Trolling Trolling Trolling, stop those Trolls controlling…Our Guide!

It’s funny, I always wanted a troll as a child but had to wait a few decades before my wish came true and one arrived on an Italian location blog that we manage, www.lifeinabruzzo.com.  I’m not sure if being targeted by a troll means that your site or social media is now important enough to matter and be targeted, but I’m going to enjoy the ego rub of such in this case.

What is a Troll?

“Trolling aims to elicit an emotional reaction from those with a hair-trigger on the reply key.   A really subtle troll makes some people lose their minds.” Free Online Dictionary of Computing

Our troll is a very keen fan of the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who seems to secretly employ quite a lot of them if you read global broadsheets newspapers when any sort of article comes out about him! I have to say I find their comments highly entertaining despite their homogenous nature. 

Our troll was outraged by our use of our Life in Abruzzo Facebook page, in particular how we were publishing links to such “left wing”(?) magazines as The Economist without any impartiality or inclusion of positive, “balancing” reviews for Signor B., and demanded justification of their relevance to the location of Abruzzo… 

This got me thinking to the political responsibility of a blog  & Facebook page; does one that works in neither a commercial or official governmental/regional role (instead a personal location travel guide) have a responsibility to only offer up a blandly apolitical commentary, or indeed in the absence of any balancing facts make no comment at all? Regardless of personal feelings of revulsion, we felt that it was in this case the impact of Berlusconi’s political decisions that should sway the content of what is published both on the blog in question and corresponding social media. In the case of Abruzzo, the Italian Emergency Budget will mean the loss of billions of Euros across all regions in Italy.  To one that is still trying desperately to rebuild after the earthquake with 50K still homeless that impact is yet another handicap in its redevelopment & progression.

DNFTT – Do Not Feed The Trolls

It is up to you if you decide to indulge the troll and answer them, or ignore their comments; political ones do generally drop themselves in it relatively quickly by revealing ulterior motives, but it depends if you have the time to let them show their true colours.  Personally my feeling is if it is not going to waste too much time, it is better to fight ignorance with fact.  Trolls are rarely able to offer a constructive or positive reply supporting their point of view hence why they are employed by political parties so often to engage in quick in & out bandit raids…

Try not to delete their comments, as said their true colours appear quickly and it is better that than a  later charge or comment of censorship.

There is a great article on Dailykos about 20 habits of Paid Trolls helping you to recognise them: