The Greatest Troll Ever?

Posts to this blog have to be approved. It’s not so that I can censor anyone. Any social media writer will tell you that the very best publicity for a social media account are comments. And negative comments are the best. If you can get a controversy going, it draws viewers like specators at a fight. But, it also draws trolls.

TROLL: A person whose sole purpose in life is to seek out people to argue with on the internet over extremely trivial issues. Such arguments can happen on blogs, Facebook and a host of others.

No, I have to approve new comments to keep out the spammers, scammers and internet trolls. It’s flattering in a distressing sort of way, to think that my little scribblings are worth someone trying to target them.

But, it’s not me, they are after: it’s you. I honestly think spammers and virus writers should be eligible for the death penalty. So far, I’ve been lucky. But, occasionally one will slip through.

Sometimes they are clever. The blog is hosted on WordPress at rodneymbliss.wordpress.com. It redirects to staging.rodneymbliss.com. You can create an acount on WordPresss that isn’t tied to any of your other accounts. It could be a made to look like a legitimate name. That’s why I screen them. The scammers and spammers also try to offer personalized messages. “Hey Rodney, it was great reading you inspiring story. It reminds me of a story I wrote here http://badvirussite.com.” I typically ignore them, or mark them as SPAM if they are too dangerous.

Yesterday I wrote a post about trusting my neighbors and them trusting me. (On Trusting People) It generated a lot of interest. People seemed to enjoy it. It also generated some comments. This one appeared on WordPress,

I am always pleased to discover another one of your stories hidden in my day. Wish you could have heard more of big grandpa stories. He like you was a Master at it.

Seems fairly innocuous. It was signed:

Mom

Was it my dear mother, or one of the greatest trolls ever? I considered the fact it might be someone trolling me. But, eventually I became convinced it actually was my dear 74 year old mother. Apparently she had logged into WordPress and created an account with the name “Mom.”

The convincing clue was “big grandpa.” That’s what we called my great-grandfather. He was old when I was young.

Big Grampa with my brothers, cousins and me

I remember him, but sadly I don’t remember any of his stories. He was one of the last of the Blair line. He had one son, who never married, and the rest were daughters, including my grandmother, my mother’s mother.

Big Grampa, his wife and children, including my grandmother

So, I’m convinced it really was my dear mother posting the comment. But, if not, it was the best internet troll ever.

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

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