Am I A Troll?

A few days ago, I retweeted the same Childish Gambino lyrics from about twenty different people, twenty times. The line is roughly, “Eating oreos like the white girls that blow me.” I meant to retweet them over at @WhitePowerMilk, but (happily) accidentally put them on my personal account. I think that’s how this conversation got started about retweet curation, twitter as “art”, and what it means to be a troll…

@kurokowa says:
Dude, I’m done, I just can’t take it anymore #intheunfollowcategory

@nateXhill says:
why are you telling me you’re unfollowing? What’s your motivation here?

@nateXhill says:
Maybe I have something to learn from someone who wants to make a thing out of unfollowing me?

@kurokowa says:
following someone is a public endorsement, I wanted my #unfollow to be just as public.

@colinfitz says:
Honestly, your self promotion crosses the line to trolling pretty regularly. You might troll harder than actual trolls

@nateXhill says:
Sometimes I get obsessed w/ things and cannot stop. I wouldn’t call this trolling but it can get annoying

@nateXhill says:
That IS a legitimate reason to unfollow someone. I recognize that. I unfollow people all the time.

@nateXhill says:
Also you’re making the common mistake of reducing my twitter to “Self-promotion”. You cannot separate my art from my persona.

@colinfitz says:
It’s only trolling because you do it in a way that comes across as intentionally antagonistic

@nateXhill says:
How do I troll someone who is following me? You’re using the wrong word.

@colinfitz says:
It’s not the wrong word. Also, I follow trolls because I think lots of them are funny.

@nateXhill says:
Also retweeting certain topics over time in bulk, for me, shows their pervasiveness.

@colinfitz says:
When you retweet yourself in bulk from another account that you own, that’s clear trolling.

@colinfitz says:
Look, trolling can be an art! And can be interesting! I sometimes troll myself! It’s fun!

@colinfitz says:
But the basic definition of trolling is internet behavior whose primary purpose is to antagonize strangers

@kurokowa says:
if #trolling can be art, then farting can be jazz.

@nateXhill says:
Saying that I am trolling is an insult. Are you trying to insult me?

@colinfitz says:
And now you’re trolling again.

@colinfitz says:
My personal opinion, it’s a little gauche when it’s another accnt you own, but fine when it’s original

@BDPNT says:
I’ve always looked at your retweet sets as conceptual #art w/ twitter as gallery wall…

@BDPNT says:
… not always pretty, but trying to establish how a new medium can be used for #art.

@colinfitz says:
This is a digital community space. The way you act in the context of the community has different implications than gallery

@BDPNT says:
In this context an unfollow is akin to choosing to not go to a gallery, but as #art @nateXhill should be judged by its own form.

@colinfitz says:
I don’t think calling something ‘art’ should make it exempt from the types of critique other editorial projects might face

@colinfitz says:
Twitter is a community and a platform. A gallery is a broadcast model of information dispersal, Twitter isn’t

@BDPNT says:
It’s only a community based on how you use it; @nateXhill did not author the tweets so they’re coming from the community… #art

@BDPNT says:
@nateXhill ‘s project can be seen as exposing differences & assumptions between communities using the same social/ digital space.

@BDPNT says:
I don’t have a problem with calling it trolling, only with disallowing it as #art or limiting action within the space.

@BDPNT says:
twitter as gallery rather than community space seems more likely to bridge communities than an actual gallery. #art

@colinfitz says:
The art of it is balancing original content with editorial discretion/finesse of what you retweet

@BDPNT says:
I agree, but at the same time you must allow for different uses of community/space when making those judgements.

@colinfitz says:
It’s not a different use. TONS of people do themed curation of tweets. The ability to tightly edit makes it good/bad

@BDPNT says:
good or bad to you; @nateXhill makes a different point (the ugly side of including all voices?) by not editing. Judge that. #art

@colinfitz says:
What makes it good/bad is if it effectively communicates. If it just shuts people down by annoying, is that effective communication?

@katienotopoulos says:
idk sometime ppl get annoyed when i do RTs too. it’s hard to guess what ppl will like?

@katienotopoulos says:
i don’t mind having like a gazillion RTs clog up my timeline, but i understand that some people don’t like that

@colinfitz says:
i think there’s a balance of how much to do to make the point versus shutting people off that’s hard to find

@nateXhill says:
I stated earlier that tweeting in bulk over time reflects the pervasiveness of a topic. It may be redundant to u however.

@BDPNT says:
I think it’s successful for modeling an overall discourse (in volume, bile) that is normally curated out in polite conversation.

@BDPNT says:
As a visual medium, overwhelming a feed strikes me as integral to the idea, rather than something to stop to improve the #art.

@BDPNT says:
To me the point IS the difficulty in communication (across different communities) thus it should be difficult (medium = message)

@colinfitz says:
The problem is that overwhelming a feed doesn’t always communicate the point well, I would say it more often just disengages the user

@colinfitz says:
If a user is revolted cuz it’s an overload of redundant info that gets in their way, I would say something isn’t working

@nateXhill says:
If the artist finds the thoughts they’re retweeting revolting, then revolting a user is not necessarily bad.

@BDPNT says:
… and I say that revulsion is entirely the point. Sanitizing it for easy consumption would strip out & neuter the content.

@colinfitz says:
The problem with this argument is that you have to follow it in the first place, so the audience is already self selecting.

@colinfitz says:
This is where I think the difference btwn doing a digital project on a social platform vs. freestanding web site diverge

@BDPNT says:
All mediums have limits, but it is the job of the #artist to not be constrained by them any more than necessary. #art