DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN SATIRE, TROLLS, AND GENUINE CRAZIES

So you want to submit a link, but you're not sure if you're being trolled. Cursing Poe's Law, you post it anyway, only to find it has been removed for being a confirmed troll by the TiA Troll-Hunting Brigade®. What gives? What did they see that you didn't?

What are the signs of a troll?

• The account hasn't been around for long. Typically, troll accounts have been around for less than two months. An easy way to check this is to view their blog's archive (if on Tumblr), or the account creation date (if on Twitter), which will be pretty shallow if they haven't been around for long.

• Almost all of their content is related to social justice. This isn't always a clear indication of a troll, but can give you an idea of the point of the blog. Which leads to the next point…

• Their content is over-the-top social justice wankery. If someone starts spouting shit like, "You can't eat Chinese food because it's racist," or, "Human-identifying humans suck and shouldn't be trusted with anything," there's a large chance that they're just trolling. However, there is the possibility that they are just that stupid. The general rule of thumb here is, if it feels like someone is being purposefully stupid, they probably are.

• Remember Poe's Law. Without a clear indicator of intent, parodies of extreme views can be interpreted as sincere expressions of the views being parodied. As it becomes harder to distinguish reality from parody, be even more discerning than usual.

These are just a few tips to help you recognize a troll from a rabid online crazy. As our skills for recognizing deception increase, we will pass on more tips to help our fellow brigadiers. Happy hunting.