Dealing with Trolls and other nasty walks of life.
I’m sure the first thought in your head is, huh? Trolls? Aren’t they mythical ugly creatures who reside under bridges? Ones who wait until you are ready to cross the bridge with which they come out to scare you away. They charge at you with a lot of noise, arm waving and their hideous looks will be sure to scare away even the stoutest of persons.
Or quite possibly you may already have come across a internet troll in your daily surfing.
The term hasn’t changed from childhood lore to today’s times. Other than the looks of the creature the intent remains the same. To create mischief and often times a touch of wickedness. Most often the internet troll has no photo to be found, so they could be anyone.
Generally their naughtiness starts out relatively harmless. You may find a statement from them on a blog or other place that allows comments. What you think will begin a harmless banter back and forth will quickly escalate to something more.
What is their goal? To upset you. Quite possibly to make themselves feel a bit superior as well.
If you are an artist of sorts, whether it be a writer, a musician, someone who draws etc. a troll will be there to criticize your work. It will never be positive criticism, it will always be negative. The intention behind it is to halt your creative process. Why? So you don’t do the work you love. It is obvious that they are incapable of doing something worthwhile, so they have to attack those who can. They are demeaning and destructive.
Most often you will find comments on sites that your only resort is to complain to the webmaster of that site. Other times you may find troll comments on news sites. Any place that may draw a little attention to themselves. The Troll wants to come out and play for a little while then when it looks as though there might be trouble they will run back to their hidey hole.
How do you know if you’ve come across a troll? Occasionally they will actually identify themselves with the signature ’TROLL’ or ’TROLLED’ at the end of the comment. Most often they will create an argument. It doesn’t really matter the subject with which your troll has come across. If you say it is black, they will say it is white. If you agree with them, they will accuse you of being a follower, if you argue with them you are just plain wrong.
When you begin to get under their skin they may decide to stalk you. They will search you on the Internet and make discoveries on you. Bringing up things from your life designed to inflame and degrade you.
Unless you are an expert on research it will be virtually impossible to discover who your troll is. They almost never use their real name, instead creating a persona that can disguise them. Which could cause you great frustration. If you own the website or are the administrator then it is possible to find their IP address, at times it is left within the comment section. This will be handy to have because should it get serious you will be able to identify them as a stalker.
What can you do? If you’re at your wits end, some of you will want to just delete your whole account and move on. This is not necessary.
If it is your website and you have control over the comment section, just delete the comments as soon as they appear. Keep the IP address if possible for identification. If it is another website that you have no control over, delete your comments so it would appear that they are talking to themselves. If it is required that you have a facebook account to make comments, go to facebook file a complaint, then block them. You will disappear from their sight.
You may need to take a picture of your computer screen, to do this use the keys ctrl and print screen on your keyboard. Paste this on to your ‘paint’ program (if you have one), click ‘save as’ and name your file. If you have a printer connected to your computer, right click on the page and click ‘print page‘. This is evidence that can be used in a court of law.
More than anything stop commenting. Stop arguing. Why? Because no matter what you say, they will be sitting behind their computer screen giggling at your frustrated words. Your words will be twisted to a point that will have you looking cross eyed at your own computer screen. My dad used to tell me ‘If you want to keep shit stinking, keep on stirring it”. So if you completely stop commenting or talking to this troll then they will hopefully get bored and leave you alone.
If this fails, and it may, if they continue to comment on the same site and continue using your personal information such as your name or other information, you next step is your local Sheriff’s department. Take your ‘picture evidence’ to them as proof that something is going on. The Sheriffs Department can get a subpoena from the site with which your troll has reared it’s ugly head, gaining an IP Address, which will identify the location of your troll. If this fails to get results, and you still feel that you are being stalked there are other avenues that you can take.
Doing a Google search, type in ‘online stalkers’ there is a plethora of information on how to deal with them. If you feel threatened beyond simple aggravation, to the point of feeling in danger from your troll turned stalker feel free to contact your local FBI, they will point you in the right direction.
Remember Trolls no longer reside under bridges to jump out and scare you, they sit behind their computer screen believing themselves to be superior and untouchable. Remember - Trolls are everywhere, be safe out there and take the best precautions you can! Best of Luck to you!
