What is a Troll?
There are so many people posting on here that keep making references to Trolls and Trolling and its gone a bit over my head. What is it, who is it and where did the name come from?
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27 Answers
Ohhh i just googled it – never mind… i’ll just crawl back under my bridge now :p
There are Troll’s and then there are people that just get peeved because someone just does not like that their point is not accepted and/or understood. Their easy way out is to label you a troll.
A troll is someone who enters a site like Fluther, etc. with the intention of cutting down different opinions and the people who hold those opinions. They basically want to start drama.
The difference in differing opinions and trolling is that trolls argue, while on this site we are supposed to just answer our opinion and not cut down others.
Perhaps they fall in the same category as elves?
They all taste like chicken to me.
As always, it is difficult to read someone’s mind, so you can never know their intentions for sure. I believe a lot of people accused of trolldom are actually sincere in their questions and comments. They just express themselves in an unfortunate way.
There are few people on here that like to point fingers and yell troll. In my opinion they become the troll in the act of pointing out the troll.
You are stupid and wrong! No such thing as Trolling. How can you all be so ignorant?
Ok, take it easy, was just Trolling. :-)
@ChazMaz You are not trolling. You are merely insulting. You gobsnobbing piece of trilobyte bait!
Rats! Need to do some Trolling 101 to get better at it.
Gobsnobbing piece of trilobyte bait? Who you calling a trilobyte?
Trilobytes are trilobytes. I’m calling you trilobyte bait! Gonna make something of it???
Ok, is this Trolling? :-)
Well, as close as I can make it. It’s kind of like fishing for a negative or aggressive response. Of course, in this case, I’m looking for a silly response. A kind of trolling, I suppose, but then, perhaps all questions are troll bait?
True, trolling for Jellies.
Man, you are hard to set a hook into! Maybe I’m just not trying hard enough. Maybe I’m not really sincere about getting you to take the bait. Sigh.
LOL, I guess in the process of trolling I am trying to legitimize the conversation. Which devoids trolling. :-)
Stop using such big words, dude. What do you think you are? Some kind of genus? Well, you’re not. I’ve known genuses, and you’re no genus!
It is about Trolling, not what you consider being a genus. What do genies have to do with this any way? If I throw a stick, will you leave?
@BBSDTfamily , trolls don’t like to argue so much as they like to bait. They find out what pisses a person or group of people off, then hit them with it. Sometimes they will home in on a particular person in an attempt to get them flustered. They are driven by a need of acknowledgment. This.suggests the most effective strategy for defeating them: ignore them altogether. On a moderated board like this, you can and should report them, but do not interact with them – unless you’re in a particularly snarky mood, and you enjoy the game. Be prepared to drive all the other participants out, though.
I do love the word “snarky”.
There are multiple types of trolls, but the two most common are:
1. Racist/inflammatory/homophobic troll: This person posts what they know a priori to be inflammatory comments, with the intent of getting people all riled up. This tends to be fairly obvious.
2. Naive-“stupid” troll: This type of troll is a bit more sophisticated and insidious. They either post questions, or comments that invoke the “What are you STUPID?” remarks, and keep on going with the baiting until they are satisfied or the irritated user(s) give up.
I would post examples, but I don’t want to embarrass PnL anyone. ;-)
@ChazMaz They do not taste like chicken, you Plutoid, it’s more like sour grapes.
I like sour grapes too.
And, thank you for the compliment. I see all of us on fluther as Plutoid.
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