Trolling: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Wiki entry on definition of trolling:
Quote:
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 readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion. The noun troll may refer to the provocative message itself, as in: "That was an excellent troll you posted."
While the word troll and its associated verb trolling are associated with Internet discourse, media attention in recent years has made such labels subjective, with trolling describing intentionally provocative actions and harassment outside of an online context. For example, mass media has used troll to describe "a person who defaces Internet tribute sites with the aim of causing grief to families.
People throw around the word far too often, with little to no understanding on the actual definition or proper usage. This could either be out of ignorance, parroting the word because it's "cool", or perhaps just to actually troll. This becomes an issue when users blindly mash the report button on anyone that disagrees with them, citing that it was because people were "trolling" them. This can lead to actual informative posts being deleted, and for the spread of misinformation all due to a lack of understanding of a word.
Some common things people think is/isn't trolling:
- Disagreeing with a post is NOT trolling, especially when presented with actual, factual information. If you say 2+2 = 3, and someone says it's 4, they aren't trolling you. You're just wrong.
- Colorful rainbow posts are (likely), not trolling. Annoying? Yes. Trolling? No. Although as the trend builds and people do it for the sake of getting on others' nerves, that can be considered trolling.
- The constant derailing of topics to talk about unrelated things such as FFXIV or WoW, when the topic is clearly NOT about those things, is trolling.
- Posting personal information, and then attacking people that then talk about the very thing you just posted, is trolling.
The best that can come from this is that people learn the proper usage of the word troll and come out of this a better person. The worst is that it will fall victim to trolling itself, as it breaks out into a total flame war before being locked.
