Dear GAW community frens
One of the first memes I ever swipped and reposted was "don't feed the trolls", many years ago.
We know what trolls is. Trolls is narcisistically-driven peopels who want and need attention from other peoples, but who don't have enough self-esteem or capacity or ability to make a good contributions, so they taunt, tease, attack, etc. Anything to provoke some response.
Trolls are originally mysthical creatures from northern Europe. But modern internet trolls survive and get their energy from attention. They need reaction and interactions, in order to get emeotional energy to operate. They cannot generate their own healthy energy. They are cutoff from healthy sources of emotional energy due to their emotional and mental condition. That is why they become trolls.
So, how to deal with a trolls that is posting and pleading for some interactions via direct messages on our Great Awakening board? What should we do?
The first thing is to not engage with them. You might interact with one if they are on the general posts, etc, by deporting them and notifying the moderators. But, if a troll or trolls are communicating via the direct messaging, then you cannot do that. So, in this case, the very first thing is to not engage them.
If you do not engage with them, they can get no powers from you. And trolls want to experience is a sense of power over you and me. They tell themselves, they whisper to themselves almost like a Smeagol voice, "Look! I made him respond! See? I can make her react! I can disturb her emotions! I can make them do what I want them to do!"
What the troll wants you to do is to react, respond, engage and interacts. Because they need it. They need that interaction from their target in order to continue on. They have no other source of emotional energy.
(In reality they have a very low esteems of themselves, and are lonely inside, and unhappy even though they refuse or cannot admit that)
Any interaction feeds them. If you try to engage constructively, it just feeds them energy. If you criticizes them, it feeds them energy. If you talk about them openly with others, it feeds them energy. "see how important I am!? They are giving me their attentions"
Perhaps first is to block, but then if they have a chronic condition, even blocking them will give them energies. If they are obsessed with you, they will make some other accounts and try to engage you that way. So best way is to ignores.
They need a reaction from you to keep trolling. But if you firmly control your emotions and ignore them, this is what they cannot stand. They cannot stand or endure being ignored for a certain time. They will be forced to give up, to put their attention elsewhere, somewhere where they can get a reaction and suck on that emotional energy they need.
So, the best thing is to not feed the trolls. Don't respond. Don't engage. Don't let them take any of your times and emotional energies.
Trolls is like a sort of addicted to emotional energies that are a sort of negative, dark narcissism. They are cut off from healthy sources of energy, like having good friends or loved ones, etc. Many of such trolls are unconsciously addicted to the emotional hits they get from making others react or respond.
It's very sad. Responding to them generally is like giving more cocaine to a cocaine addict. It does not help them. You cannot educate them, because their purpose for engaging with you is to draw your emotional energys, not to learn or grow or become a better persons.
So for them and for you, the best is to not engage with them. Eventually, they may on their own realize that they will never be happy unless they change their ways.
We have a serial troll on the GAW. I think all GAW members should determine to ignore anythings from this trolls. Report it to the moderator team, sure. Or just ignore. If you cannot ignore, then block. Maybe prayer for them, because it is always the best option to love your enemies, but responding to them is not love.
Thats what I think. By the ways, I am not Klaus Scwab.
My first thought:
u/#q4367
TROLLING IS FUN.
I get where you're coming from though. But i think some important distinctions are needed on this topic because i have a good history of this.
There are Trolls who are like you say narcisistically-driven peopels who want and need attention from other peoples and they are known as EvilTrolls.
But there are also Trolls who don't fit that definition, and aren't narcisist, don't need attention, but can identity EvilTrolls and evil people and Troll them to sap all their energy: GoodTrolls. They come in to shield good people from EvilTrolls who are trying to sap good people's energy. GoodTrolls are generally good people who have a stronger intellect than the EvilTrolls and they are excellent at turning the tables on them by using their own techniques against them, sapping all their energy, getting them to trip and fall face first in public so everyone can laugh at them, and so that they think twice before ever doing that again.
How do i know this? because for many years i spent time as one of those GoodTrolls. I love it when i see an EvilTroll let themselves be known, because that's an opportunity for me to get stronger.. that's right to become a stronger GoodTroll. I'm not taunting, teasing or attacking them, but twisting their words back on them to troll them to show how their taunts attacks and teasing are causing them to be a worse person than they could be. As the Good portion implies, i have to use good tacticts, light tactics, righteous tactics (no lies, just facts). Otherwise i put myself at risk of getting burnt badly, so i keep my interactions tight, and even say a quick prayer for direction on a reply. I double check things 10-20 times before sending, and cut emotion out of the equation completely when dealing with them (because this is what they depend on - and when you don't show it, theirs shows).
I agree people generally shouldn't engage with EvilTrolls, but if you want to become a stronger GoodTroll to tackle the EvilTrolls targeting good people, then you'll engage with EvilTrolls to sap all their energy and keep sapping their energy to get stronger until they finally realize they're powerless and realize they shouldn't engage with a GoodTroll. This has the benefit of making them think twice before trolling good people, because they never know when the stronger GoodTroll will be jumping on them to shame them.
Some of my most memorable moments in the last 20 years have been GoodTrolling an EvilTroll, and reduce their interaction to massive reeeee'ing. I absolutely love it. I don't hate them, in fact i pity them. I employed this in the post 9/11 world to body-slam EvilTrolls pushing the MSM narrative. I also employed this during the new-atheism wars to body-slam their lies with the truth. I don't need attention, but sometimes my GoodTroll gets so much attention from EvilTrolls that sometimes 15-20 EvilTrolls jump on me at once, yet each and every one of them was slapped away, tucked their tail, and ran off in embarrassment. I just have a need to defend good and defend the truth.
To sum it all up, it's no different than having a gun to protect your family from evil people coming at your family. Good people are my family, and if i see evil people attacking good people, im going for your jugular right there and then. But if you can't handle EvilTrolls you should definitely ignore them, or block them like the post said, because i have seen many inexperienced people get taken for a ride by them. Interacting with them REQUIRES experience (there is no way around that).
So look out all you EvilTrolls because even the weakest GoodTrolls start 10 steps above the strongest EvilTroll, and if you troll, we're gonna get ya, and sap all your energy to make you a shell, and you'll see us getting stronger, and knowing it was because it's from your energy. Don't worry, we won't rub it in your face. We're just doing it because we want you to leave Evil and be Good.
Excellent points.
I should have been more specifics. I was addressing specifically the situation where someone has been harrassing some people on GAW via direct message, never posting in the daylight, as it were.
Perhaps 'Troll" was not the best word. Possibly 'stalker' would have been more applicable.
Apologies for not being clear, but getting your Discourse on Trolling is a great outcome!
does this person not speak English? There is a singular and a plural form of a noun. Usually, the plural form is created by adding an "s" to the noun, like one troll, two trolls. This poster is not aware of this grammatical rule, and is making mistakes all over the place. "by the ways" is another blooper. It is maddening to read something with an error almost every other word. Or is it just me?? OK, it's me.
It is not just you. I am needing practices.
'trolling' has nothing to do with the mythological creature under the bridge.
'trolling' refers to the fishing or hunting practice of using bait to attract prey.