Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Beware Internet Trolls and Integrity of Online Information 5/29/2012

For those of you who follow my blog with regularity, yes the millions and millions of you, hehe, I thought it would be a good time to discuss a topic I have always found fascinating: the matter of Internet Trolls. By definition, trolls are people who post inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community - such as forum, chat room or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into emotional responses of grief.

Seems as of late, we have an anonymous individual who claims to be from the north part of Toronto, who seems to get a kick out of trying to discredit my great athletic accomplishments. They do so without ever really giving an explanation.  This is a clear example of a troll who is clearly up to no good. 

What makes trolling interesting is that the true motive of trolls is not always obvious.  The last time I was victimized by trolls was when I was faced with a barrage of posts from feminist pro-choice activists, shortly after I resigned from a Pflag Canada committee.  While their intentions seemed quite clear: that being, to take advantage of any opportunity to promote their agenda, it remains unclear as to what agenda Toronto North (TN) really has. Could it be that TN is jealous of my amazing accomplishments? Or could it be that TN is one of these religious-right extremists who thinks that all LGBT people are possessed by the devil?  Or could this really be someone locally who takes issue to some of the controversial things I have said on Twitter about our Provincial Government? 

Perhaps we will never truly know the motive, or identity of  TN.  This brings me to probably the most important lesson I have ever learned with regards to the credibility of Internet information.  Always beware of  people online who fail to provide a tangible name and contact information.  All true entities who have something to say, will never be afraid or ashamed to identify themselves and provide proof that they really are who they say they are. TN claims to be a runner but provides absolutely no proof of this. TN show me no confidence that they can or should be giving any sort of athletic or medical advice.

Ultimately, I feel a strong sense of accomplishment and success out of the fact that I have managed to publish information that has stimulated such keen and passionate interest in me and my stories. Gaining a reaction is usually the prime motivation of bloggers. Unfortunately, this is not the type of person or reaction I have been looking for though, but this is at least a sign that I am doing something right!

It will be interesting to see if this person continues to troll away here, or disappears further into the irrelevant obscurity that their miserable anonymous existence currently champions

(note: depicted is the universal troll symbol).

2 comments:

torontonorth said...

good god, i cannot believe you have such a hard time recognizing the truth that you have to spin some paranoid delusion about 'truth on the internet' maybe, just maybe, it is privacy, and not secrecy that keeps an identity..umm..what's the word i'm going for? oh yea, private. it is so obvious now that you will continue to predetermine your running non-accomplishments by being too lazy to put the work in that is required for success, and rely solely on your 'poor me', pick any one of my many excuses why i failed again to explain away the lack of commitment to a true sport. keep your politics out of it, who cares? truly, you will ensure that no one does, by being so full of yourself that you will stay exactly where you are.....signed, a proud troll. end of story. you have successfully bored me into finding some other, more inspirational runners to follow. and yes, I AM A RUNNER -every darn day hahahaha

jimi said...
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