Ladies and Gentlemen,
I think I’ve passed the crucible of “newbieness”. At least, I think I have. . .
One last term escapes me. What exactly is a “troll”? From what I gather, it’s a lurker who simply posts once or twice and gets banned. I’ve heard Robyn and Falcon talk about 'em, but I don’t think I could point one out of a crowd. Is there a list of other terms that I don’t know about? Much obliged!
Tripler
At WhatIs.com
In short a person who uses deceit to create disruption amongst the board or chat room…most do it repeatedly under other names.
[Edited by TVeblen on 04-07-2001 at 08:00 PM]
Ah shoot, could a mod please fix my coding…grrrr, thanks.
DavidB and Eutychus55 also did a Mailbag Article on this very subject.
My version of a troll is a humanoid monster usually associated with a stream or river and often living under a bridge.
I recall a New Yorker cartoon, where a toll booth on a bridge had a sign that said, “Pay Troll”
Much obliged. I am now smart again. Thank you all.
Tripler
friedo
April 8, 2001, 7:07pm
7
From the Jargon File entry for troll :
[From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on Usenet [or a message board. -f] designed to attract predictable responses or flame s; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase “trolling for newbie s” which in turn comes from mainstream “trolling”, a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you don’t fall for the joke, you get to be in on it. See also YHBT .
An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that the have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand - they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the net, as in, “Oh, ignore him, he’s just a troll.” Compare kook . 3. [Berkeley] Computer lab monitor. A popular campus job for CS students. Duties include helping newbies and ensuring that lab policies are followed. Probably so-called because it involves lurking in dark cavelike corners.
Some people claim that the troll (sense 1) is properly a narrower category than flame bait , that a troll is categorized by containing some assertion that is wrong but not overtly controversial. See also Troll-O-Meter.
Trolls are much larger than people and often eat people.
