Editing Trollism

'''Trollism''' is a [[wiki ideology]] that idealizes the activities of [[trolls]]. Trollists not only accept the label '''[[troll]]''' but they are proud to "be a troll", they claim to be trolls, and many use the word "troll" in their user name.  It's doubtful that this can be done without depriving the word ''troll'' of the meaning [[sysop]]s apply (negative judgement from a dictator or group perspective - see [[community point of view]]) or creating a logical paradoxon.  Either of which could be assumed to be an objective of '''trollist''' activities - which seem to focus on resisting power, most especially [[technological escalation|technologically granted power]]s that do not come from any moral or educational qualifications, but usually only from [[infrastructure owners trust]], which trolls reject as a decision criterion.

Seen from the outside trollism concentrates on the valid points and positive effects of trolling and neglects its de-constructive content. So it appears as a simplification. [[Sysopism]] and Trollism seem to be two sides of the same coin: misuse of power.  One is the result of the other in a hen-egg relationship and each of these ideologies claims to be necessary to control the negative effects of the other.  However, interestingly, sysopism arises from the desire to [[control]] [[Vandalism]], a third and seemingly unrelated view, but which trolls insist the sysops themselves embody (see [[sysop vandalism]] and [[Sysop Vandal point of view]]).  Sysops are authorized to control vandals but seem to inevitably go too far and define trolls into existence (see [[troll-formative injustice]]), whereupon the trolls insist on creating a rival power structure to control the vandalism of the sysops and [[sysop vigilantiism|vigilantiism]] against themselves and innocent bystanders.  All of this can probably be described as [[politics as usual]]:

While sysops claim to be the guardians of a "[[neutral point of view]]" which favours the existing participants, the trolls counter with their "[[New Troll point of view]]" which would favour the input of fresh and new perspectives from under-represented [[faction]]s.  This may be a simple right vs. left type of division, as exemplified by [[Wikipedia Red Faction]] who seem to be some of the most obvious exponents of trollism as such.

However, there is a real difference in tactics:  The main difference is that [[technological escalation|sysops misuse technology granted power]] and [[trollish|trolls seem to be exploiting linguistic power]]s such as the ability to write poetry, make puns, and create [[conceptual metaphor]]s that reinforce their resistance to the [[sysop power structure]].  It is not clear that '''trollist''' activities even imply belief in '''trollism''', the ideology may be projected as a farce or mockery of the beliefs of the hated sysops.

[[Controllism]] on the other hand seems to be a belief that trolls can somehow be made into "not trolls" by putting troll language on top of [[sysop]] activity.  This usually does not fool the trolls!

See also: [[Wikiism]], [[m:Wikipedia Vicious Cycle]]

=== References ===

''Most articles are quite critical of so-called '''trollism''' where they perceive it, and many simply confuse it with [[politics as usual]]:''

*[http://www.strategypage.com/messageboards/messages/91-1292.asp Patterns of Global Trollism]