I don’t believe that. The ‘trolls paradise’ was created by the sheer number of people online, period. Youtube comments didn’t suddenly become toxic when Google bought them; youtube comments became progressively more toxic as more and more people arrived on the scene to use the service and as it became an invaluable tool. Facebook didn’t create or even empower the troll any more than MySpace, Livejournal or even USENET did. The Internet wasn’t some magical place that one day became terrible…it just became much more noticeable that terrible people were there.
MUDs and USENET newsgroups and even old school BBSes has plenty of the same behaviors…but it was in a marginalized, niche group. It’s one thing when the two girls on the MUSH have to put up with scummy comments, but quite another when an online community in the millions does the same to thousands of female players…and that difference is primarily of scale and people documenting it.
