In some ways, trolling may be the most effective communication of all.

A troll is a person who posts or chats on the internet with the intent of stirring up trouble and getting emotional responses. A troll is not concerned with speaking the truth, nor with speaking lies. The truth value of statements isn’t important at all to a troll, only the amount of trouble their statements can cause.

Another aspect of trolling is efficiency. Ideally, the troll gives very little input to the system, but creates a large stir from it. Think of it like giving your opponent a bag of nonsense, but the opponent can’t simply open the bag and say “oh, that’s nonsense.” Instead, the nonsense is wrapped up in an intricate puzzle that takes pages of text to unravel and defend against.

James Cameron is a man clearly dedicated to his craft, but then again so was Jim Jones. But Cameron had much better results. Eleven fewer people died from cyanide poisoning.

—Mr. Plinkett

Is Trolling Bad?

I know a grandmaster troll. His name is garcia1000. He says that trolling is like sex: if you force it on someone, that’s bad, but if it’s consensual, then both parties enjoy the activity. Over the years, we’ve developed many “chat techs” that are handy language tricks for trolling. Playing with intentionally deceptive language is really fun, and I think there’s some value in it too. When someone tries to use this stuff on you, you’re ten steps ahead of them if you’re well aware of all these tricks. You can also incorporate these rhetoric tricks into your writing as jokes, or for real if you’re a news journalist.

Try consensually trolling your friends and develop your skills together.