Posted by Derek Janssen on 04/15/07 01:55

Richard C. wrote:

> ===========================
> Why worry about him at all.
> He is completely lost.

Well, y'see, that's the thing:
When you do the academic studies, there're basically two general
divisions of trolls--
The "Strategic" trolls who try to take over/sabotage/etc. groups because
they think they can, and then you got yer "Adrenaline" trolls who are
convinced they're invisible and live for the thrill of posting Doity
Woids...

The Strategic Trolls are easier to deal with, because think they have to
keep "outwitting" the group, and "fooling" newbies into thinking they're
real posters--And when you stick a pin in them, they get all pompous and
huffy, and start ruining their own business with poker-tell mistakes
that you can REALLY start humiliating in public.
But, like we've noticed, the Adrenaline Troll has no other function
except to Feed the Need--He doesn't care about image or dignity, he just
wants more, more, constant posters to say "retard" to at any hour of the
day...When he clicks on the computer, he wants his Faceless Victims
there and ready. With the Adrenaline Troll, you generally find yourself
applying drug-addict metaphors, and similarly, the highs get shorter and
the lows get lower...Except that there doesn't seem to be any increasing
low, just a constant timeless assembly line of supply,
poster-in-poster-out, who's daring to speak up today, etc.?

So, how do you battle the troll who himself has no battle strategy to
speak of?
You see one thing right there, ie., that the Strategic Troll has a goal
and a campaign--It's a military metaphor, even if he isn't aware of it.
Whether a troll succeeds or fails comes down to a simple issue of
Control: Is the group controlling the posts, or is the troll
controlling the group?
Now, when you deal with the Adrenaline Troll, the Control Issue is clear
from the start: The Troll is addicted to the group. He is DEPENDENT on
the group. His own self-esteem and identity cannot function without
posting his marketed brand-name image to the group, and reaping his
daily self-rewards from it. He is the drug-addict, and the group is the
dealer granting him his minute-to-minute fix.

Let's repeat that for a moment: The AT is the Addict, and the group is
the Dealer...
And what does the Dealer *traditionally* do with the Addict, once the
question of who's in control has been established?...Ohh, friends, what
DOESN'T the Dealer do with him? >:)
But traditionally, the usual process is "First he cuts off the
supply...Then he RAISES THE PRICE."

Now, that would be the strategy if we were working in a vacuum, ie. the
usual topic oriented one-lonely-troll group that was more interested in
posting than in cheap gags.
However...we've got a problem at the moment. Word's spread out through
the troll grapevine, and now we've got the Helper-Parasites out saying
"Did that make you mad? Huh, did it, did it?" Um...it's not helping.
(And--ahem--*nobody's exactly innocent*, point-point.)
The Adrenaline Troll has long since lost the ability to distinguish from
Mad or Happy, he only cares about Supply or Non-Supply. It's the ST who
cares about "Mad" or "Foaming" or whatever, and this isn't it. It never
was.

I've been doing what I could to show the Man Behind the Curtain, stem
off the supply of Gullibles who post noise back to say "Now, now, why
must you say such Mean Things, etc.", point out that it's just the AT
using the tools of his trade to keep Feeding, and stem off any new
future customer base.
It would, ahem, HELP if we could see what we could do about the current
crop of Old Customers, and then we can really start having some
drug-dealer fun cutting off the supply on our lil' ol group-junkie.
His one weakness is that he is convinced he really IS posting content,
and we already know he has little elsewhere else to go. And once a
group is back in Control, you know why the other camp craves it so much.
>:)

Derek Janssen (who's made a lifetime study--We're just scratching the
surface)
ejanss@comcast.net

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