Has trolling blurred the line between offence and humour?
 

As a member of a fair few social networking sites I'm well aware of the act of trolling - that is, posting something that could be (whilst sarcastic or ironic) offensive or controversial in order to provoke a reaction. But when this has seeped into very mundane acts, such as spreading false rumours of a celebrity death on Twitter, or winding someone up on a forum... can it really be passed off as harmless fun?

Because I think a lot of us on here have probably been guilty of it at some point - replying to a thread we don't care about with "k" to take the piss, or spreading a meme that uses sexist jokes (lord knows how many kitchen jokes Facebook has to account for...)

So at what stage do you cross the line?

There's an example for all Tumblr users - there's this popular blogger called wwiao who regularly posts crudely-edited images of Lady GaGa and Madonna, citing Madonna as a rip-off of GaGa, but with loads of obviously ridiculous 'facts' (eg. the Vogue video ripping off Alejandro, which violates chronological order :laugh:) - of course, the majority see the joke. But then there's someone a little bit dim who'll reply "MADONNA IS DA BEST!!! SCREW U!!" etc.

And you have to wonder - what is exactly gained from this? And then I wonder if the person saying "MADONNA IS DA BEST!!!" is also trolling...

:bored: I think I just hate everyone trying to be a comedian. In addition to this - the rise of trolling is also providing a pretty decent mask for those who are genuine racists, or misogynists, or anyone of a hateful disposition, to get away pretty much scot-free by just adding LOLOL or some other form of get-out clause.

Trolling crosses the line with constant phrases such as..

"wurk it gurl"
"Stunning"

^^^^^ Allight when said once in a while but not constantly.

Also the constant gifs!

Really I don't care about the wurk it gurl or the gifs. Just the insults members give out really. Causing arguments and "baiting" people. lol

Thank you!

Ben. You should become a policeman! :hugesmile:

No need for sarcasm Turtle, dont think Beastie was having a pop at you.





:wink:

Never! I'd never get out of the uniform. :hugesmile:

There was no sarcasm, I was actually thankful that somebody mentioned the trolling with gifs. :)

I know I was taking the pee.

You are both quite right about the gifs though, no need for most of them.

I have used one in that other thread.

The odd one is fine. Just the constant ones of god knows what.. Lady Gaga popping up every 2 minutes!

pun!


*trolls*

Also yes I know.. I have been the most guilty of bumping old thread.. lol

But bumping lets say.. 1 thread a night is not bad is it?

*Tempted to bump an old thread* lol joke!

:laugh:

They do overuse gifs tbf, but a 5point infraction's a bit harsh

Not harsh enough. Back in the day there were longer bans. I think it was Lily who had a 16 month ban. I am sure other members had long sentences too!

They don't deserve long bans just for posting a lot of gifs though. :nono:

I was on about infractions though, I never even knew they went that high, thought they only went up to three D:

Nah I think I still have one worth 4 points. Probably to do with some of my crude sexual references :hugesmile:

Sorry Stacey.. I would swap Scott and Bettiepage for Setenta and Wombai anyday.

Unfortunately this will never happen.

think it depends how many times theyve been told. Its not like members can't post gifs. Just certain members overuse them. Or have done in the past.

plus we all know that there is often a hidden reason behind the official reason given for infractions.

LOL!!! More than likely.

Omg :shocked: I do like them all though, Setanta and WOMBAI were both good members too.

That's true I suppose D:

There is no harm in it really it's just a laugh when you're bored.. some people take it far too seriously

Harmless yes. Gets dull though. Especially when they do actually troll you around the board spamming.....

I did actually mean this thread in general, not about TiBB :tongue:

Hahahaha Shaun I just seen your sig from that spammer! It made me laugh when I saw them post that part. :laugh2:


But yeah I do agree with you about the fine lines between humour/spamming, it's a hard one to call sometimes.

Not really, considering they dont take the hint with a 2-3 point infraction.....next time will be 6, time after that 7....

It's funny.

Exactly.

Do people expect us to just give out constant 1 pointers? Even when they make no difference?

In answer to the OP, I find some trolling funny, I have to admit. I hold the unpopular opinion that a lot of an ex members made up stories were funny :joker:

Other trolling (eg, constant gifs, spamming, made up death stories, purposely starting arguments) I think is sad

This. I don't see the point in giving 2 or 3 points to the same person over and over for the same thing, obviously it will keep increasing if they carrying on doing what they've previously been infracted for.

what for Women to watch him strip?



Life In The City.

The fact that trolling has gained a degree of acceptance and respect on the internet (thanks to the world's most sophisticated trolling machine, Anonymous) now always reminds me of the phrase "back in my day, trolling meant something".

However I think trolling, when successful and done right, can be hysterically funny. Repeatedly posting tired catchphrases and gifs is not trolling. It's spam.

:laugh:

This

Can I make a point about gifs, surely if someone has a gif in their sig/avatar (or 4 in BB_Eyes case) then surely that's the equivalent of posting a gif everytime they post, why is it noone picks up on them, but they do whenever someone posts a gif?

Because most people who dislike .gifs dislike them for being highly repetetive, unimaginative ways of posting. Not for the amount of kb they take up.

Quite simple really, if gifs in the signature annoy other members have the choice of switching signatures off in their user CP. Unfortunately if the post in the thread is simply as a gif then other members have to view it while viewing the thread.

It may not bother you, but repeated use of gifs is not only annoying and boring but can affect other peoples computers in relation to page downlaod and cache memory.

Thats fair enough, but the reason we've been told is because they slow down the forum.
No they don't theres also the option of turning off images, people say they don't wanna turn images off, but they also say they don't wanna turn off sigs/avs

And you can clear your cache, so I don't see the problem there >.<

People are just sick of seeing gifs every other post. Its really that simple. And they shouldnt have to put up with it. Surely the people who overuse gifs can have some decent input into conversations other than an animated image? If not, then a forum is not the right place for them, perhaps try a soft play area or something...

And yes, theres the added problem of slowing down peoples computers. People shouldnt have to turn off images just because of one or two people abusing gifs. And as far as I am aware, the people who say gifs slow down their computers...already have signatures off. I know two people have :/

The whole turning off images thing is down there with the ignoring members thing. Forums should take action against things people don't like. Not instruct members to censor things for themselves.

Someone might absoloutely hate a certain member but they are never going to ignore them. It just feels odd. Show me someone who uses the ignore feature and I'll show you a liar.

Which is why they were restricted to chat and games, even then you post them you get warned, a couple of us were having a laugh in the loft the other day and Ben came in and told us to stop posting gifs. Even though there was about 5 gifs over 100 posts, and he wasn't even contributing to our conversation.

Hey at least he wasn't starting terrible music topics.

jk

Other people don't like all the gifs Smithy. You need to realise this. A couple of you may find them hilarious, but a lot of members get hacked of with the constant use of them.

Other people don't like you creating god loves the ##'s then stickying it for IthinkIloveyoutoo to spam with a whole artists discography from that decade but you don't hear us complaining.

That is not me spamming up lots of threads with a pointless GaGa gif that means nothing in context to majority of conversations. If you cannot say it in words then don't bother posting a response.

All we ask is that you cut down on them, not stop altogether, but you have to make it a drama and make it sound as if we are not allowing you to post any.

When somebody says something you don't like, replying with a gif of GaGa crying is alittle bit pointless.