Like many people I occasionally enjoy watching YouTube. As an atheist I particularly enjoy atheist related videos, like those made by AronRa, Thunderf00t, TheThinkingAtheist, BionicDance and philhellenes. So imagine my surprise when Thunderf00t indirectly exposed a troll with his latest video Girl prays to CAUSE Japanese earthquake (he was using bits of her video to make a point and linking to the original in the description of the video). Her video turned out to be very controversial. The only problem is that Thunderf00t happens to be very popular and his subscriber base number in the six digits. As you might imagine, TamTamPamela (the handle of the youtuber in question) got some attention. A metric crapload of attention, and more than she could handle; especially when her personal info was discovered and posted for the world to see, they call this "dropping someone's docs". People were so outraged by her that they had pizzas ordered in her name and delivered to her home, and she probably got more than a few nasty phone calls. For TamTam it was the final straw so she came clean about being a troll to put an end to the mess and shortly thereafter she closed down her YouTube account.
Now, what's interesting to me is that some youtubers rallied to her defense calling her videos satire, even though she specifically came clean as being a troll. There's a difference between satire and trolling. Satire is basically ridicule, irony and sarcasm. Sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant and typically very obvious.
If you've ever been on Usenet and frequented a major newsgroup you will almost certainly have come across more than a few trolls. But to those who are confused about what, exactly, a troll is and what they do - here's my explanation.
It's the girl who sleeps with your boyfriend not because she wants him, or even because she hates you, but because she wants to destroy your relationship. It's the guy who lets the air out of your tires just to mess with you and not out of revenge for something you might have done. It's the kind of person who throws a rock at a bird just because he thinks it's funny and he's also the guy who might enjoy poking a sharp stick at a caged animal. I'm sure most of you know the type, they're mean-spirited people you avoid on a regular basis or simply wish you didn't know. That's what a troll really is. A dictionary lookup of the term internet troll reads as follows "someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response[1] or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.", what the dictionary doesn't tell you is why they do it, put simply - they get off on it. The only real way to handle a troll is to ignore them, regardless of what bullshit they post. Don't even respond once, because if you give any hint they've got your attention they'll just redouble their efforts. And these assholes can stick around for years.
Why anyone would defend such a person is beyond me. Take this holier-than-thou, pretentious asshole for example. The only reason he's defending TamTamPamela is, I'm guessing, because she's cute or because he's a troll himself. So he has to be the knight in shining armor sticking it to the man (Thunderf00t). Only problem is that TamTamPamela is a troll, she even admitted so herself, and she wasn't doing satire. Way to go, asshat.
