The NyTimes has an article up about the world of web trolling. Yes, it is a mainstream paper and mainstream reporter but it is still worth a read and confirms something we all know yes, 4chan is a cesspool. Yes /b/ is probably the lowest of the low. However, the best part is the awful analysis.
“Lulz” is how trolls keep score. A corruption of “LOL” or “laugh out loud,” “lulz” means the joy of disrupting another’s emotional equilibrium.
and it gets better:
We walked on, to Starbucks. At the next table, middle-schoolers with punk-rock haircuts feasted noisily on energy drinks and whipped cream.
oh and this about the truth of the article:
While reporting this article, I did everything I could to verify the trolls’ stories and identities, but I could never be certain. After all, I was examining a subculture that is built on deception and delights in playing with the media.
yet the reporter doesn’t know he is being trolled:
We arrived at a strip mall. Out of the darkness, the coffinlike snout of a new Rolls Royce Phantom materialized. A flying lady winked on the hood. “Your bag, sir?” said the driver, a blond kid in a suit and tie.
“This is my car,” Weev said. “Get in.”
He also encounters from 1337 hackers along the way, like Kate here:
met their friend Kate, who has been repeatedly banned from playing XBox Live for racist slurs, which she also enjoys screaming at white pedestrians. Kate checked my head for lice and kept calling me “Jew.” Relations have since warmed
Finally, it all boils down to computers. Yes, social behaviour has to be linked to computer science because that’s how everyone on the internet operates.
One promising answer comes from the computer scientist Jon Postel, now known as “god of the Internet” for the influence he exercised over the emerging network. In 1981, he formulated what’s known as Postel’s Law: “Be conservative in what you do; be liberal in what you accept from others.” Originally intended to foster “interoperability,” the ability of multiple computer systems to understand one another, Postel’s Law is now recognized as having wider applications. To build a robust global network with no central authority, engineers were encouraged to write code that could “speak” as clearly as possible yet “listen” to the widest possible range of other speakers, including those who do not conform perfectly to the rules of the road.
This writer has been watching too many documentaries like Hackers and Swordfish. Remember folks, everything can be hacked even unplugged toasters.
