Greater internet f.. theory vs 4 fun ppl theory

We all know the infamous comic:
It's consensually accepted, even among scientists. We see it all the time in action over the internet. But two recent researches offer a much brighter perspective that I'll call "4 fun ppl theory". The first research I reviewed on Monday, stating that people with bad personality traits are likely to post annoying or idiotic messages: Please note that these people posted on their own Facebook page, identified with their real life name, clearly to be seen by family and co-workers. So anonymity, which is key part of the greater internet f... theory was not present.

The second research was done by the young winner of the Google Science Fair: she found that 93% of the posters do not publish a comment if they are warned that it is hurtful. She simply created a software that seeked hurtful words and created a pop-up informing the user that his message will hurt people, is he sure to proceed publishing? Those who mean to be trolls would ignore a popup.

Let me offer the "4 fun ppl theory", which explains the widespread horrible behavior and the recent research: those we consider trolls are people with honest intention to positively socialize, but their extremely low social skills cause them to post hurtful or annoying things instead. My formula is "basement dweller + audience + lack of clear rules or authority = total f..wad".

I know it's hard to believe that one can be so incompetent that he posts obviously hurtful messages without hurting intent. But that comes from our narrow scope of people. The ones you consider "socially inept" are still part of your circles, like the co-worker who always skips the chat at the water cooler. Just like the ones you call dumb are still part of your professional life, like the janitor. But you are aware of the fact that there are almost a billion illiterates in the World, people who are much-much "dumber" than your janitor. Then there must be similar amount of "social illiterates" who are similarly much worse than your introvert co-worker.

The "4 fun peep xd" is a bizarre mental image in the head of basement dwellers about a socially successful person who is funny, friendly, sexy and connected. Of course their image is horribly flawed and

• what they consider funny, others see annoying or dumb
• what they consider friendly, others see as fraternization (think of "bro"-spamming)
  
• what they consider sexy, others see misogynist and sexist
• what they consider being connected ("in the know"), others see meme-spamming and word butchering

Why don't we see them behave the same way in real life? Because of the clear rules and authority. They are not mentally ill, they are capable of following rules. They know that they are supposed to ask for items from a shopkeeper and not telling him jokes. They know that they are supposed to work in their workplace instead of having sex. If they'd forget themselves, an authority figure would soon appear and put an end to their "fun". However in relaxed social situations they try to be friendly and fun which never ends well.

The solution to the harmful internet presence is, removing the key feature of the "4 fun ppl theory": "lack of clear rules or authority". A group that has to include basement dwellers must have clear and present rules and officers keeping it. It's crucial to understand that general guidelines like "don't be a dick" don't work, as the basement dwellers are unable to understand that their "4 fun" behavior is "being a dick" for everyone else. Rather using certain words, posting offtopic, posting with bad grammar should be banned. The rules must be literal, clear, written with the goal to be understandable with someone of zero social skills. So "don't insult women" is bad rule, "don't say anything about sex, genitals or nudity" is a good rule, because they are unable to see that women don't find it funny if a stranger tells them to "post pix of ur tits". I know it's hard to believe that they don't know that. But they are virgins for a reason.

The tragedy of the "4 fun ppl" is that they put their worst inability, their lack of social skills to the front, by trying to be funny and friendly. The goal is to make them focus on their existing (or at least improvable) abilities instead of their disastrous "4 fun peep xd" persona. To make them think of themselves as a "good scout" or "reliable logi pilot" instead of "funny guy" or "good friend". Why? Because "good scout" is something they can become, but they will never, in a million years will be a "funny guy" and whenever they try, they'll fail and usually insult or annoy people in the process.

Please note that I did not deny that some people are purposefully abusive. They are the 7% who posted their comment after the warning. But they are a criminal minority and most of the "trolls" are just too unskilled to see what they are doing.