The history of trolls

August 1, 2008 D. H. McKee

Off

No, no. Internet trolls. This gargantuan 7 page NYTimes article examines the history and motivations of the Internet’s bridge-dwelling monsters.
Magazine Preview – Malwebolence – The World of Web Trolling – NYTimes.com

Why inflict anguish on a helpless stranger? Itâ..s tempting to blame technology, which increases the range of our communications while dehumanizing the recipients. Cases like An Hero and Megan Meier presumably wouldnâ..t happen if the perpetrators had to deliver their messages in person. But while technology reduces the social barriers that keep us from bedeviling strangers, it does not explain the initial trolling impulse. This seems to spring from something ugly â.. a destructive human urge that many feel but few act upon, the ambient misanthropy thatâ..s a frequent ingredient of art, politics and, most of all, jokes. Thereâ..s a lot of hate out there, and a lot to hate as well.
So far, despite all this discord, the Internetâ..s system of civil machines has proved more resilient than anyone imagined. As early as 1994, the head of the Internet Society warned that spam â..will destroy the network.â. The news media continually present the online world as a Wild West infested with villainous hackers, spammers and pedophiles. And yet the Internet is doing very well for a frontier town on the brink of anarchy. Its traffic is expected to quadruple by 2012. To say that trolls pose a threat to the Internet at this point is like saying that crows pose a threat to farming.

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About This Site

As a guy who occasionally curates art shows and wrangles artists together, I often have to edit and post artist bios, profile pictures, and artwork images. This can be a problem, since many artists and writers aren’t used to selling themselves. Artists rarely know how to present their art for display in a brochure, and writers aren’t used to writing about themselves.

Writers often treat the bio like it’s an interview or something. Maybe like they’re having a conversation with you, the reader. While it may work sometimes, the most common way to write a bio is to write in the 3rd person.

I’m like those writers, and I’m talking to you directly, unlike the common way to do a bio. You should see my About page. It makes sense to me, since this is a bit which describes my blog’s website. When I get famous enough that I don’t have time to talk to you, I’ll have an intern write everything in 3rd person. Until then, you get to talk to me.

Like blogs of old, this one is a personal document of the comings and goings of me. Articles I’ve written, links I’ve posted, videos I liked, etc. Here, a first-person perspective is the way to go, at least for now. So, this is my site. I’m D. H. McKee, a sometimes artist, sometimes writer. Mostly just a guy on the internet.