Confessions of a Professional Troll
Posted: October 24th, 2010, 11:54 am
I'm being more and more amazed by the political polarity in our country. It's very evident on the web.
I've been publishing The Poet's Eye for close to seven years on numerous web locations. It has appeared here on S8 since the beginning but S8 accounts for only a small fraction of my readership because it's a very small place. The other day, in the process of promoting The Poet's Eye, I made a post on a conservative, tea party leaning web site. Mostly in the past I have published on sites that were fairly left-leaning. I have been publishing for several years on Daily Kos for example. The site I'm talking about appears to be in that league in circulation, a leading conservative site. Well, figuring that I might be spending too much time preaching to the choir, I decided to post articles and links at places that might not be as friendly to my message which is commonly perceived as a liberal one.
I posted the recent light-hearted piece about Christine O'Donnell and BozoGate. It was hardly partisan polemic. The place erupted. I have never been called a troll in so many different ways. It seems that the term 'troll' has taken on the meaning of 'anyone who disagrees with the party line.' There were quickly about a hundred responses complete with some very clever stock pictures of trolls and people getting 'zapped' and insults with acronyms that I didn't understand. It was a swarm. They were on me like white blood cells on an invader in the bloodstream. It was obviously a familiar and cherished local ritual to tar and feather the outsider before running them out of town on a rail. I was quite entertained. It had been some time since anyone invested so much imagination in the cause of my defamation. It reminded me of what a caustic place the web can be and of the sad level of polarization we see in our nation.
Anyway, I'm pleased to announce that The Poet's Eye circulation has been growing nicely. Last week I had over a thousand discreet readers. I still can't get in over at the Huffington Post. I guess I'm too far out there for them. I find that a certain humorlessness is what the far left and the far right both have in common.
I've been publishing The Poet's Eye for close to seven years on numerous web locations. It has appeared here on S8 since the beginning but S8 accounts for only a small fraction of my readership because it's a very small place. The other day, in the process of promoting The Poet's Eye, I made a post on a conservative, tea party leaning web site. Mostly in the past I have published on sites that were fairly left-leaning. I have been publishing for several years on Daily Kos for example. The site I'm talking about appears to be in that league in circulation, a leading conservative site. Well, figuring that I might be spending too much time preaching to the choir, I decided to post articles and links at places that might not be as friendly to my message which is commonly perceived as a liberal one.
I posted the recent light-hearted piece about Christine O'Donnell and BozoGate. It was hardly partisan polemic. The place erupted. I have never been called a troll in so many different ways. It seems that the term 'troll' has taken on the meaning of 'anyone who disagrees with the party line.' There were quickly about a hundred responses complete with some very clever stock pictures of trolls and people getting 'zapped' and insults with acronyms that I didn't understand. It was a swarm. They were on me like white blood cells on an invader in the bloodstream. It was obviously a familiar and cherished local ritual to tar and feather the outsider before running them out of town on a rail. I was quite entertained. It had been some time since anyone invested so much imagination in the cause of my defamation. It reminded me of what a caustic place the web can be and of the sad level of polarization we see in our nation.
Anyway, I'm pleased to announce that The Poet's Eye circulation has been growing nicely. Last week I had over a thousand discreet readers. I still can't get in over at the Huffington Post. I guess I'm too far out there for them. I find that a certain humorlessness is what the far left and the far right both have in common.