re: #542 NJDhockeyfan

Here is a perfect example of what a troll does.

I’m not ABOUT to get in the middle of the lovers’ spat playing out, but that’s not trolling.

A true troll (and there are far fewer of them in the wild than is commonly thought) is an artist as well as a scientist. Merely being annoying, unpleasant, or taunting is not trolling. Real trolling is like throwing a spark on dry, flammable material and watching it quickly ignite. It is not like using a blowtorch over damp wood for hours to force it to ignite. A competent troll would compose a single exquisitely crafted post that would start a shitstorm, not by others reacting to the post itself, but by one non-troll person reacting to the troll post in a way that inadvertently inflames other non-trolls, at which point they go at each other and soon forget all about the original troll that lit the fuse. A failed troll would go around being unpleasant incessantly, mostly being ignored, and only on rare occasion getting an inflamed response purely due to volume.

We now return you to Klingon Divorce Court.