In today's zoology class we'll be studying three types of trolls, ideally in the same neutral manner as biologists study all kinds of neurodiversity in the jungle, which includes non-judgmental descriptions of inquisitors, moralists and the judgemental, since they too are a natural part of life in our universe.

There are at least three subgroups of trolls:

The ugly troll is a rebel without a cause who just want to provoke in order to provoke, sometimes with skillful humor but not in a pro-social way.

The evil troll is a real danger, especially if it's a high-functioning dark triad individual.

The good troll is either chaotic neutral (unaligned) or chaotic good.They are found in many indigenous traditions.

How can you differentiate between these three types of trolls?

First look at their history. All in all, is a troll contributing to causing good or evil, or (juvenile) mischief, in a society?

An unaligned troll can be recognized by seeing that he/she at least respects facts, logic and the methods/practices of science, cf Sokal, Lakatos, and the discourse ethics of Habermas for example.

A good troll uses some of the language and methods of the other trolls in an attempt to reveal the hidden shadow side of hypocrites and reality-deniers. But without engaging in ad hominem arguments (personal attacks). The spirit and tone is similar to jokes, (self-)irony, paradoxes and absurdity, a bit like Beckett for instance. A good troll defends the underdog.

Being unaligned or chaotic good presupposes that you are not a leader and not a follower. Independent of all groups, while viewing all power as a basically primitive feature of (carbon-based) life.

If suspecting that another person is a troll, how do you approach such a creature?

Responding to him or her in a sarcastic, ironic, ambiguous or (passive) aggressive manner is not a good idea if you want to find out whether he or she is malignant or benign. Because a troll will instinctively and subconsciously interpret this manner of response as being kind of trollish. All three types of trolls will therefore react to it with more troll behavior.

Instead, if you are upset because of trolling, simply be honest about it and for example say to the suspected troll: You speak in an ambiguous manner, so I'm not sure whether you are trying to harm my values/interests, and it will therefore be nice if you can please express yourself in a way that is clearer to me.

If you communicate respectfully and sincerely with a troll, as just described above, the good ones will always change tone and respond in kind.

Be aware however that the most high-functioning evil trolls are so good at manipulation that they can go through life without almost no one ever being able to prove that they are up to no good. But if you respectfully, without accusation, inform him/her, in front of others if necessary, that you get a feeling that (s)he is a troll, then the community will at least be aware of this possibility and hopefully act accordingly, but without jumping to conclusions or prematurely shutting down debates.

An option is to simply ignore trolls, but this exclusion of another person is then based on an assumption. Or you lose an opportunity to help him or her to communicate more constructively. It's therefore better to say: Your text can be interpreted as trolling. Is that your intention?

If the person keeps being ambiguous and subtly hostile, then put him/her on the ignore list.

Short online texts, however, can sometimes be like Rorschach tests. Even when the author tries to be clear; or he/she naively assumes that others will understand the (inside) joke or (meta-)irony. It's a chance that readers misunderstand because we all have biases and prejudices, making it relatively easy to read things into a text which the author did not intend.

Please keep the following in mind before stating that another person is trolling: how would you have felt if being accused in public of evil/ugly trolling when that was not your intention?

All trolls have thick skin however. I'm an unaligned troll, (but also much more than that, since we all contain multitudes). When I sometimes cross borders of controversy, and walk on the edge in how I communicate, then I basically have no right to complain when some critics interpret my ambiguities in the worst possible manner. But when I see that things are starting to go sideways, for real, then I quickly deescalate.

Why be a troll? What's the point? It's sometimes a question of neurodiversity. For more on that read NeuroTribes by Silberman.

Why is this relevant in this forum? Because trolls are part of the ESO lore and also appear here and there in this discussion forum. Knowing the nature of trolls can therefore be somewhat rpg entertaining and clarifying in real life.