# So just what defines a troll? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 25, 2017, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-just-what-defines-a-troll/778135 "2017-01-25T12:03:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 23
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2017, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-just-what-defines-a-troll/778135/23 "2017-01-25T18:42:35Z")
Can we divide this into “Garden Variety Trolls”, many fine example of which you will find in the [Omnibus Trolls R Us Thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=793796), and others? Some of the folks in the Omnibus thread are longer term posters, but most of them are short term posters who pop up, drop some threads to get a specific response, and are only around as long as it takes to determine that are not sincerely interested in a real dialogue. They are “trolling” for a response in the more classic sense. “Others”, I think, is where we find the heated name calling, and where we find lists like “Republitrolls”. I’m of two minds on a lot of this. It’s a response to the break down of civil dialogue. I sympathize, but I think we need to cool it. This quote here, from the **Clothahump** snowflake thread summarize what these exchanges feel like, to both sides I imagine. > [@I'm gonna have to pit all you butt-hurt snowflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-gonna-have-to-pit-all-you-butt-hurt-snowflakes/777203/690): > > This conversation is like: > > A: I don’t know why Democrats are so sensitive. Look at us tough Republicans! Why, one of _our_ presidents, Lincoln, got shot in the head and you don’t hear us complaining about it. No Democrat president was ever shot in the head and they won’t _stop_ complaining. > > B: What about Kennedy? He was a Democrat who got shot in the head. > > A: How DARE you say I support the assassination of Kennedy! Show me ONE time I ever did that! One time! You can’t! > > B: I didn’t say you supported the assassination of Kennedy, but he WAS a Democrat and he DID get shot in the head, so when you said, quote, “No Democrat president was ever shot in the head”, that was a lie, or maybe you just misspoke. > > A: I never called for the assassination of Kennedy, and look at these ten examples of bad stuff Democrats have done! > > B: Fine, but the specific phrase “No Democrat president was ever shot in the head” is still wrong. Did you have some particular definition of “shot” or “head” in mind so that Lincoln counts but Kennedy doesn’t? > > A: Don’t play semantics with me. Here is some more bad stuff Democrats have done. Can you find examples of Republicans doing exactly those things? NO, I thought not! > > B: Still, though, “No Democrat president was ever shot in the head” is pretty damn incorrect. Here’s a point-by-point description of the events of November 22, 1963 in which a President who was a member of the Democratic Party was shot in the head. > > A: TLDR, boil it down. > > B: Okay, you’re a liar. So, now, everyone’s pissed off. No one has had a discussion, and someone has been called a liar or a troll. (With thanks to **Bryan Ekers** , I thought this was a really good capturing of how conversations go here recently.) Now, as a group, we are all trigger-happy on the aggression and the name calling, because we’ve all been down that exact slope for months, maybe years, through this entire ridiculous election. We don’t proceed A-B-C and get to you’re a troll because you said X, we say you’re a troll because you said C or even B, or we start getting negative ourselves. Not all posters, but that’s how it happens, I think. A certain extra level of restraint on everyone’s part is needed before we’ll return to any level of civility. Everyone’s. Delete a few posts. Leave them sit in draft. Go back and edit and make sure you’re saying what you want to say without getting more inflammatory than you mean to. Bring evidence. If you’re in the Pit, on the other hand, expect to get lit up. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-just-what-defines-a-troll/778135)._