I'd agree T-Man, if the comments these people made were actual opinions rather than comments like 'You're an idiot' or 'Screw you guys'. Okay, so the first one is an opinion...

I don't see anyone being called a troll here who is only expressing opinions. There are a select few, most of whom have since been exiled, who use this message board as a tool to abuse others without fear of being caught.

Sometimes you get a person who mis-reads another's post and gets abusive out of defense, and it's those people who need to be taken to one side and told what's what without resorting to a simple push of the exile button.

T-Man: "It's amazing at how many people wait to jump all over people who chime in with an opinion that is different than their own. In my opinion, the people who start jumping all over "people with a different opinion" are doing a much worse diservice to the site than the "people with a different opinion" are doing. That's actually more disruptive to the general enviroment of the messageboards and quite often their posts are offensive."

You are right T-Man. As Frogboy said before, people should be free to express their opinions here with the boundaries to do so as wide as possible. There is a big difference between just going to a site to upset people just for the heck of it and presenting an oposing view point to add to the conversation. It would be boring around here if only people who agreed on certain issues were allowed to post here. It is more fun when diversity of opinions are allowed.

by Skinner jcg - 5/24/2003 10:52:37 AM I have a theory as to why there is tension on the msg board lately. I think its because I've seen more trolls in the last week than I can count.

Good morning

#define Troll

Do you define a troll as someone who was curious enough to take time out of their life to read your post? Do you define a troll as being someone who actually replied to your exalted words? It is amazing how a message board that is supposed to be related to Stardock stuff can become territorial property to someone who spends a lot of time here. It is even worse when a mob mentality created by an instigating and exclusionary force forms around new guests that may visit here.

Do you define a troll as someone who was curious enough to take time out of their life to read your post? Do you define a troll as being someone who actually replied to your exalted words?

A troll is someone who strives for contraversy for contraversy's sake. Someone who deliberately uses a belligerent or aggressive tone in order to get a rise from the reader. Someone who inserts themselves into a thread in order to disrupt it.

Nice try though.

Anthony Robert sounds kind of upset to me. I wonder if he was exiled under a different name.

Perhaps, but I wasn't going to get into it with him.

I also shun labeling here, a behavior partially derived from years on Fidonet. Personally, I've been laboring under the connotation of "troll" as a malevolent, dwarfish type who lived under a bridge. I've not ascertained that we've many bridge-dwellers here 'bouts....

Nah, it's actually a large Ogre-esque creature, which has the strange habit of turning into stone when the light hits it.

Anyhow, T-Man's right in saying that people shouldn't label or jump on people with differing opinions, but such is the Way of Man.

Why does the word "troll" have to have negative connotations? I remember when I was younger, the troll dolls from the magic shop were very popular and it was my belief that my troll brought me good luck.

I feel like this is leading to some form of religious/moral construction, and if it is.. i don't want to be part of it.

Like Frogboy I first got involved in the online scene around 20 years ago. I started off with a 300 baud modem on a Commodore 64 calling a local BBS. From there I moved up to running a BBS on a Commodore 64 with a 1200 baud modem and two high capacity 1.2 MB floppy drives. I was part of the original Object Desktop for OS/2 Beta testers (we paid for the privilege...and has it really been 10 years...WOW!!) and met Frogboy at a local OS/2 user's group meeting around 1996/1997. Anyway, to the subject at hand, Trolls. When the term Troll first appeared on the online world it had nothing to do with ogres or dwarfs or other mythical characters. It had to do with fishermen. Yep, fishermen. A fisherman baits his hook, throws out his line and sees what he can catch. A Troll was someone who made a posting (threw out his line) that was outrageous and totally off-topic (the bait) and then sat back and enjoyed watching the various reactions (his catch). For the most part it was humourous and entertaining to watch how many fish the troller could catch with his bait. Unfortunately over the years the term Troll has somehow completely changed meaning and now seems to apply to anyone that posts something that someone else takes offense to. Very rarely is it humorous and quite often will get very nasty. Personally I liked it better in the "old days".

Fishermen?....Hmmmm.....maybe they were originally called "Trawlers"?.....That's the only fishing connection I can see. Trawlers----trawls-----Trolls? Could be....

Yeah, why are they called "trolls" then, and not "fisherman"?

Because they troll (throw out a line and bait) for their catch (responding posts), as Ron said. The term went from a verb (troll, trolling are fishing terms) to being used as a noun (troll) describing the person who was trolling.

Does that make the troll's baiting post a worm or a minnow?