“I seem to recall organisinga coordinated intrusion of a forum inhabited by Morris dancers”
Iam a man of a certain age, unfortunately quite an old one these days. Which is why I can not only remember online life before the internet became accessible to the masses and the World Wide Web had yet to be invented, but also when trolling wasn’t a hateful activity. Indeed, back in the early days of online communities I used to be quite well known on one of them, CIX, for being a pain in the arse – but one without a nasty bone in his body. I was trolling before trolling had been given a name.
Yet my particular brand of trolling, often fuelled by a little too much whisky, reflected my personality: Winder by name, wind-up merchant by nature. I liked to make people laugh, although not everyone thought it funny at the time, of course. I seem to recall organising a coordinated intrusion of a forum inhabited by Morris dancers where we proceeded to start “dancing” by posting messages such as “jingle jangle” followed by “whacks a stick” and more jingling. I’m not sure that was appreciated, but it was humorous.
I, er, once “created” a fake account at an online
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