Oh yes... most definitely! 4chan gave birth to lolAnons (trolls that hacked and defaced 7000 MySpace profiles with gay porn) and Anonymous (the hacktivist collective) at the same time. SL group The Wrong Hands have conducted two hacktivist initiatives in SL against two other groups: Justice League Unlimited (paper forthcoming) and Modular Systems (paper will be written) and exposed major surveillance and datamining operations. So yes, they are adorable that way :P (*joke*) Also if you're one to get easily offended, I recommend not researching the topic at all. The amount of racist, homophobic, and sexist language/slurs that I encountered, along with porn I have consumed within the last decade or so is insane. Generally, if it pisses you off and is sure to bring them the media attention, they won't shy away from it. Think of Anshe Chung who was SL's first self-proclaimed millionaire back in the day and who made it to the cover of the Business Week. In her in-world CNet interview, goons plummeted her with flying penises and crashed the sim... Then posted the recording on YouTube. Bunch DMCA complaints ensued, nothing came out of it, of course. Good times :P But, if your concern is to keep your blogs safe, you know all you need to know by now :) There is nothing more to it, really. If there is, I am willing to learn... BsB On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 12:59 PM, Kyle Kontour <kkontour@gmail.com> wrote:
My two cents: not only are trolls best dealt with by being ignored, there are times that they serve a useful function in disrupting groupthink, pile-ons, and so-called "epistemic closure". By contrast, they can also foment the opposite, in group solidarity and re-affirmation of views (it depends on how other folks deal with the trolls). I would count trolls as being an irritating, often awful, but nonetheless integral part of online ecology--a bit like mosquitoes or certain parasites. _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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-- Thanks, Burcu S. Bakioglu, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow in New Media Lawrence University http://www.palefirer.com http://palefirer.com/blog/ -- "Come to the dark side, we have cookies." ~Anonymous