I wrote a blog a few months back asking the question about who should get a body part that is necessary, and I gave three choices. The blog was, in my mind, a way to think about what goes into decision making. Do we deal with things emotionally, logically, fairly or however it is we approach problems.

Personally, I thought it was an interesting idea…(hence why I wrote it)

I got a comment on that blog.

The person stated something along the lines of “Well this was a pointless post. Everyone knows this is a post about morality. I knew that from the first sentence.”

I responded something along the lines of “Why is it morality?”

Person responded back- “Hey. I just wanted to tell you that this was stupid. I thought you would want to know that. Someone recommended this blog to me and I totally regret looking at it.

I responded back-well, while we are talking about pointless…

And then I was mad at myself for falling for the troll under the blog and I deleted the comments.

Of course, in retrospect, I wish I hadn’t deleted the actual comments because it probably would have made this blog more effective.

I looked at this person’s website. They are a legitimate blogger. They post things regularly. The content however is suspect- lot’s of shares and quotes. Very little original content…

So I have to wonder what the motivation was to decide to tell me my post sucked…

Instead of telling someone that their post sucked, wouldn’t your time be better spent actually doing something…

If my post is so bad, show me how it’s done…

What do trolls want anyway?

Why would you purposely go out of your way to tell someone that they are pointless?

Now, my daughter said that being trolled is the way to know that you are a legitimate blogger or influencer or whatever term that you prefer…so does that mean I am a capital B BLOGGER now?

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves…it was one troll…I’m still a little b blogger…

So what do you think motivates trolls?

Insecurity?

Nastiness?

Jealousy?

Boredom?

Tell me anything you want to about trolls and trolling…

126 thoughts on “The Troll Under the Blog”

  1. I’ve never been able to believe that trolls literally sit around all day hopping around social media sites saying nasty things. Don’t you think they have to be making an income from their “work”? Is there a secret career placement company out there hiring people to do this… I picture: “Work from home! Earn great money! Be as condescending and nasty as you like and have fun while doing it! You too can be a TROLL!”

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      1. Which is why I see the very likely possibility that Instagram, FB, WP, Twitter… actually pay people to troll just to create drama and content… Sorta like FAKE NEWS! but without the presidential seal of approval 😉

        Liked by 3 people

  2. I don’t understand trolls, but if I were to guess, I’d say that they have nothing better to do and so they choose to criticize and undercut someone else. Out of jealousy? Maybe. Out of insecurity? Probably. If I had any, I’d simply delete those who aren’t nice. It’s my blog and luckily I’m not popular enough to have trolls…LOL. Sorry you do.

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  3. I think it’s likely true that attracting a troll is an indication that you’ve reached the blogging big leagues. I’ve never had a troll spam comment so it’s not a bot. It’s a real live three dimensional psycho.

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  4. Great question! As a journalist who has had nasty comments (which were personal, and no reason to be left so nastily) on actual reported stories, I would divide trolls into a few categories: there are the ones I am talking about re: people responding to content with thoughtful yet mean comments (I think those people are just angry and have nothing better to do); there are those like yours, who may be actual people (who are not thoughtful; these are people who share truly fake news) but also might just be somehow legit employed as a troll; and there are bots, like, trolls that are truly either machines or people sitting in cubes definitely employed to post nonsensical stuff. What do you think?

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    1. That’s sounds very reasonable. I hadn’t thought of it quite like that but it totally makes sense. To be fair, I don’t mind people disagreeing with me, but at least argue with me, you know?

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  5. I think many trolls are attention whores. They need engagement. Your troll’s blog sounds pretty boring so I bet s/he doesn’t get much feedback. It’s just like the schoolteacher’s knowledge that for some kids negative attention is better than no attention at all. Don’t fall for the bait is my motto ( not that I am a big B blogger, but I was a schoolteacher 👩‍🏫)!

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  6. I am not sure what the intentions of trolls are. Are they trying to delegitimize your blog? Are they insecure and want to bring you down to bring themselves up? Are they know it all’s? Are they just trying to start a fight? Or are the just asses? I have had 2 trolls who basically both told me I did not know how to travel or hike ( I didn’t know there were set in stone ways to do it). I have had a journalist major, now former friend, troll me and comment on my grammar and word usage (I am a blogger, never claimed to be an English guru). I deleted their nasty comments and actually deleted the former friend from my life (for many reasons)! I have always wondered if these are just unhappy people or if they just enjoy trying to unsettle other people. Now of course I welcome constructive feedback, but trolling is different. I have found Trolls look for something positive and then try to turn it into a cruel negative.

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    2. See? I don’t understand people who go out of their way to do things like this? What’s the point? I can’t imagine being purposely mean to someone I don’t know. And I don’t mean a difference of opinion and healthy argument. I mean the being nasty or obnoxious part…why bother?

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  8. Most of the time, trolls thrive off of getting any kind of a response. They just love to stir stuff up. It is their goal to get people wound up. Deleting and ignoring is often the best way of dealing with them as they don’t get what they are looking for. I’ve seen it WAY too many times in the past and is a huge reason why I took the major step back from a lot of my online stuff that I did several years ago.

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  9. You blog about your topics, subjects, of YOUR choice. Someone who doesn’t like it doesn’t have to read it…instead, they attack you? Why? Does it make them feel better?

    Just ignore. Frankly they made themselves look bad, right? If you do/did nothing, and people see that toxic remark, it’s not you they’re judging. Remember that.

    Some strange people bouncing around the blogosphere… 🙄

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  11. I get really nasty comments on my parenting tips on SwimSwam. Sometimes it’s really hurtful. i think they are people who are doing exactly what I warn against doing. They are helicopter parents who take the joy out of their kids sport. It makes me not want to put myself out there, which is sad.

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  12. I’d say nastiness and ignorance. If having rude and pointless comments thrown at you is a sign of the big leagues then I’d be hard pressed to understand why anyone would want to enter that league. Life’s too short for such crap.

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      1. The nasty nobodies throwing crap at people, blog posts, innocuous news articles; it just doesn’t stop. It’s an extremely disturbing aspect of the relative autonomy of social media and the belief of many people that they can say whatever they like to anyone. It doesn’t say much for the direction in which society has turned.

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  14. I think some people just like to drop the bomb and walk away, you know stirring up controversy. I can’t think of why someone would go to the extent to comment like that, seems like a little insecurity raising it’s ugly head? You do have a lot of followers and your posts get good discussions going.

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  15. I’m so glad you wrote about this topic LA, I don’t know if you remember, but I had someone call me sick and demented a while back, honestly, I was traumatized. She said I needed intense therapy – which could all be true but I deleted it anyway. I kept thinking why doesn’t she just stop reading if she doesn’t’ like what she found on my site? It’s not like I’m an expert, I host a lifestyle blog for goodness sakes. I think they’re really talking about themselves? It’s as if their shadow self needs to find a form of expression? That’s my take, C

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  16. In all honesty, sometimes questions are innocent. We wonder about the topic if it seems off the wall to us but you are right sometimes curiosity kills the cat and sometimes we might be jealous someone has time to write, so it is about us. I am a little tired today. Working too much. Looking forward to Christmas break.

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    1. I don’t think this person needed to say that my post was pointless. And not engage in conversation. If she wanted to have an actual discussion I would have been fine. She just wanted to poke the bear

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  17. I have had a few trolls judge me but I usually just move on. I guess if I do have an opinion about an “of the wall topic” or something which I think is not appropriate, I should keep it for my blog. I am just curious about bloggers who tell all. Thanks for listening!

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  18. I think someone is annoyed that I asked an inappropriate question about her hubby. I was just tired and curious. I find usually trolls follow me if they don’t like my politics, so I try not to let it slip too often!

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  19. There are nasty people scattered throughout the world. I wish they’d move close together and peck at each other. I’d rather tell people what I like about their posts and ignore the ones I don’t like. You probably already know that I like your blog and look forward to reading it.

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  20. It has been a very long day for me. I like LA’s blog also! I don’t think of questions as pecking unless you have something to hide and it becomes awkward to answer them. But perhaps ignoring some of them is a better thing to do. I can agree to this.

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  23. I’ve had a few comments from strangers; I just delete immediately. I treat them as I would an offensive, smelly, loud-mouthed fool I was standing behind at the supermarket checkout: ignore. They absolutely don’t deserve my time or energy. Get lost troll.

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  25. There are a lot of great comments on this post, LA. I don’t claim to offer any insight into this phenomenon. It’s just interesting to me how the anonymity of the internet has created this whole scenario. You’re anonymous, too. But from your blog I can see you are real and mean well. The vermin in the understory are another thing entirely. Someone needs to develop a better “mousetrap” for them. Spam blockers are okay, but not strong enough to stop this sort of thing.

    (BTW I don’t see anything wrong with you wanting to be anonymous, especially given where you live)

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    1. I don’t like social media, because I think people are nasty. However, I like to write. Anonymity is my internal compromise. That being said, I’ve met up with a few fellow bloggers, some of them have my personal email and I’m Facebook friends with a few. If someone wants to be an actual friend I’m there. And I wouldn’t be able to trash my in laws if I used my name. I’d miss half of my stories

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  26. All of the above. I’ve had the nastiest comments on my instagram and on here. I delete them and move on. We aren’t going to be everyones cup of tea and I’m okay with that. Besides you have to be a miserable person to write hurtful things to someone. Just sad!

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      3. *thick*🤦🏽‍♀️ yeah your definitely right. Which is why my kids weren’t allowed to have it until they reached a certain age. But here I am the one feeling like throwing daggers at people sometimes. If I didn’t have a coaching business I would not have Instagram.

        Liked by 1 person

  28. Hmmm. An interesting post, LA. I’ve not yet experienced a troll, or trolling to my knowledge. However, I have seen people post unnecessary comments on other people’s blogs. Blogs that I follow, where the blogger is legitimate, working hard, has a following, and is putting out quality original content. I think folks that “bomb” other people’s sites with unnecessary emotional vomit, for lack of a better way to write that, or rational and calculated attacks are insecure and or emotionally unstable themselves. They just might not be aware of it. Or, maybe they are, and they are just a…, well, I’ll refrain from that language.😊 Nice post, as always, LA.❤️

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    1. Thank you. For the most part I haven’t had anyway. Was more mad at myself for even engaging a little. Then there was part of me who wanted to troll their blog…

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  30. I used to get a lot of trolling on my first site, I never deleted them, I would put a comment back saying something like ‘interesting point, or if I offend please feel free not to read’.
    I do think that people who do this are perhaps very unhappy people

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    1. I got another one today. She commented on my blog about how I plan on just living my life. She said having no fear could be a suicide attempt. Of course, my idea of fearless is that I’m ready to go to concerts when they happen again…

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  33. My guess is that was a fake blog, and just someone who enjoys stirring up trouble. Often, trolls on social media are stirring the pot politically, and they are probably normal people who have a strong commitment to one party and think they are advancing the cause. But I think people who post nasty insults just for the heck of it are probably a bit “off.” Sort of like children who try to harm animals.
    Have you gotten that comment about people who hate baby boomers? I get that one a few times a year, always from a different source, supposedly, but it always says the same thing: baby boomers screwed up the world and now everyone hates us and will mistreat us in nursing homes. What the motivation is behind that one, I have no idea!

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  34. Ingnorant superiority. Ignorant people unknowingly compensate by being superior. This troll didn’t share an opinion. This troll did you a favor by letting you know this is stupid. Why did they even continue to read it. Clearly int interested them. But they didn’t get it. So it’s stupid. The fact that this person reacted at all shows quite the contrary. Hit some kind of nerve. And I can’t find the survey from a newer blog. St Judes Children’s hospital. No parent ever gets a bill.

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  35. I almost can’t comment on this. It makes me both sad and angry. I really don’t understand people who just want to be hateful on the Internet. Constructive criticism is one thing as is civil disagreement, but trolls take it to a whole other level. Delete, block, whatever you can do. I understand being angry with yourself for taking the bait, but these comments are obviously rare on your blog which is intentionally thought provoking, so “live and learn.”

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    1. They are very rare, which is why I talked about it. But, a day or so after I wrote that blog, I got a comment that I still haven’t decided if it’s a troll or not…

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