What is Troll?

-- Eric Sandin (ericsandin@msn.com), February 08, 2000

Answers

There is your answer, Eric.

-- Kyle (fordtbonly@aol.com), February 08, 2000.

Yes, apparently i am the troll. sorry about that.

peace&love, e

-- Eric Sandin (ericsandin@msn.com), February 08, 2000.

On this board, someone who questions whether or not Y2K is/was worth the panic-mongering associated with it, thereby baiting those whose significance is wrapped up in Y2K doom-prediction. Thus, such a poster is "trolling" for replies that make the Y2K issue look dumb.

Generally speaking, the Y2K-doomers think "troll" is a slur, and the trolls consider it a successful post if they bait someone into replying. So it's sort of a win/win, which is nice.

-- ImSo (lame@prepped.com), February 08, 2000.

Eric, hope you didn't take me wrong. I meant the guy who posted to your question.

ImSo...LOL. Dead on.

-- Kyle (fordtbonly@aol.com), February 08, 2000.

I tend to define a troll as one who is deliberately attempting to disrupt civilized discourse on the forum...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), February 08, 2000.

From the 'Tolkien Monster Encyclopaedia':

TROLLS (Torog in Sindarin) are big, strong and stupid creatures not very common in Middle Earth. They eat anything they get their hands on and it is said that if a troll had a brain half as big as his stomach he would be the most intelligent creature in the world. They are extremely sensitive to sunlight. There are many different species of trolls, e.g. cave-trolls, snow-trolls, stone-trolls, hill-trolls, mountain-trolls and olog-hai, there are even rumours of two-headed trolls.

-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), February 08, 2000.

Definition of a troll (from the hacker slang dictionary)

What is a troll?

HTH

-- LunaC (LunaC@LunaC.com), February 08, 2000.

-- _ (_@_._), February 08, 2000.

TROLL PICTURE

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 08, 2000.

A Troll

-- AW Dragon (awdragon@yahoo.com), February 08, 2000.

From the Hacker's Dictionary link above:

troll

troll v.,n. 1. [From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase "trolling for newbies" which in turn comes from mainstream "trolling", a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you don't fall for the joke, you get to be in on it. 2. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that the have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand - they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the net, as in, "Oh, ignore him, he's just a troll." 3. [Berkeley] Computer lab monitor. A popular campus job for CS student. Duties include helping newbies and ensuring that lab policies are followed. Probably so-called because it involves lurking in dark cavelike corners.

Some people claim that the troll (sense 1) is properly a narrower category than flame bait, that a troll is categorized by containing some assertion that is wrong but not overtly controversial. See also Troll-O-Meter. Note from OG: On this forum, troll posts usually originate with "pollies," or as they are now pleased to call themselves, "anti-doomers."

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 08, 2000.

. . . .regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that they have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand - they simply want to utter flame bait.

That's one of the best definitions I've ever seen of what a troll is.

-- (Words@and.phrases), February 08, 2000.

Hey there-Eric- I am a troll! I usually answer a post on a topic that the poster knows absolutely nothing about. A good example would be a wanna be pilot that calls himself Hawk. He gets on anything that has to do with airplanes. The guy is really a lot of fun to dial up a notch. And it's pretty easy too. If you tease him about his model P-51 he mistakenly sat on years ago he goes ballistic.

-- Liberal Hater (liberty@bell.com), February 08, 2000.

THE "DEFINITIVE" statement and explaination of "What is a Troll?"

"i, Troll" by Steve Baxter:

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002OT4

An awesome read...

-- steve (WhoCares@nymore.Right?com), February 08, 2000.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

Acronyms and Vocabulary for DCLs (Doomers Come Lately)

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), February 13, 2000.