SYKES TAKE ON - INTERNET TROLLS AND SOCKPUPPETS

As a start, let us define internet trolls and sockpuppets for the benefit of those who may not know to whom/what these terms refer.  I have taken the following descriptions from Wikipedia:

A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception. The term originally referred to a false identity assumed by a member of an internet community who spoke to, or about, himself while pretending to be another person.  The term now includes other misleading uses of online identities, such as those created to praise, defend or support a third party or organization,  or to circumvent a suspension or ban from a website. A significant difference between the use of a pseudonym  and the creation of a sockpuppet is that the sockpuppet poses as an independent third-party unaffiliated with the puppeteer. Many online communities have a policy of blocking sockpuppets.

A troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by trying to start arguments and upset people. They may do this by posting deliberately inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as a forum, chat room, or blog, with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

There are of course trolls and trolls.  Some of the worse examples have been found deliberately causing mayhem or posting up personal details such as IDs, email addresses, telephone numbers, house addresses, places of work, in fact anything that will embarrass or upset the object of their attack.  There have been threats to firebomb houses, kidnap children, beat up women, disrupt peaceful gatherings, you name it, and these suggestions are nonstop.  There have been intimate pictures and videos that have gone viral, passed on from person to person which have resulted in the suicide of the targeted individual, often teenagers.  Gay people, immigrants and the disabled are also the subject of trolling, as are people of a different faith or political view to the troll.   We have seen evil messages posted up on tribute sites for dead or missing children and on the comments sections of newspapers - who now close down these sections as soon as they realize they are being attacked.  There have been messages on forums for posters to spam non-stop any site etc that upsets someone.   I know of one poster who deliberately trolled the facebook site of a missing child - on the orders of her guru.  She is still doing the same thing on another site - of course under a different ID.  A virulent troll on Amazon is now sitting pretty on the same forum, trying hard to disrupt as much as possible any discussion that runs counter to his perception of the world.  There are also the drunk or coked up trolls who usually come on later in the day and proceed to post up rubbish, insult in very nasty language anyone who disagrees with them - and there is one of those on the same forum as the two examples I have given.  

And what do the Admin on quite a few of these sites do?  Not a lot.  But then why should they when the actual forum providers, and such social sites as facebook and twitter ignore any complaints they receive - and they receive a lot every day.  The sites etc make money from those that use them either by subscriptions or via advertising so they are going to continue to turn a blind eye to all this.  I believe in freedom of thought and speech, but a lot of what is now on the internet does not come into that category.  

Regarding sockpuppets, I do not think these are quite as bad as trolls, they seem to be solely to disrupt by deliberately picking a fight online or posting up disinformation.  There may, or course, be some socks who are also trolls.  I can think of one.  

There have been attempts to stop the trolling and socking but nothing, not even a court case and a suspended jail sentence, has stopped one well-known troll, who now has socks on as many forums as will allow him membership and who controls one forum despite denying he is anything to do with admin.  It seems to me that the only way these creatures can be stopped is for Joe Poster to refuse to be drawn into arguments with them, to use the Ignore button far more than it is actually applied and to report again and again every misuse of the Internet and its many parts until the message get through to the providers.  Could be a long haul.

I referred above to a troll on Amazon, here is a poster's dissection of him and his mind distroying, boring drivel, with thanks to the poster and the forum:

stephen25000 proves he has been wrong all along

yes stephen25000 (s hancock or whatever) has been spamming justice forum hour after hour, day after day, week after week etc with his favourite smug faced posts -

that there is no evidence of abduction, or
show me the evidence of abduction, or
prove there was an abduction, or
show evidence of abduction that would be accepted in court.
etc

these posts have become repetitive to the point of boredom - because stephen's own theory is tucked away on some obscure amazon place and he expects people to go look for it (and supposedly come back and congratulate him on his views).

But today of all days stephen took it upon himself to prove himself wrong. He said:

"Remember the old saying, absence of evidence does not mean a crime did not take place."

So after his numerous posts demanding evidence of abduction, in one sweet little sentence he has made a complete arse of his argument and said absence of evidence does not mean a crime (abduction is a crime) did not take place!

Maybe we should ponder the motives behind such a Sh!t as stephen?

(oh by the way - he said if he is wrong he will apologise - does anyone believe that?)

And if anyone dares to rebut his insane drivel, he becomes very abusive, even to the mods.  But that is not at all surprising, seeing the company he keeps on amazon.