Trolling

From Black Iron Prison

Okay, this is a basic guide to trolling. These are meant to be purely hints and tips, since nothing really substitutes for practice, so keep that in mind.

1 Technical information
- 1.1 Browsers.
2 Proxies - avoiding bans
3 Emails
4 Quick trolls
5 The Long Troll
6 Further reading.
7 Make your own browser bomb: a technical guide by 000
8 Suggested reading list

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Technical information

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Browsers.

As a troll, you need as many browsers as is physically possible to have on your PC without causing it to run out of memory. The reason for this is that while surfing forums, you can use different browsers to log in as different accounts, and also put them on different proxies, making it look like you are several people. The different designs will also aid you in remembering which identity you are posting as. Far too many trolls have burned themselves by forgetting which account they are using to post as before now. It also allows for you to be on several different forums, so you can send battle reports to other people taking part in the raid, or troll multiple forums at once, or search for the pictures you need for a spam attack, etc....

I will list the most common browsers and what they have to offer here.

Firefox

The single BEST troll browser available, without question. If you haven't already got this, I am frankly amazed. Firefox is an open source project that is highly customizable and quickly becoming a large rival of Internet Explorer in usage.

Useful attributes include:

Hundreds of skins (allowing you to change the interface to something streamlined, uncomplicated and in a nicer colour than most browsers).

Referrer remover, so site owners cannot tell where you came from, if you followed a link to their domain.

Imageshack/imagepile hosting mod, allowing you to host any pic you find with two simple clicks. This means you do not leech bandwidth (which may result in the picture being removed, a great shame) and also can host pics you have taken from sites that the domain you are trolling might have banned. Note: this is not an official mod, so you will have to search for it. It may also be incompatible with the latest updates, so be warned.

Javascript and pop-up blocker, removing most adds that may distract you in the vital moments of a campaign, as well as reducing the risk of exploits being used to attack your PC. Also handy for when you accidentally click your own browser bombs (and yes, it does happen...).

Multiple tags, allowing you to have one Firefox browser open, yet be on several different sites. You cannot use this to log in on two different accounts on the same site at once though. Trust me, I've tried.

The StumbleUpon add on, which is a device allowing you to randomly surf the net for potential target sites. To sign up, you download the mod, fill in a name, fill in the areas you are interested in (for example Anime and Forums if you want to find some Hentai freaks to annoy) and away you go. It can also be useful in finding genuinely interesting sites, as well as whiling away the boring hours you are not practicing your trolling trade.

Throwaway email addresses. This is the latest innovation by some programmers, which allows Firefox to randomly generate email addresses which will last only as long as it needs to get you onto the site in question.

Password saver, making accessing a site quickly much easier. Why bother spending half a minute remembering the complex password you created to stop attempts at hijacking your account, when you can use this little thing?

There are far too many mods to list all the ones you may find useful, not only for trolling but in generally improving your own computer and internet experience. Its Open Source nature also makes it far better at adapting to problems of viruses and malicious programs that await the unwary internet user, especially those of us dealing in the seedy underbelly of the world wide web.

Internet Explorer

The chances are, unless you are already far more familiar with computers than most people, this is the browser you start off using and comes with your PC as part of the Windows package. There is not much to say really. It works, thats about it. Because of its rather static nature (Microsoft being too incompetent to keep up with Open Source projects), it is far more susceptible to malicious programs and viruses, spyware etc...Its a back up browser at best, certainly not one for main use.

Opera

Another free browser, similar to Firefox, but with several important differences.

Opera is extremely streamlined. Only the minimum necessary buttons are made available for the surfer with this program.
It is noticeably faster than all other browsers I have tried.
It also uses tabs, but unlike Firefox, will automatically open new pages in tabs (with Firefox you must right click to select this).

Unfortunately, should you accidentally hit the main close button in the right hand corner, unlike Firefox (which warns you), it will close them all without any hesitation (check alt-P Preferences > Advanced > Browsing > Confirm exit to remedy this behaviour). However, it also has a useful tool whereby it can store multiple passwords and account names in its memory, which can be cycled through by using the wand icon button or pressing ctrl-enter. All in all, an excellent second choice, for when you are busy or Firefox is playing up (a rare but possible problem) and highly recommended for Discordian trolls.

Triple Zero wrote this extensive tutorial for Opera regarding trolling.

Mozilla

From the same people who came up with Firefox, this is a less flashy, reliable and relatively useful browser. It has a streamlined appearance similar to Opera and also has tabbed windows that operate in the same manner as on Firefox. Nothing truly special to note, but nothing drastically bad or complex either. Its like Internet Explorer would be, if it was made by competent people.

There are far more browsers than this, of course, but these 4 should be enough for your basic needs. If you find a good browser, write it up and tell me and I will add it to this writeup.

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Proxies - avoiding bans

If you are going to read anything in this section, it has to be this. Proxying is an incredibly useful skill for all sorts of reasons, which I will now explain. I will also explain the workings behind them, allowing you to use the information here better.

A proxy is essentially another machine which you can use to surf the internet with. This means any attempts to identify or trace you are ultimately futile, as they will only lead to the proxy address. Everyone on the internet leaves an Internet Provider address of where they are surfing. Moderators can tell these from your posts, but admins can tell these even from those not logged in or posting. This IP address can be static or variable. A static one never changes and a variable one does, obviously. If you have a static one and it gets banned, that is a permanent ban for you and without a proxy you can never get back on. With variable however, if you clear the cookies from the said site (done in the browser) and restart your computer, reconnecting to the internet, you will have a new IP address. If you are with AOL, this will be entirely random, otherwise you will still traceable to a certain area. If yours acts as the latter, you can be banned, but only if the entire range of variable IPs are banned.

The good thing is that your IP is also shared by others. If someone you are trolling is on the same IP as you and you want to take them out, a kamikaze mission that aims for a quick ban can yield huge results. It also means that while you can be traced to a certain area, you cannot be traced individually.

Now, onto how to use these little gems for your advantage. There are two basic proxy types you can use, CGI and manual ones. I prefer manual, but CGI is easier for the beginner.

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Manual

To use these, you must first search for a working proxy. Use a standard search engine for this purpose. Once you find one you like, you should copy the numbers. For Firefox users, take the following advice:

.Go into Tools and select Options
Choose the General option and select Connection Settings
Once here, enter the numbers for your proxy into the HTTP Proxy section. If not specified, the last 4 numbers are usually those for the Port. These are normally 8080, though there are a few variations.
Log onto a large site, such as Google or BBC News. If this fails, chances are the proxy is a dud. Pick another, and follow the steps again until you find a working one.
To remove the proxy, simply clear it from the area you entered it in and put nothing in the space.

The procedure is pretty much the same for each browser, with only minor variations. With the one above as the example and some minor practice, you should be able to figure it out for yourself. Don't be afraid to experiment and figure these things out on your own. Thats how many of us found it out and it gives you immense pleasure in knowing you did it, as well as giving you the confidence to experiment more. Many people treat a computer as a vastly complex device that may collapse into chaos at any moment, whereas in fact they are quite robust and simple to figure out, given some time and the occasional mistake. Worst comes to worst, contact someone at PD.com and chances are they already know what to do, or can figure it out for you.

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CGI Proxies

These are website based proxies that are much more simple to operate. All you have to do is enter the website address and you will be able to view it as you would with a normal proxy. However, there are some minor problems with this method. Firstly, other trolls may also be using it and will not take kindly to you ruining their proxy. Secondly, many rely on advertising for their costs and this can be an annoyance. Finally, with some, it can be hard or impossible to sign in, depending on the site and how much information the browser allows to be stored. Thats why I prefer manual, though this can be used in times when nothing else is working.

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Tor

Since parts of this manual were originally written a hell of a breakthrough was made in proxying technology, that of the invention of the Tor network. Never mind how it works, basically you can either download the additional mods to work with Firefox, or you can download 2 browsers with integrated Tor usage (XeroBank and OperaTor). These have essentially made manual proxies obsolete. However, they are popular with trolls world over, meaning you may get banned just as easily as before. Also, the limited number of servers means any highly trolled site may have your IP already banned.

That said, Tor derived proxies should be the first choice of a troll concealing their ID, regardless of their speed issues. Manual proxies are now considered last resorts, pretty much.

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Emails

Almost always needed to get on most sites. The easiest to use are those from Hotmail or preferably Gmail, both of which are done in about 10 minutes. Hotmail is becoming more complex with its questions, not to mention the end of the address may be an indication you are lying about where you are from (co.uk versus .com for example). Gmail is more easy to register, plus you can repeatedly invite yourself and destroy the account once you are in. However, everyone who has read this from the start should now be aware of the Firefox disposable email mod, which should probably be the first one you want to use. Failing that, agents should now be aware of 2prong.com, which has randomly generated temporary emails, perfect for automated systems.

Some sites will not accept Gmail or Hotmail because of such intense previous trolling and exclusivity. In which case you need to get a far less often used email provider. It is well worth getting one of these more private emails, as spam is virtually nonexistent and so makes a perfect main account.

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Quick trolls

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The News Troll

A favourite of certain unnamed people, this involves using an account to post a dramatic news story, such as “DIRTY BOMB EXPLODING IN NEW YORK!” or “OSAMA BIN LADEN CAPTURED!”, “DICK CHENEY ASSASSINATED!” with no comment and a link to the story.

Of course, this won't be the link to the actual story, because it isn't really happening. Instead, link it to something very mundane or unusual, but hardly of importance. In fact, it is best to have a certain “in-joke” theme to these stories, such as picking Bruce Springsteen or someone else for the story to be linked to. Local news of no interest at all is also good.

Immediately after this, you will have a flurry of confused and worried posts, as well as a few who got what you were doing, but didn't find it funny at all, as well as those who hate idiots who fall for these things. Mission accomplished.

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The Newbie Troll

In this, you play the role of the innocent and rather slow newbie, who has never posted on a forum before, doesn't know anything about the subject at hand, but is persistent and unafraid to ask questions. These work especially well on themed forums, such as those on paganism, Linux or Anime, for example.

Every piece of jargon, every technical term and anything else you can think of should be innocently questioned. Even if someone just says “lol”, you should ask what they mean. You will reduce the most patient and nice to tears within hours, if done right.

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The Impossible Situation Troll

This is a troll post that sounds totally fake, yet just might be real. The FC “my wife is sleeping with the poolboy” troll is a perfect example of this.

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The Wordfilter Troll

This is an easy troll which other trolls will flock to. Simply state in your post that a certain word when typed will be filtered into another word. Then post several successful word filtered posts using whatever word it’s supposed to be filtered to. What you will get are tons of non-filtered posts and tons of trolls pretending the filter actually worked.

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The 'failed troll' Troll

This is where you do a poor attempted troll or flame in order to build up the rest of the forum's confidence. Usually, backslapping will occur shortly after everyone has said their piece, which will give you plenty of material with which to attack them, using your skills to full ability and catching them off guard.

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The Raid

This is a subset of trolling that basically requires overwhelming force to be put to use in flooding the site. Usually image macros are used, though text files are often a close second. The idea is to coordinate everyone involved to get them to strike at the same time, using mass force, shock and timing to execute the raid to perfection. Preparation is required, in order to get the requisite files, accounts and people ready in order to do this. A method favoured by HIMEOBS and most organized troll groups.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of what can be done. If you know the site you are going on has complete control freak admins, question their authority, the locked posts and the bannings of members etc...Against certain ideological positions, use that against them in a form of philosophical ju-jitsu. For example, question conservatives who support President Bush why they love the Big Government he has created. Ask the left, whose traditions lay in writers like Voltaire and Kant, why they are more open to bashing Christianity than Islam. Ask Discordians why they feel its OK to use their powers or imaginary authority to lord it over others. And so on and so forth.

Most of this is contextual, so watch the site, take perhaps half an hour to read the posts, pick up the general vibe of the site, then dive in. I can't give advice for every situation, but hopefully this helps in showing basic things you can do, as well as weak points to hit on certain types of people.

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The Long Troll

This section will be much different from even the previous section. In fact, this is not so much a lesson on trolling as a class in social dynamics. When doing a long term troll, you are aiming at a campaign against a well entrenched site, or many individuals on such a site where previous tactics would not work.

For this, you have to troll without being a troll. You have to use a smidgen of cunning and skill to achieve your goals. And for all this, you need to understand and manipulate the games of society and online communities, for your own ends.

Long term trolling strategies should be looking at paralysing a site without trolls even being suspected as being there – or at worst, that the trolls act as catalysts for future arguments, turn the user base against the mods and admins and split the community apart.

This can be achieved in a number of ways, which I am about to explain. I stole these terms unashamedly from MeatBallWiki, and because its nearly 11pm and I'm out of coffee, I'm going to use their terms unless they are so horrendously ghey I am forced to be creative.

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Picking a target for long trolls: a simple guide

You will get nowhere if you pick the wrong sort of targets for these trolls, so you need to know what to look for. Just as well I wrote this guide then, isn't it?

Basically, and for the purposes of this example, we can divide internet users into 3 sorts of people: neutrals, flamers and trolls. Neutrals are your average joes and we care nothing about them, for this. Flamers are those who are likely to start flaming and/or reacting badly when challenged or trolled, and the trolls are us.

We can therefore rate a forum as falling into one of 4 different catergories, based on conditions before we start to attack. These are as follows

Low Flamers, Low Trolls. The forum is boring, but stable. Is a hard target for subtle trolls, unless you can find a long buried landmine. However, flaming can liven the place up and may allow for the trolls to play both ends (being the trolls and the trolled, drawing everyone else in). A relatively hard target, because of prevailing conditions.

Low Flamers, High Trolls. Boring again, from an attack point of view. Though usually these make the most informationally interesting forums, as an aside. Basically, previous trolling has driven the entertainment elsewhere, meaning attacking these places has little point. As they are troll towns however, they can be good areas for recruitment or hearing the latest rumours/targets.

High Flamers, High Trolls. This is usually a transitory stage before turning into the above forum. Trolls already present piss off the flamers enough that they flounce, never to return (unless they do). Is also the stage of the following forum immediately after an attack (see below).

High Flamers, Low Trolls. The perfect target rich environment. These are easy pickings, waiting to be exploited. Entertainment abounds. Its only going to take a single spark to make this entire house of cards collapse in on itself.

The trick, of course, is to convert a low flamer community into a higher one. Once that is achieved, the site is your oyster.

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The Landmine

Any large community is going to have a certain amount of 'history' (read: butthurt) among certain of its posters. There will be a certain amount of animosity lurking beneath the surface between these people. Or it could be a tired and super-old debate that only causes more problems than it solves whenever it rears its ugly head. Whatever. The point is that should you stumble upon what this is, you will almost certainly piss off certain members if you make any references to it, bring it up again or even ask questions about it.

The trick is to play the stupid, unaware newbie role, then detonate the mine, firing off the debate and subsequent flames. Many of these will be directed at you of course, which is exactly what you want. It allows you to act as an injured party, and act towards your attackers with self-righteous indignation, which will cover your trolling quite well. Of course, the other trolls involved in this should be lurking around forum as well, ready to jump in on the opposing sides, make things worse, then withdraw. Soon, the entire forum will be covered in flame wars, which is incredibly satisfying.

The only real drawback with this is either they don't take the bait when you detonate, or they suspect trolling when your compatriots jump in. The former cannot really be dealt with, but with the latter, the original troll (playing the attacked n00b) should probably try to draw them in somehow. It also may help if the other trolls make a habit of backing up those you reckon most likely to stomp the “n00b” for his error.

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Pre-existing Issues

The Discordian Society thrives on these. Similar in some ways to the Landmine, it is essentially something that existed in the forums before your arrival, which you then exploit. It could be a new rule, a new, evil sonofabitch mod, whatever. Unlike the Landmine, the issue is obvious and spoken about freely. The idea is to infiltrate, avoid the problem for a short time (as to not look suspicious) but then get more and more involved with whatever it is. By gently prodding at the issue, then becoming more and more insistent, you can turn yourself into a Rebel Leader with little challenge, and direct the angry masses against the admins and mods.

Most other trolls should act as the main one's sockpuppet, giving him support but essentially letting him take the centre stage (Rebel Leader's rely mainly on personal charisma, plus their cause to gain a following), with a couple supporting the admins, of course, but in an obnoxious manner as possible. You know, the “this is a forum, if you don't like the way it is run, then leave” and “the admins pay for the bandwidth, last time I checked this means they can do what they want” or the old favourite “this is not a democracy”. Basically, you make any followers of the admins, no matter how reasonable or moderate, look like power hungry toadies, so only idiots will vocally support them, further undermining their position.

Problems with this are if you make a convincing enough argument that the admins actually reverse their decision. Then you are pretty much screwed. There are a couple of tactics you can try and use to extricate yourself from this, but they require some subtlety. The easiest of the two is to point out how problems like this can only keep on happening until there is a change in how the forum is run (a structural failure). You may be able to work this angle enough that you are considered for a mod place (because you shake up the groupthink), but don't bet on it. This would only happen in an enlightened regime in the first place. However, if you can agitate enough to cause an admin or mod to try and flame you, then you have your cause again.

The second involves working off how the forum makes people stay during such a time. Because people will have invested time in a community, made friends etc often admins will play off those emotional ties to try and dissuade possible rebels from leaving or opposing them. The best thing you can do to someone being used in such a way is to point it out to them. People hate to be psychologically manipulated, and once they realize it is happening, they will turn against the target. Also, since they know the site far better than you, they can push the buttons of members there far more easily. This can be done even if your cause is doing well, of course.

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How to be a Rebel Leader, or Anti-Authoritarianism 101

The distinguishing facet of a Rebel Leader (iconoclast) is that they do not respect rules solely because they are rules, and they do not respect authorities solely because they are proclaimed authorities. On the other hand, they don't ignore the rules: not all the time. In other words, your average Discordian. Their objections are morally rooted (important to remember).

Anti-authoritarians force admins to choose between three options

Hurt me.

Make rules against me criticising you or your rules, attack me, attempt to blacken my reputation and banhammer me. Break out the IP bans and FlameWars - you know you want to, and I can give as good as I get. I can troll with the best of them (Best case scenario).

Ignore me.

Let me have my right to FreeSpeech, pretend to listen, but do nothing to address my concerns. That's ok: I can bypass you and take my case to ordinary posters. Give me enough time and I'll organise a hostile takeover or lead the rebels away - but only if I can convince others that I'm right. (requires more work, not ideal. Hearts and minds campaign, blah)

Embrace me.

Yes, I'm naive and idealistic, but Criticism Is Feedback, and you know I'm right. Get me on your side, and I'll show you I can do friendship as well as attacks. Give me some limited responsibility and I'll perform my role with zeal, though I've no desire to take your job. (dull, takes away any justified cause. Minor mischief may be done with powers, but is unlikely, see above).

Of all the reactions, you are likely to first off get responses nearing Ignore. However, against exceptionally hyper-sensitive admins or when you have a measure of poster support, you will invite attacks. Perfect. The main way to win posters over is to force the mods into a position where they abuse their power, or else mention past events of it happening, proving the authoritarian structure of the forum. Force them into a position where they can only explain their decision based on their own say so, and the rest of the forum (unless they are incredibly gutless) will fall in line.

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Standard flamebaiting

I'm sure I don't need to tell you what flaming is, but assuming you've been living cave all these years (not those fancy ones Bin Laden has though. I bet that fucker even has broadband), I will.

Flaming is basically ad hominem, pretending to be a real argument. Your main thrust is insulting the other poster, with threadbare references to the subject at hand. That way, you are insulting him not simply because he/she/it is a “tard”, but because only a “tard would believe Bush went into Iraq with best intentions. Seriously, were you dropped on a rock as a baby or something?”

Flame wars usually develop out of a normal discussion in these ways:

Someone offends people through arrogant behavior
A thread of discussion touches upon a LandMine
The rules or values of the community are questioned
When a poorly qualified contributor posts questionable material.
A participant tries to communicate with a chronic flamer (it's difficult to stay cool and polite)
An “Old Guard” member tries to pull rank.

There are plenty more, of course, but these should get you thinking in the right ways. As you can see, pushing the line, especially against established members, is a good way to go about it. Another is standard contextual flamebait. For example, on a political forum, abortion, gun ownership and the Iraq war are flamebait. On Pagan forums, Christianity and intolerance are. And so on and so forth. So long as you know something about even the stereotypes of the groups you are trolling, you have your flamebait.

An obvious, but easy tactic is to get several trolls to post flamebait over the forum, within a relatively short period. Sockpuppet accounts should naturally be in place to argue violently against the original position. After a few pages of heated debate, a poster may withdraw, only to be drawn to the next flamebait. They get angry, rivalries ensue and the entire forum goes down in flamewars. Troll accounts will naturally be making matters worse by fighting on every side, increasing the ferocity and tempo of the flaming to the highest possible levels.

The idea is quite simple – draw in as many people as possible and create as many grudges as you can. People who band together in one thread need to be at each other's throats in the next. And so on and so forth. Only people out of the flame war have any chance of stopping it before it naturally burns out, so bring them in. Watch out for people who declare the flaming “boring” or “pointless” - they are trying to kill the dramallama and need to be dealt with quickly (insult them back into the game).

Naturally, this is harder than it looks and will likely not work to its full potential without a Landmine going off. Still, it is a worthwhile skill to practice.

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The Structure of Flame Wars

When too much energy gets put into the system - from Flames, trolls and deep rooted political debates for example - the growth can become too fast to handle. The campfire can grow out of control and become a Flame War, a phenomenon where the argument spreads across multiple pages.

You can tell that you are experiencing a Flame War when you suddenly lose track of where the rapidly expanding "front" of the argument is. You feel that you are making the same point in multiple places. You have to argue "laterally", across pages, in order to put forward a cohesive perspective. You no longer know what pages are related to the argument because people keep creating new ones in a self-defeating effort to contain the discussion, to recan the worms so to speak. Older pages, even gems, become casualties as the interlocutors recruit them for the fight.

Flame Wars have a distressing/hilarious habit of exploding across pages as the posters feel that the existing pages are too difficult to understand (ie: they are getting their asses handed to them in the fight). They start "fresh" pages in a hope of containing the debate in the new thread or, if a troll, in making the problem worse.

Their efforts are further undermined by emotional people unable to abandon the old argument (and trolls), feeling that they need to get the last word in. This process is repeated as good intentioned people try to "refactor" the live discussion, only expanding the front further.

Trolls must actively attempt to split discussion across as many pages as possible, thereby weakening posters by dividing them both in argument and posting. Savvy mods will try and contain the flames, so don't let them, or even better, draw them in and call into question their impartiality. Make sure any moderator action is painted as “punishment” against posters, not attempts to stop the flames. Keep the flames going in order to confuse and demoralize posters. Take quotes said in anger out of context and use them to either start new threads, or continue fights in old ones. In short, they anything to muddle the coherence and consistency of the discussion.

Even well intentioned people can fall into this trap. Often a deep-seated community disagreement can flood across the entire forum. Every problem or debate becomes an event to re-argue the same points. Every point becomes grounded with every case. When faced with the necessity to make a decision, endless effort must be expended by one camp or another just to push the cause for a trivial case. When people do act out a decision, they must spend an enormous amount of energy defending themselves. Soon people no longer want to act. Analysis paralysis sets in. The dysfunctional community can not respond to crises. People become disillusioned and leave. The trolls win. Eris is pleased.

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Raising the stakes

Potentially drama-saving techniques, for when your strategies are failing, can include the following:

Starting a flame war
Appeal to authority figures (in the hope they will tell the whiney bitch to fuck off)
Appeal to or attack online allies of the individual in question
Move the arena of conflict, by taking it to PMs, email, IRC or their Myspace/blog etc. Also, online stalking (find other sites they post on and attack there)
Enlist third parties to join in. This works especially well if you know of or discover any forum exiles (think the MW members at EB&G, despite their general ineffectiveness).
Create an entry for them on ED, or create a similar attack site/blog.
Take the argument offline (send screenshots to their friends, family and employers, for example).

Raising the stakes may blow your cover as a troll, but it almost always creates more drama and this is why it is such a powerful and useful technique. If ever you need a tactical edge to complement your overall strategy, consider one of these. In fact, this can be used as a strategy in and of itself, against an individual. Gradual escalation may eventually cause them to freak out, and at the very least it will be very entertaining.

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Making any conflict worse: a guide

Causes of conflict can be nearly limitless, however the most frequent are the following:

Data (misinformation, lack of access, PI given out etc)
- Relationships (anything relating to social interactions, from romance to personality clashes)
  - Values (politics, religion etc)
    - E-reputation (relates to the relationship one, but is of overriding importance and so deserves its own catergory)
      - Resources (control and say in the running of a site)

Fanning the flames

Never assume people are acting in good faith. Everything is personal, or at least should be portrayed that way to the “wronged” party.

React to malice. If someone clearly dislikes an other poster, stir it up. Say things like “you're not going to stand for that, are you?” PMing such sentiments is a good idea, as its basically a “lets you and him fight” situation.

Its personal. Since the issue is personal, make sure the persons involved become a part of the argument. Ad hominem and flaming is thus assured.

Also, everything is unfair. Mods are always biased. When a mod does not do something in your puppet's favour, they are clearly biased and the whole System is against the puppet.

Never allow the conflict to be defined. The vaguer it is, the more likely more people are going to be insulted and get involved (napalm principle). As soon as anyone tries to frame the debate, resist it.

Not business as usual. Try to disrupt other conversations with some skill (toolbox the threads) so that the complaint becomes the primary issue.

Reject attempts to seek common ground or play up similarities as psychological manipulation. I mean, it is anyway, on some level, even if it is true.

Ignore threadjackers or toolboxers. If someone should do this in the complaint thread, a troll needs to rejack the conversation quickly.

Claim all third parties are tainted by bias. Make it up if you have to. Also, make any pro-admin trolls you have overly keen on that person or third party, thereby planting the seeds of suspicion.

Do not allow compromise. You are in the right, are the wronged party. Why should your puppet concede anything to the other side?

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How to make the conflict worse: a “pro-admin” troll's guide

Attempt to stifle the debate. Trolls pretending to suck up to the mods need to try and silence dissent, causing the conflict to become more venomous and likely to end up in a flame war. If the puppet feels like they cannot get their point across via normal channels, extremer reactions result.

Shout Them Down. Don't let a single point slide, hammer every point, repeat to absurdum.

Enlist idiots. Appeal to the most moronic members of the site for popular support. Encourage them to dogpile the troll puppet.

Involve everyone. Be it idiots you've enlisted, or ordinary members, get everyone in on the fun, one way or another!

Knife in the back. Pretend to see their point, or concede they may be right. Just as things look ready to die down, strike and start everything up again.

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Miscellaneous tricks and tactics

The troll has the attacker's advantage of flexibility - you can start off being angelically good, then move to betrayal or alienation later on, according to what seems likely to be most effective.

Divide opinion as to your troll status. If the distribution is quite even, this creates significant tension between the people on opposite ends of the spectrum; the skeptics are sickened at how others could be taken in by the performance, while the forgivers question the motives behind the continued hostility of the other members. The people in the middle may find themselves quietly taking sides, and the issue becomes a Land Mine. At this point, the you can exploit the tension and encourage conflict by subtly employing other tactics.

If someone praises a contribution, you should misrepresent this support as applying to yourself in general.

When the you are attacked, do the opposite: make the attack seem like it was against your contribution, regardless of what it is really about.

Trick n00bs into seeing you as a maligned and put upon person. Win their support to create proxy forces willing to defend you.

Always always always exploit back room channels. Gain peoples IM names and use these to pass on (mis)information that you want them to see. You can use PMs, on one hand the mods may read them and banhammer you, but on the other they may be stupid enough to reveal so, thus showing a huge breach in trust which will turn the forum against them. It's your call, really.

Also note any backroom comms among the mods and admins. This is fertile ground for anti-authoritarian conspiracy theories and claims of cliques. Make people feel outside the decision making process, then present your solution ('create discontent and solve it' is the basis of all marketing).

Note any and all power imbalances among cliques. Your entry into a certain clique may tip the scales enough for hostilities to be considered worthwhile, and you can also enrage individual members of larger cliques to the point where they call on backup and create inter-clique conflict. Naturally, if you are the catalyst in the former example, you should confer with other trolls to make each side evenly matched, before systematically routing all of them.

Be aware of and exploit the Pygmalion Effect. Briefly stated, the Pygmalion Effect is that people tend to behave as you expect they will. If you expect a person to take responsibility, they probably will. If you expect them to not even try, they probably won't. Also known sometimes as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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Make your own browser bomb: a technical guide by 000

[edit]

Step 1 - acquiring the necessary resources

a) The code to a browser bomb

One can be downloaded from http://mihd.net/ez3snb

b) Some random USA contact information

For this we can use a google query like this: http://www.google.com/search?q=contact-us+zip+address&start=666

c) A throwaway email account

I usually use operamail.com, it's reliable, quick and easy signup procedure, and no frills. This is a quick link to the first step of the signup procedure: (which is already past the "I agree/TOS" screen) http://www.operamail.com/templates/common/us/username.htm

Think of some username, then proceed to the next screen where you fill in the random contact info from step (b). Simply make up any missing info. That's it. I find it's helpful to have a small list of about 5 terribly-easy to remember passwords to simply pick from, as a rule for emails (this is a good idea for accounts, too - Cain).

d) A free webspace provider

First you need to find one. Of course there's no such thing as free lunch, so all of these providers will try to screw you in one way or another. the trick is to find one that screws you just the right way. I suggest to use some google-fu or to browse the large web-directories (which are much less spammed than regular search engines for these kinds of queries):

- http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Hosting/Free/ - http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Communications_and_Networking/Internet_and_World_Wide_Web/Network_Service_Providers/Hosting/Web_Site_Hosting/Free_Hosting/

Pick one. I picked http://www.fateback.com/ , use the same fake contact info to fill in whatever details they want to know.

Now, check your email, click the activation link, etc.

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Step 2 - uploading the code

a) unpack the code

Unzip the code to a local directory on your hard disk. This particular zip-file will unpack to three files in a subdirectory called "ding"

b) upload the files

Actually this is kind of hard to explain, because it varies a lot depending on the type of free webhoster you got. First, try to find out if the webhoster supports FTP uploads. If this is the case, you must find out these things:

the FTP-server hostname. this is often something like ftp.username.webhosterdomain.com.
- the FTP-server username. often this is equal to your username, hostname or username.hostname or ftp.username.hostname whatever.
  - the FTP-server password. usually equal to the password you checked, sometimes it's generated automatically and emailed to you.

Then you need an FTP-client. if you're using Windows, i highly recommend FileZilla. If you're using Linux you have a wide range of options, but you should know what to do already.

Now connect to the FTP server with your FTP-client application, and simply drag-n-drop the files you unzipped in the previous step to the FTP-server, and that should be it.

If the webhost does not support FTP-uploads, it probably has some browser-based file manager. These things are often buggy as fuck, slow and cumbersome to use, but not really hard to figure out. In this case you will end up on a screen where you can simply Choose and Upload the files, but you have to do it one by one.

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Step 3 - test to see if it works

You just made a website! Now you need to figure out at what URL you can find it. Usually the email you got from them tells you this information, otherwise you can guess. it's usually something like: http://www.freewebhoster.com/username http://www.freewebhoster.com/~username http://username.freewebhoster.com/

Sometimes they even let you pick your own subdomain, so you can get something like http://whateveryoupick.somefreedomainname.tld

This was the case with fateback.com so they let me register yollyollyoll.yoll.net (srsly)

If you visit http://yollyollyoll.yoll.net/ you will find the contents of the file index.html (this is the default). If you see some inane story about dysliectic unicorns, you will have succeeded. The index file does not crash your browser.

The browsercrashing page is http://yollyollyoll.yoll.net/page2.html (will crash your browser)

[edit]

Trolling

From Black Iron Prison

Contents

Technical information

Browsers.

Proxies - avoiding bans

Manual

CGI Proxies

Tor

Emails

Quick trolls

The News Troll

The Newbie Troll

The Impossible Situation Troll

The Wordfilter Troll

The 'failed troll' Troll

The Raid

The Long Troll

Picking a target for long trolls: a simple guide

The Landmine

Pre-existing Issues

How to be a Rebel Leader, or Anti-Authoritarianism 101

Standard flamebaiting

The Structure of Flame Wars

Raising the stakes

Making any conflict worse: a guide

How to make the conflict worse: a “pro-admin” troll's guide

Miscellaneous tricks and tactics

Further reading.

Make your own browser bomb: a technical guide by 000

Step 1 - acquiring the necessary resources

Step 2 - uploading the code

Step 3 - test to see if it works

Suggested reading list

Views

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