Can someone please explain.....

[foxescome]

When the name 'Troll' is used in these forums -

What does it mean?

It sounds like it sure ain't meant as a compliment!!

I have never seen it before I saw it here so wondering if it's an eBids nick-name....

[raindropsies]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)

Troll (Internet)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Do not feed the trolls" and its abbreviation DNFTT redirect here. For the Wikimedia essay, see "What is a troll?".
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 an emotional response[1] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.[2]

Etymology



"Trolling for blue fish" lithograph by Currier & Ives, 1866.
The contemporary use of the term is alleged to have first appeared on the Internet in the late 1980s,[3] but the earliest known example is from 1992.[4] It is thought to be a truncation of the phrase trolling for suckers. That phrase is itself derived from the fishing technique of slowly dragging a lure or baited hook from a moving boat, waiting for fish to strike, a technique known as trolling.[5] The word also evokes the trolls portrayed in Scandinavian folklore and children's tales, as they are often creatures bent on mischief and wickedness. The verb "troll" originates from Old French "troller", a hunting term. The noun "troll", however, comes from the Old Norse word for a mythological monster.[6]
[edit]Early history
The most likely derivation of the word troll can be found in the phrase "trolling for newbies", popularized in the early 1990s in the Usenet group, alt.folklore.urban (AFU).[7][8] Commonly, what is meant is a relatively gentle inside joke by veteran users, presenting questions or topics that had been so overdone that only a new user would respond to them earnestly. For example, a veteran of the group might make a post on the common misconception that glass flows over time. Long-time readers would both recognize the poster's name and know that the topic had been done to death already, but new subscribers to the group would not realize, and would thus respond. These types of trolls served as a shibboleth to identify group insiders. This definition of trolling, considerably narrower than the modern understanding of the term, was considered a positive contribution.[7][9] One of the most notorious AFU trollers, Snopes,[7] went on to create his eponymous urban folklore website.
By the late 1990s, alt.folklore.urban had such heavy traffic and participation that trolling of this sort was frowned upon. Others expanded the term to include the practice of playing a seriously misinformed or deluded user, even in newsgroups where one was not a regular; these were often attempts at humor rather than provocation. In such contexts, the noun troll usually referred to an act of trolling, rather than to the author.
[edit]In other languages
Most languages[specify] have adopted the English word "troll" to refer to Internet trolls.[citation needed] In Japanese, arashi (あらし) means "laying waste" and can also be used to refer to simple spamming[citation needed]. In Korean, nak-si (낚시) means "fishing", and is used to refer to Internet trolling attempts, as well as purposefully misleading post titles. A person who recognizes the troll after having responded (or, in case of a post title nak-si, having read the actual post) would often refer to himself as a caught fish. In Thai, the term "krean" (เกรียน) has been adopted to address internet trolls. The term literally refers to a closely cropped hairstyle worn by most school boys in Thailand, thus equating the emotional and egoistic immaturity of internet trolls to that of a school boy. The term "tob krean" (ตบเกรียน), or slapping a cropped head, refers to the act of posting intellectual replies to refute and make stupid the messages of internet trolls.
[edit]Published research on trolling

In academic literature, the practice was first documented by Judith Donath (1999), who used several anecdotal examples from various[vague] Usenet newsgroups in her discussion. Donath's paper outlines the ambiguity of identity in a disembodied "virtual community":
“ In the physical world there is an inherent unity to the self, for the body provides a compelling and convenient definition of identity. The norm is: one body, one identity ... The virtual world is different. It is composed of information rather than matter.[10] ”
Donath provides a concise overview of identity deception games which trade on the confusion between physical and epistemic community:
“ Trolling is a game about identity deception, albeit one that is played without the consent of most of the players. The troll attempts to pass as a legitimate participant, sharing the group's common interests and concerns; the newsgroups members, if they are cognizant of trolls and other identity deceptions, attempt to both distinguish real from trolling postings, and upon judging a poster a troll, make the offending poster leave the group. Their success at the former depends on how well they — and the troll — understand identity cues; their success at the latter depends on whether the troll's enjoyment is sufficiently diminished or outweighed by the costs imposed by the group.
Trolls can be costly in several ways. A troll can disrupt the discussion on a newsgroup, disseminate bad advice, and damage the feeling of trust in the newsgroup community. Furthermore, in a group that has become sensitized to trolling — where the rate of deception is high — many honestly naïve questions may be quickly rejected as trollings. This can be quite off-putting to the new user who upon venturing a first posting is immediately bombarded with angry accusations. Even if the accusation is unfounded, being branded a troll is quite damaging to one's online reputation.[10]
”
Susan Herring et al. in "Searching for Safety Online: Managing 'Trolling' in a Feminist Forum" point out the difficulty inherent in monitoring trolling and maintaining freedom of speech in online communities: "harassment often arises in spaces known for their freedom, lack of censure, and experimental nature".[11] The broadly accepted ethic of free speech may lead to tolerance of trolling behavior, further complicating the members' efforts to maintain an open yet supportive discussion area, especially for sensitive topics such as race, gender, sexuality, etc.[11]
[edit]Concern troll

A concern troll is a false flag pseudonym created by a user whose actual point of view is opposed to the one that the user's sockpuppet claims to hold. The concern troll posts in web forums devoted to its declared point of view and attempts to sway the group's actions or opinions while claiming to share their goals, but with professed "concerns". The goal is to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt within the group.[12]
An example of this occurred in 2006 when Tad Furtado, a top staffer for then-Congressman Charles Bass (R-NH), was caught posing as a "concerned" supporter of Bass's opponent, Democrat Paul Hodes, on several liberal New Hampshire blogs, using the pseudonyms "IndieNH" or "IndyNH". "IndyNH" expressed concern that Democrats might just be wasting their time or money on Hodes, because Bass was unbeatable. [13][14]
Although the term "concern troll" originated in discussions of online behavior, it now sees increasing use to describe similar behaviors that take place offline.
For example, James Wolcott of Vanity Fair accused a conservative New York Daily News columnist of "concern troll" behavior in his efforts to downplay the Mark Foley scandal. Wolcott links what he calls concern trolls to Saul Alinsky's "Do-Nothings", giving a long quote from Alinsky on the Do-Nothing's method and effects:
“ These Do-Nothings profess a commitment to social change for ideals of justice, equality, and opportunity, and then abstain from and discourage all effective action for change. They are known by their brand, 'I agree with your ends but not your means.'[15] ”
In a more recent example, The Hill published an op-ed piece by Markos Moulitsas of the liberal blog Daily Kos titled "Dems: Ignore 'Concern Trolls' ". Again, the concern trolls in question were not Internet participants; they were Republicans offering public advice and warnings to the Democrats. The author defines "concern trolling" as "offering a poisoned apple in the form of advice to political opponents that, if taken, would harm the recipient". [16]
[edit]Troll sites

While some webmasters and forum administrators consider trolls to be a scourge on their sites, some websites welcome them. For example, a New York Times article discussed troll activity at the /b/ board on 4chan and at Encyclopedia Dramatica, which it described as "an online compendium of troll humor and troll lore".[3] This site and others such as The Bad Webcomics Wiki are often used as a base to troll against sites that they can not normally post on. These trolls feed off the reactions of their victims because 'their agenda is to take delight in causing trouble'.[17]
[edit]Usage

Application of the term troll is highly subjective. Some readers may characterize a post as trolling, while others may regard the same post as a legitimate contribution to the discussion, even if controversial. The term is often used as an ad hominem strategy to discredit an opposing position by attacking its proponent.
Often, calling someone a troll makes assumptions about a writer's motives. Regardless of the circumstances, controversial posts may attract a particularly strong response from those unfamiliar with the robust dialogue found in some online, rather than physical, communities. Experienced participants in online forums know that the most effective way to discourage a troll is usually to ignore him or her, because responding tends to encourage trolls to continue disruptive posts — hence the often-seen warning: "Please do not feed the trolls".

[bykimbo]

They should make everybody who wants to use the forums work an apprenticeship in usenet first.

You'll be telling me next you don't understand rot-13, flame wars, cross-posting or the true meaning of lurker.

[RonOne]

Pay attention !!! Now, are there any more questions ?

[foxescome]

Doh!! no I don't know those either


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 an emotional response[1] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.[2]


Thanks, that sorta explains it


I stopped reading other forums because I thought mostly rude and insulting so I am not up to date with the slang

Pay attention !!! Now, are there any more questions ?

NOW I am!! Will try to be more attentive

[RonOne]

Try this for a touch of the lingo.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rotfl

[moonwitch]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Simple Guide To Internet Trolling
How To Start Trolling...the basics


1.Refrain from using emotional content in your posts. If you let others know you're perturbed, you will be unable to successfully troll them. The point is to perturb them instead. Language that is riddled with profanity, caps lock, or is inordinately long-winded is a tale-tell sign of emotional content.

2. Do not add people you know in real life to your troll profile, or simply put, don't mix trolling with real life. People you **** off can glean embarrassing information about you - because let's face it: you're probably an embarrassment and a general failure at life - through people you know.

3. Do not divulge to non-trolls that you are trolling. There are no real consequences to ignoring this guideline, but it will be harder to troll those who are aware of your intent. To prevent suspicious non-trolls from lurking in your profile to discover your plans, make private all posts pertaining specifically to trolling.

4. Do not out other trolls. Whether you like them or not, this is uncool. Cut that **** out.

5. Keeping yourself anonymous means to not divulge information even to other trolls. This is important because it's altogether possible that a troll that you friended is actually an anti-troll. An anti-troll is a whiteknight fag who's even more fail than you because this person takes the internet seriously and thinks they are the internet police.

6. When trolling, always remain on the offensive. To take a defensive position is to backpedal, and it gives others the opportunity to exploit your obvious butt hurt. It is a sin for a troll to get pwnd, and other trolls will regard you as a fail-troll if you do. Don’t get pwnd.

7. It is important to screenshot your wins so that you can get everyone in on the lulz. It's no fun if you're the only one laughing, right?


Basic Trolling Techniques
1. Context-Relevant Insult - Insult your target by making fun of their post. When attacking a post, a troll typically focuses on its intellectual integrity, whether it's poor grammar, poor conjecture, or is simply fallacious. The insult itself, however, does not necessarily require any intellectual integrity; the point is to expose, anger or embarrass your target.

2. Antagonistic Insult - Naturally, any insult is antagonistic. The difference, however, is that an antagonistic insult is pure ad hominem, that is an attack on the target's character or appearance. The antagonistic insult should not be overused, as your target will quickly develop an emotional tolerance to your bull****. Instead, use this technique to throw your opponents off-balance, so you can trash them with your heavier artillery. Think of it as your jab: basic, but lacks knockout power.
Attacks on character should be well-placed and relevant rather than random. Random insults may not strike a nerve, and you risk getting into a pointless back-and-forth flame war with your opponent.
Attacking someone's appearance, on the other hand, is quite easy and effective, as people tend to be sensitive about their looks, especially women. For greater effect, try to associate the person's appearance to a celebrity or character who is unattractive. For example, "Omg what the hell is that creature? I can't tell if it's a woman or William Dafoe in drag".

3. Shock Posting - Some particularly enlightened non-trolls know that the best way to make a troll go away is to ignore them. **** that. Shock-posting will send them into a frothing rage. A shock post is usually something so terrible and amoral that even the hardest cynics will crack. A disturbing or obscene image or a particular slur should do the trick. Keep in mind, however, that shock posting will typically get you banned, so make sure to have extra sock-puppets handy. Also keep in mind that you will probably be reincarnated as a leper for pulling this ****.

4. Inane Flaming - In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Li Mu Bai states, "True sharpness is effortless". This is indeed true in the art of trolling, and even a bottom-feeding low-brow asshat such as yourself can grasp the eloquent wisdom of Taoist sages.
This beautifully simplistic technique is called the Inane Flame. When your opponent has become particularly resistant to your trolling measures, or insists on engaging in a flame-war with you, you can often crush the stalemate through its use. An inane flame is an anti-intellectual post, often a short insult, used to make people who think they're smart to rant like morons. This is particularly effective because everyone thinks they're smart, and a single inane post can be repeated over and over again and the delusional pseudo-intellectual will take the bait each time, until they give up defeated.

5. Antithetical Position - Upon entering a group, the troll takes on a contrarian position. For example, if it's a Christian group, the troll is a belligerent atheist. The troll will attempt to fool members of the group into believing the troll is for real, and utilize sophisms, well-placed insults, and ridiculous rhetoric to completely whip the group's members into a frenzy. A group of contrarian trolls can effectively divide and dismantle a group, especially if no one is aware that they are trolls.

6. Position of Naivete - The troll pretends to be innocent and naive while intentionally making ignorant and hard-headed remarks in order to mess with gullible idiots, who will in turn take genuine pity upon the troll and try to school him on the error of his ways. The troll will then tool around with his targets like a puppet master until finally revealing to them that he was ****ing with them. Massive lulz follow.

7. Sophistry - The troll manipulates arguments to his favor through the use of fallacious logic. One of the troll's most effective tools of sophistry is called the Strawman Argument: the troll intentionally misrepresents his opponent's argumentative position and attacks the false argument instead of the original one. This is a good way to get your opponent to backpedal and expose flaws in their reasoning, as well as a classy way to troll.

8. Strong-Arming - When a team of trolls flash-mob a group, they are particularly effective when they gang up on a single person. This has a greater psychological impact than a single person flaming another with equal intensity because people feel overwhelmed when there's a growing consensus against them. Be aware, however, that a group of non-trolls may organize and try this with you, especially if you **** enough of them off. However, as long as you keep caveat #1 in mind, you will be unharmed and quickly realize that you possess the capacity to single-handedly render their efforts ineffective.

[RonOne]

Here endeth the 2nd lesson.


Of course if that fails there is allways the "Naughty Chair"

That will be explained in a later course.

[Teddyrose54]

Not fair! The poor woman asks a reasonabile question and get bombarded.

You never know, until you ask.

A troll is really someone who just like to stir up trouble, or likes to get in someone's face all the time.

The best thing is to ignore them~ it doesn't make them go away, but if you feed them, they just come more often.

It's not a term that should be used lightly, as it is very offensive.

Hope this helps hun~ trolls on here don't normally last long.

[shezz]

I do think sometimes people use the word willy nilly on here


I've seen someone called a troll oh here that had been here longer then a lot of them here,

so just because you disagree with someone, put a statement forward someone else disagrees with

Have a debate about it





your called a troll