Bryan W. Alaspa 1Internet Trollery
September 12th 2008 21:33
Internet Trollery I
What a day, what a blow up. So there was this girl in her twenties, married to a military man. She posted about her pregnancy and that she lost her baby at 16 weeks after being beaten up by someone. Then she found out she had cancer.
She made daily threads about her struggles. Regularly vented about her situation with her bitch sister and how much she missed her deployed husband. People bonded with her over her miscarriage, her military relationship, and her medical troubles. She made friends with people who had gone through chemo, who had lost babies, and who had survived deployments. Administrators, moderators, and members of the site took her in, went to visit her, and sent her hundreds of gifts. She posted pics of her "hair loss" and talked about how it felt to be bald. One member shaved her own head in support of the cancer patient.
Today, it was revealed by administrators that an investigation was started after a member reported their suspicions that this individual was not what she said she was.
They posted the results of which being: She was a liar. She was an internet troll that preyed on the sympathy and emotions of the women on a massive internet forum. Most people adored her. There were people who were completely devastated by this news. People who were blown away and utterly disgusted.
I was not surprised. I did not see this particular lie coming, but it did not shock and shake me as it seemed to shock and shake so many others. Maybe I'm a cynic, but I just didn't feel anything.
Internet trolls are a special breed. I sincerely believe that most of them suffer from some sort of (ofen times undiagnosed) mental illness or sickness.
Most internet trolls, according to Urbandictionary.com (a site that regular internet users can contribute definitions to), are internet users who post inflamtory messages with the intention of deliberately starting a flame war. They tend to lurk on message boards and wait for their chance to post a thread that will cause maximum disruption, and interrupt the normal flow of the forum.
This particular troll was of a completely different breed: The Lying Troll (LT). LT's often do not have any intention of their lies ever being uncovered, and can maintain personas on forums for years before eventually being found out. Most LT's, however, are not very good at their game, and are found out pretty quickly when their stories don't line up or don't make sense. Most of the LT's that get found out quickly are young and inexperienced. It is only the best of the best that manage to pull one over as well as the inspiration for this blog could. It wasn't but two years ago that another LT was discovered on the same site, this one having faked a pregnancy with twins. She, too, made money and received gifts from the women of that site. She, too, made friends and met people in person. She was not banned, but simply disappeared, never to sign onto the site again. She is still out there, I hear, trolling other forums and lying on her fake Myspace pages, lurking like a starving vampire in the shadows.
The frustrating thing with most LT's is that they tend to return time and again on the same forum circuit, under different user names, with different stories. The cancer faker had actually been banned once before, with the same cancer story. She had evidently learned her mistakes from the prior experience, which had not escalated to the heights of this latest escapade, and was much better at weaving her web this time.
Eventually, she will return, I'm sure. She will find a way around the IP ban (all too easy to do) and will start slow just as she did this time, weaving her tale quietly and inconspicuously.
He's cute, but he's a pain in the ass.
What a day, what a blow up. So there was this girl in her twenties, married to a military man. She posted about her pregnancy and that she lost her baby at 16 weeks after being beaten up by someone. Then she found out she had cancer.
She made daily threads about her struggles. Regularly vented about her situation with her bitch sister and how much she missed her deployed husband. People bonded with her over her miscarriage, her military relationship, and her medical troubles. She made friends with people who had gone through chemo, who had lost babies, and who had survived deployments. Administrators, moderators, and members of the site took her in, went to visit her, and sent her hundreds of gifts. She posted pics of her "hair loss" and talked about how it felt to be bald. One member shaved her own head in support of the cancer patient.
Today, it was revealed by administrators that an investigation was started after a member reported their suspicions that this individual was not what she said she was.
They posted the results of which being: She was a liar. She was an internet troll that preyed on the sympathy and emotions of the women on a massive internet forum. Most people adored her. There were people who were completely devastated by this news. People who were blown away and utterly disgusted.
Internet trolls are a special breed. I sincerely believe that most of them suffer from some sort of (ofen times undiagnosed) mental illness or sickness.
Most internet trolls, according to Urbandictionary.com (a site that regular internet users can contribute definitions to), are internet users who post inflamtory messages with the intention of deliberately starting a flame war. They tend to lurk on message boards and wait for their chance to post a thread that will cause maximum disruption, and interrupt the normal flow of the forum.
This particular troll was of a completely different breed: The Lying Troll (LT). LT's often do not have any intention of their lies ever being uncovered, and can maintain personas on forums for years before eventually being found out. Most LT's, however, are not very good at their game, and are found out pretty quickly when their stories don't line up or don't make sense. Most of the LT's that get found out quickly are young and inexperienced. It is only the best of the best that manage to pull one over as well as the inspiration for this blog could. It wasn't but two years ago that another LT was discovered on the same site, this one having faked a pregnancy with twins. She, too, made money and received gifts from the women of that site. She, too, made friends and met people in person. She was not banned, but simply disappeared, never to sign onto the site again. She is still out there, I hear, trolling other forums and lying on her fake Myspace pages, lurking like a starving vampire in the shadows.
The frustrating thing with most LT's is that they tend to return time and again on the same forum circuit, under different user names, with different stories. The cancer faker had actually been banned once before, with the same cancer story. She had evidently learned her mistakes from the prior experience, which had not escalated to the heights of this latest escapade, and was much better at weaving her web this time.
Eventually, she will return, I'm sure. She will find a way around the IP ban (all too easy to do) and will start slow just as she did this time, weaving her tale quietly and inconspicuously.
| 65 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
