I am a member on a few forums and I’ve heard people calling others “Trolls” for something that they post. I was just wondering what the term was and how it came to be. Thanks
Check this thread from About This Message Board
Before the internet:
A Monster from mythology.
Also a monter in a number of Fantasy Role-playing games, esp D&D.
After the internet: (wiki)
In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.[3] In addition to the offending poster, the noun troll can also refer to the provocative message itself, as in “that was an excellent troll you posted”. While the term troll and its associated action trolling are primarily associated with Internet discourse, media attention in recent years has made such labels highly subjective, with trolling being used to describe intentionally provocative actions outside of an online context. For example, recent media accounts have used the term troll to describe “a person who defaces internet tribute sites with the aim of causing grief to families.”[4][5]
I think Cecil’s column cited by DCnDC is correct: The term comes from the fishing technique, not, as most people seem to assume, from the monster.
This thread sucks and you suck
…
Sorry, I thought this question needed an example.
Yhbt yhl hand
Someone you disagree with.
This, sir, is a troll.
If you want strong evidence for that, dig up old USENET discourse in alt.folklore.urban, as referenced in his column:
From LONG before Cecil is referencing it. While AFU was a tight enough community for it to be maintained as sort of an amusing sport, it was clearly meant to refer to the fishing technique. If somebody was too obvious about the game, they would get accused of “trolling with a bare hook”, and so on.
<AFU JARGON>A couple of the “old hats” were trollers par excellence, who actually raised the art to something more equivalent to fly-fishing. See the AFKAC.</AFU>
Thanks, your answers confirmed my suspicions but I had to be sure.
If you see DNFTT, it stands for “Do Not Feed the Troll” (ie, don’t respond, if you do you’re only giving them what they want)
I think the best way to learn is by the very NSFW* Encyclopedia Dramatica. You can kind of think of it as Wikipedia written by trolls. The article on trolls gives a decent idea of what trolls and trolling are all about. It’s certainly a bizarre article, but trolling is often like that.
*-“Not Safe For Work” in Internet lingo