Every forum has 'em: comment trolls. There is a psychological explanation for this phenomenon, read:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/20/comment-trolling-has-a-psychological-explanation/
polonus
Interesting article. 8) Thanks for the link polonus.
Nice post … thanks, Polonus! 
Everyone should read that one.
Quote from http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2007/11/dont-flame-me-bro.html
[i]"Another factor influencing online communication, according to Epley, is simply the risk of miscommunication involved with text-based messages, which are inherently more ambiguous. At the same time, he notes, email “has the feel of informality – we just fire something off”, even though we probably ought to treat it with the same care as a written letter. And, as most people probably know, this can cause problems for both the sender and the receiver.
Epley explains further: “If I send a joke in an email, it’ll be ambiguous when it gets to you. That’s hard for me to detect: the joke is funny, and I use that knowledge to judge how you’ll interpret it.” But the receiver may not realise that the email is meant as a joke – particularly if they are in a bad mood to start with – and that can lead to horrified responses like “I can’t believe you just said that” and to an unnecessary argument."[/i]
Wow! It’s a wonder that anyone ever understands anything I write. ;D :
That’s is based on an article that is also based on the writer’s opinion. You are claiming or trying to validate a “psychological” explanation based on an opinion/editorial article from a technology blog site. Hardly, the scientific method is applied. Some people believe what they want to believe. One person’s freedom of expression is another person’s reason for censorship. Did anyone bother to read the entire article linked?
My pet theory about why people behave so rudely is that online commenting is treated, by most people, like a pub conversation – they don't necessarily expect to be taken seriously and the social rules are fairly relaxed. And yet, because comments appear in cold text without important cues like friendly body language, they can easily seem more offensive than if they would otherwise. As a result some people get annoyed, and the flaming and trolling begin.After being described a few weeks ago as “a self-lobotomised liberal who can’t face the facts”, I decided to look into the psychology of online behaviour a bit further. Much of the research on online communication has looked at email, but it seems that many of the results can be generalised to apply to chat rooms and forums too.
So, in with keeping of the author’s unscientific opinion/editorial style of scientific subterfuge one could also stipulate that the author is exhibiting abnormal ego defense mechanisms such as projection because he didn’t like being described as some sort of liberal as if being a liberal is abnormal. It’s no different than losing an argument and stating, “You’re stupid!”, except the author takes it a step further by using yet another abnormal ego defense mechanism called, intellectualization. In other words, avoiding unacceptable emotions by focusing on the intellectual aspects. Psychologically speaking “An unconscious means of protecting oneself from the emotional stress and anxiety associated with confronting painful personal fears or problems by excessive reasoning.”
So, it boils down to expression or the need to censor.
Culpeper, are you testing the “joke nobody will get because it’s written in cold text”?
Or “I can’t believe you actually meant that seriously”… >:D
In most instances the problem arises when someone tries to dissect the authors words.
Most posts are harmless unless you look for a hidden meaning.
Look hard enough and long enough and your bound to find something even if it’s in your imagination.
Once the perceived meaning is found, the argument ensues and an innocent post is turned into a fervor.
The easiest way to answer a post you perceive to be antagonistic, is to abstain from posting.
It always takes two to tango.
To argue with yourself gets you put into a loony bin. ;D
To look for hidden meanings go here ;D ;D
;D
A place where there isn’t any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place Toto? There must be. It’s not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It’s far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain.