What is trollish behavior?

Just need to understand it a little better.

a flame war.

:smoke:

How dare some troll lead you aruond by the nose!

THE BEAST!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

In Internet terminology, a troll is a person who enters an established community such as an online discussion forum and intentionally tries to cause disruption, most often in the form of posting inflammatory, off-topic, insulting, or otherwise inappropriate messages.

here's a more in depth look at trolls

http://members.aol.com/intwg/trolls.htm

Redstone

Think about the guy who tries to run you off the road to beat a red light. Think about the person who pushes ahead of you in the checkout line. Think about the neighbor who doesn't care about his friends parking in your parking space, so when you come home from work with groceries you have to park in the street and walk a block or so with your packages.

That's trollish behavior. It's also on the internet.

:hi:

as in billie goat gruffs.

they know they can get away with until someone calls them on it. (I let the air out of the tires of the guy's Porche who parked in my space one too many times. He threatened to beat me up. However, I had called the police ahead of time who arrived just at the right moment. Risky I know, but satisfying. They impounded his car and neither I nor the bimbo he was dating ever saw him again.)

:toast:

I've never had the delicious enjoyment of that, and I'm glad you were able to make it happen!!

As for they know they can get away with it.. that's a part of the reason I really have a hard time with the DU dictum to "ignore it".

I don't think bullies are changed or outted by "ignoring".

but mostly putting up a subject that you well know will get the metalspittle and frothing guns out while you sit back and laugh at what 'power' you have as a dirrector.

Here's another big one....when someone says, "I'm not a bigot but I think marriage should be between a man and a women"....especially if they add, "Some of my best friends are gay." :eyes:

To me, being a DUer should mean being tolerant concerning equal human rights issues.

Disturbingly, there has been a major lack of tolerance around this place lately.

is the one who posts something inflammatory, then replies but the "argument" quickly degrades to a personal attack, a "If your not smart enough to understand what I'm saying...", or a "Fuck you" (those are my favorites).

Just a guess.

from what's being said here. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't imagining things and asked a question. Sorry, you don't approve of the thread. You can always CHOOSE to hide this thread so you won't feel offended. I have already done that with another. :)

provocative, especially something that puts liberals or Democrats in a bad light, and then doesn't respond further on the thread.

I always thought of internet trolling as the fisher kind.

Posting with the intent to cause a division while not taking the time to explain fully why such a thread/response was posted (all the while having the frame of mind to understand that sometimes people post things then have to run, I am often in that position myself due to life and work).

One example might be posting something negative you perceive about progressives and backing it up with no arguments, and knowing full well that it is something in a gray area (ie, the attempt to cause arguments on something while not engaging in the argument either in the OP or in follow ups - and as mentioned, one cannot always follow up. I was attempting to follow up something the other night and power went out).

One common theme we may see in this would be smoking (a hot topic here) and individual rights. Think of a thread where someone mentions abortion as being a personal choice, then saying smoking is too, etc (ie right of people to own a business and associate with fellow smokers, and so on) and then dropping of the face of the earth while we battle it out.

It may not be a troll, it just may well be someone with a legitimate issue who has to run - but it is suspect.

I am sure others will have better examples than me.

keeping on and on despite attempts to remain civil? Would that be considered as well?

I tend to get long winded....

send it to the moderators. If enough people alert, they seem to take it more seriously.

Please note that mere disagreement -- even if stated a number of times -- is NOT trollish behavior.

A person is NOT a troll simply because he or she disagrees with you.

A person may think that he or she is correct, and may make several posts in order to "convince" another poster that he or she is wrong.

But if the other poster simply refuses to agree, then that does NOT make him or her a troll.

I hope this helps.

another entirely when some don't agree they are yelled at, insulted and called names. Kind of takes it on another level, doesn't it?

yet our basic core beliefs are similar.

MKJ

a troll is someone who likes to disrupt. One of their main purposes is to get others riled up and wasting their time trying to discuss things.

There are several styles.
1. brief postings, sometimes just using smilies such as :eyes:
2. ones who take offense at what you have posted and claim you posted what you didn't so they can take offense
3. ones who imply certain things strongly, then take offense when you respond to their implication that they never said "that"
4. ones that outright state their trolldom
5. ones that have names like hsubwgevoli (read it backwards) or have too much emphasis on "lib" or "dem" in their username

However, never assume that anyone using any of these (except often #4) are trolls as we all do them sometimes. Disrupting for the sake of disrupting. Arguing for the sake of arguing is NOT necessarily trolldom, just move on and ignore those posters because they won't listen and you don't care and it is ok to leave them alone.

(from the New Hacker's Dictionary)

Troll

1. 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.

2. 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 they have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand.

:evilgrin:

that feel anyone that disagrees with their views is automatically a "troll".

:rofl:

:hide: :yoiks: anything.

you're referring to the all caps/exclamation point exchange in the "choice" thread? I wouldn't say troll; I'd say combative and quite over-the-top: "I happen to know that there are lots of people in this country who want to lower the rate of abortions in this country to ZERO. I am not one of them."

Trolls try to be clever, but it's usually pretty obvious that they're posting just to stir shit up. Few posts, no donation, asking what they think is a provocative question. They usually throw in a John Lennon or Birkenstock avatar for good measure. ;-)

has mentioned thus far, in addition to a very low post count (think less than 30) and a recent join date can be another indicator. I will do a search on the name and see what other posts exists. If this stands as the only questionable one, I will alert and assume it was a misguided moment for that poster. If there is a history of questionable posts, I will alert and mention that there are many other questionable posts the mods may want to consider (and I will include the links if time allows.)

Usually, however, a troll will stand out like a sore thumb.

They brag about it on wingnut sites. They might be lying, but I've seen a few suspicious ones who fit the description. Mostly innocuous posts until they start a flame war.

Seems to be a popular topic, all of a sudden. MKJ

Usually, phrased as "we've just got to face this one" or something like that. Lot of anti-Obama ones pop up too.