The Tigerwolf Effect

The Tigerwolf Effect is an Internet law concerning the behavior of normal internets users when encountering a lolcow behaving in a non-lulzy fashion. It particularly applies to LiveJournal snark communities.

Most commonly the effect is found in SF Drama, along with Stupid free.

The law

If a person has been wrong or stupid even once on a certain forum, users of that forum will disagree with or mock anything that person says in the future, even if that person is right.

Why Tigerwolf?

Tigerwolf is a furfag with strange ideas about anatomy, freetardism, and proper customer service. He has said some unbelievably stupid things on these and other subjects, as his article and his stupid_free tag suggest.

For a period of several months in 2007, Tigerwolf went without saying anything particularly stupid. When asked, he said that he had dumped a dramariffic boyfriend and several associated friends, and that his life had improved to the point that he no longer felt the urge to pick fights on LiveJournal as often as he once had.

However, despite his (in the end, temporary) restoration of sanity, almost every post he made had at least one self-appointed dramacrat posting clever comments like "SELF-CLEANING ANUS LOL" or "IN B4 TIGERWOLF WANK." This happened even when he agreed with everyone else in the community. Some argue that his eventual return to form was due to his reasoning that, if everyone was going to treat him like a troll anyway, he might as well act like one.

Tigerwolf is the canonical example of this effect in action.

Other examples

• shaky_girl and meupatdoes got into an argument about parental rights. shaky_girl decided that she had TOTALLY PWNED her opponent because meupatdoes had been featured previously in Stupid free, and declared victory. However, shaky_girl was demonstrably wrong, and refused to concede the point until other, more respected LJ users corrected her; even then, she fell back on the old "you have too much time on your hands!" defense.
• Yellowsnakepoet, noted lolcow, posts in Customers suck about a guy asking her questions about her love life. Even though she's known for whining about her virginity, the guy is still being creepy and inappropriate, so her post isn't stupid. deathslilsister posts the incident to stupid_free anyway, and is convicted of massive fail by other members.
• Since aria_star has an eating disorder, some people feel the need to alert the internets every time she makes a post.

The role of snark

Snark communities play a significant role in perpetuating the Tigerwolf Effect on LJ. This is partly because they serve as a lulz archive, allowing users to look up past drama; however, they also instill a sense of unwarranted self-importance in their members. Posting a "good snark" will get a user dozens or even hundreds of positive comments in the major communities, so attention whores scour LJ for good material.

A common symptom of the Tigerwolf Effect is people posting under a title like "I sense impending drama!" or "There's nothing here right now, but I bet it's gonna be stupid!" Others just post anything at all from a lolcow regardless of content, thinking that creating quality drama is as simple as remembering something someone said once and repeating it IN ALL CAPS.

Isn't this just calling for a raid?

No. Most LJ snark comms have a specific rule against raiding. Joining a community specifically to troll someone is considered bad form, and trolling personal journals is right out, leaving members with no acceptable methods for generating lulz. Therefore, posting about a lolcow is completely useless unless s/he is actually doing something funny -- a concept that most users simply don't get.

The Tigerwolf Effect is part of a series on Trolls Visit the Trolls Portal for complete coverage.

The Tigerwolf Effect is part of a series on Furfaggotry Visit the Furfaggotry Portal for complete coverage.

The Tigerwolf Effect is part of a series on LiveJournal Visit the LiveJournal Portal for complete coverage.