Startling discovery about trolls

Joseph S Wisniewski · Nov 12, 2004

It appears trolls have an annual cycle, like salmon swimming upstream to spawn.

They frequently go on a rampage at yearly intervals, following their joining of dpReview. These rampages are often severe enough to result in banning. Cases in point:

Ger Bee - one of the sites most famous trolls. System switcher, trolls about Nikon, Canon, Epson.

Joined October 25, 2000. Banned October 18, 2004, 7 days from his "anniversary" date, after getting a bit too wild in one of his Nikon D2H threads

Dan Frederiksen - with conspiracy theories involving aliens, the government, the camera companies, and Phil

Joined August 20, 2003. Banned August 27, 2004, again 7 days from his anniversary, for swearing repeatedly to Phil.

SG10 - famous anti-Foveon troll

Joined September 22, 2002. Banned September 23, 2003, one day from his anniversary.

sammmysams - one of the four trolls known to have made a "master troll" post, a single inflammatory post that gathers 149 responses while the troll just sits back and watches, without the troll having to "fan the flames" with additional posts
Joined May 18. 2002. Banned Mat 23, 2003, five days from his anniversary.

Captain Obvious - a wanderer who would flame anyone in any forum.
Joined January 12, 2003. Banned January 10, 2004, 2 days fromhis anniversary.

Here's the breakdown of the 32 trolls I'm currently tracking
17 - still with us
6 - banned within 3 weeks of their anniversary
3 - got tired and left
2 - banned within 2 months of joining
2 - banned more than 2 months before or after their anniversary date
1 - deceased

So, what is it with these poor wretches? What happened in Ger Bee's life in late October, or Dan Frederiksen's in late August, that cause them to act so strangely every year at a particular time? Why do more than half the trolls who manage to get themselves banned, get banned within 3 weeks of their anniversary date? That's a pretty small window.

--

Salvage troll posts! When you see a thread started by a troll, post something useful to it. It will drive the trolls up the wall.

Ciao!

Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

hello goodbyte · Nov 12, 2004

Joseph S. Wisniewski said:
It appears trolls have an annual cycle, like salmon swimming
upstream to spawn.

LOL!

Joseph S Wisniewski said:
--
Salvage troll posts! When you see a thread started by a troll, post
something useful to it. It will drive the trolls up the wall.

I think I preferred your previous sig, cheers.

--

David Wong · Nov 12, 2004

Good job Sherlock..Dpreview should have a local News..with u in charge..detailing us which is the most hot topic, who get ban and so on.

Joseph S. Wisniewski said:
It appears trolls have an annual cycle, like salmon swimming
upstream to spawn.

They frequently go on a rampage at yearly intervals, following
their joining of dpReview. These rampages are often severe enough
to result in banning. Cases in point:

Ger Bee - one of the sites most famous trolls. System switcher,
trolls about Nikon, Canon, Epson.
Joined October 25, 2000. Banned October 18, 2004, 7 days from his
"anniversary" date, after getting a bit too wild in one of his
Nikon D2H threads

Dan Frederiksen - with conspiracy theories involving aliens, the
government, the camera companies, and Phil
Joined August 20, 2003. Banned August 27, 2004, again 7 days from
his anniversary, for swearing repeatedly to Phil.

SG10 - famous anti-Foveon troll
Joined September 22, 2002. Banned September 23, 2003, one day from
his anniversary.

sammmysams - one of the four trolls known to have made a "master
troll" post, a single inflammatory post that gathers 149 responses
while the troll just sits back and watches, without the troll
having to "fan the flames" with additional posts
Joined May 18. 2002. Banned Mat 23, 2003, five days from his
anniversary.

Captain Obvious - a wanderer who would flame anyone in any forum.
Joined January 12, 2003. Banned January 10, 2004, 2 days fromhis
anniversary.

Here's the breakdown of the 32 trolls I'm currently tracking
17 - still with us
6 - banned within 3 weeks of their anniversary
3 - got tired and left
2 - banned within 2 months of joining
2 - banned more than 2 months before or after their anniversary date
1 - deceased

So, what is it with these poor wretches? What happened in Ger Bee's
life in late October, or Dan Frederiksen's in late August, that
cause them to act so strangely every year at a particular time? Why
do more than half the trolls who manage to get themselves banned,
get banned within 3 weeks of their anniversary date? That's a
pretty small window.

--
Salvage troll posts! When you see a thread started by a troll, post
something useful to it. It will drive the trolls up the wall.

Ciao!

Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

jack1000 · Nov 12, 2004

Joseph S Wisniewski said:
sammmysams - one of the four trolls known to have made a "master
troll" post, a single inflammatory post that gathers 149 responses
while the troll just sits back and watches, without the troll
having to "fan the flames" with additional posts

... any chance of links to those posts? I'd be interested to see what got people quite so worked up.
thanks!

jack

Parham · Nov 12, 2004

Joseph S. Wisniewski said:
1 - deceased

Deceased? Who was deceased?

Pretty funny thread, btw.

--
Think.
http://www.pbase.com/parham

Joseph S Wisniewski · Nov 12, 2004

Parham said:
Joseph S. Wisniewski said:

1 - deceased

Click to expand...

Deceased? Who was deceased?

jacques. He was one of those folks who could be serious and useful for a while, then go off on a flaming rage, and eventually return to normal. Died last month.

Parham said:
Pretty funny thread, btw.

Thanks

--

Salvage troll posts! When you see a thread started by a troll, post something useful to it. It will drive the trolls up the wall.

Ciao!

Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

Joseph S Wisniewski · Nov 12, 2004

jack1000 said:
jack1000 said:

sammmysams - one of the four trolls known to have made a "master
troll" post, a single inflammatory post that gathers 149 responses
while the troll just sits back and watches, without the troll
having to "fan the flames" with additional posts

Click to expand...

... any chance of links to those posts? I'd be interested to see
what got people quite so worked up.
thanks!

They're pretty much all gone. Only local copies surviving.

--

Salvage troll posts! When you see a thread started by a troll, post something useful to it. It will drive the trolls up the wall.

Ciao!

Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

Joseph S Wisniewski · Nov 12, 2004

hello goodbyte said:
I think I preferred your previous sig, cheers.

I tested a few. My favorite was "Normally, a signature this small can't open it's own jumpgate", but no one got the B5 reference.

--

Salvage troll posts! When you see a thread started by a troll, post something useful to it. It will drive the trolls up the wall.

Ciao!

Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

Ordell · Nov 12, 2004

Some nice work, Joseph. How do you get hold of the information? And that happens outside dp, like the deceased person. Impressive.

Joseph S. Wisniewski said:
It appears trolls have an annual cycle, like salmon swimming
upstream to spawn.

They frequently go on a rampage at yearly intervals,
1 - deceased

So, what is it with these poor wretches? What happened in Ger Bee's
life in late October, or Dan Frederiksen's in late August, that
cause them to act so strangely every year at a particular time? Why
do more than half the trolls who manage to get themselves banned,
get banned within 3 weeks of their anniversary date? That's a
pretty small window.

--
Salvage troll posts! When you see a thread started by a troll, post
something useful to it. It will drive the trolls up the wall.

I don't get this. What is useful for a troll? Therapy lessons? But that wont drive them up the wall. But I guess if you treat immature behaviour with an adult response that is a kind of therapy.
Erik

Severian · Nov 12, 2004

Joseph S. Wisniewski said:
I tested a few. My favorite was "Normally, a signature this small
can't open it's own jumpgate", but no one got the B5 reference.

Well, no-one responded perhaps. But I appreciated it.

What is JMS working on these days, I wonder.

Severian

"The avalanche has already begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote" -- Ambassador Kosh

BorisK1 · Nov 12, 2004

That's a pretty funny study!

Before you know it, somebody's virtual personality, posing as a psychiatrist, will be treating online personas with virtual problems, and a virtual statistician will find a very real trend in diagnosis...

jack1000 · Nov 12, 2004

Joseph S Wisniewski said:
They're pretty much all gone. Only local copies surviving.

ah well, never mind -- am curious though, do you read ALL of the posts, or do you have a network of dedicated volunteers (Trollwatch, maybe?) who help you monitor them?

thanks for the main post, very amusing!

jack

aar · Nov 12, 2004

Joseph S. Wisniewski said:
salmon

Some 18 hours ago Joseph S. Wisniewski confessed elsewhere at the DPreview:
=======
In 5 hours, I can do any of the following.

Write 20 helpful and useful responses to questions of forums.

Coat, print, and develop 2-3 exhibition quality prints.

Shoot about 300 images of a model in the studio.

Post process 2-3 deliverable commercial images.

Shoot a product shot.
=======
Why do you waste your precious time on trolling here?
(aar)

John Marsh · Nov 12, 2004

Joseph S. Wisniewski said:
--
Salvage troll posts! When you see a thread started by a troll, post
something useful to it. It will drive the trolls up the wall.

Ciao!

Joe

Good idea but I can't think of anything "useful" to add to your thread.

Parham · Nov 12, 2004

Joseph S. Wisniewski said:
Parham said:

Joseph S. Wisniewski said:

1 - deceased

Click to expand...

Deceased? Who was deceased?

Click to expand...

jacques. He was one of those folks who could be serious and useful
for a while, then go off on a flaming rage, and eventually return
to normal. Died last month.

Of what?

And how would people here know that he was deceased?
This is interesting.

Joseph S Wisniewski said:
Joseph S Wisniewski said:

Pretty funny thread, btw.

Click to expand...

Thanks

--
Salvage troll posts! When you see a thread started by a troll, post
something useful to it. It will drive the trolls up the wall.

Ciao!

Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

--
Think.
http://www.pbase.com/parham

hello goodbyte · Nov 13, 2004

...

...like the porno troll who often used to invade rec.photo.digital, no posts but just these extremely obscene headers. So you had to fine tune your kill filter to be on the lookout.

--

brianj · Nov 13, 2004

May be linked to lunacy, have you checked the timing with the full moon at the place of residence of the named trolls.

Brian

RJNedimyer · Nov 13, 2004

Joseph,

[NOTE: I spend little to no time on the Nikon and Canon forums so this might be the reason].

While I probably would not consider Ger Bee a troll, he was at times way out of line . Interestingly, at other times he was calm, and reasoned, and even kind; perhaps he has a an itch that he is unable to scratch on the anniversity of his joining.

An interesting note I have noticed some people repeatedly become ill within a week or so of their birth date. Others have noted this but I have not been able to find enough data for a study as to causes.

Your comments might mean there are other factors than just time of year factors.

--
Ray
RJNedimyer

Joseph S Wisniewski · Nov 13, 2004

Parham said:
Joseph S. Wisniewski said:

Parham said:

Joseph S. Wisniewski said:

1 - deceased

Click to expand...

Deceased? Who was deceased?

Click to expand...

jacques. He was one of those folks who could be serious and useful
for a while, then go off on a flaming rage, and eventually return
to normal. Died last month.

Click to expand...

Of what?

I'm not sure. Several people asked, but I don't recall there ever being an answer.

Parham said:
And how would people here know that he was deceased?

As I said, jacques meertens was mostly serious and useful, with occasional episodes of trolling. I think he was more of the old school "criticism has to hurt" mentality than an sctual malicious troll. But he did hurt a lot of people.

Jacques used one of the "cult cameras", the Fuji S2. Those forums tend be dominated by a rather small, tight knit core of regulars which actually get like a little family. Jacques was part of the Fuji SLR forum family.

So, when he passed, there was an enormous outpouring on that forum. Even the people he ripped into made tributes.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1020&message=10487522

Parham said:
This is interesting.

Very.

(and the lower case "jacques" is not a show of disrespect; it's how he wrote his own name).

--

Salvage troll posts! When you see a thread started by a troll, post something useful to it. It will drive the trolls up the wall.

Ciao!

Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

Joseph S Wisniewski · Nov 13, 2004

brianj said:
May be linked to lunacy, have you checked the timing with the full
moon at the place of residence of the named trolls.

I'll have to check that. Won't take too long, I have astronomy software that can do phases of the moon.

You don't need the place of residence, the full moon is the full moon, same night, everywhere in the world.

--

Salvage troll posts! When you see a thread started by a troll, post something useful to it. It will drive the trolls up the wall.

Ciao!

Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com

Startling discovery about trolls

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