For some reason technology websites are very easy to troll. Atheism-themed websites are so easy to troll it’s slightly embarrassing.
I have found websites devoted to physical fitness and bodybuilding are much harder to troll than average. I would have thought that “smarter” (maybe just more nerdy?) groups would recognize trolling more or at least have more experience dealing with trolls.
Do you think it might be something to do with how eager the people on those sites are for a fight?
Certainly. Upon a moment’s reflection, it seems obvious that websites are easy to troll if they have lots of people with self-identities that can be assaulted. I guess what is strange to me is that people form such a sensitive identity-affiliation with their preferred tech brand and non-belief in deities.
Wired.com is a great example. All you have to do is mention the words “Microsoft” or “Apple” and within 5 minutes the comment threads become a ridiculous flame war between entrenched camps making the exact same arguments they’ve made a million times before.
sixes and sevens, your comment is unnecessarily inflammatory for this forum; please use a less heated example. Nobody here wants to get into a skub debate—leave that for the bars.
You can’t make the Skub issue go away by simply ignoring it. That’s exactly the sort of tactic Pro-Skub folk use to protect their otherwise indefensible positions.
If there were solid data on the trollability of the various forums, that would probably qualify. As it is, I’d bet the bodybuilding.com forum is hard to troll because they’re well-innoculated; the place is like a secondary /b/. Where the norm is more serious debate, violating that norm in a provocative way will be easier.
For some reason technology websites are very easy to troll. Atheism-themed websites are so easy to troll it’s slightly embarrassing.
I have found websites devoted to physical fitness and bodybuilding are much harder to troll than average. I would have thought that “smarter” (maybe just more nerdy?) groups would recognize trolling more or at least have more experience dealing with trolls.
Do you think it might be something to do with how eager the people on those sites are for a fight?
Certainly. Upon a moment’s reflection, it seems obvious that websites are easy to troll if they have lots of people with self-identities that can be assaulted. I guess what is strange to me is that people form such a sensitive identity-affiliation with their preferred tech brand and non-belief in deities.
Wired.com is a great example. All you have to do is mention the words “Microsoft” or “Apple” and within 5 minutes the comment threads become a ridiculous flame war between entrenched camps making the exact same arguments they’ve made a million times before.
I’m trying to popularise the term Pro-Skub to generally refer to someone on the other side of a trivial but heated dispute.
Unfortunately I’m pretty confident that somewhere out there is someone trying to popularise Anti-Skub for the same purpose.
sixes and sevens, your comment is unnecessarily inflammatory for this forum; please use a less heated example. Nobody here wants to get into a skub debate—leave that for the bars.
You can’t make the Skub issue go away by simply ignoring it. That’s exactly the sort of tactic Pro-Skub folk use to protect their otherwise indefensible positions.
Uhm, looks good as invertible fact, by the way.
If there were solid data on the trollability of the various forums, that would probably qualify. As it is, I’d bet the bodybuilding.com forum is hard to troll because they’re well-innoculated; the place is like a secondary /b/. Where the norm is more serious debate, violating that norm in a provocative way will be easier.