What's a Troll?
Discussion
A troll is underground living mythical creature from Scandanavia.
In recent times, the term has come to mean someone who makes a post to an Internet forum to elicit a particular resopnse - rather than posting for an otherwise genuine reason.
I am pretty sure that the word should really have been "trawl" as in "fishing". Outside of the Internet, "trawling" is sometimes used as a term for someone who might be "fishing" for information - like the police or the Inland Revenue.
However, with the usual standard of literacy shown on the Internet, "trawl" somehow got corrupted into "troll".
In recent times, the term has come to mean someone who makes a post to an Internet forum to elicit a particular resopnse - rather than posting for an otherwise genuine reason.
I am pretty sure that the word should really have been "trawl" as in "fishing". Outside of the Internet, "trawling" is sometimes used as a term for someone who might be "fishing" for information - like the police or the Inland Revenue.
However, with the usual standard of literacy shown on the Internet, "trawl" somehow got corrupted into "troll".
Eric Mc said:
A troll is underground living mythical creature from Scandanavia.
In recent times, the term has come to mean someone who makes a post to an Internet forum to elicit a particular resopnse - rather than posting for an otherwise genuine reason.
I am pretty sure that the word should really have been "trawl" as in "fishing". Outside of the Internet, "trawling" is sometimes used as a term for someone who might be "fishing" for information - like the police or the Inland Revenue.
However, with the usual standard of literacy shown on the Internet, "trawl" somehow got corrupted into "troll".
Yeah on another forum I visit which gets a lot of that kind of posting they tend to refer to it more as 'fishing' and make jokes about 'taking the bait' with suitable amusing images to emphasis the point once said type of post is spotted.
Reminds me of how a guy at school used to always quote a line from a movie as 'break youself' when in fact it was supposed to be 'brace yourself' eventually someone told him I think. Funny how words get mixed up.
Eric Mc said:
A However, with the usual standard of literacy shown on the Internet, "trawl" somehow got corrupted into "troll".
Dunno. Trawl is a verb, troll is a noun. 'You are a trawl' doen't make sense. But then maybe trolls 'troll', which is a verb, hence 'trolling'. Gah.
As well as simply posting to antagonise, trolling can be a kind of 'undercover' watching - eg lentilists from 'Speedkills' playing along on PH to try to get someone to say they break speed limits - so they can rreport the joyous news to Lentil HQ.
>> Edited by simpo two on Wednesday 24th August 18:04
Eric Mc said:
A troll is underground living mythical creature from Scandanavia.
In recent times, the term has come to mean someone who makes a post to an Internet forum to elicit a particular resopnse - rather than posting for an otherwise genuine reason.
I am pretty sure that the word should really have been "trawl" as in "fishing". Outside of the Internet, "trawling" is sometimes used as a term for someone who might be "fishing" for information - like the police or the Inland Revenue.
However, with the usual standard of literacy shown on the Internet, "trawl" somehow got corrupted into "troll".
Been through this one before. Whilst your troll might be trawling for a fight the original trolls hide under bridges to ambush the unwary.
As far as I know trolls don't fish
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