07-31-2012, 12:26 PM
In all honesty the appeal of it is lost on me. I suspect there are individual motivations involved, and I could go deep into psychological profiling for some of these guys, but a lot of it boils down to attention. Some people who for whatever reason are invisible and powerless IRL come online to "be a viking" and they don't really distinguish between positive and negative attention. They equate being reviled with fame. There's a reason known trolls like Ma use the same handles at different boards, they WANT that rep to follow them. Tearing stuff up and smearing virtual shit on the walls is only the means to an end, that they go down in forum history as "that guy".
It's the reverse side of the same coin for guys who for whatever reason acquire real life reputations as troublemakers not to be taken seriously, so they go online to get a chance to show the world how clever and witty they really are. I'd give you and example of that type of poster but for some reason I can't think of any just this second
It's the reverse side of the same coin for guys who for whatever reason acquire real life reputations as troublemakers not to be taken seriously, so they go online to get a chance to show the world how clever and witty they really are. I'd give you and example of that type of poster but for some reason I can't think of any just this second