Nobody seems to know!

How can any discussion be had when everyone just calls everyone else a troll but not one of us dares to say what it actually is?

Is Australia, a rich country, just a country entirely made up of trolls?

Are trolls simply rich people?

Are companies trolls?

I think these questions deserve answers! So, what is a troll?

//What is a troll?//

Somebody with multiple accounts, Cu(II) Embarrassment.

No, hang on, that's a sock puppet. My bad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockpuppet_(Internet)

Wiki has a definition for troll.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

I think a good example of two troll's are Thomas O and Max G here:
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=18459&page=17

These two trolls do not post comment about why something is incorrect, they just post time wasting abuse.
Perhaps they invest or own or are employed in solar marketing business and seek to push the AGW CO2 theory.

I tend to think we're all trolls because most internet conversations just end up in abusing each other: this is the reason sex, religion are politics are taboo subjects in general social engagements

A Troll is a Scandinavian elf with a malicious intent that lives
under bridges and comes out to harris people as they cross.
Like anybody you know ?

Well, Bazz,

It's not only individuals representing their views on the internet and I think it could be well argued that vested interests sometimes pursue their objectives with a kind of 'malicious intent'!

A Troll?

A creature that lives under a bridge and eats goats that attempt to cross it.

Didn't you get to read the Three Billy Goats Gruff?

I always thought a troll was short for trollop.

"Define trollop: a vulgar or disreputable woman especially : one who engages in sex promiscuously or for money "

"a low prostitute , trollop" perhaps cognate with troll.

" But it was a general supernatural word, such as Swedish trolla "to charm, bewitch;" Old Norse trolldomr "witchcraft." As a race of malevolent giants, they have suffered the same fate as the Celtic Danann and by 19c. were regarded in Denmark and Sweden as dwarfs and imps who live in caves or under the ground."
-
Danu of Irish Danann people was the European goddess of the Danube and Don rivers. She is Danu goddess of waters in Bali Indonesia.
Goonda Dani Bulu , the rainbow snake, made the Brisbane river.(goonda :"travelling man" in India).

No one can admit to being a troll on this forum yet opening posts are being replaced ....

This forum is a sham!

Vested interests are trolls: that's why the kids got copper Internet and unaffordable housing whilst their baby boomer parents swallowed all the profits!

Yay, go immigration <rolls eyes>

"copper Internet " is for jihadi trolls who controll OLO.

A troll is an umbrella term that covers a range of negitive behaviors. Overlapping bully who gets a rise out of being a bully; special interests groups that further their cause by violent and oppressive like behavior; as well as salesmen who wish to spam their idea regardless of topic.

An other way to look at it is the unwritten rule to not be "that guy." Don't be the drunk who tries to hit on every woman he sees. Don't be the jerk that makes children cry and walk away as if justice is served. Don't be the guy that sbuses a privilege and gets that privilege taken away from everyone else.

Everyone knows what it means to be that kind of person, even if it defies description. We just now have a name for it too.

Troll.

We all remember a time when trolls were fictitious
monsters from fairy tales, not dills on the
internet looking for attention.

NotNowSoon: good first paragraph!

Dear foxy, are you saying feminists don't seek attention across all formats?

Dear CE,

I wouldn't know.

I'm too busy being fabulous.

I suppose I could be accused of being a Troll as a number of times at
various times I have mentioned the genome and genetic defect problem
of most moslems due to their practise of cousin marriage.
When I have mentioned it I had expected some abuse because it is a
very touchy subject.

To my surprise no one has ever commented.
Perhaps it is felt to be really a low blow.
Well it is that such problems are very serious indeed, and the side
effects are intruding into our "western societies".
There is nothing we can do about it and we just have to put up with their behaviour.

Bazz,

I don't consider you a troll.
I think some people don't answer due to fear of getting their throat cut.
Or they dont know enough about genetics.