When Trolling Meant Something Else…

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1. 1
   

   M. A. Melby

   June 27, 2012 at 11:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   OH MY GOODNESS!

   Well, the word “troll” is also used for promiscuous gay men who troll around the video-coin booths at porn shop trolling for other men.

   You can imagine my adjustment.

   Changing the word “cyber” on me was really annoying too.

   I think the word “troll” is used to dismiss people too often. I generally reserve it for people who are saying extremely rude/absurd/abusive things just to get attention.

   In my happy-place they are all just frustrated performance artists.

2. 2
   

   left0ver1under

   June 28, 2012 at 12:22 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   Although the internet term “troll” is considered to be about trolls under bridges, the fishing definition is just as apt.

   From the WordWeb dictionary:

   troll
   (n.) a fisherman’s lure that is used in trolling
   (v.) to angle (fish) with a hook and line drawn through the water

3. 3
   

   Didaktylos

   June 28, 2012 at 6:24 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   I’d thought that “troll” in the internet sense actually did derive from the angling sense -- the person doing it was trailing a baited hook to see who would react to them.

4. 4
   

   Markita Lynda

   June 28, 2012 at 7:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   Pardon me for interrupting, but what’s going on? Battalion Commander dead in Fort Bragg Shooting

   I hope you are OK.

5. 5
   

   Eve Mayfair

   July 1, 2012 at 6:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   So what. I like what she does now………. Everyone is free to do whatever he wants. ……..by the way this is old news.

6. 6
   

   Jim Lippard

   July 1, 2012 at 9:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

   Didaktylos: Yes, that’s correct, that was how the term was used on Usenet on the alt.usenet.kooks newsgroup, where the Bob Allisat and Pierre Salinger “Hook, Line & Sinker” awards were given out: http://www.coloneljake.com/AUK/AAD/

   Now it has come to mean anyone who is intentionally seeking conflict, though often still with the connotation that it’s an insincerely expressed position.