Writers Note: I was originally going to do a "Choose your adventure" like post for this...but I decided to write a commentary instead.
There exists a creature on the internet that causes terror and many angry private messages. They roam in small groups, often acting alone...but their presence is very much widespread. They are known as internet trolls and I, Kaydirt, shall go into their habitat to study these strange yet fascinating creatures.
Here I am, in the trolls native land, the internet. It is here that I observe several things about the troll. He is normally a solitary creature, preferring to remain that way in order to execute his deeds. The normal routine for the troll normally consists of waking up and checking his various e-mail accounts that he has created in order to spread his "truths" to the various websites he inhabits. It seems that the troll's workings are not isolated, as they take great pride in terrorizing mass quantities of unsuspecting, often times overly sensitive members. After seeing which grounds are ready for him, the troll begins what is referred to as "the hunt".
I decided to observe the troll during this ritual and found the habits of the troll to be quite peculiar. His prey doesn't seem to be anything in particular. The troll doesn't distinguish or prefer any type of victim, being an opportunistic predator. He will attack site staff, noobs, established members or whoever falls under his scope of potential victims. He will often spam the same statement many times to attract his prey into reacting to his antics and when they do, the trap is sprung. Often acting in anger, the unsuspecting users are unaware of what has just happened to them. From this point, the troll will antagonize its victim to no end, in an attempt to force them to leave the site or report them to the staff, in an attempt to get them banned from the site. The troll actually seems to prefer the latter action, because he has methods of bypassing this. The troll has clone accounts or alternate accounts in case his preferred account is banned. The troll can continue his activities without missing a moment.
Although the troll seems to gain great pleasure from causing discomfort for the residents of the internet, it seems that even the troll has its own set of problems. I noticed while studying him that the troll often has little to no friends, despite stating otherwise. The troll oftentimes is very much in poverty and spends any money it main obtain on the maintaining of its computer equipment, lest it's trolling activities be put on hold. The troll also seems to exude increasingly erratic behavior if left alone or ignored. This often leads to bigoted remarks against the members and the staff and often leads to the troll's downfall.
One can not help but pity these creatures. They seem to live in solitude and have generally no social activities to speak of. They trudge along day to day in their struggle to antagonize the populace of the sites they inhabit. Desperate for some sort of attention, they spread their behavior around to different members like a disease. It is slowly becoming more rampant around the internet and has taken over a few places (Youtube.com and 4chan.org) . It is only a short amount of time before their presence will be felt everywhere on the internet. One can only help that the site staff can help curb the amount of trolls that are spawned every day, because it seems that nothing can completely eradicate these creatures. Who knows what future holds for the internet.
