The troll has multiple accounts to harass people.
A troll will use multiple accounts to keep track of their targets – especially if targets block them. Beware of the language they use. They do not change who they are; they change their tactics.
The troll will talk about and attack other platforms via your platform.
People can use their platforms however they like, but I am leery of people who come to my platform talking negatively outing other people. I am never looking to make enemies. I am looking to live in peace.
These people do not even have to be trolls. They might just be people who are upset and take to my platform (or another platform) to air their grievances because they are (1) hurt and/or (2) found something within my posts that resonated with them. So they share their experience.
However, I do not like negative posts on my platform with the intention to name and out other people. I do not even care if the other person they are naming is a narcissist. I just see naming and outing people as shaming them. I do not want to shame people.
I also do not want to become culpable as if I am advocating what the troll actually says. I am always cautious when this happens because in my eyes, the troll is, in fact, instigating a smear campaign against another person while looking for me and others who follow to sympathize with them.
I can sympathize and empathize with a person’s experience without having to know names, but that is my opinion. I just do not like it. If I do not personally know the person, I can only go on that person’s words. I would rather relate and connect with the person’s experience instead of having a visual name and face attached to it.
Besides wanting to remain private, I do not advocate outing people’s names and faces in my personal stories because I still want to leave open a door for change. Anyone can change, and even though it is rare for a narcissist to change, it is not entirely impossible. So, I leave room for people to do to so even if they are a part of a dark chapter in my life story.
[Of course, it is different and controversial when it comes to certain topics … like proven acts of criminality. Those people are often already publicly named and outed as they should be.]
You feel the need to defend yourself against a troll.
Anytime I feel the need to defend myself against a troll regarding my shared personal story or shared posts which significantly relate to my personal experiences with narcissists, then I know I am dealing with a trolling individual.
These people are toxic and should be weeded off of your platform via blocking because they will only pose you further problems and destroy your peace. At least that is based on my experience. You are free to handle it as you see fit.
The troll tracks your patterns to stalk you.
Trolls track what they believe to be your patterns for posting to your platform. I always found it strange how one troll would show up in my DMs within moments of my posting to my platform. This troll had tracked me enough to figure out when I was probably available.
Yet, even when I was not actually available, I would be inundated with continuous notifications about DMs from this specific troll. I could not help but wonder if the troll had a life of their own because I surely have one. I later had to explain to the troll that my focus is about my life and my responsibilities.
This troll behaved as if they owned me and all my time. I could not get on Twitter without my inbox being filled with DMs from this specific troll, and I am not exaggerating when I say my phone pinged about DMs nonstop and around the clock from this troll. It was annoying.
I found myself having to excuse myself from communication to eat, sleep, go to work, etc. I would later on realize that this troll was most likely making notes of this as being my actual schedule based on how often they sent me DMs.
The nail on the head came when I realized that this was most likely the pattern of behavior that this specific troll took to other people’s platform. After I decided to investigate this troll’s page to be sure, I discovered that this troll was verbally abusive to other people such as calling people fat, ugly, stupid, or narcissists. This troll actually had a habit of publicly outing other people for not responding to the their DMs.
When I questioned the troll about this behavior and pointed out how their behavior actually made them look like the “bad guy” instead of the “good guy” they made themselves out to be, the troll did not take accountability but instead pointed out the reasons why all the things they said about the other people were true.
This was my exit, and I took a step back to decide on the best way to close the door on this troll. I really did not have to because by having a life that kept me from responding to a DM on the troll’s time, the troll verbally assassinated me with a long DM post about my failure to comply to their DMs. So, I departed with words of my own and blocked the troll. [but more on that story in the next post]
The troll is often a narcissist who lacks empathy and human decency of concern for others.
Overtime, a troll reveals this fact based on the things that they post and the tone in which they post them.
My Voice Unchained 