Happy St. Patrick's Day, Macguy. "Troll" is the word that comes to my mind when I see your name.
Let me provide a little insight, Str8Poolman.
In Internet terminology, a "troll" is a person who posts rude or offensive messages on the Internet, such as in online discussion forums, to disrupt discussion or to upset its participants.
BTW, Str8poolman, did you know that trolling culture is best observed in trolls, who do not know each other, working together?
Or, conversely, Str8poolman, a common tactic that many trolls resort to is the strategy of using multiple usernames or pseudonyms that are ready to use just in case a debate or argument emerges. By using multiple usernames and a variety of artificial personalities, the troll would have the ability to protect his image in a community. A troll would then also be able to increase his or her influence in an entire online community by simply using those other self-serving nicks to increase the attention towards his or her most favored account; in this instance, Macguy's continuous bashing of Keith McCready as an IPT member, Keith McCready as a pool player, and then, when all else fails, Keith McCready the person.
Just like a snake in the grass, trolling is a game about identity deception. The troll attempts to pass as a legitimate participant, sharing the group's common interests and concerns, and then, for no reason, attacks one member of the forum, much like Macguy has done on this thread.
And here's a little nugget I didn't know about:
On January 5, 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act[4], which, among other things, places a prohibition on using the Internet to transmit, solicit, or create anonymous messages containing obscenity intended to "annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass" another person.[5] Criminal penalties include large fines and up to two years in prison. Concern has been raised as to the constitutional legality of the law, as critics allege that it infringes upon the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees every U.S. citizen the right to free speech. This does not necessarily affect all trolls; however, it makes illegal the common trolling tactic of posting links....
Of course, Str8Poolman, there's the garden variety of trolls, but here are a few examples for your perusal.
One-shot trolls
One-shot troll messages are intended to be disruptive, and tend to be very obvious to ensure that they will receive annoyed replies. Usually, they appear in a thread for the first time during the midst of a flame.
Disruptive trolls
Off topic messages: Those that are irrelevant to the focus of the forum. This can also be done in the middle of an existing thread to attempt to hijack the thread, or otherwise change the topic at hand.
[Much like what Macguy has done to this thread about traveling/lodging for an upcoming IPT tournament in Vegas, which, in reality, is the original topic of this thread.]
Inflammatory messages, including racist, sexist, classist or otherwise needlessly hateful comments disgused as the troll providing an "opinion."
Opinionated statements: Posting messages expressing their own opinions as generally accepted facts.
Attention-seeking trolls
This class of trolls seeks to incite as many responses as possible and to absorb a disproportionate share of the collective attention span.
Another trait of a troll is feigning innocence, after a flamewar ensues, i.e., Macguy's belief that he's only providing an honest debate about pool players, targeting Keith McCready at every turn.
A variant of the second variety (inflammatory messages) involves posting content obviously at odds with the (stated or unstated) focus of the group or forum; for example, posting cat-meat recipes on a pet lovers forum, posting negative comments about the IPT on the IPT forum and/or targeting a pool player's girlfriend by discrediting her boyfriend as a pool player on a pool-related forum such as AzBilliards.
Here's something to ponder, Str8Poolman: The "sock-puppet" troll enters a forum using several different identities. As provocative postings from one identity draw increasingly critical comment from other forum members, the troll enters the discussion under a second identity in support of the first. Alternatively, the troll may under the second identity criticize the first in order to develop credibility or esteem on the forum.
For many people, the characterizing feature of trolling is the perception of intent to disrupt a community in some way. Inflammatory, sarcastic, disruptive or humorous content is posted, meant to draw other users into engaging the troll in a fruitless confrontation. The greater the reaction from the community the more likely the user is to troll again, as the person develops beliefs that certain actions achieve his/her goal to cause chaos, again, kind of like Macguy continuing to target Keith McCready on this thread.
IMHO, Macguy falls into this category:
Anonymous attention-seeking: The troll seeks to dominate the thread by inciting anger, and effectively hijacking the topic at hand.
A troll is looking for a response, ANY response, and he will chum the waters with complaints, insults, and inflammatory tidbits, such as the link that Macguy provided above, hoping that someone, ANYONE, will take the bait. A troll can upset the delicate ecology of a discussion forum.
In sum, Str8Poolman, some users of Internet forums are considered to be "troll-hunters" or "troll-baiters". They willingly enter into conflicts when trolls emerge. Often, troll-hunters are as disruptive as trolls. In some instances, the troll and the troll-baiter work as a tag team, each attempting to support the other. Sometimes, though, the troll and the troll-baiter share the same identity. Only the webmaster knows for sure.
Hope this helps, Str8Poolman.
JAM
The two players were Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante on the TV table. BCn moved the camera off of their table to Keith and Alex, the final game of their set.
