Autore: Gaspar Torriero

Andrew Heenan’s Guide to Flaming – Covers the whole board, including trolls. Very good reference.

Anti Troll FAQ

Beware The Troll

How To Avoid Being Trolled – Newbie Advice

How To Handle A Troll – AOL Based Trolls

Internet Trolls

Netiquette – Touches on Spamming and Flaming, as well as expected behaviour on the net

Usenet AD 1540

The Usenet Troll Song

Non basta che qualcuno dica cose su cui non sei d’accordo, per poterlo definire un troll. Importanti sono soprattutto il tono e il contesto. In generale si riconosce un troll dal fatto che “ci va giù pesante”, il che denota da una fondamentale mancanza di rispetto fino a un ostentato disprezzo nei confronti dell’interlocutore. L’unico modo di gestire un troll è quello di ignorarlo, e aspettare che si stufi.

Se rispondi a un troll, sei un clueless newbie. Per spiazzare un troll, puoi rispondere con un complimento, e se lui ci casca diventa un clueless newbie. Ma i veri troll conoscono il trucchetto, e non si lasciano intenerire.

My baby just cares for me (2,89 MB)

Su Microcontent News trovo una affascinante e suggestiva similitudine tra il formicaio e il weblog, e te ne riporto il nocciolo:

If you imagine that you’re an ant, you have four Prime Directives:

• Look for Food
  • If you come across green pheromone, follow it to the food… otherwise, just wander around randomly
• Pick Food Up
  • If you come across food, pick it up and turn around
• Bring Food Home
  • Follow the pheromones home, dropping more pheromones as you go to reinforce the trail
• Drop Food Off
  • Once you’re home, drop the food off and turn around to get more

Out of those directives, some very interesting behaviour emerges:

• Ants quickly find the closest food sources, and work together to consume it
  

• Random scouts luck across food sources even though they are very far away
• The ants focus on the closest food sources, consuming them until they are all gone

That sounds pretty bloggy!  Once you translate some of the terms involved (ants = bloggers, food sources = articles/blog posts), it’s not hard to reconfigure the ant rules into Blogging Directives:

• Look for News
  • If you come across a link to a news story, follow it to the article/blog post… otherwise, just surf the web randomly
• Read News
  • If you come across a news story, read it
• Blog News
  • Blog the link, making sure to link to the blog where you first saw the link (attribution link = pheromone!)
• Drop News Off
  • Once you’re done, turn around to get more links on the same subject

The results are very similar:

• Bloggers quickly find the most interesting news stories, and work together to cover/analyze them
• Random scouts luck across interesting news stories even though they far off the beaten path
• Bloggers tend to focus on the most interesting news story, covering them until there are no more angles or insights left

There’s one big difference between ants and bloggers (well, besides being self-aware).  In the ant simulation, there were no new food sources.  But in the blogosphere, content sites (and increasingly, weblogs) are constantly providing fresh articles to consume.  It’s this constant source of food which replenishes the blogosphere and supports so much blogging.

Se l’argomento ti interessa, puoi anche scaricarti il programma di simulazione dal MIT, come ho fatto io che queste cose mi affascinano. E mi pare di aver migliorato la mia comprensione di che cosa è un weblog.

Detto così sembra molto più serio:

“Gaspar Torriero schreibt:

Zum ersten Mal werden Journalisten mit einem Publikum konfrontiert, das a) insgesamt besser Bescheid weiss als sie, b) ihnen direkt antwortet, und c) dabei womöglich sichtbarer als der Journalist selbst ist. Das ist natürlich eine große Bedrohung für den unfähigen oder oberflächlichen Journalisten, während es dem fähigen und kenntnisreichem Journalisten eine große Hilfe ist. [Übersetzung von mir]

Ich hab mich schon oft gefragt, warum es keine vernünftige Kommentarfunktion in den Online-Auftritten der Zeitungen gibt – womöglich haben sie einfach Angst. Da hat man gelernt, dass man die öffentliche Meinung ist, und auf einmal reden da Hinz und Kunz mit.”