Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2013 16:31:31 GMT -5
Forgive me, I am old
When I was young, a troll was something that lived under a bridge and ate goats.
As a teenager, they were cute miniature figures with bright sticky up hair.
As a young adult, trolls were characters in Tolkiens 'Lord of the Rings' and in D&D (a role playing game that had no electiconics, but lots of dice ), they were fierce but not very intelligent.
The newly defined internet troll is a very contemporary version of this mythical creature, although, in hyperreality it becomes more 'real' than it has been since mythology began.
From what I can gather, 'trolling' is generally used to define a person that, through an avatar, that travels from forum to forum (or chat sites) with the intention of being deliberately disagreeable, provocative or (at the extreme end) personal, nasty or threatening. I am taking a light hearted look at the term here. But if anyone has never seen the footage of a 13 year old girl, who's facebook account was taken over by trolls telling her to go kill herself - then you should, just to be aware that there is a very serious side to so called 'trolling' too.
But, the extreme stuff aside, if trolling is being deliberately provocative, then ST is the home turf of the troll... so maybe calling others trolls is a term of endearment .
But what got me wondering about the use of the term here, was a proposition I read that someone wasn't looking beneath the term troll to understand it. So I had to ask. How do the fine users of the term on ST define 'troll' or 'trolling'?