The Slashdot trolling phenomena make up a bizarre and complex subculture found on the popular Slashdot technology website. It is a mixture of juvenilia, sarcasm, deliberately bad jokes, tasteless nonsense and highly developed and artistic attempts to provoke outraged responses from other forum users, or amuse them. It is a subset and a microcosm of Internet trolling in general.
This is a list of some of the trolls that may be encountered when browsing Slashdot comments. Some of these behaviours are usually considered to be more offensive or insightful than others.
Links to example troll comments are provided for each category listed here at the bottom of the article.
A popular technique amongst Slashdot trolls is to post links to "shock sites" in order to annoy and offend other readers by tricking them into following the links. This is often accomplished by posting the link under the guise of being another link to the article or a rebuttal to the article.
A variation on this theme is for a troll to accuse a legitimate link or comment as being a link or reference to a shock site. In some cases this can have the desired effect of a genuinely insightful comment being moderated downward. Another technique is to embed a shock site link in a comment that otherwise appears relevant to the discussion, in the hope that unwitting moderators will mod up the post. The Holy Grail of this type of troll may be to slip a story submission containing a "shock site" link past the Slashdot editors. This situation occurred in July, 2003 when a disgruntled webmaster configured his server to redirect to a shock site when the HTTP referrer was Slashdot.
One particular "shock site" which is overwhelmingly preferred to others is Goatse.cx. This has spawned a large number of other references such as ASCII art of its signature image (hello.jpg) within a square border, and with a derogatory word written inside the anus of the man in the picture.
As a result of this trolling technique, the Slashdot team introduced a feature which appends the domain name a link points to immediately behind that link in every comment to make disguising links more difficult. (e.g. "Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]") When this was implemented, people used mirrorss and CGI redirection scripts run by Yahoo, Slashdot or other servers to circumvent this measure.
'Penis bird' trolls and related trolls were a common variant, where an ASCII art representation of some offensive image, often related to shock sites (in this case a crude ASCII representation of a bird perched on an erect penis) is posted in the body, with a nonsensical or provocative subject line. A link to the original image of the penis bird is given below.
Homosexuality is one of the most versatile and so common trolling devices utilised. In its simplest form it may be used on its own in the form of a homophobic insult or as a feature of a pornographic troll featuring common Slashdot topics and celebrities. Goatse.cx (see above "shock site" section) also takes advantage of homophobia.
Racism is another ploy, sometimes used for effect in conjunction with homosexuality which usually causes offense to individuals unfamiliar with it. At its crudest it simply takes the form of repeated racial insults.
Crapflooding consists of multiple copies of the same message posted many times with slight variations in order to avoid being filtered. Scripted crapflooding attacks, in which the process of posting is automated, can be very effective. See also lameness filter.
The original page widening posts were simple messages consisting of one long stream of characters with no spaces. This caused browsers to render a very wide page with horizontal scroll bars, making it nearly impossible to read the comments page. Slashdot began inserting spaces into any long run of characters to prevent this and so began the evolutionary battle between Slashcode and the page widening trolls. Newer and more inventive ways of causing page widening were discovered, blockquote tags and use of the "." character to cause extreme widening on Internet Explorer. These methods were also eventually closed off by the Slashdot editors. Improvements in browser software have also closed many of the loopholes used to widen pages.
Popular on software and development articles, this troll tries to explain why a particular operating system, programming language or other concept is inferior to others, in a way intended to annoy, intending to start a flamewar. This type of troll will either make an outlandish and obvious claim or subtly use a valid criticism of something in an aggravating fashion.
For example:
Considered by many to be an effective satirisation of those who post comments consisting of a linked article's text (invariably reputedly in case of the Slashdot effect) for positive moderation, these are arguably some of the most creative and entertaining found on Slashdot. These trolls consist of the linked article's text, copied into a comment, usually accompanied by a subject line indicating that the site has been slashdotted. One or more words, phrases, or paragraphs are covertly inserted or modified to form a subversive or offensive message not present in the original article. These can be in the form of film or book spoilers, words changed to produce sexual innuendoes, amongst other things. Often moderators will 'mod-up' an article or post based on its title and the overall appearance of the text without reading it - the aim of the troll is to make a comment which contains a subtle modification to be modded up as +5 Informative or +5 Insightful.
When an article text troll is spotted, it usually generates a series of 'TROLL - MOD PARENT DOWN' type comments, and posts pointing out where the troll differs from the original article. An interesting phenomenon is that some of these posts point out changes that are not present in the parent (troll) post, introducing this 'Troll-on-Troll' phenomenon.
A variant is to post rebuttals of the 'Mod Parent Down' comments, claiming that the post identifying the troll, is, in fact a troll, attempting to denigrate a legitimate post.
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and some other WWW vendors have a system whereby a user can post links on their (or others) websites, and gain a small commission per person following the link. These trolls post what appear to be discussion, with links to source material, but are really elaborate advertisements.
Whenever a new story is posted on Slashdot, comments may be added discussing it and there is often competition between Slashdotters to be the first to post such a comment. Some first posters try to make a short insightful comment to avoid being moderated down. The more immature first posts often consist of a subject saying "first post!" or "FP" and have no body. Trolls may also post "first post" messages a ridiculously long time after the original story has been submitted as a parody of the first post. There are many other variants of the first post, usually mispellings to avoid the lameness filter: "Frist psot!". A successful 'First Post' on Slashdot, using some pre-specified text, is one of the membership criteria for some troll organizations (e.g. the GNAA, see below).
Natalie Portman is a popular target for the affections of many Slashdot trolls. When referring to her, they frequently profess their endless love for a statue of the naked and petrified actress, preferably covered in hot grits. Naked and Petrified is now such an infamous troll that it virtually epitomises Slashdot trolling, and is often referred to and parodied in Slashdot comments. Other incarnations of the troll suggest that Natalie Portman pours hot grits into their underwear.
Quite frequently (especially for BSD-related stories) a comment will be posted providing dubious statistics and many links detailing the forthcoming death of the BSD operating system. With its bogus statistics and inflammatory language the original "*BSD is dying" troll was enormously successful, and was still guaranteed to generate responses years after it first appeared. Not surprisingly, many variants of this troll were created: Slashdot/VA Linux/Linux/BeOS/Apple (see examples below) is dying. None were as successful as the original.
Whenever a story mentioning a new gadget is posted on Slashdot, it will often be proposed that the power of a Beowulf cluster of the new gadgets would be incredible. Such comments are generally prefaced with "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these things!" This type of troll actually began as a parody of sincere posts frequently made in stories about new computers back when the concept of Beowulf clusters first entered the technological mainstream.
Alternatively, when a new gadget is reviewed, someone will inevitably post a comment asking whether it runs Linux/supports OGG etc, even when this is obviously inappropriate.
This needs little explanation. This troll merely posts a hoax comment stating that they have just heard a bulletin on the radio which reports that Stephen King has been found dead in his Maine home with no explanatory details. This joke has also been used to recognize actual celebrity deaths. One Anonymous Coward used it on the day of John Ritter's death, saying "I just heard on the radio that John Ritter died".
This troll is based upon a fictitious business plan concocted on the animated television show South Park, in which a community of underground gnomes have a three step business plan, consisting of:
For Slashdot stories where an individual or organisation is alleged to have performed some controversial action, an Anonymous Coward will inevitably post a false business plan based on this template, with the controversial action as the first step.
In these posts, trolls usually begin their comments with the subject "IN SOVIET RUSSIA" (all capitals) and typically proceed to reverse the order of words in that story's headline, usually changing the verb slightly to maintain subject/verb agreement and changing the object of the sentence to the second-person "YOU!". Thus, '[subject][verb][object]' usually becomes 'IN SOVIET RUSSIA, [object][verb] YOU!'
The phrase "In Soviet Russia..." is a signature of the jokes of Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff, the original joke being "In California, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, The Party can always find you!" although there is some evidence that Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In might have predated Smirnoff.
This is a more subtle troll than most. It consists, for the most part, of a genuinely insightful comment split into several paragraphs, with the middle or penultimate paragraph containing a movie spoiler.
The "Get Some Priorities" troll began to appear after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks. A classic offtopic troll, it employs highly hyperbolic language to criticize the other discutants and Slashdot in general for discussing trivialiaties like new gadgets or changes in U.S. copyright law in the wake of such a horrific event.
The sycophant type of troll is based on a quote from the fictional newscaster character Kent Brockman of The Simpsons television show. In one episode of the show, Brockman watches a video broadcast from a space capsule, within which a number of ants have accidentally been released. The ants appear huge because they float directly in front of the broadcast camera and close to the lens. He mistakenly assumes that alien insects are invading Earth and attempts to ingratiate himself to them by broadcasting propaganda: "I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords."
Subsequent to this Simpsons sketch, variants of the phrase began appearing on Slashdot whenever a particularly nasty organism was discovered, or a litigious company claimed ownership of anything/everything.
Most often found in the "Your Rights Online" section of Slashdot.
This troll involves the poster of another comment being accused of being "an insensitve clod" for making an assumption about the troll's well-being; for example, in an article about which hand mouse-using people prefer, a troll will post a comment with the subject "I don't have any hands..." with the text "...you insensitive clod!" These trolls are almost always modded-up to "+5: Funny" when they achieve First Post on a Slashdot poll.
If someone questions an action or concept which appears ridiculous but is well-established on Slashdot, a wit may reply with "You must be new here!", indicating that only a newbie would not accept that ridiculous proposition as reasonable. It can also refer to the opposite - a practice that appears reasonable, but does not meet Slashdot standards. For example, it is common for people to post messages about an article without actually reading the article. This will sometimes receive a reply starting "Don't you people even read the article?" or similar. "You must be new here" is a common follow-up.
Often, someone who is either new to Slashdot or just not aware of trolling (typically somebody that only reads with a +3 threshold) will post a response to a previous comment that is obviously a trolling attempt. In response to such a comment, someone may post "YHBT.", "YHBT YHL FOAD.", or "YHBT YHL HAND.". These intentionally-cryptic acronyms stand for the following:
The Chewbacca Defense is occasionally mentioned or quoted in discussion of legal affairs, usually cases involving Microsoft, SCO, or the RIAA; the implication of such a reference being that their legal arguments make no sense.
This is based on a South Park episode.
These are often expressed as accusations that editors or well known Slashdot users (for example Commander Taco) are either homosexual, incompetent, or hopeless nerds. They are sometimes expressed as senryus. In the most extreme form, textual porn taken from random internet sites is rewritten to incorporate slashdot editors.
Usually used in conjunction with a crapflood, some trolls write or copy offtopic stories into their comments. Many involve gratuitous and homoerotic sex scenes with the names of Slashdot's editors or other open source celebrities substituted for the characters in the original story. Other stories generally have no set topic and are usually nonsensical and surreal as well as offensive. Some trolls go one step further, and post comments that are completely incoherent on any level. Occasionally, trolls may post Base64 encoded images and comments, which appear nonsensical until decoded, whereupon they appear merely offensive (most of the time).
Periodically, individual trolls will come together and form organised groups. They will usually post common variations of popular Slashdot trolls with their organisation's name attached in some way. While somewhat uncommon, these organisations can become quite famous among Slashdot regulars; the most prominent of these being the Cabal of Logged in Trolls or 'CLIT' and 'Trollkore'. The various groups often fight it out in a battle of slander and competition to achieve first post.
In summer of 2003 the most self-aggrandising troll organization was the "Gay Niggers Association of America", which had commenced operations some six months previously in January 2003. It boasts its own logo and IRC channel, and encourages people to join by first watching a Danish low-budget movie Gay Niggers from Outer Space, followed by a successful achievement of 'First Post' using the GNAA trolling text, or to register their support by upwardly moderating "GNAA" comments.
Disruptive or offensive trolls
Shock sites and shock content
Homosexuality
Racism
Crapflooding
Page widening/lengthening
Reigniting flamewars
These types of post, usually moderated down as flamebait, sometimes cause a flamewar to begin amongst those who reply and thus the troll gets his 'bite' (See YHBT et al.).Article text trolls (aka copy and paste trolls)
Article text troll-on-trolls
Web vendor referral trolls
Recurring, off-topic jokes
First post
Natalie Portman, naked and petrified with hot grits
*BSD is dying
Beowulf cluster
Stephen King is dead
Business plans
None of the Underpants Gnomes know what the second step is, and all of them assume that someone else within the organization does.IN SOVIET RUSSIA
Movie spoiler
Get Some Priorities
Sycophants
You insensitive clod!
You must be new here!
YHBT. YHL. (FOAD./HAND.)
The acronym HAND is more popular than FOAD.The Chewbacca Defense
Personal assaults on Slashdot editors
Offtopic stories and nonsense
Miscellaneous
Troll organisations
Related articles
External Links
