What's a troll?
David Iain Greig
>
>I've seen several debates about trolls recently, and I'm begining to
>suspect that the definition of the term has drifted pretty much into
>oblivion. When you use the term 'troll' to describe posting behavior,
>what does it mean?
>
talk.origins, having a large body of regular 'pro-evolution' posters,
has a rather infamous practice known as 'Loki Points'. These are
awarded for a poster posing as a member of 'the other side' and
arguing (usually illogically) for a particular position, and seeing
who they can get replies from arguing against them. Mentioning the
FreeMasons, and the like, are heartily applauded.
This is done in slow periods, and has certain ettiquette, normally involving
some sort of clues in the message header (Arlo King as a user name,
heimdall.com as a posting host, etc.) and has produced some very, very
funny moments. If a smiley is included, the poster garners double points.
You also get really dumb ones. The best are indistinguishable from the
usual Creationist posters. Most get 'I think this is a troll' replies,
or 'Go away, troll.'
A troll is thus either an article that is written specifically to garner
replies, normally disputatious. It is also a label applied to a person
(c.f. 'Ted Frank') who posts such articles. The spirit of the post
might be described as disingenuous (sp?).
--D.