i always wondered what would motivate someone to o

i always wondered what would motivate someone to only post negatively on social media sites; an interesting article in today's WSJ tells the story of a Facebook site for dissidents in Iran, and the troubles they've had with trolls....

Apparently, someone (or someones) in Iran didn't like the thread on the site, so they hired people (trolls) to flood the site with negative comments, and then report the comments to the site administrator as TOU violations. After about 5 complaints, the site would be shut down, until the "offensive" material was removed. This modus operandi is not uncommon in Russia, or in other areas where state control over media is prevalent.

I had never heard the word "troll" used in this context until I saw it here. And I must say, there are aliases here who have remarkably similar tendencies; the details might change a bit, but the pattern is clear: clog up the site with repetitive, negative commentary, provoke personal attacks, feign offense, and report to admin. Lather, rinse, repeat.

There is one alias today who has posted 28 times (and counting), and another created today that is trying to entice others into personal attacks by lobbing verbal grenades. So the question that I have is: are they paid, or are they un-paid?

If they are paid, I wonder how they get paid: simply by the number of posts they make? By the number of times people read their post? Reply to their posts? How successful they are in goading others to commit TOU offenses, in order to get the site shut down?

And if they are un-paid......how creepy and sad is that?

Regardless - I don't think that there are too many here who don't understand the risk involved with their investment in PTOI; I applaud everyone who puts up with these aliases who don't have any legitimate reason for being here. May your responses to them (if not already on ignore) be measured, and reasoned.