The troll space began to shift in the early 2000s, when anonymous users of 4chan's infamous /b/ board appropriated and subsequently popularized a very specific understanding of the term "troll." Contact online >>
The troll space began to shift in the early 2000s, when anonymous users of 4chan''s infamous /b/ board appropriated and subsequently popularized a very specific understanding of the term "troll."
In the early 90s, trolls had yet to come into mainstream public consciousness, at least according to the 1993 Big Dummy''s Guide to the Internet. Flame wars, on the other hand, were already an
The history of trolling is a history of rhetoric. This particular history of rhetoric is steeped in philosophy and mythology, spanning across cultures, continents, and time. Although trolling principally correlates with the rising popularity of digital spaces native to social media, blogs, and comment sections on websites, trolling as a form of
Trolls are shitting all over our internet. You can hardly search for something as innocuous as “dog” on Google without coming across inflammatory attacks on every possible dog-related opinion under the sun. All horrible things have to crawl before they can walk/crush spirits, though. Even trolls.
And while the term “troll” has become wildly muddied, it did have to come from somewhere. We decided to try and find out just where that dark, acerbic origin story began.
There were bulletin board systems. And Usenet. And newsgroups. And people just starting to realize the massive potential trembling beneath their fingertips. Anything was possible! Which, as it turns out, is not always a good thing.
In the early 90s, trolls had yet to come into mainstream public consciousness, at least according to the 1993 Big Dummy’s Guide to the Internet. Flame wars, on the other hand, were already an online staple.
Whether or not you’re familiar with the term, you do know what flaming is. You’ve seen it under horrible political opinions on Facebook. You’ve seen it choking your Twitter stream. And you’ve seen it in every other comment in the vast wasteland that is . Put simply, a flame is a vicious, personal attack on someone made simply because you disagree with them.
Of course, humans have always had this potential for the irrationally vindictive, but the advent of the internet finally allowed it to thrive. Because as soon as you stuck someone behind a computer, a dangerously insular shield of anonymity came down and, for those inclined, happily took over. In discussing the sort of negotiation tactics that precede a flame war, Norman Johnson, an Associate Professor at Bauer College at the University of Houston explains:
The literature suggests that, compared to face-to-face, the increased incidence of flaming when using computer-mediated communication is due to reductions in the transfer of social cues, which decrease individuals’ concern for social evaluation and fear of social sanctions or reprisals. When social identity and ingroup status are salient, computer mediation can decrease flaming because individuals focus their attention on the social context (and associated norms) rather than themselves.
The introduction of anonymity not only made users feel free from the repercussions that might otherwise give them pause, but it also dehumanized potential targets. In other words, the internet gave all our worst impulses just what they needed to thrive.
Because if someone disagreed with you in the real, live social realm, you might feel frustrated, sure, but you’ll also see that person’s as another human with human emotions—not just a jumble of inflammatory words for you to destroy. You’ll take time to reflect, because you’ll realize there are consequences to your actions. Whereas on the internet, a clean slate is a mere username change away.
Some of the earliest flame wars went down on Usenet, which unbeknownst to these earlier warriors, was building a model for all the trolls to eventually come in its wake. According to Gaffin:
So presumably, these troll/flame wars all started earnestly. But watching two groups of people attempt to lambast each other in increasingly epic proportions is—as we all know and hate to admit—wildly entertaining. And once the war of words would simmer down, it’s not at all surprising that someone might start (forcefully, sensationalistically) poking and prodding the more tender of egos. All in hopes of revisiting that awful sort of thrill that comes in watching another human push the very boundaries of sanity, by freaking the fuck out.
The earliest documented form of internet troll was something called a net.weenie, who did what s/he does ” just for the hell of it.” In early internet usenet forums, they were the people being assholes simply for the sheer joy of being an asshole. According to the Guide:
Even the Electronic Frontier Foundation—formed in 1990—was aware of (and acknowledged) net.weenies prevalence among the more public internet groups. In the group’s early internet guide to mailing lists, one of the main benefits of such a system was that “a mailing list can offer a degree of freedom to speak one’s mind (or not worry about net.weenies) that is not necessarily possible on Usenet.” This was, of course, before the sorts of emails in which an undead child’s wrath and/or Nigerian prince’s livelihood rested on the click of our mouse.
And net.weenies sound obnoxious, sure, but the term still didn’t carry the sort of malevolence we now associate with modern trolling. In fact, quite the contrary—some of their games were absolutely incredible.
Warlording was a very specific, beautiful type of early trolling performed by these net.weenies, particularly in the alt.fan.warlord newsgroup in Usenet (a sort of subreddit of early internet days). Considering the limitations of early 90s bandwidth and forums’ general readability issues, Usenet etiquette—netiquette, if you will—asked users to keep their signatures under four lines. This was dubbed the McQuary limit and was not a hard and fast rule. At least in the way that there weren’t actually any real character limits.
This rule was partially necessary due to new users’ predilections for employing what was called BUAGs (Big Ugly ASCII Graphics) and BUAFs (Big Ugly ASCII Fonts). So to both mock this habit and be the biggest assholes they could be (always reach for the stars, kids), net.weenies tore this rule apart in a game called warlording.
The term came from the user Death Star, War Lord of the West, “who featured in his sig[nature] a particularly large and obnoxious ASCII graphic resembling the sword of Conan the Barbarian in the 1981 John Milius movie.” Which, presumably, looked something like this:
The newgroup alt.fan.warlord was created as a sort of sarcastic tribute to the offending sigs, and the jokes spiraled from there. One particularly notable case of warlording was that of James Parry‘s signature (better know by the username Kibo) below. Bear in mind, this is all one, single sig.
Although every part of this signature is brilliant and deserving of our appreciation and awe, I do have a few favorite sections. Namely, this absurd and not at all remotely helpful Twin Peaks chart:
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