In the UK, a man has been sentenced to three years in prison for posting inflammatory messages to a website. Pleading guilty to inciting racial hatred on a site dedicated to the memory of a murdered black teenager, the 30-year old accused stated that he was not racist, and had intended to stir up an argument on the website, but did not believe in what he had written. The defending lawyer described her client as 'isolated and living in a fantasy world, spending hours on his computer in his room where his persona could be as he made it, good or bad.
For some reason I find this incredibly amusing. Last sentence pretty much describes trolls I think.
Better think twice next time you plan to be an asshole on a message board! :p (jk on that last one, as if it needed to be said)
[size=75][b]Procrastination.[/b]
Hard Work Often Pays Off After Time, but Laziness Always Pays Off Now.[/size]
Sounds like a defense derived form the the insanity or crazy defense. But the title of this thread is a bit misleading, they are procecuting him more for the message, rather than the medium.
And hell, no one told him about the "/sarcasm" mark, poor dude.
*Sometimes I edit my posts just to correct mistakes.
Why intice someone in to an arument that you yourself don't believe or even agree with. (to get a reaction from people?...don't people have better things to with there time?) I'd argue any subject as long as I believed in it. But starting an agrument to test ones interent troll savey is just plain STUPID. You can take that to the bank... =p
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E=mc²
"People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people." -V
[url=http://sc2.sourceforge.net/]The Ur-Quan Masters[/url]
DEFIANT wrote:Why intice someone in to an arument that you yourself don't believe or even agree with. (to get a reaction from people?...don't people have better things to with there time?) I'd argue any subject as long as I believed in it. But starting an agrument to test ones interent troll savey is just plain STUPID. You can take that to the bank... =p
To be honest, playing devil's advocate during a discussion is helpful to find counterarguments.
But honestly, the lawyer was desperate to argue that as a defense. I honestly *can't* believe someone would surf the internet, find a board, register and post "Without actually meaning it".
*Sometimes I edit my posts just to correct mistakes.
When he was arrested in September, officers also found 33 images of child pornography on his computer.
Wow.
Joe Camacho wrote:I honestly *can't* believe someone would surf the internet, find a board, register and post "Without actually meaning it".
What, you can't believe someone would go to the trouble to find and register at a random message board just to piss off the owner? "HURR I GOOGLE FOR DED afro-american" Oh wait, that's right, a typical troll wouldn't think to search for something like "murdered black hate crime" and maybe throw in key words like "tribute" or "memorial" and the all important "message board" or "guest book" ... Wait, I'll have to propose this idea at 4chan. Only not in Britain, on account of them having legal precedent for locking people up for this. Internet, serious business.
... No wait, I don't have the attention span to go through with something like that.
Your definition of trolls here is wrong. Someone who lives in a fantasy persona on the internet? Well damn, that's a hell of a lot trolls in world of warcraft and the like. Not to mention just your reguar group of assclowns who "hang out" online and act as if it was real life. I'm not talking about having conversations, I'm talking about being "social" and prefering to include in it the dull and negative aspects of regular social life. In other words lamers. But no, this all tends to be considered "normal" in the online "community".
The real definition of troll is someone who writes remarks just to get a reaction out of people. So we are all trolls in a philosophical sense. Or maybe not. But I think it's so and you can't disprove it.
