A media article on trolling that did not make me want to stab my eyes out

[Cain]

A rare occurence took place: a mainstream media outlet wrote about trolling and did not conflate it with griefing, flaming or online bullying.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mind-your-language/2012/apr/19/trolls-where-come-from

From goat-hassling monsters to online nuisances, trolls have had a bad press. But they are not the same as bullies – recent stories have created a linguistic muddle

The story, if apocryphal, is at least a fair approximation of the truth. In 1840, a delegation of Russian investors paid a visit the UK to watch the construction of the London and South-western Railway. The station they visited was Vauxhall; and because they confused the word on the building with the name of the concept, ever since that day, the Russian word for a large train station has been vokzal.

Before you laugh too hard, bear in mind that English speakers may be about to do exactly the same thing.

You must have noticed that there's a new meme in town. After a slew of cases of people using online forums and social media to insult, racially abuse or harass high-profile figures – Louise Mensch, Fabrice Muamba, Noel Edmonds and now the Guardian's own Grace Dent – the media have taken it upon themselves to foist a new word upon us: troll (n: online bully. v: to bully in a discussion group or social network).

Granted, the term has cropped up in the mainstream before; the first use in the Guardian in something like its current sense seems to have been in 2002, the year, perhaps not uncoincidentally, after Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. But now that MPs, judges, and even Noel Edmonds know what it means, "troll", in its shiny new sense, seems to have reached its tipping point.

There's one problem. According to a vocal minority of veteran internet users, we've got the wrong word. Troll, they say, does not mean bully, and trolling does not mean harassment. And the evidence seems to back them up.

James Ball, in a recent piece for the Guardian, described "trolls" as "a small and specific subset of online communities who write provocative and offensive posts specifically to elicit reaction". Knowyourmeme.com gives: "Any behavior that is meant to intentionally anger or frustrate someone else." The OED's draft entry on the subject reads: "Computing slang. A person who posts deliberately erroneous or antagonistic messages to a newsgroup or similar forum with the intention of eliciting a hostile or corrective response."

Hmm. Not quite the same thing as a bully, then. In fact, the objectors point out, there are other perfectly good internet slang words that do mean bully, such as "flamer" and "griefer" (not to mention some in everyday use – such as, er, bully). And the distinction has been clearly drawn for years.

To give some example, a troll might constantly change the subject of a discussion topic for the hell of it; a "flamer" would insult someone because he disagreed with them. A troll might suggesting that a previous poster in a forum was using an argument popular in Hitler's Germany; a flamer would call the poster a Nazi. The difference between a troll and a flamer, to use a simile from a bygone era, is somewhat akin to the difference between a prank caller and a heavy breather.

I recommend we invade the comments and suggest his article is the kind of thing someone would have written in Nazi Germany, as our way of saying "thank you".

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Improperly "correct" his grammar.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I recommend we invade the comments and suggest his article is the kind of thing someone would have written in Nazi Germany, as our way of saying "thank you".

Also, it's about time someone got it right. Trolling is, for the most part, only about bullying to the extent of luring the bullies to reveal themselves.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Ooooh, he even got the etymology right! Everyone thinks it's troll as in a troll under the bridge, but it's troll as in trolling for fish... pronounced trawling.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I remember the first time I heard the term "trolling" to describe a behavior; my mom used it in the early 80's in reference to a guy at the bar she worked at, only he was "trolling for a date". 

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Thank you. This is exactly the sort of thing that could have been written in Hitler's Germany.

People like the author probably leave big tips for the person that de-claws their kittens and it's good that there's still people that dare to speak out against the horribly depravities of the diabetic menace, shooting up with their needles right in front of our impressionable children. But they cannot run fast enough. They cannot dig deep enough.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Thank you. This is exactly the sort of thing that could have been written in Hitler's Germany.

People like the author probably leave big tips for the person that de-claws their kittens and it's good that there's still people that dare to speak out against the horribly depravities of the diabetic menace, shooting up with their needles right in front of our impressionable children. But they cannot run fast enough. They cannot dig deep enough.

A PILE of mittens!

[Triple Zero]

Thank you. This is exactly the sort of thing that could have been written in Hitler's Germany.

People like the author probably leave big tips for the person that de-claws their kittens and it's good that there's still people that dare to speak out against the horribly depravities of the diabetic menace, shooting up with their needles right in front of our impressionable children. But they cannot run fast enough. They cannot dig deep enough.

A PILE of mittens!

I was about to post a screenshot (figured it'd be deleted soon) but then got phone.

[Doktor Howl]

Ooooh, he even got the etymology right! Everyone thinks it's troll as in a troll under the bridge, but it's troll as in trolling for fish... pronounced trawling.

You know who else pronounced it that way?

JOSEF GOEBBELS, THAT'S WHO!

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Ooooh, he even got the etymology right! Everyone thinks it's troll as in a troll under the bridge, but it's troll as in trolling for fish... pronounced trawling.

You know who else pronounced it that way?

JOSEF GOEBBELS, THAT'S WHO!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Ooooh, he even got the etymology right! Everyone thinks it's troll as in a troll under the bridge, but it's troll as in trolling for fish... pronounced trawling.

You know who else pronounced it that way?

JOSEF GOEBBELS, THAT'S WHO!

[East Coast Hustle]

Ooooh, he even got the etymology right! Everyone thinks it's troll as in a troll under the bridge, but it's troll as in trolling for fish... pronounced trawling.

Actually, trolling and trawling are two completely different things when it comes to fishing. Trolling is a recreational fishing method of dragging a line at very slow speed (usually 2kts or less) with one or more hooks on it using bait or lures, whereas trawling is a commercial fishing method of dragging a large net behind the boat either on the bottom or at a pre-determined depth depending on what the intended catch is.

(ETA: /pedant)

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Ooooh, he even got the etymology right! Everyone thinks it's troll as in a troll under the bridge, but it's troll as in trolling for fish... pronounced trawling.

Actually, trolling and trawling are two completely different things when it comes to fishing. Trolling is a recreational fishing method of dragging a line at very slow speed (usually 2kts or less) with one or more hooks on it using bait or lures, whereas trawling is a commercial fishing method of dragging a large net behind the boat either on the bottom or at a pre-determined depth depending on what the intended catch is.

(ETA: /pedant)

No shit? I didn't know that!

[Cain]

I remember the first time I heard the term "trolling" to describe a behavior; my mom used it in the early 80's in reference to a guy at the bar she worked at, only he was "trolling for a date".

Nowadays, trolling for a date is somewhat different.

"That's a nice dress you're wearing....I hear that style was very popular in Hitler's Germany."

[Doktor Howl]

I remember the first time I heard the term "trolling" to describe a behavior; my mom used it in the early 80's in reference to a guy at the bar she worked at, only he was "trolling for a date".

Nowadays, trolling for a date is somewhat different.

"That's a nice dress you're wearing....I hear that style was very popular in Hitler's Germany."

Nice shoes!  Did you take them off a dead Jew?