Slashdot trolling phenomena: Encyclopedia II - Slashdot trolling phenomena - Idiosyncratic trolls

Slashdot trolling phenomena - Idiosyncratic trolls

Trolls that don't fall into the other three categories are idiosyncratic, and their existence is a result of an inside joke related to the workings of Slashdot culture or history or of geek culture itself.

Slashdot trolling phenomena - First post

Whenever a new story is posted on Slashdot, comments may be added discussing it and there is often competition between Slashdotters to be the first to post such a comment. Some first posters try to make a short insightful comment to avoid being moderated down. The more immature first posts often consist of a subject saying "first post!" or merely "FP" and have no body. Trolls may also post "first post" messages a ridiculously long time after the original story has been submitted as a parody of the first post. There are many other variants of the first post, usually misspellings to avoid the lameness filter: "Frist psot!". Some troll organizations require prospective members to post a 'First Post' on Slashdot using some pre-specified text, which may explain the persistence of the 'First Post' troll.

Due to the many typos and misspellings made by those attempting to gain such a 'first post', the language has been somewhat transformed. Many 'first post' attempts now say such things as "Frosty Piss", coming from the phrase "frist pist", a common typo when trying to spell out "First Post" in time to actually get one, or in attempt to avoid the lameness filter.

Slashdot trolling phenomena - Netcraft confirms it

Quite frequently (especially for BSD-related stories) a comment will be posted providing dubious statistics from Netcraft (a network services vendor and internet research firm) and many links detailing the forthcoming death of the BSD operating systems. With its bogus statistics and inflammatory language the original "*BSD is dying" troll was enormously successful, and was still guaranteed to generate responses years after it first appeared. The troll typically starts with the phrase, "Netcraft confirms <victim> is dying", modelled after similar but authentic confirmations revealed by Netcraft in their research. Not surprisingly, many variants of this troll were created: Slashdot/VA Linux/Linux/BeOS/Apple (see examples below) is dying, variants on the original link-laden *BSD troll, and even elaborate poetry and song. None were as successful as the original.

Slashdot trolling phenomena - HELLO WORLD

A recent troll first appearing on Slashdot in April of 2005. The "HELLO WORLD" troll posts what appears to be one-time pad encrypted messages in the style of a numbers station. Originally posted under the username "TheLoneCoder", they now are posted anonymously. It's unknown whether or not it is the same person posting all the messages or copy-cats. The troll also appeared on UserFriendly under the username "OUTGOING" but was immediately banned and the posts removed.

Examples: [1] [2] [3] [4]

Slashdot trolling phenomena - Stephen King is dead

Used simply as an off-topic troll or even a red herring, the American writer, Stephen King, has his very own subculture repeating the myth of his death:

The canonical text of the troll is as follows:

This joke has also been used to recognize actual celebrity deaths. The format has also been used outside of Slashdot, usually on other message boards, to announce or memorialize actual deaths.

Slashdot trolling phenomena - First Obituary

A variation of the “First Post” and “Stephen King” troll. When a famous celebrity or politician’s death reaches the headlines there is often an attempt to make that headline part of the first post.

Slashdot trolling phenomena - Hot grits/Natalie Portman

Early in Slashdot's history, an anonymous troll (aka the "hot grits guy") would post a reply to every story with a simple "I have poured hot grits down my pants. Thank you." He mostly got modded down as a troll. The hot grits guy is considered the first recurring troll on Slashdot.

Natalie Portman is a popular target for this troll. When referring to her, they frequently profess their endless love for a "naked and petrified" statue of the actress, preferably covered in hot grits. Other incarnations suggest that Natalie Portman pour hot grits into the trolls' underwear, and vice versa.

Slashdot trolling phenomena - Reigniting flamewars

Popular on software and development articles, this troll tries to explain why a particular operating system, programming language or other concept is inferior to others, in a way intended to annoy and/or start a flamewar. This type of troll will either make an outlandish and obvious claim or subtly use a valid criticism of something in an irritating fashion.

For example:

• "DRM is the future"
• "The K in KDE stands for Krap."
• "Why would I want a desktop with a smelly foot on it?"
• "Linux has below average SMP support."
• "My BSD machines have much better uptimes and stability than my Linux machines."
• "Apple Computer will never sell a computer that uses multi-button mice"
• "Object-oriented programming is difficult to use and doesn't increase productivity."
• "Open source software has poorer levels of QA than proprietary solutions."
• "Python scales up for large projects better than Perl."
• "IPv6 adds too much new overhead to be viable."
• "Emacs users press less keys than Vim users." Example: [5]
• "Perl 6 is a mistake." Example threads: [6] [7]
• "Don't forget to pay your $699 licensing fee you cock-smoking teabaggers." [8]

These types of post, usually moderated down as flamebait (but often moderated up as Insightful), sometimes cause a flamewar to begin amongst those who reply and thus the troll gets his 'bite' (See You Have Been Trolled et al.).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Idiosyncratic trolls", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki