I was just thinking of some of the trolls I have known over the years...from both forums and chatrooms.
It might seem a strange thing to say, but honestly speaking I haven't met a troll that I didn't somehow like in some way. I find them quite amusing most of the time.
There was this one troll known as Ace. He began every sentence with an uppercase letter and ended it with a period...and used perfect grammar and spelling...in a chatroom! (this is an odd thing to do)
If there was such thing as a professional troll, Ace was one. He would go from chatroom to chatroom and flame and annoy people in every channel on the network...with no group being safe from him. He had an argument against everything.
At the time I was a regular in a chatroom known as the Las Vegas Hackers Club. We were a bunch of computer freaks. Most of us were into programming, web design, OS's, case modding, or taking things apart to see how they worked, etc...a harmless bunch with an insatiable appetite for knowledge.
Because of the term 'hacker' in our channel's name, and the fact that the mass media has brainwashed the public into believing that hackers are the bad guys that break into systems, destroy data, and create viruses & trojans, our channel had an undeserved reputation as being a home for such people even though that type was much unwelcome and would generally end up the victim of 'reverse trolling' if they dared to step foot in our channel. They were fodder for us and we took joy in making the little script kiddy wannabe crackers cry. The ones that kept coming back usually got an education that would change their lives for the better.
But we also had our share of those that came in just to insult us and tell us what they thought of 'hackers' (by the media's definition). We welcomed them too...and attempted to educate them as to what we really were and how we defined the term 'hacker'. We used the term to mean 'highly respected expert', regardless of the field of expertise. By our definition of 'hacker', a master chef could hold the title of 'food hacker'.
But Ace was the best...by far my favorite troll. He would come in and immediately announce "All hackers must die." I don't know about anybody else, but that would put a smile on my face. I knew we were going to be in for some fun. Back then there wasn't any kind of admin control in channels on the network. It was decentralized chat and only the channel host could kick and ban people. The host of our channel was often not around to police things, so we had to do it ourselves, with our wits.
Ace came in about once a week with his crap and we decided we were going to make a game of him with the 'prize' going to the member that could get Ace to agree that hackers were good people.
It took massive amounts of debating skill and psychological trickery to play this game. I am in awe of
Martin, the one that managed to get Ace to agree that hackers are good people.
I wish I had been there that day to see the whole thing with my own eyes. I have only heard the story from the room regulars that were there that day. It's the stuff that legends are made of.
I haven't seen Ace on the network in a few years. I actually miss that troll. He was a lot of fun.
