Forums / Discussion / Serious Debate

Some people say they are the same, some say they are different.

What do you think?

I found an excellent video on what trolling is, I think everyone should watch it here

Trolling is harmless jokes and stuff, but it can be taken too far.

Cyberbullying would be nonstop beating down and actual insults. But cyberbullying is generally only considered an issue when it's children doing it to other children (IE when they're at school). Any other age group above would be considered "harassment" to an extent, or just general badmouthing.

To me its about the target, and the amount of effort expunged on said target.

Trolling should be a communal affair, either targeting the entire community or having the entire community target yourself. Basically posting with a wide net cast. There's also where trolling takes place, mainly on public spaces or in singular threads. It's having your target and affecting only the one area, never pursuing a target.

Cyberbullying is much more visceral and focused. It's targets are singular individuals, regardless of what they are doing or where they are. It boarders on stslking because its about targeting this person on every place of the net they travel. Finding the various social media and forums they frequent and going out of the way to make personalizedcrafted posts about saidbperson. And it isnnt about the trolls actions anymore, but instead making jt about the trolls target.

There's a fine line when it comes to trolling freequent bad posters and cyberbullying. Taking things into PM, or trying to spread the trolling to multiple areas of the site or evne multiple websites, is where I'd consider it to cross said line.

for the last hour or so i've been reading articles and laws about cyber-bullying/cyber-harassment.

Cyber-bullying is mainly used for minor-on-minor social harassment but has spread to be the catch-all term for these crimes. When at least one party is an adult it's technically cyber-harassment.

There a regional difference between what constitutes cyber-bullying but commonly it's done through large social media outlets like facebook and text messages. It's usually done by girls and it usually revolves around school relationships. This is what most regular people mean when they talk abut cyber-bullying. Taking standard schoolyard bullying to the digital places where there aren't any adults.

Most cyber-bullying arrests involve threatening emails, online impersonation and cyber-stalking. The thing about these things, is that the victims always fear for their safety or their belongings.

Now when it comes to web/forum postings it usually isn't noticed unless it's a threat or libelous. Threats are pretty easy to imagine but libel has to be actually harmful to the reputation of a person. If I said "Bob Probert is a shady businessman" and he lost business due to it i'd have trouble. if i posted "coolman33 is a faggot" it would be much harder to prove that there was any real damage to coolman33's reputation.

Anything below these criminal offenses I guess you could consider trolling. These forums haven't done any actual cyberbullying as far as I know. For one thing, no one knows any real information about one another. No matter how annoying anyone was, no one got their personal information leaked or threatening emails sent or phone calls to their homes.

Trolling is ideally some clever prank you pull on some online dope that people can get a laugh from. But it's usually a lot less inspired then that, pretending to be an sjw or a girl or something. When it comes to making fun of someone as a group it's not really trolling, it is just making fun of someone. So while it's not illegal by any stretch of the imagination but it definitely could be considered mean-spirited.

I have often found that cyberbullying is formed from trolling too much on a single target or not responding properly to trolling.
If someone is trolling and it's fairly obvious, the trolling should be found funny/annoying, and then brushed off or if one wishes to, troll the troll back. Trolling is usually done by someone who isn't a fan of something/someone and wants to have a good laugh. Thus, this becomes an annoying hybrid of dark comedy. Typically like any other kind of comedy you want to keep the trolling dark but also humorous and not focus on a single target too much, as focusing too much on trolling any one thing or allowing the humor to grow too dark turns the trolling into a targeted hate and from there into cyber-bullying of a person/group.
On the alternate side of the coin, there is such a thing as troll trolling, and since this is just trolling it follows the same general rules. Trolling a troll is a rewarding experience I have personally found, but one must know where to draw the line. You can go too far with trolling, and you can go too far with counter-trolling. Knowing when a joke has become too dark/hateful and knowing when a single target has been targeted too much is what keeps trolling from becoming cyber-bullying.

I think they are definitely different, and this is due to different goals.
Trolling is about getting attention. As long as someone replies in some way, then they've succeeded. This means they generally don't have any sort of specific target, and while their efforts are meant to get a rise out of someone, that person is just a means to an end, getting attention.
Cyberbullying is about trying to hurt a specific target. Motives and methods vary, but in every case, their victims aren't just random bystanders, and getting attention is not their main goal, so ignoring them won't always help.
They aren't mutually exclusive, but they are definitely distinct from one another. Cyberbullies are generally more like stalkers out to hurt people's emotions, reputations, and relationships, while trolls are more like loudmouths who try to annoy other people or start flame wars.

{ Trolling should be a communal affair, either targeting the entire community or having the entire community target yourself. }

Trolling → what I do

{ Cyberbullying is much more visceral and focused. It’s targets are singular individuals, regardless of what they are doing or where they are. It boarders on stslking because its about targeting this person on every place of the net they travel. Finding the various social media and forums they frequent and going out of the way to make personalizedcrafted posts about saidbperson. }

Cyberbullying → what you all do using LULLZZ DONT TAKE IT SO SRSS as an excuse

I'm assuming this very obvious fact is why everyone is avoiding this thread.

I see the difference as kind of a power dynamic

Someone who's being bullied feels as though they are powerless.
Where as someone who is being trolled is just irritated or angry.

Trolling → what I do

Is that an effective carte blanche to ignore everything you say from now on?

Yes, please feel free to never respond to any of my threads ever again.

Good luck~!

Off-topic: You're stating that no one should ever have to respond to any of your threads ever again.
That means that literally any and all of your discussions will now be null and void because they fall under the distinction of trolling.
So, you should stop posting because literally everything you do from this point forward will now be considered a shitpost. You'll be right at home in Riff-Raff! :D

On a serious note, I view cyberbullying and trolling as having the same goal: to get a reaction out of the person targeted.
Of course, cyberbullying tends to go to a more severe point and tries to get a reaction constantly out of people/make the bully feel in power of the person they're targetting. Trolling usually tries to get a chain of reactions with minimal effort (i.e. Check out all the politic shitposts on political/conspiratorial videos that get tons of comments without the OP responding most of the time).
So basically cyberbullying/harassment is the equivalent of bullying irl, in that it causes harm to someone on the internet, whereas trolling can be seen as teasing, although, similar to teasing, if taken to a certain extent, it can be considered a form of harassment aka bullying.

@Lisa

Feel free to never post in this thread ever again if you have nothing to contribute. We're talking about cyber bullying. Not your threads

Back on topic

[Edit ]

And yes that applies to more than just lisa. Don't take time off off the topic just to comment on Lisa herself

shitposting =/= trolling, first of all, and we're obviously discussing this within the context of the definitions provided in this thread. According to a definition that many of you upvoted, my presence as a conservative willing to share opinions on a site mostly inhabited by left-leaning liberals is enough to be considered "trolling" and singling me out in retaliation is enough to be considered "cyberbullying". I provided a contextual example to illustrate the difference, as is the topic of the thread.

But if Jarbsy wants to use that definition to justify never posting in one of my threads again, he does so with my blessing~

edit: please remember to include dear Jarbsy in your warning to remain on topic, as he is the one who made the initial comment. we're trying to maintain some image of fairness here.

& actually since it's pretty well related, let's define shitposting too since people clearly have different opinions.

shitposting is RR, it's dumb posts that don't mean anything, irrelevant to anything that's actually going on (thus shouldn't be taken seriously, the forum's motto).

trolling is intended to annoy or be obnoxious to an entire community of people, by its content or how it's phrased, whether what's being stated is true or not.

cyberbullying is when any of the two listed above targets one individual personally + your standard playground bullying behavior that takes place online, but only when it's committed by minors otherwise it's harassment and you're going to jail if the victim feels inclined enough to pursue you.

I would say that the difference between trolling and bullying is that bullying is malicious in nature while trolling is just for fun. I don't like the term "cyber-bullying" because that implies it's different in nature than "normal" bullying, which it isn't.

Trolling is generally done between strangers. Some people take things too personally because of how they are, but getting trolled doesn't necessarily make a huge impact because you don't know that person and he/she doesn't know you. It makes little difference because in the long run nothing really changed, except maybe you got mad and they laughed at you.

Cyber-bullying really should just be changed to what it is: harassment. People calling each other mean things is just a way of life, there really isn't any way to avoid it. The internet is no exception, so special snowflakes who get butt-flustered over someone saying mean things I don't care about. However once someone starts stalking accounts, sending death threats, and launching DDoS attacks then you have an actual problem. That should straight up be considered harassment and law enforcement should be involved imo.

Target and intention.
Trolling can just be some harmless jokes that are thrown at some people. Can just be a snide comment or sarcasm. Nothing big.
Cyber bullying is intentionally targeting one person with the expressed intent of hurting that person emotionally.

Trolling can progress too bullying if people take it too far.