INTERNET TROLLS: If They Love to Hate You, There's a Reason For That! (Part 1)

Content creators, if trolls love to hate you, there's more than one reason, and the reasons are not all bad. In this 2-part article I'll go over why they targeted you and why they stuck around, if they're still a problem.

First off, why I'm qualified to discuss this subject: I work in the personal development field helping people with subconscious mind-hacking - the white hat kind, but I'm aware of how to do it unethically, too. I'm aware of how people can be emotionally triggered and also how to avoid becoming triggered. 

During my experience as a high-level coordinator for a global activist movement that engaged with thousands of people online, I was both a regular target of trolls and often a designated moderator of trolling behavior.  Through trial and error, I discovered best practices for how to maintain a relatively troll-free conversation. I coached other volunteers on how to handle both in-person and internet versions of 'trolls'. Those that implemented my suggestions experienced measurable success. 

For the purpose of this discussion, the trolling behavior I'm referring to includes intentional disruptions (non-technical) of your communication and a concerted effort to discredit you as a viable resource for information or emotionally trigger you. (For DDoS attacks - Distributed Denial of Service -  you should consult with a web pro who has expertise in that area). 

This is Part 1 of a 2-Part post. In Part 1 (Why They Love to Hate You), I will discuss why trolls were initially attracted to you. In Part 2 (Why They Are Still Hating On You), I will talk about why they are still hanging around, if they are a regular problem.

Part 1 - WHY THEY LOVE TO HATE YOU

REASON 1: You are perceived to be in a position of great influence
(a.k.a. you have a large audience)

Congratulations! It takes talent to be targeted by trolls. If what you're doing is inconsequential - no one cares, no one is listening - they would quickly move on to another target that is of a higher influence profile. But ...they chose you. You can, and should, accept this for the compliment that it is.

REASON 2: You Interact With Your Audience in a Real-Time Live Manner

There's nothing wrong with doing this. It's fantastic that you are interacting live with your beloved fans and curious onlookers either via video, audio and/or text responses to their replies on a post. It's just that this kind of communication used by a person who has a large audience (or an anticipated growing audience) is magnetic to people who get off on trolling behavior. It's a fun game for them to metaphorically knock you off your pedestal while lots of people watch. It's a kind of bully exhibitionism and the live stuff is candy to them. 

Strangely, if a troll ran into you on the street - and it was just the two of you (no cameras or audio rolling) - they would not be motivated to target you. Instead, what motivates and stimulates them to act is gaining attention from an audience tuned in to see 'what happens next'. The payoff is what they imagine other people are thinking about their actions- either your audience or theirs if they record their attacks to entertain another audience. Some seek to steal an audience for themselves, but not all trolls need to be liked by people to receive their payoff - many just need to see some kind of confirmation (via reactions) that they have the ability to take your power away, which is interpreted by their twisted psyche as confirmation that they are also powerful and influential. 

When there's a live audience, versus pre-recorded, their "participation" is an unscripted derailment to your original plan. It's easier to manipulate or derail people who are responding instantly, because of the way emotional triggering works. If they can get you to change emotional states to one where you are experiencing anger or pain, you are no longer in your most empowered state to communicate ideas to a large audience. You can become instantly more vulnerable if the right emotional trigger point is pushed, and their game relies on this advantage. 

If a troll had to send you an email today to be read in front of an audience some random time three days from now, very few trolls would take the time to write the email. This because the power plays of the trolling game are addictive like slot machines are to gambling addicts. They don't get off on the action of spinning, they get off on the prospect of an instant reward. They are in it for the payoff from the beginning. The likelihood of you reading such an email sometime within the three days would be too great, giving you an advantage of completing  an emotional cycle of trigger-turned-smart response or worse (for them) non-acknowledgement, resulting in little to no payoff.

REASON 3: You don't have effective moderation in place.

Effective moderation involves someone designated to just deal with trolling behavior so you can be freed up to deal with creating value for your audience. Good moderators know the difference between a type 1 audience member who disagrees and is passionately making a counter-point and a type 2 that is present exclusively for the thrill of putting you down in front of an audience. Also, a good moderator will be able to diffuse the prospect of a type 1 becoming a type 2 - which does happen, frequently. This is done by either removing emotional language in counter-response or rephrasing of their response to you (the host) in a non-emotional way. 

Here's a shortcut to help with diffusion. People who feel attacked are most likely to attack in return. The key word here is *feel*, which is a subjective interpretation. It is possible for a person to feel attacked by someone who has simply challenged an idea that was their closely held "truth".  It's a sign of a lack of emotional development to think in this way, but, unfortunately, not everyone's had the same benefits of emotional development you and I may have had. Expect this. Good moderators (and hosts) can artfully craft a response that intentionally distinguishes the person from the challenged idea. At best, you can invite the disgruntled person to send information that supports their angle that you'd be willing to take a look at, if it differs from points you've already discussed.  

If you are going to target a single person in critiques - such as a politician or artist you dislike - stick to focusing on their policies, beliefs, statements, strategies, or artistic themes over broad insults of their physical appearance or other trivial angles. When you target individuals with name-calling (a.k.a. ad hominem attacks) or wishes for ill consequences to occur for them in a public forum you inadvertently invite any person who positively identifies with that person to do the same to you and take great satisfaction in doing so from a revenge standpoint. Taking a more mature approach to personal critiques is not only more professional, it lends credibility to your ability to provide good critical analysis of data and serves as an act of moderation in the preventative sense.

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In Part 2 - Why They Are Still Hating On You, I will talk about why trolls are still hanging around, if they are a regular problem.