Trolling techniques

August 2, 2009 7:12 AM

I think it was here that I came across a great webpage listing forum trolling techniques that read like an academic listing of informal logic fallacies. It had things like finding errors in small and irrelevant details, ad-hominem attacks, using provocative and loaded terms, shifting claims, concern trolling etc... I've looked for it several times recently and can't find it. Anybody remember the link?
posted by srboisvert to MetaFilter-related at 7:12 AM (25 comments total)

Fallacies ?
posted by namewithoutwords at 7:32 AM on August 2 [1 favorite]

- Look, since you're only partially sure you saw it on MeFi, don't you think this would be better asked and answered on AskMe?
- Whether you find it via this post or not, you've now created a fine honeypot for the web's best and brightest trolls.
- Actually now that I think about it, just go away for a while and when you come back to this thread it will be a little simulacrum for the page you're searching, you twit.
(It's a start.)
posted by carsonb at 7:59 AM on August 2 [1 favorite]

srboisvert, I may know exactly the site you're talking about. Unfortunately, I've been looking for it for ages (the first time I saw it was in 2004). I'm not sure it still exists.

Could you mean this?
posted by zennie at 8:24 AM on August 2

And don't miss out on this
posted by Obscure Reference at 8:27 AM on August 2

That sounds like the "Omnibus Slashdot Troll HowTo" (I think it was called) and it isn't online anymore.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:45 AM on August 2 [1 favorite]

This is probably not what you're looking for, but it sounds very similar.
posted by aheckler at 9:17 AM on August 2

Bah... on non-preview, I second zennie.
posted by aheckler at 9:17 AM on August 2

and it isn't online anymore.

is that possible anymore?
posted by lazaruslong at 9:56 AM on August 2

Wikipedia: Fallacy
posted by ardgedee at 9:57 AM on August 2

Not to be confused with Fallaci.
posted by ardgedee at 9:58 AM on August 2

ED's trolling page?
posted by ijoyner at 10:08 AM on August 2

Maybe Hal Duncan's "Arguing With Geeks"? It isn't about trolling per se, but covers a wide range of techniques similar to the ones you listed above.
posted by kolophon at 10:36 AM on August 2

I'll be damned. There's a version of it here. (Geocities; get it will it's hot.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:42 AM on August 2 [1 favorite]

Not what you're looking for, but related: Logical Rudeness
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:22 AM on August 2

Here are some links along these lines, which I occasionally collect. I have probably found some of these on metafilter (I was originally saving up for a post on this and I think someone else made one before I did):

fallacious arguments

bruce thompson's fallacy page (this might be the one you are thinking of, as it was one of the better ones, as you can see this is a wayback link)

Stephen's guide to the logical fallacies

Schopenhauer's art of controversy (side by side with original German; there are many other versions/distillations around if you search for "38 dishonest tricks")

conversational terrorism: how not to talk

invalid proof techniques (humor, but verges on uncomfortably true)

silva rhetoricae (guide to classical/renaissance rhetoric)
posted by advil at 11:52 AM on August 2 [1 favorite]

well, on posting, I find that I misread your question...but maybe those links will be interesting anyways.
posted by advil at 11:54 AM on August 2

I think I might have been the one who posted this. It was in the "Internet Justice" thread. I pointed out the existance of a wiki for internet raids, which included a page on Forum Trolling.
posted by hellojed at 12:35 PM on August 2

In a similar vein, there's also the Flame Warriors site, eHow's Guide to Becoming a Troll, a primer for Preparing Children to be Aware of Trolls, the Recreational Trolling FAQ, HowStuffWorks' article on How Trolls Work, and for fans of the RoadRunner cartoons, Smooth Operator's Troll Semantics: A Classification of Internet Trolls.
posted by Smart Dalek at 12:43 PM on August 2

Conversational Terrorism?
posted by hydrophonic at 12:59 PM on August 2

...or what advil said...
posted by hydrophonic at 1:00 PM on August 2

I think the Conversational Terrorism link may have been the one I was looking for (and my faulty memory and innaccurate description of it may have been why I wasn't finding it).
posted by srboisvert at 1:04 PM on August 2

This thread is quite the resource. Jerks.

How'd I do?
posted by Devils Rancher at 3:26 PM on August 2

How'd I do?

Train harder, uni-san.
posted by zennie at 6:53 PM on August 2

I can offer The Subtle Art of Trolling.
posted by zinfandel at 9:01 PM on August 2

Somehow grazing links out of this thread eventually led me to a history of James Kibo Parry and a text file of one of his many-hundred line long .sigs. I don't know whether to thank or curse the OP.
posted by aught at 8:33 AM on August 3