Trolling for Suckers, Part VIII

Concern troll

A concern troll is a pseudonym created by a user whose point of view is opposed to the one his/her sockpuppet claims to hold. The concern troll posts in web forums devoted to its declared point of view (for example, Democrats or fans of the Prius), and attempts to sway the group's actions or opinions while claiming to share their goals but with some "concerns". The goal is to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt within the group. ^[9]

For example, in 2006 a top staffer for then-Congressman Charlie Bass (R-NH) was caught posing as a "concerned" supporter of Bass's opponent Democrat Paul Hodes on several liberal NH blogs, using the pseudonyms "IndieNH" or "IndyNH." "IndyNH" expressed concern that Democrats might just be wasting their time or money on Hodes, because Bass was unbeatable. ^[10] Bass ended up losing the election.

A real-world equivalent of a concern troll may been seen in the concept of RINOs and DINOs, where a person claims to be a supporter of a particular party's points of view, and then proceeds to more or less agree with the other side's arguments anyway.

An arena notorious for concern trolls is the boards of the various videogame platforms. For example a person may claim to be an avid supporter of the Nintendo and their Wii console, and yet proceed to say terrible things about almost all of the games and about where the company is going in the future. The troll will typically have the view that Nintendo are doing the wrong thing now, and that now would be a good time to buy a Playstation or Xbox console. They may also undermine Nintendo's credibility by acting as if to say: "I am Nintendo's number 1 fan... but let's be realistic they're not really that good compared to Sony or Microsoft". The troll will often also praise earlier Nintendo games, while having a very dim view of Nintendo's future. In reality this type of troll may not even own a Nintendo Wii or the previous consoles they are talking about, and are just looking to provoke a reaction from long-time Nintendo supporters who are hoping for Nintendo's success to continue. The troll may also hope to allow his/her own gaming platform to succeed better by using this smear campaign. If the troll came in just bashing the other gaming platform, they would have a clear motive if they didn't own the platform themselves and were "biased" against that company.