How Disruptive is Trolling To You?

The T wrote: The image of the real troll goes against all that we know about them. They don't wear bow ties nor are they so clean and well-dressed. They don't wear red glasses that match and their rooms are not so clean that, besides the pristine table, there's just whiteness behind. No no no.  Combine the smell, clothes and surroundings of the troll above with the general human form of the one below and then you have accurate results.

So, more like this:

zappaholic wrote: The T wrote: The image of the real troll goes against all that we know about them. They don't wear bow ties nor are they so clean and well-dressed. They don't wear red glasses that match and their rooms are not so clean that, besides the pristine table, there's just whiteness behind. No no no.  Combine the smell, clothes and surroundings of the troll above with the general human form of the one below and then you have accurate results.   So, more like this:

Edited by Sean Trane - March 24 2012 at 03:56

Not as bad as a long hair guys infestation...

My favourite target is the guy who is always at great pains to stress how it's fine to disregard him and disagree with him, he doesn't care, go ahead, laugh at me, it doesn't matter and then flies off the handle when someone does these things.

^ I agree with Brian, the number of tru-trolls we get here are few and far between, most that say something contentious or provoking are probably very genuine in their opinions, just a little misguided perhaps. If they resort to ad hominem attacks as a result of any rebuttals they get as a consequence then they are a lost cause I fear.

Textbook wrote: Can anyone admit to being a troll? I am not purely a troll but my response to an argument I feel will never go anywhere is often to become bizarre and flippant rather than actually engage earnestly in a futile dialogue and it is pretty much trolling.

Is that trolling or just normal conversation? We post replies as if we are having a face-to-face argument down the pub, albeit without the fear that a smack in the mouth can often cause offense. That gives us a false sense of bravado that we would not normally have in a real life situation, or the ability to laugh our way out of the impending slap - flippancy is a normal everyday response that we all fall prey to, as is the odd jovial jibe when someone says something silly. The skill on pure textual conversations such as this is not only being able to make those flippant comments without causing offense, but also to recieve them in the humour they are made, regretably, that is not a universal skill because we cannot read facial expressions, body language or hand gestures to interpret those words in the manner they were sent.

read on another forum, replying to a YesTroll that seems to emerge straight out of Jon Anderson's lyrics

You'r stuopid! HOMOBOY!