Trolled for Being Effective

Is hateful commenting an even stronger flattery that Imitation

I was reading Trolls are confirmation of your courage by Austin L. Church and it reminded me how fortunate I am to live in a kind of kindness bubble. I think part of it is that I’m a nobody and that’s a good thing.

I rarely if ever see people being mean to others for their failures. While I don’t at all doubt Natalie Hampton’s experience, support work and recommend her TED talk in the strongest possible terms to anyone that hasn’t seen it, life to me and around me has been kind.

When I read the research on “Booing” in among fans in professional sports: Really bad players don’t tend to get boos, rather fans tend to boo players they are disappointed in.

And that that if you are getting Booed there, it is sign that the fans know you CAN do better.

It’s a world that makes sense to me. When I hear about GamerGate, Hampton’s wonderful non-profit, or Church’s article, I don’t doubt any of it. Either my world is kinder, or I am blindly oblivious, or some combination of both.

I don’t know the research on trolling.

I know that it was my best and most effective political pieces that got me hassles, trolls and one death threat.

Perhaps at least some class of trolling is a sign that you’re doing so well that they are angry that you are not on their side.

Or perhaps it is that you are doing really well on something they support but aren’t part of their group.

Or perhaps it is that you pose a risk of eclipsing them.

I don’t recall seeing people being trolled for having low quality work.