Post by gitrdun on Mar 24, 2006 19:55:05 GMT -5
star035 said:
From Wikipedia:"In Internet terminology, a troll is a person who posts rude or offensive messages on the Internet, such as in online discussion forums, to disrupt discussion or to upset its participants ...For many people, the characterising feature of trolling is the perception of intent to disrupt a community in some way. Inflammatory, sarcastic, disruptive or humorous content is posted, meant to draw other users into engaging the troll in a fruitless confrontation. The greater the reaction from the community the more likely the user is to troll again, as the person develops beliefs that certain actions achieve his/her goal to cause chaos. This gives rise to the often repeated protocol in Internet culture: "Do not feed the trolls."
More:
"The word likely gained currency because of its apt second meaning, drawn from the "trolls", which are portrayed in Scandinavian folklore, and children's tales, as often ugly, obnoxious creatures that are bent on wickedness and mischief. "
Very ouch, baby.As a true Scandinavian, yes we do have a couple trolls in VT. But they are bred that way and find it hard to change their trollisms. Check back in a month to see if they have changed.
Trolls may be right and they may be intelligent - some highly so - but they live beneath the rest of society, in the dark, dank reaches of the world and feed on crumbs dropped by those too busy to engage in circular arguments and mindless, senseless, non-consequential debate. Whoops, I'm sorry, I just fed another troll!!!
How is the volleyball there ?? Are there even any club teams in Vermont ??