Trolls.

[TerribleTerryTate]

Howdy. I must admit, I'm somewhat confused. I see the term 'Troll' thrown around quite a lot here, yet I must proclaim myself unaware of what a Troll in this context actually is.
Are you calling said Troll green, hairy and to have a body oddour equal to that of roadkill, or am I missing something?

Can someone explain to me in a basic way what exactly makes this person a Troll, and why it bothers some of you so much? I see it on forums where someone has put in, 'First!' or something similar to that effect. Fair enough it's pointless, and childish, but why does it get such a strong reaction of hatred from some other people? Surely ignoring the child will make them stop screaming for attention?

 

[51gunner]

Troll:

Someone who posts comments on forums with the intent to annoy the other posters.

 

[TerribleTerryTate]

Troll:

Someone who posts comments on forums with the intent to annoy the other posters.

I appreciate the definition, it makes sense now within the context I've seen it used. However, why does this provoke such hatred from others? Why not simply ignore these people, rather than going on a ten post rampage about how worthless they are. I've seen it happen quite a few times. 'Z0mg it's a troll, kill him.' - Why? Ignore him/her.

 

[Spartan Bannana]

A troll is someone who posts just to annoy us.

 

[Ursus Astrorum]

Trolls are people (Generally boys around the age of 16) who happen to rejoice in making people angry. They generally wade into a crowded forum or discussion group, post something stupid, obnoxious, insulting, racist, or generally obscene, and wait for people to respond.

Unlike most folks, trolls aren't hurt by criticisms and counter attacks- They thrive on them. You don't argue with a troll and hope to win. If you argue, they've already won.

The psychology of trolls is pretty odd. They're much, much more cynical and sick-minded in their thoughts and sense of humor, probably stemming from a lack of attention somewhere along the line. Regardless, there are a lot of them around on the internet.

PROTIP: The best defense against trolls is silence. Ignore them, and they eventually go off to harass someone a bit easier to annoy.

I think that does it. Any other questions?

 

[PirateKing]

Sometimes I intentionally try to make my posts funny. But I try to avoid being a dick. I didn't really know what a troll was either. Can't say I'm more fulfilled now but hey, it's Christmas eve.

 

[chronobreak]

Troll:

Someone who posts comments on forums with the intent to annoy the other posters.

I appreciate the definition, it makes sense now within the context I've seen it used. However, why does this provoke such hatred from others? Why not simply ignore these people, rather than going on a ten post rampage about how worthless they are. I've seen it happen quite a few times. 'Z0mg it's a troll, kill him.' - Why? Ignore him/her.

We like to keep the forums clean of such people, that's why. We call a spade a spade, and call things as we see them. And, they do get ignored sometimes, which is why we have a report button, so the mods can just deal with it before it becomes a witch hunt.

 

[Meado]

I appreciate the definition, it makes sense now within the context I've seen it used. However, why does this provoke such hatred from others? Why not simply ignore these people, rather than going on a ten post rampage about how worthless they are. I've seen it happen quite a few times. 'Z0mg it's a troll, kill him.' - Why? Ignore him/her.

I think troll posts are an oppertunity for people to blow off some steam ranting at them. Plus it's sometimes funny to pick apart anything they have to say and watch as they implode.

 

[TerribleTerryTate]

Unlike most folks, trolls aren't hurt by criticisms and counter attacks- They thrive on them. You don't argue with a troll and hope to win. If you argue, they've already won.

I totally agree with that point.

 

[samsprinkle]

You all suck!(sarcasm)

 

[Zeromaxx]

Someone should make a program that filters any posts or comments made by reported trolls for ISPs to set up. The list would, of course, have some rules behind it (like no trolling for 6 months will put you on probation rather than filtered mode) and, like most things, be reviewed heavily.

 

[bad rider]

THERES NO THING AS TROLL YOU NEWB, NOW GO BACK TO UR XBOX 360 UR MOMMY BOUTGH YOU YOU CONSOLETARD!!111


;-)

Lol nice Q.E.D

 

[I Stomp on Kittens]

Trolls are people (Generally boys around the age of 16) who happen to rejoice in making people angry. They generally wade into a crowded forum or discussion group, post something stupid, obnoxious, insulting, racist, or generally obscene, and wait for people to respond.

Unlike most folks, trolls aren't hurt by criticisms and counter attacks- They thrive on them. You don't argue with a troll and hope to win. If you argue, they've already won.

The psychology of trolls is pretty odd. They're much, much more cynical and sick-minded in their thoughts and sense of humor, probably stemming from a lack of attention somewhere along the line. Regardless, there are a lot of them around on the internet.

PROTIP: The best defense against trolls is silence. Ignore them, and they eventually go off to harass someone a bit easier to annoy.

I think that does it. Any other questions?

hmmm sounds like one of my friends

 

[insanelich]

I'm an oldschool troll, and the original definition was "trolling for newbies". Meaning trying to get newbies to reply / get outrageous reactions to posts patently stupid.

All people who fall to trolling regularly are idiots, and the very purpose of trolling is to weed idiots out and to ridicule them. Also, it's funny to see outrageous reactions to relatively innocent posts carefully constructed to create just such a reaction. It's a battle of wits as well.

In a metaphor more familiar to geeks - flaming is non-constructive posts meant for nothing else than to try to shout out a person (a patently futile goal on the internet), and trolling is constructing posts to try attract flames - as you would use flames against a troll in a RPG.

Only difference is that mods boot you out for the flaming.

 

[Aardvark]

Little known fact: Trolls are green, hairy creatures that shy away from sunlight. But they're short and have withered genitalia, unlike their larger, more social brethren, so are reduced to spending their time on internet forums, as nobody would find them threatening in real life.

 

[insanelich]

Short, withered genitalia and nobody would find them threatening in real life?

Wow. The only even remotely related legend talking about genitalia talks about too-large, sometimes wooden genitalia that is useless because of it's size.

And as far as height goes, trolls come in all shapes and sizes. But they always seem to be a bit meaner than their normal counterparts, online and offline. Plenty of trolls are large, muscular men.

 

[hypothetical fact]

Short, withered genitalia and nobody would find them threatening in real life?

Wow. The only even remotely related legend talking about genitalia talks about too-large, sometimes wooden genitalia that is useless because of it's size.

And as far as height goes, trolls come in all shapes and sizes. But they always seem to be a bit meaner than their normal counterparts, online and offline. Plenty of trolls are large, muscular men.

Actually they just say they are to threaten you.

 

[insanelich]

Short, withered genitalia and nobody would find them threatening in real life?

Wow. The only even remotely related legend talking about genitalia talks about too-large, sometimes wooden genitalia that is useless because of it's size.

And as far as height goes, trolls come in all shapes and sizes. But they always seem to be a bit meaner than their normal counterparts, online and offline. Plenty of trolls are large, muscular men.

Actually they just say they are to threaten you.

You do realize that behavior is practically troll fodder, right?

But I've seen plenty of trolls. There's the lanky tall guy type, there's the massive mountain of fat and muscle type, and there's the androgynous short guy type... and that's about it, as far as troll body types go.

I have never seen a troll bodybuilder though. Large, muscular trolls tend to always have a bit of fat to round them out - and oftentimes a whole lot of fat. Female trolls tend to be indistinguishable from male trolls unless you note that where male trolls have a neckbeard, female trolls have a trimmed mustache.

 

[Aiden Rebirth]

excuse me have you heard of urban dictionary or wikipedia? cause if you did you would never have to start threads about common forum jargon.

 

[cthulhu257]

Trolls are people (Generally boys around the age of 16) who happen to rejoice in making people angry.

I disagree, I say mostly they're around twelve years old. Most people I know that are sixteen never act like trolls.