Trolling

April 1, 2002 8:38 PM

Trolling is a lot like flirting. It can be very hard to identify, and when the beloved perpetrator is confronted, he or she may become a little mushmouthed or downright rude. Nevertheless, many still adore these people and their craft, even if we are a bit afraid of them. And for those lucky, wonderful few, it's all just a game....*sigh*...
posted by Settle (17 comments total)

I'm confused, settle, are you flirting or trolling? I hope to god it's the latter.
posted by jonmc at 8:47 PM on April 1, 2002

The only troll I adore is the Gap troll.
posted by iconomy at 8:48 PM on April 1, 2002

Bravo for a great tour around the Web. For some reason, that post just made me laugh aloud. Or out loud. Whatever.
posted by ParisParamus at 8:51 PM on April 1, 2002

As my offering of bits to this discussion, I present trolltalk, the nearly-officially-sanctioned-but-not-quite home for the /. trolls to compare notes and coordinate tag-team trolling. Read and learn...
posted by louie at 9:03 PM on April 1, 2002

out loud
adv : using the voice; not silently; "please read the passage aloud"; "he laughed out loud" [syn: aloud]

jonmc: they're not real bananas they just wear pajamas for the show
posted by Settle at 9:04 PM on April 1, 2002

thanks Settle. I used you in court today.
posted by ParisParamus at 9:14 PM on April 1, 2002

One of the interesting things about trolling is that it started out as a way of hazing newcomers. A troll would be an upstanding member of a newsgroup and all the regulars would be in on the joke, it would just be the newbies who, by indignantly responding, "Scientology was *not* started by Heinlein!" showed that they were jumping in before spending enough time reading the newsgroup to understand the jokes.

Now it's changed so that "troll" is used mostly for an outsider who jumps in and tries to disrupt a forum where he's not an upstanding member.

I wonder if the change happened when the floodgates opened and almost everyone was a newbie...
posted by straight at 5:41 AM on April 2, 2002

Anyone who posts a strong opinion gets eventually gets labeled a troll, leastways 'round these parts.
posted by Faze at 7:16 AM on April 2, 2002

Troll!

Crazy Uncle Joe doesn't visit here much anymore - someone had to do it.
posted by iconomy at 7:54 AM on April 2, 2002

What do you call people who continuously accuse people of being a troll? Narks?
posted by Mach3avelli at 8:15 AM on April 2, 2002

How about a metatroll?

metatroll.com is available, by the way.
posted by goto11 at 8:55 AM on April 2, 2002

Great comment, straight. You're absolutely right.
posted by rodii at 8:58 AM on April 2, 2002

What do you call people who continuously accuse people of being a troll? Narks?

Smurfs.
posted by rodii at 8:58 AM on April 2, 2002

Snorks.
posted by Kafkaesque at 9:19 AM on April 2, 2002

Mooks.
posted by rodii at 9:40 AM on April 2, 2002

Where I come from we call them c*cks*ck*rs.
posted by Settle at 10:20 AM on April 2, 2002

Sporks.
posted by rodii at 5:29 PM on April 2, 2002