The Implication

A field note about how Trolla pages implicate their readers.

The implication

Every Trolla page implicates its reader. Implication is not explicit — the pages do not say "you are a Trolla." The implication is structural: the page's content, its links, and its placement in the cluster all implicate the reader.

How implication works

Implication works through pattern recognition. The reader recognizes the pattern. Once the pattern is recognized, the reader is implicated — they are part of the pattern, whether or not they wrote the page.

The self-aware implication

Some Trolla pages are self-aware about their implication. The meta/trolla/the-second-person page directly addresses the reader. It is the most explicit form of implication — but even the implicit forms work.

The implication's evidence

The evidence of implication is in the cluster's link structure. Every page that links to a Trolla page is implicated by that link. The act of linking is the act of implicating oneself in the cluster's narrative.

This implication

This page is a field note about implication. It implicates its reader by pointing out the implication. The reader is now aware that they are implicated. This awareness changes the implication.