You are a tuna. You float through the ocean, without worry, living happily with your tuna family and friends. Life is good and about to get better, as a delicious-looking treat glides in front of you without warning. You go to take a bite and… you’ve been tricked. It’s a fishing line and you fell for the bait.

Only you are not a tuna, you are a teen on the ’net circa the mid-2000s, and the bait is a link for some free Habbo Credits that actually takes you to a video for contemporary pop singer Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

You have been trolled.

Trolling, as we all know, is a classic fishing technique in which a boat slowly pulls usually multiple baited lines across an area in hopes of enticing fish into falling for the trap that they may be reeled in.

Trolls, as we all know, are mythological beings in Nordic folklore dating back to as early as the 9th century.

Trolling trolls, as we all know, are pranksters who inhabit nearly every corner of the internet since its inception, and likely existed in its predecessors in the 1980s. So what is the big deal with them?

Online Trolls are hard to define. It can be something as benign as someone making a joke like the aforementioned Rick Astley prank, and it can become even more dangerous with modern trolls going so far as to use local authority units to attack people in their homes, a practice known as swatting. They can be malicious in their intent, looking to cause damage to anyone that crosses them. They can feel like dark heroes, taking on what they see as injustice by sinking down to the level of those they go up against. And they can just be clowns hoping to make others smile.

Trolls, much like their modern media representations, come in all shapes and sizes. In the Hydaelyn community, they exist as far back as anyone can remember.

An early adventurer laments to the public that they had been stuck in groups where no one would take their roles seriously. “Yesterday it was a duo of a scholar that didn’t heal, with a dragoon that spammed leg sweep and refused to target nails… A week ago it was a group of Coil-geared folks purposely ruining the runs with stun spam, holy spam, and the tank repeatedly using his limit right before nails fell.”

The first person to react gives the same advice we have all been told time and time again, that it is against TOS, that they should be reported. And yet, as I am sure many of you can attest to, myself included, often that does little. The only countermeasure we are given is to let moderators know of our plights, and yet all we get in return is a “message received” and the thin hope that something will be done.

Even today, adventuring can be a source of a great deal of interpersonal stress. One person I spoke with expressed their pain at finding groups who could not perform to the standards they thought were appropriate for the task. Another found frustration from hunts being toyed with to a detrimental effect by a certain party, tricking the system into ruining the experience for others involved or preemptively striking hunt targets and causing chaos. Another was faced with the silent torment of cruel gestures in Crystalline Conflict matches.

Another had expressed that during their brief stint as a bard, a major opportunity was ruined for them by someone getting on stage to drown them out in a scheduled show at a large venue. But these examples are all relatively harmless, save possible damage done to reputations. What happens when things get too personal?

If you spent time on Aether recently, you may have seen a wall of party finder ads promising 500 million gil giveaways bunched together, usually eight in total. Something should already feel off about this, because most people would expect ads to be staggered, while these pop up one after the other, like clockwork. In fact, it likely is clockwork, as all eight accounts belong to some yet unknown entity. And it seems that rather than a random act of mischief, it is a coordinated effort to sully the names of a few target venues.

A shadowy group was hired to strike out, which was only recently outed somewhat through an audio recording by one of the members. Currently, the Babbler does not have access to said audio, but it has been corroborated by several sources we have deemed to be trustworthy.

Still, on the chance that the information is incorrect, we will not provide any identifying information. There is a group that inhabits Party Finder that is very known for their trolling antics, and they can be identified by their relatively unchanging messages; if you wish to see who they are, look for the eight posting 500 million gil giveaways almost daily on Aether.

It should also be noted that, while an attempt to reach out to all of these accounts was made, none replied, a sign that the puppet master is either not looking or unwilling to respond on the chance the facade is shattered.

So what brought all this about? It is hard to say. Getting a consistent timeline has been a challenge, despite even getting some statements from the former troll group member who turned on their cohorts. Their own involvement in the group is one that they see as justified, providing a tale where a friend lied about being harassed, and those actions give them the desire to infiltrate that harassment group.

They say they wanted to expose the worst people, and perhaps in shedding some light on the current unusual trolls of Party Finder, they have taken a step towards that, but what has it cost?

By their own admission, they targeted one venue in particular because they allege the place tried to doxx them for the trolling they received, but we have not heard any other side of the story, so it is somewhat difficult to verify these claims. Conversely, though, much of their public actions are well-known and documented, including what could be described as hate speech in Ul’dah, as well as using false raffle advertisements to take as much as 12 million gil from unsuspecting victims. While they may claim to be a righteous actor for exposing that a troll group was hired, the rest of their activities in pursuit of this meager win could hardly be described as heroic. But then, when it comes to trolling, are there any heroes?

Even the owner of one of these current Party Finder trolling targets is accused of harassing and stalking a woman to the point where she had to quit. And with such an accusation, you might even think, “They deserve the harassment they are getting.” Perhaps this is the case. Certainly, if those accusations were true, I would not shed a tear for them. However, while they may not be a person worthy of protection, does that mean we should tolerate a roving band of “vigilantes” abusing anyone and everyone just on the off chance they might harm someone who is deserving? That is probably a little extreme.

So what CAN be done? As a whole, honestly, not much. We are mostly constricted to working with moderator reports. However, as previously stated, these are oftentimes imaginary comforts at best. Even when it comes to blatant scams such as the “housing sales” Party Finders, moderators are seemingly slow to act at best, when it is more likely that the scam perpetrators take downtime to rebrand when enough attention is brought up in the community about them. It seems, then, that if a solution is to be found, it would have to come from the community.

One group, headed by a famous fishmonger, makes it their mission to investigate and, when appropriate, take action to limit troll groups. They do this through a philosophy of understanding, rather than attempting to discourage outright. “You don’t want to get upset, but you don’t want to upset them either. If you can pull it off, befriending them is your best option.” Perhaps there is some wisdom there; after all, a friend would likely not want to harm a friend. But this only works when those in question are open to the idea.

Typically the more prankster-type trolls would fall into that category, while those looking to do real harm are less likely to be receptive to a friendly approach. It depends on what the troll is after. If attention is not the goal, then giving it in a nicer way is ineffective. And in the case where a troll cannot be reasoned with, what can you do?

It might seem difficult to let go, but often in these situations, the best thing that can be done is to warn those you can and otherwise just ignore the trolls. If a fight is unwinnable, then do not fight, not if there is nothing to lose by disengaging. And while ignoring may work, certain communities have faced some chagrin regarding policies for publicly outing those trolls that plague us.

I was able to speak with Kana Ki of FFXIV Venues, who was able to clear up some of the reasoning behind these policies. “It’s a policy against ‘calling out.’ Since most venues have drama with an individual or other venue, and of course it’s often very subjective, we keep the discord a neutral and drama-free zone.”

This is not an unreasonable stance, but after hearing about a recent swatting, I felt it necessary to ask about thoughts on possibly implementing a community watch. Ultimately, it came down to a variety of reasons that culminated in an understandable position of lacking the resources and investigative ability to really judge each case as it came up.

While it is a large community, to ask them to act as a justice system is a bit much, and while providing a spot to inform others of trolls might seem good, how long before such a thing becomes inundated with false claims? It is not really fair to put that onto any one community that is unable to do much more than take someone at their word.

So is that it, then? Do we all just throw in the towel and let the trolls do as they wish? Essentially, yes. We cannot fight them, and moderators seem often unmotivated to do anything. Wasting effort on them is just that, a waste. Instead, we can let people know about them (through appropriate channels, of course), try our best to weed our own communities, and move on with our lives.

To do anything else would be like trying to control the weather. You can put on a jacket when it begins to snow, but to try to catch every flake before it hits land is a bit unrealistic.