Do we have the same definition of a troll? Just wondering because the term seems to have drifted and I wonder where I stand. One sided flaming is what I would call it, because the person is hostile and insulting, resulting from emotional discussion. IMO Trolling requires the deliberate intent to provoke, as if that was his whole reason to post here. It’s more likely that this person is dead serious, but socially inept (too strong?)
This person has written volumes of stuff in various places for years, seems unlikely that he’s just messing with people for amusement. More likely that he is a true believer, just really bad at communication. I’d say Lumifer is lightly trolling (somewhat acceptably) because he is egging this person on, knowing full well that this person will make a spectacle of themselves.
I would have just gone with the term “crackpot” which I think has sufficiently clear meaning and points to exactly the right thing. They don’t seem to be at all interested in actually convincing or communicating; they were much more interesting in establishing how persecuted they were.
Now Flinter has deleted a large number of posts, but if he hadn’t, you would be able to see that they gleefully continued all discussions that were combative but stopped responding on discussion threads where his points were being directly and dispassionately challenged. I see that as evidence that they were some flavor of ne’er-do-well, if not a typical “for the lulz” troll.
Oh, not a vanilla troll, this was a prophet, bringing glorious and eternal truth to the unwashed masses. As befits a true prophet, he was laughed at and cast out by hoi polloi. Surely this proves the great significance of his message.
Do we have the same definition of a troll? Just wondering because the term seems to have drifted and I wonder where I stand. One sided flaming is what I would call it, because the person is hostile and insulting, resulting from emotional discussion. IMO Trolling requires the deliberate intent to provoke, as if that was his whole reason to post here. It’s more likely that this person is dead serious, but socially inept (too strong?)
This person has written volumes of stuff in various places for years, seems unlikely that he’s just messing with people for amusement. More likely that he is a true believer, just really bad at communication. I’d say Lumifer is lightly trolling (somewhat acceptably) because he is egging this person on, knowing full well that this person will make a spectacle of themselves.
I would have just gone with the term “crackpot” which I think has sufficiently clear meaning and points to exactly the right thing. They don’t seem to be at all interested in actually convincing or communicating; they were much more interesting in establishing how persecuted they were.
Now Flinter has deleted a large number of posts, but if he hadn’t, you would be able to see that they gleefully continued all discussions that were combative but stopped responding on discussion threads where his points were being directly and dispassionately challenged. I see that as evidence that they were some flavor of ne’er-do-well, if not a typical “for the lulz” troll.
Oh, not a vanilla troll, this was a prophet, bringing glorious and eternal truth to the unwashed masses. As befits a true prophet, he was laughed at and cast out by hoi polloi. Surely this proves the great significance of his message.