast desert for food, except herd? So after the massive killing spree spurred by Moses, the population of civilization explodes yet again to strain its limits, causing prostitution, slavery, famine and chaos. Along comes Jesus, with yet another moral basis for humanity to live on. The dominant philosophy (Judaism) loses most of its market share to Christianity. So what was the solution to this resource crisis? What's the astrological sign you see Christians advertising on the backs of their cars?

That's right, the nordic invention of the fishing net saved humanity from the wrath of the apocalypse. Thus came the age of Pisces.

So we're at a new resource shortage. Global peak phosphorus happened in 1989. Phosphorus can be recovered though, so it isn't too critical, but it is definitely bad for growing grain. We consistently as a planet consume more grain every year than we produce. Eventually those fat stockpiles are gonna hit bottom, and then shit hits the fan. We have already seen tortilla riots in Mexico, and commodities shortages and export controls in nearly half the world. Oil is going to become a little scarcer, but isn't going to run out anytime soon. The Saudi fields have peaked and Kuwait's are about to do so, but it doesn't matter. There was a strategic decision to bleed the middle east dry of oil long ago. We still have plenty of shit we can drill elsewhere. America's deserts have plenty of light sweet crude, I assure you.

So what resource are we going to run out of? There's a very important one, one that is required to grow things. One that is required for human beings to survive. T Boone Pickens just put 200mil of his own money into securing rights to this resource. The first ETF for this resource appeared a couple years ago, and Sydney is opening the first futures market for this resource. My hedge fund heavily speculates in this resource.

What resource is this? What age are we coming into? Fill in the blank!

This is the dawning of the age of ________.

Now you've got it.

dnftt

“Lulz” is how trolls keep score.
“Lulz” is how trolls keep score.
“Lulz” is how trolls keep score.
“Lulz” is how trolls keep score.
“Lulz” is how trolls keep score.
“Lulz” is how trolls keep score.
“Lulz” is how trolls keep score.
“Lulz” is how trolls keep score.
“Lulz” is how trolls keep score.
“Lulz” is how trolls keep score.

http://weev.muxtape.com/

^^ warning, momus content

The dude who wrote the NYTimes article was on WFMU this morning. Kind of a rehash of the article, but a o_O moment when he (maybe unconsciously) dared trolls to go after him. Paraphrasing, he said that NYTimes reporters faced retaliation from pros all the time, and these basement-dwellers didn't qualify as pros, so he wasn't too worried.

the mmorpg-style reskinning of already finished creatures to place in different areas

what a metaphor

reminded me of this article

http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/16-02/mf_goons?currentPage=1

also never quite got why nerds are always such nazis when in any vaguely darwinian circumstance (ie school) they're the first to catch the shit

DG, didn't you just answer your own question?

lol humanity

The fact that the article fails to make an adequate distinction between trolling and cybercrime

totally otm, some of the article was ok but he threw everything in the same hopper to the point where it seemed like in moral terms a nasty flame war = the megan meier case = draining someone's bank account

I was a little disappointed at the lack of insight the article brought to the "trolls." There was that one paragraph where that guy's mother was asking the reporter to be kind to her son, and then later the other lunatic watered up thinking about "fixing" his parents. So obviously there's major mother/father issues going on with these people. A little exploration of that would be nice. It's almost like the article ignores that these people are really unwell.

I think it's pretty clear they are unwell.

The evidence is there to figure out that they are unwell. But the reporter shies away from giving some explanation, treating this more as a trend piece than a dossier.

i never understood why people got so worked up over what was apparently this one dbag's megan blog stunt, as if it were anything other than someone doing some super obvious trolling.

But the reporter shies away from giving some explanation

probably didn't want an armada of pizzas and emergency locksmiths turning up at 3am

was thinking of Dom while I read this

it's not really the point of reporting to diagnose

dude's livejournal is a trip. he thinks he's pretty smart. and for someone who's "cautious of the press" he took that (hilarious!) photo of him from the times for use as an avatar pic w/o much sense of irony

i think there's something to be said for an explanation being included, maybe one along the lines of how these dudes maybe feel they just can't get people to pay attention to them unless they just appear out of nowhere and actively fuck with them in a malicious manner (for example). b/c as it stands here their reasons are kind of boring and evasive.

he got the kid's mother on record saying he was abused and angry, what extra glossing by the writer do you need?

xp

i may be conflating the trolls here, now that i think. the kid w/ livejournal i'm referring to above is w33v (lol paranoid)

the reporter shies away from giving some explanation

I felt like he gave an explanation: "sex abuse, fucked up family life"

not sure what kind of exact cause-and-effect you're lookin for

xposts

but yes, each of these dudes, in their own way, is very careful and consistent in denying that they enjoy what their doing -- the lulz are not to be had for the self, but only as a kind of measure that they've hit a nerve (so the logic goes). we get lots of tenuous quasi-philosophical bullshit about 'waking people up.' yeah you've really cracked reality's code haven't you, kid.

it would have been nice to have the writer confront them a little more directly that they're engaging in cruelty at a remove with no risk, which, if you subtract the stephensonisms, is garden variety sadist cowardice. but you get hints that the writer was genuinely a little afraid of these kids.

Like I said, it is briefly mentioned. This is a poor analogy, but imagine if NY Times wrote an article about this new trend; young men were going around beating random people in the street. And then, instead of discuss the actual interesting thing about this (what is wrong with the perpetrators, and why they feel they need to participate in this destructive/abusive behavior), they spent the entire article writing about the "beating people culture" and giving a soap box for the people to discuss their bizarre, political explanations for their behavior.

i felt like during the interviews that they were trolling this writer like crazy, because he bought into their "mystique" rather than getting past it.

Not to mention the anti-Semitism and Racism in the "community" is entirely unparsed.

"And in the end, they were just self-important young men with sad childhoods and no morals."

i think if you got a bunch of shitkickers to sit down and explain what they thought they were up to it would sound fundamentally sick and illogical and self-protective, kind of like this article did.

xp hm yeah omar you're probably right. maybe the girl in the bentley (!? still can't believe that detail -- is the money real?) wasn't 'really' a confrontational anti-semite, the act itself is revelatory enough -- who needs to pretend to be that?

that car was a rental, guaranteed

well no doubt but i don't have the cash to even rent one, either

time to monetize challops

Like I said, it is briefly mentioned. This is a poor analogy, but imagine if NY Times wrote an article about this new trend; young men were going around beating random people in the street. And then, instead of discuss the actual interesting thing about this (what is wrong with the perpetrators, and why they feel they need to participate in this destructive/abusive behavior), they spent the entire article writing about the "beating people culture" and giving a soap box for the people to discuss their bizarre, political explanations for their behavior.

I see your point but I think when reporters do try to do this the explanations often end up being reductive and broad-brush

maybe he could have found an "ex-troll" with some remorse / hindsight / perspective

the conflation of devoted trolls and cyber criminals doesn't seem all that strange to me because their motives and justifications for their behavior are usually word-for-word exactly the same whether they have the acumen to actually commit crimes beyond harassment or not

I thought that was actually pretty cool about the article, actually, since for whatever reason I have never put spyware-writing sons of bitches and irritating b/tards on a spectrum before, though it seems obvious

Me too, and I dug the lack of armchair psychology...a natural opportunity is there for the reader to connect boyhood to full-growned man dots if so desired without all "DO YE SEE?" in yr face.

yeah if you need a reporter to tell you that these kids were all fucked up straight out the womb then you're probably a mendelian whoopsie yourself

Here's the link to Schwartz's interview this morning, if anyone's interested. Fast-forward to 7:00 in this clip. It's about 13-14 minutes long.

i do love the motives these dudes ascribe to themselves esp since there is no consistency in the "battles" they choose to "fight"

yeah it was REALLY obvious enough. i mean come on, is that really what you wanted to be reading, more speculation about their childhoods? xxxp

the quote about "fixing" his parents just fuckin said it all

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/danish-zoo-that-dissected-giraffe-kills-four-healthy-lions-1.1738109

Query in thread title never fully addressed.

classic if done well

the value of the question is not, perhaps, in the quick answering of it

!!!!

It's fine in informal communication, email, poetry, and advertising headlines. Three would be most common. Two, four, or more is rarer.

It's never "officially" correct. The people who write books about how punctuation should be used in English tolerate only two levels of enthusiasm: not enthusiastic and enthusiastic. The idea that somebody might be very enthusiastic is too alarming to contemplate.

????????

An update on Weev now that his sentence was overturned. I really don't have anything to add to this except that I think we're all screwed.

Want a bump?”

It’s not that surprising when Andrew “weev” Auernheimer offers me coke shortly after we first meet. As one of the Net’s most notorious trolls, the scruffily elfin 28-year-old is known for his provocations. He’s the former president of the Gay Nigger Association of America (GNAA), a group of online pranksters who lived up to their offensive name. In YouTube “sermons,” as he calls them, weev guzzles from a large bottle of mescaline tea and waves his gun as he rants against Jews. “We’ve got a whole fucking Internet to cover with dongs and swastikas,” he writes, “and we’ve got a whole world to fill with monuments to martyrs that the government dares call ‘terrorists.’ Let the ruin begin.”

Weev’s been called an “attention whore,” a “paranoid, anti-Semitic, pro-genocide misanthrope,” and likened to a hobbit battling “the snide, wizardly manipulators and mongrel half-orcs” from The Lord of the Rings (and that last one’s from him). But what is surprising is that he’s offering me a bump while we’re in the Brooklyn office of his lawyer, who has just left us sitting alone. Dressed in a green hoodie over a red T-shirt, with a shaggy red beard, scraggly long hair, and tortoise-shell glasses, weev huffs a line as classical music flows from his laptop. He exhales pleasurably, cleaning up just before a legal assistant comes in. “We’re working on your passport,” she tells him.

“Awesome!” he replies. “I got a jet waiting!”