What's a troll?
Jim Kingdon
> 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?
I don't use the word, largely because of the drift which I suspect you
are getting at.
These days it seems to mean "anyone who is posting who I don't like".
That is, it is applied to people who might more precisely be referred
to as unpopular, kooks, fuckwits, &c.
Now, even if troll is narrowly defined to mean "someone who is
deliberately trying to stir up flamewars as a kind of sport", I still
don't know whether I'd use the word much, because I'm not sure that
identifying someone as such, even if it can be done reliably, really
helps much to solve the problem.
Kirrily 'Skud' Robert
>
>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?
I usually use it to mean someone who posts a deliberately erroneous
article in order to fool people into correcting him/her and/or
starting a flamewar on the topic. Perpetuating the misinformation
is OK, as long as it's done in an amusing way.
The first example I can think of, off the top of my head, is the
alt.fan.pratchett "missing chapter" joke, or possibly the
warez.org thing. Both these are of the humorous, rather than
flame-provoking, variety.
K.
--
Kirrily 'Skud' Robert
http://www.netizen.com.au/
YoYo
>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?
As I understand it, a troll is someone who posts false information on the
net with the hope of getting others to believe and/or comment upon it.
This is distinct from "flamebait" which is posting an inflammatory
statement in the hopes of getting people to argue about it. Obviously,
there is some overlap between the two terms, and sloppy usage is further
eroding the distinction between the two.
--
----YoYo------...@tezcat.com------------and stuff------
"Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat."
-Jesse "The Body" Ventura
slow djinn
>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?
Jeez, too embarrassed to ask on a.r.k?
A troll is misinformation posted in order to get people to follow up
and correct you. It should be subtle yet not obscure. A classic
troll is saying Majel Barrett only had a part on Star Trek because she
was married to William Shatner, when it's well-known she was actually
married to Leonard Nimoy. This is different from flamebait, which is
more along the lines of "KIRK RULES, PICARD SUX!!!"
rone
--
You can't write "obsolescent" without "NT". <ro...@ennui.org>