# What is a Troll?



## allenjp (May 1, 2008)

Sorry, I'm new here and I don't know what this means...

Could someone explain it so I don't unwittingly make myself sound like one because no one here seems to like them much...

Thanks and pardon the ignorance.


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## thardey (May 1, 2008)

allenjp said:


> Sorry, I'm new here and I don't know what this means...
> 
> Could someone explain it so I don't unwittingly make myself sound like one because no one here seems to like them much...
> 
> Thanks and pardon the ignorance.



I'm not sure if there is a universal definition, but I figure a Troll is someone who posts controversial messages just to get people worked up, and then either sits back and watches people fight over it, or sometimes continues to feed the fire, usually with emotional arguments and personal attacks. 

There are people who post controversial messages just to get people worked up, but they actually care about the questions they ask, and support their beliefs with well-thought out logic and facts. If they are shown to be wrong, they learn from it, and thank people for actually answering their question. These are "Good Posters" and are the ones with all kinds of little green dots in the upper right-hand corner. (Generally)


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## tellner (May 1, 2008)

A troll is someone whose communications are designed to cause dissension and argument *for the sake of* causing trouble. If memory serves it comes from the days of dial-up bulletin board communications and early UUCP networks. We programmed computers by moving magnets over wire wrapped cores to set individual bits, and we had to look out or dinosaurs would step on us while we were doing it :wink2:

I believe the original etymology wasn't "Troll" as in something that lives under a bridge and doesn't like billygoats. It was "Trawl" as in "trawling for flames". A flame, as you will no doubt find out, is a heated, emotionally charged angry message. 

Trolls are generally not looking to provoke discussion, push people out of their emotional comfort zone for the sake of discourse or even get people to reveal their authentic emotional position. The most common motivation is the feeling of power that comes from ruining something and being noticed for the vandalism. In real face-to-face encounters it is the sort of thing that leads to ostracism in polite circles or beatings and being ridden out of town on a rail when the response is a bit too authentic and heartfelt


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## FieldDiscipline (May 1, 2008)

You're both wrong.  This is a troll.







So is:


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## The Last Legionary (May 1, 2008)

An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
Or, someone who gets off on causing others grief.


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## ackks10 (May 1, 2008)

no, no, this is a troll:whip:


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## Touch Of Death (May 1, 2008)

Trolls can be essential conversation starters.
Sean


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## Bob Hubbard (May 1, 2008)

I see a difference between "controversial poster" and "troll".  The former may hit on unpopular topics, have unpopular viewpoints and cause some commotions.  The latter does the same but rarely if ever does anything but cause problems.


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## allenjp (May 1, 2008)

ackks10 said:


> no, no, this is a troll:whip:


 
This is CLASSIC. I love it


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## Flying Crane (May 1, 2008)

FieldDiscipline said:


> You're both wrong. This is a troll.


 
Hmmm... this one might actually be an Ent.


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## jks9199 (May 1, 2008)

Bob Hubbard said:


> I see a difference between "controversial poster" and "troll".  The former may hit on unpopular topics, have unpopular viewpoints and cause some commotions.  The latter does the same but rarely if ever does anything but cause problems.


Absolutely.

Controversy - or even just poor communication DOES NOT equal a troll.  You can disagree with almost everyone else on a board, argue your point strongly, and not be a troll.  You can even make posts solely to be controversial and not become a troll (though you're treading a fine line!).  

A troll stirs up ****.  There's no better way to put it; they don't care to discuss a point, they don't care to see what others think, they're just out to cause ****.  In real life, they're that idiot at a bar who will argue with the bar stool if nobody will listen... and get in and lose an argument with that bar stool.


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## Bob Hubbard (May 1, 2008)

Deciding who is and isn't a troll tends to be a rough task.  What one site considers trolling another site may welcome openly. 

There are a number of guides online that take a shot at defining them, their behaviors, etc.

In the end though, we look at the bottom line. If we feel someone's here just to cause headaches, argue and otherwise disrupt the site, those are trolls to us.


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## Touch Of Death (May 2, 2008)

jks9199 said:


> Absolutely.
> 
> Controversy - or even just poor communication DOES NOT equal a troll. You can disagree with almost everyone else on a board, argue your point strongly, and not be a troll. You can even make posts solely to be controversial and not become a troll (though you're treading a fine line!).
> 
> A troll stirs up ****. There's no better way to put it; they don't care to discuss a point, they don't care to see what others think, they're just out to cause ****. In real life, they're that idiot at a bar who will argue with the bar stool if nobody will listen... and get in and lose an argument with that bar stool.


I'll have you know I kicked that barstool's ***!
Sean


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## Tez3 (May 2, 2008)

On an MMA site I go on we had quite a good thread going on about a recent disagreement between two fighters, we mostly all know each other so it was probably more in the way of gossiping to be truthful lol anyway this new poster calling himself "Big Stan" came on and started threatening people, came over aggressive and insulting One of the mods posted up that Big Stan and another poster "Ben Hutch" were one and the same as they had same IP address moreover, Ben Hutch had proudly posted up a photo of himself with Don Henderson at the recent Seni expo in London. Ben looked 12 but is in fact 16 rofl! You've never seen anyone backpedal so fast! He had the grace to apologise though! it was very funny :EG:


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## elder999 (May 2, 2008)

tellner said:


> A troll is someone whose communications are designed to cause dissension and argument *for the sake of* causing trouble.
> 
> *<snip!>*
> 
> Trolls are generally not looking to provoke discussion, push people out of their emotional comfort zone for the sake of discourse or even get people to reveal their authentic emotional position. The most common motivation is the feeling of power that comes from ruining something and being noticed for the vandalism. In real face-to-face encounters it is the sort of thing that leads to ostracism in polite circles or beatings and being ridden out of town on a rail when the response is a bit too authentic and heartfelt


 

A good example might be constantly posting about, oh, I dunno, the inherent racism of the Democratic party-based upon 100 year old policy-in nearly every thread that one could....

...or, in my case, responding to it. :lol:


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## tellner (May 3, 2008)

elder999 said:


> ...or, in my case, responding to it. :lol:



That's what you get for leaving our billy goat at home


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