As crazy as it might seem there are people who seem to have nothing better to do with their time and enjoy trying to cause conflict and problems. Sometimes they work alone but my understanding is there are actually groups who will go around as a pack creating issues. There are also some people I have heard refered to as "care trolls" who will pretend to be caring and interested or supportive but are actually just trying to garner people's trust and gather information.
I was invovled with supporting a family who was fighting for the right's of their son against their doctor who wanted to prematurely end their son's life. The family had agreed for a facebook page to be created by someone else. The original facebook page was open for anyone to post support and get updates on how things were going etc. Eventually the family created their own private page so they had control over who could participate and what was posted because there were people who would post incredibly disgusting things. It was very sad and created more pain for a family already dealing with a lot. I have heard about this sort of thing also happening with memorial sites of families who have lost loved ones in an accident or as victims of violent crime. People who prey on others and intentionally try to hurt others struggling with difficult issues are pretty sick and twisted in my opinion. The behavior can happen on any board though. It's just more all the more twisted when it happens to people who are mourning etc.
Sometimes the people invovled don't come right out in a completely obvious way and just do things or say little things to create conflict. Generally the best approach is not to give them the attention they are seeking and eventually they move on. On some sites you will see comments like "don't feed the trolls". They mean don't give these people the reaction or conflict they are looking for so they will move on. If you don't "feed" the bad behavior then it isn't any fun for them to continue.
While the term "troll" does make one think of a troll under a bridge I suspect the term actually refers to trolling like in fishing. They throw a bunch of stuff out there fishing for a reaction. |