The latest scientific study out of Canada confirms the obvious: internet trolls are horrible people (sadistic, psychopathic, Narcissistic and Machiavellian).

“In the past few years, the science of Internet trollology has made some strides. Last year, for instance, we learned that by hurling insults and inciting discord in online comment sections, so-called Internet trolls (who are frequently anonymous) have a polarizing effect on audiences, leading to politicization, rather than deeper understanding of scientific topics.

That’s bad, but it’s nothing compared with what a new psychology paper has to say about the personalities of trolls themselves. The research, conducted by Erin Buckels of the University of Manitoba and two colleagues, sought to directly investigate whether people who engage in trolling are characterized by personality traits that fall in the so-called Dark Tetrad: Machiavellianism (willingness to manipulate and deceive others), narcissism (egotism and self-obsession), psychopathy (the lack of remorse and empathy), and sadism (pleasure in the suffering of others)...”

Slate.com: Science Confirms Internet Trolls Really Are Narcissistic, Psychopathic, and Sadistic


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Several of the on-line scientific journals have either dicontinued their "comments" section or tied it into another entity (such as Facebook) so to remove the "freedom" (I use that word loosely) of anonymity. I, for one, am not sorry.

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The body betrays and the weather conspires, hopefully, not on the same day.

Way back when online services like CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online (AOL) first appeared, I always enjoyed the discussion forums on Prodigy the most because at that time one had no other choice but to post on Prodigy's forums using their actual names. CompuServe forums were in most part civil too, but AOL forums, where anonymous "handles" were permitted were filled with trolls. And of course when AOL'ers gained access to Usenet and the rest of the internet, all hell broke loose.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2014 09:44PM by plawrence.

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plawrence
Way back when online services like CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online (AOL) first appeared, I always enjoyed the discussion forums on Prodigy the most because at that time one had no other choice but to post on Prodigy's forums using their actual names. CompuServe forums were in most part civil too, but AOL forums, where anonymous "handles" were permitted were filled with trolls. And of course when AOL'ers gained access to Usenet and the rest of the internet, all hell broke loose.

Indeed Internet was more civil with most users using their real names because it was mostly organizations, university, and government users. Then the Internet exploded and AOL was an immense troll farm spewing out new users with sleaziness. New users from that exploding period tended to have little awareness of what the Internet had been or its etiquette. Thinking back to the early days of the web in the 90s one will note that was not many years after the phone sex craze where all manner of pervert cretins and nasty youth were making anonymous disgusting phone calls terrorizing women. So would bet some of the older trolls came from those roots.

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http://www.davidsenesac.com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2014 01:03PM by DavidSenesac.

It has also been well documented that people who frequently post to forums are nutjobs.

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States a member of the 7K Club.

Troll

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States a member of the 7K Club.

Is the 7k club some sort of phone sex ring?

1-900-CHICKON

I heard the Mile High Club is a good thing to be in. Maybe when hit 5280 I'll quit being a bird.

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I needed that laugh as I await my hernia operation!

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www.pbase.com/caesar77

Save your laughing (and coughing) until you get home afterwards. Take your meds and stay way ahead of the pain.

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Old Dude