Here's more good reason to not play with trolls

Internet Trolls Really Are Horrible People (link)  This is a study on the kinds of people attracted to trolling activities;  it's no wonder they cause such chaos and strife wherever they appear.

In spite of some members here in the past feeling everyone has a right to be here no matter how they behave, this study really shows why this is not the case.  It also shows why if anyone is active on the net, they will inevitably come across trolls, even when they are a fairly low percentage of those who are online.

Then of course there are plenty of trolls with their own boards and Face Book pages. Many of them search out sensitive groups too.

I have had personal experience of trolling, before I even knew what it was. A death threat, to shoot me in the head from someone years ago on AOL. Their screename was 'shaun-the-pig'. For a long time I blamed myself till this year two people in England were imprisoned for death threats and threats of rape to feminist campaigner who wanted Jane Austen's portrait put on a ten pound note. One of the abusers was a young student woman and another sad individual with mild learning or behavioural difficulties.

Wow, a death threat is really extreme. While most of us have been trolled in various venues, few of us have been threatened with murder by them. Yes, one thing trolls are very good at is deflecting blame from themselves, making it seem as if their targeted victims are to blame. This I can personally attest to, having been targeted more than a few times. If their target doesn't fall for it, the group they are with may, or individuals within it and they blame the target too, defending the troll.

they didnt try to blame me as such, it was just very sudden and came out of nowhere, I am blamed myself as that is what I am prone to do in these situations. I thought maybe I had worded something badly on a message board. I realised after seeing these pathetic individuals on the BBC news this year who had made death threats on Twitter that these kind of people are just sad and spend far too much time on the internet. I realised it wasnt my fault and that people like that arent dangerous.

Yeah that's pretty much what I concluded after dealing with hundreds of habitual exclusive trolls.

The cultural assumption is they're just bored immature kids which I guess is true but after they go deep into cyberbullying they usually escalate their behavior.
Worse yet is they teach each other the trade of trolling and compete with each other for who can be the most terrifying/popular douchebag.
I wrote up some research I did on the subject and I wanted to write an article or something, but most my evidence is.... gone now.

Some get banned hundreds of times repeatedly and are proud of it while evolving worse and worse offenses towards other users online. I really wish we'd bother to deal with that more instead of pirating crap.
Some forums and environments online (like a certain forum you hear me rant about sometimes) inspire this behavior in some alarming disturbing group way.

>> Returning trolls are genuine sociopaths/psychopaths in some cases. They're probably just in early stage before they escalate to physical violence...
I think they ought to be declared as cyber terrorists and treated as such or something. Because when you spend that much time and effort to harassing people without provocation and then go far as to threaten their physical safety and the safety of moderators or site staff members, it's not that much different from actual terrorism.

I've had death threats too, and been extorted by Trolls since I was a moderator. It was like a rite of passage in where I was working to have a returning "prommie" troll give you a death threat and send you porn/gore.

wow Zen thats pretty horrible stuff you have had to endure. I didnt know it could get so bad. I think also that the positive and 'normal' users of forums should be given a quick guide on what to look out for in troll behaviour and how to deal with it. If someone sent me a death threat now I would call the police, they are at least becoming more aware of it as a crime now.

We did: http://funhsps.niceboard.org/t972-how-to-deal-with-trolls

I think a book could be written about the pyschology of various internet behaviours. Maybe there is one already?

I would read that. I'd love to make a documentary about people squabbling online and learn more about it. Arguments are so much more vicious and militerised.

I think the article in the op is the start of such a study. I found it interesting that it was more than just people hiding behind annonymity. My empathic reads of trolls I've encountered backs this up as well.