Spoilers: Reposted from 04/17/06

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I've recently been experiencing some exasperation on one of the message boards I frequent, so I am re-posting this entry from April, 2006.

Why? Because I can!

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Something I haven't yet done, as of this writing, is fill in my interests as part of my profile. Here are a few of them, some of which are in remission:

The Beatles
Garage Bands from the 'Sixties
Cartoons
16mm Film Collecting

Anyone with any sort of specialized interest will sooner or later come into contact with other folks who share these same interests. This could happen through answering ads, meeting folks at special-interest conventions, bumping into like-minded people around town, reading fan publications, and, most recently, cruising the Internet.

Seems there are always those people who feel the need to mark their territory and be the "alpha" of the pack. I've seen this played out amongst cartoon fans, comics fans, sci-fi fans, music fans and even cereal box collectors(!) to name a few. No doubt there are Square Dance Record Collectors who experience the same kind of people, as well.

These are folks who may very well have a solid background on the subject at hand, a decent-sized collection of artifacts and know all the right people, but then they squander this capital by being rude, arrogant and condescending towards anyone who can't enhance their status among the special-interest community. In at least two cases that spring readily to mind, there are people who actually have a product to sell, and yet they persist in alienating their target audiences.

'Twas ever thus, I suppose, but the speed of the Internet makes it all the more easier for such folks to locate an audience and curdle a hobby for hundreds of people in one fell swoop. At least in the "old days" of fanzine letters columns there would be a month or more between issues for someone to cool off and reconsider before going on the offensive. (Although anybody who has ever read The Comics Journal knows that even this is not a safeguard!)

Here's a link that describes the phenomenon known as the Internet TROLL. [Note: The original "troll" link is no longer active, so I have inserted a different one.] Here's a brief quote from [the original] site in answer to the question, "Why do they do it?":

Trolls crave attention, and they care not whether it is positive or negative. They see the Internet as a mirror into which they can gaze in narcissistic rapture.

If you want a deeper analysis than that, perhaps a psychologist can shed some additional light on the matter

Towards that end, here's another link that describes something called Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

There seems to be a common thread running between these two bits of reference. Here's one quote from the NPD page:

Some narcissists are flamboyantly boastful and self-aggrandizing, but many are inconspicuous in public, saving their conceit and autocratic opinions for their nearest and dearest. Common conspicuous grandiose behaviors include expecting special treatment or admiration on the basis of claiming (a) to know important, powerful or famous people or (b) to be extraordinarily intelligent or talented.

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Postscript - October, 2007: Something else a TROLL will do, if left unchecked, is to overload a message board and turn it into their own personal blog. No other message-poster can escape their comment. That is the situation that has prompted this flashback post. The bully dearly loves to rule "his" sandbox!

Thanks to all my bloggin' buddies for being so good-natured and courteous, even if or when we might disagree about something!