The care and feeding of trolls - 03/21/13 08:26 PM
Re: The care and feeding of trolls - 03/21/13 10:05 PM
Nowadays, the term is is often abused as an excuse to hide stupidity; for example: two users engage in a debate, when one realizes his argument no longer holds up, and then, in an attempt to save face, he derails the debate by accusing his opponent of "trolling"...
Or the even more simple version; someone expresses a dissenting opinion in a on-going circle jerk. Correctness of the expressed opinion or whether the user was genuinely well-meaning or not does not matter in this case. The participants in the circle jerk will immediately scream "TROLL!!!" at the top or their lungs, and cry and rage until a moderator bans the offender. If the circle jerk is of a slightly more intelligent nature (but that is not saying much), they will instead label the dissenter a "concern troll."
This has rubbed off on the old media, where "Troll" is the common go-to word for describing bad people on the Internet in a way that parents and the elderly can understand.
This development has caused "trolling" to become the ultimate cop-out argument for attempting to shut up people who disagree with you, and the new Godwin’s law for Internet debate.
awwwww ! is someone lonely for a debate so he can cry TROLL...
Or the even more simple version; someone expresses a dissenting opinion in a on-going circle jerk. Correctness of the expressed opinion or whether the user was genuinely well-meaning or not does not matter in this case. The participants in the circle jerk will immediately scream "TROLL!!!" at the top or their lungs, and cry and rage until a moderator bans the offender. If the circle jerk is of a slightly more intelligent nature (but that is not saying much), they will instead label the dissenter a "concern troll."
This has rubbed off on the old media, where "Troll" is the common go-to word for describing bad people on the Internet in a way that parents and the elderly can understand.
This development has caused "trolling" to become the ultimate cop-out argument for attempting to shut up people who disagree with you, and the new Godwin’s law for Internet debate.
awwwww ! is someone lonely for a debate so he can cry TROLL...