Editing Funded troll

'''Funded troll'''s are paid to change opinions in the [[Research Wiki]] or alter the way that the project works in ways that favour those who fund them.  A [[propaganda glossary]] or [[list of controversial topics]] helps identify terms perhaps amenable to their influence.

''The [[TorontoTroll]] project is an example of another kind of funded troll, who would probably want to change opinions here if it ever became important to their cause.  See [[Troll Protocol]] for more detail on that.''

A [[friendly troll]] may be a funded troll, but probably only if they are paid by the [[Green Party]] or [[Greenpeace]] or some [[animal rights]] or [[Great Ape Personhood]] or [[vegan]] group.  And those have no money, so it's unlikely.  Usually the friendly ones are volunteers like the [[house elf]].

A [[pa-troll]] of many volunteer or expense-paid friendly trolls may be able to uncover funded trolls and track them, since they know all their tricks and methods.  But this quickly turns into fights between [[faction]]s, and the methods learned by friendlies may become used by fundies, and [[technological escalation]] may occur.

To [[con-troll]] these, a system of [[bet]]s like a [[Consumerium Prediction Market]] may be required.  Wishful thinking is that they are never required, and that no funded trolls will appear.  This seems really unlikely if [[marketing]] starts to depend heavily on the [[Opinion Wiki]] here or other traits of [[Consumerium:Itself]].

If such a prediction market is operating, funding trolls makes less sense than just betting.  And bets can be seen, and provide useful signals and information about resistance to changes, while trolls make a living out of being hard to track and trace (like using many IP numbers moin moin!)