I notice that while his OPs are almost always garbage or worse, his responses in other threads are much less dickish. That to me is key. If he were shitting all over other people’s threads I’d vote for jerk, but as it is I’m leaning toward nuisance. As long as he only shits where he eats I can tolerate him.
I vote “troll.” He knows the rules and sits up at night thinking how to skirt them.
We ALL phrase our threads in such a way we’ll get responses. There’s a fine line between more or less creatively advertising your thread and just thinking up shit that’s guaranteed to piss people off, so you can sit back and wank at the attention.
Not everything he posts is trolling though. He’s redeemable. 
He does like pissing people off and watching what happens, but then that’s why I stay out of GD, and especially the current politics threads because there’s some serious trolling going on by some experienced long-term members who know exactly what they’re doing.
Some of the long-termers here can create the most outlandish threads and get away with it if they play innocent but the second you say “I did that to piss you off” you get a trolling warning.
Guinastasia, didn’t you just pit 2.5 a week or so ago, in a thread now closed on virtually the same issue? (A very humorous thread, I might add.) Clearly the guy sticks up your ass, but you seem to be in the minority. You seem a tad obsessed. Can’t you just let it go? If not, try this. Just don’t open any of his threads. Problem solved.
Exactly. And, unlike VC03’s* threads, the threads he starts almost always actually lead to some interesting and rather lengthy discussions that aren’t entirely about what a troll the OP is. And they’re not all about fuckin’ abortion or politics, either.
Guin, I know he pisses you off, but…well…there just aren’t that many interesting threads going right now since our membership deflated. Can we not kill off the one consistently discussion-generating poster we have right now? Yes, he’s annoying, and yes, he’s a troll, but honestly, if I could find a random-post-generator that got people talking like he does, I’d use it.
*That is, the threads are unlike. I suspect the posters may share footwear, but I don’t even really care.
That was scrambledeggs.
Allow me to enter my protest. People will now be hesitant to post fringe opinions for fear of being labeled a troll.
It’s impossible for for that type of person to remain a member of this board, because it seems people here cannot imagine people genuinely holding unpopular opinions. Genuine or not, they will always be labeled a troll.
As an exercise, imagine someone who genuinely holds the views 2.5 has espoused. How can this person possibly avoid banning as a troll? Mods, I’d like an answer to this question.
Since when can’t people post fringe opinions here?
What they’ll be afraid to do, is push the trolling thing too far. Fine by me.
I note that 2**-1/2’s ** member status is now showing as “suspended”.
Oh, never mind, old news already.
People who enter nothing but fringe opinions may have that to fear. But it’s less likely, if they’re not jerks. Frankly, he’s (in my moderatorial opinion) a jerk, not a troll or a holder of fringe opinions.
He may very well be a jerk. I don’t know the man. Is being a jerk grounds for suspension? If so, then please don’t ask my wife her opinion of me. 
No they won’t.
This isn’t a case of “posting a fringe opinion,” jtgain. This is a case of creating inflammatory threads all across the message board (not all in one forum), and repeatedly ignoring warnings.
Fringe opinions show up in numerous threads, and they make for some of the more enjoyable debates on this board. But trolling (intentionally making controversial and/or offensive statements for the purpose of starting arguments) is a different animal entirely.
Easily. Such a person could:
(1) Phrase their comments and questions in a less offensive/obnoxious way than is 2-1/2’s S.O.P.
(2) Not create large numbers of threads espousing those positions, but rather participate in the discussions as they come up–or create fewer threads with more thoughtfully-phrased OPs and put them in appropriate forums
Passively holding an opinion (or stating it in a manner appropriate to the forum) is fine. Aggressively blasting out that opinion and intentionally phrasing it in such a manner as to piss people off is not fine.
Another option is to tell people, when they complain, not be such absolute epic pussies and learn to handle unpopular opinions even when aggressively stated and not pussy-footed around.
If you’re saying you don’t know him as a poster, then perhaps you shouldn’t say it was just for “fringe opinions”. If you meant him, personally, well, that’s really not relevant to the board, is it?
And trust me, people have rarely, if ever, been afraid to post fringe opinions around here. You need to do a search for a guy named Jack Dean Tyler. I think HE was banned for being a sock, though.
Hell, I think we still have that one guy around who’s an anti-semite, Sevastapol?
In my years on the board I’ve never noticed that suspending or banning a troll has prevented posters who honestly hold controversial or even fringe opinions from expressing them.
I think it’s quite naive to think that 2.5 actually held the many bizarre fringe opinions he advocated on the board. It seems pretty obvious to me that he was merely staking out extreme positions he did not actually hold himself in order to provoke a reaction.
At what point would you consider that the agressive statement of unpopular opinions (and nothing but unpopular opinions, aggressively) might perhaps wander into the territory of jerkdom? Someone who in real life you would begin to avoid, not because of the opinions, but because he’s an aggressive jerk about it? Is there such a point for you?
That and his opinions weren’t all THAT fringe. We’ve seen a hell of a lot worse around here.