I have been targeted twice by trolls at two sites.  I know of others who have also been targeted aw well.  Now I have seen a new one targeting several artist and delivering his (male gender presumed) messages of discouragement through gallery comments.

It may that they are fustrated would be artists, since in each of those cases I have found nothing created by those individuals, at least under the username that they are trolling under.  No galleries , nothing for sale, no free items, not even customized home pages at the sites that support them.

The comments made by these people are never nice nor constructive.  Rather they try to discourage their victims.  Such as pointing our error (real or imagined) and then make comments like "Your picture is making me sick", "This picture is junk", "You have the nerve to post a picture as terrible as this one?".  

I don't understand why they do it.  Do they think it is fun to discourage people, include people who may be just beginning and very unsure of their abilities already?  I don't understand it.

Although, I have not been targeted by this newest one who is doing his dirty deeds in public.  I am thinking of sending him a message stating that I have seen his messages about the problems he found in other people's works and I would like to see some of his artwork.  Centarian gave me that idea.

Pangor

I think that people who feel the need to bully others, feel inferior and are generally stupid. Through their behavior it becomes clear to everyone else that they (the bullies) are inferior and stupid, even though it's the bully's intention to hide that fact.
I don't know what the best thing would be, attention might be what he wants and then it's not what he should get. I don't know which sites you're talking about, but you might want to read what their tos says about members conduct. If it has rules about it, you can write a letter, where you sound nice to the bully and trick thim into answering you in a nasty way, then you show his reply and your pm/im to an admin and get his butt kicked out of there. Since bullies are stupid by nature tricking him/her shouldn't be hard.

Here a behaviour like that means immediate warnings and then ethernal ban. In any case they are people who don't understand why a person want to make art. I (we) consider the will of the person to improve his/her work and if I can I give him some suggestions. I tend to do this expecially on works evidently made by newbies, it's my character. I agree with Thilda, he wants attention and a reason to quarrel, so just ignore him. Where is he trolling ? If he is on tapestry they have a very similar software of our one so you can select from the profile to ignore him, even if I don't know if it will work on their gallery. Anyway pangor the rule is "don't feed the troll"   you know it   , and don't care of those little pieces of sh.. , they live only to give negative energy to other people, they live badly   ...

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It is at the Big R.  I have fallen way behind in viewing an commenting on pictures.  So I found some time to go through some of the ebots.  (I hate to say it but I am way behind here at PF too. )

While I was dealing with some of the ebots, I noticed the same pattern of comments made by this person one various, relativly new artist who I feel show much talent but are still developing their techinques and learning how to use their tools.

In each case the comment begins with noticing a flaw and then escalates.  I saw only one positive comment posted by him and that was a comment to a picture by one of the established masters.  It seems that he demands his idea of perfection in all works posted.

I got curious about his work, and so did my Mom.  She said, let's see if he can do better.  I found nothing by him, just an empty homepage--that fits the pattern that I have seen by others doing the same.

It seems based on who he has already targeted, that he finds his targets by following comment links and perhaps favorites list links.  So, by commenting to several of his targeted artists I have become a potiential target and through me, those who have commented on my works or are in my lists.  That includes members of PF who have uploaded their works over there.

What I am going to send him by IM is, as an initial contact, if and when he targets me:

Quote:

I have seen your comments on the works of multiple talented artists.  You sound like you have a good eye for art and discovering the flaws contained in their works of art.  I would appreciate if you would share with us examples of your superior art works.  That would help to establish your credibility. At the moment you lack credibility because of the condition of your homepage and your lack of gallery uploads, free item contributions, or merchant status, appears to be completely unfounded.

I am curious if the self-doubt that he is trying to inflict on others, could be reflected back to him.


Can you believe it, it took three edits to get this posting the read this way.   Almost four, I spotted another typo just before re-submitting


Pangor

Tormie, I am the same way as you.  I tend to complement the good part of their works, and offer advice for improvement.  If I comment on a problem, I also will try to offer a solution.  I try to always avoid discouraging anyone, even by accident.

Now I am going to quit writing for the night and go to bed.  I am making too many typos and I just corrected a sematic error in the previous paragraph, that would have made it sound like I am the same as the troll!  

So good night.

Pangor

"I am curious if the self-doubt that he is trying to inflict on others, could be reflected back to him. "

I think that is the case... Usually when i comment on others's images, i say what the image makes me feel, or think about. If it does have a misstake in it that i would know how to correct, i might mention it and a solution to the problem.

Of corse i guess i can be thought of as a troll if i say how the image makes me feel and it's a bad feeling, but if i thought i was right - i would let the artist know any way. Actually that has only happened once and that was today

No, Thilda, not at all.  I don't think that would make you a troll.  For example, I don't think you ever told anyone sometime like, "She looks too cold and lifeless, just like your brain is, get rid of it.", or "the blisters are making me sick!  I can't stand looking at them.", or "Making pictures like this, you have no right to have Poser, delete it."

The first of those comments was made by IM and repeated several times for a couple of days, reguarding: Greetings From Nereus.  The second was also made by IM about Narcissus In Love and continued util I uploaded the close up of the character.  The third was one posted by the troll in question this time in reguards to a work by a promising beginner who shows talent and need to develop his skills with the tools some more.  (Each of these are from memory, so exact wording my not be identical to the original comment.)


Pangor

No, i wouldn't say something like that. I came across a photo that i thought was mean to post in the gallery and that is what i told the artist.

Stating your displeasure at a somthing that is mean spirited is certainly not a case of trolling.

Pangor

An interesting conversation, to say the least, and I sympathize completely.  I belong to ACIDplanet, the music site, and Armageddon breaks out over there about every other day over similar stuff.  I was attacked for not leaving criticisms.  Now that was strange . . .

Yes, that is strange.  There is someone at Renderosity that made a similar demand in a public comment.   He wanted people to reserve compliments to only that absolute best artists, which he considered himself to be.  Another person made a comment at another site, can't remember which one, that unless people start posting comments criticizing the works of others, their complements mean nothing.

I don't know about others, but at the big sites like those, my posted comments are only compliments, because with so many works of art being posted each day.  I tend to concentrate my attention on those who produce works that I like either very good, or beginners who could use a pointer and deserve a complient for what they have achieved.

Pangor

Links, please

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I have only ever posted 2 images and that they are on this site, I find that the comments made within the album on this site are always friendly and polite. Other Sites it seems from what I can see are not encouraging this friendly and pleasant atmosphere. Why must they have to criticise just to give them some form of credibility to the positive comments? Surely this just causes animosity within its members. It's one thing to have a genuine suggestion on an image but to rip it apart to make them look as if they are an art critic is very sad and can and does effect the creator of that work.

Taz

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The bananas rock once more.

Honestly I tend to give suggestions only to my friends, the people I know very well or the evidently newbies because I don't know the reactions of all the people. I think the right kind of suggestion is not "it is wrong" but "try it on that", one has not to say only that one thing is wrong, but if it's wrong for you you should know how to fix it your way...

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I feel that most folks know what needs to be done with their art to improve it, so I just try to be encouraging when leaving comments.  It takes a lot of courage to post stuff at sites like this one, considering all the boo-birds that are around . . .