mole

One who posts a subtly obnoxious message to a newsgroup or message board under the guise of being humanitarian or altruistic. Some posts are carefully worded to guilt the reader into responding in a positive manner. It's a subtle form of trollism relying on making people feel uncomfortable without being direct. The mole's seemingly innocent/positive posts are often allowed to stay out of fear of offending them, or the "attack" is too borderline and so everyone lets it slide. They may post something that in another context is fine, but paired in a context where it does not belong, which is the only thing causing it to be inappropriate, rather than the more direct and obvious provocative tactics used by an internet troll.

A patchy grey puppy photo was posted into several internet Black Labrador Retriever fan groups. The text on the puppy picture said, "I am ugly, but can I get a like and a share?". Several people actually replied "to the puppy" directly and in empathy as if the puppy were the "person" posting, also disregarding that the breed didn't even belong in that group.

Another chronic mole was a member of a famous philosopher internet fan group. Rather than posting quotes from that philosopher, or ideas in sync with theirs, she was making up her own philosophical statements, the majority of which had no relation to, or were often in direct opposition to the tenets of the philosopher. Because her words are not blatantly combative or provocative, admins feel "coerced" not to ban her despite her departure from the intended support of the group subject.