[pct-l] Off-topic: What's a troll?

[elee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Eric Lee (GAMES))]

johnsmallberries@hvc.rr.com wrote:
>
And whatever a 'troll' is will have
to be defined to me b4 I respond or ignore it.
>

For John's benefit, and anyone else who may be wondering: In the context
of internet discussion, the word troll can be used in one of two ways,
both of which mean pretty much the same thing.

It can be applied to a person, like "Fred is a troll", which means that
Fred is behaving like a fairy-tale bridge troll that assaults unwary
travelers.  He's not really interested in friendly dialogue; he's just
ranting and bashing people and being generally anti-social.

It can also be applied to a specific post, like "Fred's post was a
troll", which means that the post that Fred wrote is like bait being
trolled behind boat in order to catch fish.  It's not really intended to
share information; it's designed to make other people upset and make the
group to erupt into a major argument.  A related word is "flamebait".

See also:

Internet Definition of "Troll"
http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/t/troll.html

The Art of Trolling
http://www.altairiv.demon.co.uk/troll/trollfaq.html

Eric