The most effective method of getting a rise out of an individual is the direct approach. It takes little effort and direct personal attacks work best to get a rise out of the majority of the populous. This however does not take into account individuals secure in their own identity and those devoid of a reason to care. The direct approach offers several key benefits. It allows you to be quick and precise, it requires very little wit or intelligence, and is effective at least ninety percent of the time.

In cases where the direct approach leads to failure or has no effect, spamming insults and other derogatory statements can be good for frustrating your target, but everyone else as well. If no one can get a word in edgewise, then you have successfully executed this attack. It should be known that in areas where an ignore function this will very quickly lead to you being shut out by nearly everyone.

The intellectual approach is good for trolling in areas where the previous methods would be ineffective, or quickly lead to banishment. This approach in presenting your contempt for your target through thinly veiled condescending comments and carefully constructed replies meant to imply that the target’s argument is inherently wrong because the lack the education or merit to form a valid opinion. Err on the side of caution with this approach. In a match up against an individual more adept at this than yourself, you may find yourself the subject of trolling rather than a successful troll.

Meme spamming and discussion is a slight variation on spamming. In this case all of your replies and insults are carefully crafted references to old Internet memes and other obscure Internet mythology. This particular method of trolling requires a basic knowledge of the cultural history of the Internet and a strong stomach for utterly very special netspeak.

Trolling with misrepresentation requires paying close attention to the target you must be able to use his argument against him by fudging his replies by means of misquotation and the intentional rerouting of the conversation to imply that the individual is just like the people, group, act, or thing he/she is railing against.

Obsession trolling requires abandoning any ego or wants of recognition to the point of outright stalking an individual across forums and chat areas. You should bring up their previous failures and make it a point with every post, hatefully display them as the **** you want them to feel like. Obsession trolls come in all shapes and sizes but are most easily spotted by their inability to let go.

Rage Trolling is simple. The target is berated by a barrage of never ending hateful insults in capital letters. Vile, repulsive and descriptive threats work well for rage trolls. Ragers are most obviously notices by their capital letters and constant spamming of threats and angry insults.

Shock Trolling involves posting shock images anywhere image posting is allowed. Shock trolls seek to remove innocence one image view at a time. Shock trolling is usually a secondary tactic, though there are individuals who let shock posting and research consume the majority of their time online.

Most trolls use one or all of the skill sets listed above to some degree. No troll is one hundred percent predictable as to where they will take a troll next. The key is to be prepared for anything while being open for nothing. When trolling, the key is to objectify everyone. You must project yourself as the sole human in the conversation. Anyone who you respond to, anyone who lashes out at you must be considered as less than human and unworthy of your time. In this instance, you are immune to personal attack and should not falter when presented with the possibility of stumbling on your words as another individual campaigns against you.

Be prepared for individuals to remember your previous trolls. Expect others to personally attack you and band together to attempt to collectively bring you down. Expect mean, rude, and downright hateful comments. All methods described as of now have been the lighter side of trolling. The darker side of trolling if you are not careful, can be used against you in such a way that you will be affected no matter how jaded you portray yourself.

EDIT: Left out a paragraph.

This post reminds me of JurbumicGriffin’s posts on another game. Weird.

Shii Posted:

Not trolling!

Good essay, in my opinion.

There really is a lot more to trolling than just being annoying. Some folks have it down to a science.

didn’t read op but trolling is an art imo

science of trolling? laughable.

There’s also persona trolling: I’ve often adopted fake personalities and use them to obtain responses through absurdity. I once had a fake christian fundamentalist write a blog entry about running over a cat to prove to his emotionally undeveloped son that animals don’t go to heaven. It generated a few pages of comments from angry women with cats as their avatar.

Then there was my S&M clown who trolled vampirefreaks by trying to get people to join his “kinky clown circus.” That one got banned quickly, lol.

No. A good troll is like a magician, he trolls subtly and makes you believe he’s totally serious. You never know if he’s a troll, and idiot, or a normal person with a controversial way of thinking.

A decent (but not that good) example of this was Bonsai Kittens.

The most used way to accomplish this is by writing something with intentional logical facllacies to create arguments, controversial statements, troll pieces of news with no source(or a fake url as source), and other tactics.

Saying “I ****ed your mom” is ****ty and obvious trolling that will only enrage retards or 12-year-olds, and will also get you banned from most places.

Good thing for you that the internet is not a smart place.

+5 insightful