This is an interesting conversation, deserving, I think, of its own thread.
~Abelian Sea

By virtue of the fact the individual initiated the thread, he/she cannot by definition be a troll.

People aren't trolls because you don't like and/or agree with their opinions.

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“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” - Edmund Burke

At least someone else here knows the definition of what a troll is.

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An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. -Mahatma Gandhi

I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then. -Lewis Carroll

Why not? Trolls can start threads.

Yep. I never indicated such a thing.

A troll is someone who hijacks a relevant thread by posting off-topic conversations, much like we are doing now.

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An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. -Mahatma Gandhi

I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then. -Lewis Carroll

no, a troll is someone who posts false or inflammatory messages for the sake of getting a reaction.

nice to see we all have different definitions of a troll. but anyways ...

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sealybobo thinks im a racist right winger. RGS thinks im a braindead liberal. I wonder which one I am?

the best view is from the middle

“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” Plato

“Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other” Oscar Ameringer

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. ... The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home." James Madison

lol, yep, we be trolls.

But seriously, I haven't seen a definition that excludes trolls starting threads of their own.

No, people who post inflammatory message are flamers. People who post false information are idiots.

And Ravi, a person who posts TOPICS in the wrong place is a spammer.

Trolls are thread hijackers.

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An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. -Mahatma Gandhi

I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then. -Lewis Carroll

Sorry, I'm not about to believe some doofus on a message board.

Here's an interesting description of trolls, and types of trolls, and types of trolling. Everything you've described and I've described are varying types of trolling.

The definitive guide to Trolls - Ubuntu Forums

good to see we have the foremost expert on trolls posting here

as i said, everyone has a different definition of a troll, but the one which seems to be most commonly accepted is what i posted

Can anyone define what the word Troll means? | Answerbag.com
Define Troll? - Yahoo! Answers
define:Troll - Google Search
Urban Dictionary: trolling

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sealybobo thinks im a racist right winger. RGS thinks im a braindead liberal. I wonder which one I am?

the best view is from the middle

“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” Plato

“Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other” Oscar Ameringer

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. ... The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home." James Madison

I've been on the Internet a long time. I was administrator of a forum with over 20,000 members. We always defined trolls as people who came into threads and posted for the sole purpose of changing the subject. Anyone who posts just to start fights was flaming.

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An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. -Mahatma Gandhi

I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then. -Lewis Carroll

like i said, people have different definitions of a troll. yours isnt the be-all-end-all, so stop acting like it is, and get back on the thread topic

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sealybobo thinks im a racist right winger. RGS thinks im a braindead liberal. I wonder which one I am?

the best view is from the middle

“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” Plato

“Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other” Oscar Ameringer

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. ... The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home." James Madison

And people aren't stupid because YOU don't like/dislike what they say... nor are they trolling.

Notwithstanding your statement, a troll is someone who posts something for the sole purpose of being inflammatory as when someone posts something they know for a fact to be a lie (like Obama being a "secret muslim" or mccain being the "manchurian candidate")... or a loser like jsanders who posts solely to defame Obama and pretend to elevate Hillary and perpetuate whatever perceived hostility he sees between those two "camps".

has nothing to do with partisanship. it is unlikely that you and I would agree on most subjects but I don't think I ever called you a troll or implied a lack of intellect on your part.

i don't think i ever even implied that someone like jose is a troll even though he's a wanna be terrorist who posts insane diatribes and threats of abuse against female posters.

Fact: we're all pretty partisan here... if we weren't, we wouldn't be posting on a political messageboard.

And I disagre about 1000% about someone by definition not being a troll on their own thread. I think, quite frequently, threads are created for the sole purpose of trolling...

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"Trust none of what you hear And less of what you see" Springsteen

When the Founding Fathers protected our right to free speech, I think that meant we were supposed to use it.

Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was the world's most unhinged lunatic. He's now dead. So that moves Ann Coulter up to first place - David Letterman

O, when she is angry she is keen and shrewd; / She was a vixen when she went to school, / And though she be but little, she is fierce. — Shakespeare

51 days left http://www.backwardsbush.com/

My two cents:

I tend to agree with the "inflametory" definition of trolls, but not involving personal attacks. Rather, trolls post on the issues, but do so - typically in an exaggerated way - more to stir shit up than to seriously discuss the issues.

To my mind, an essential element of trolling is insincerity. Even in cases where the troll actually believes everything he's posting, his purpose is not to express or discuss his opinion but to disrupt the conversation. He is fundamentally not participating in the forum so much as fucking with it.

There are grey areas of course. One thing I've noticed a great deal of this campaign season are "deflection" posts. Sometimes they do seem relevant, but often they point in a totally different direction. Even then, I often can't tell if they're a normal part of political debate or if they have the trollish quality of conversational sabatoge. [tangent]Trolling was so much more obvious on the gaming forums I used to frequent.[/tangent]

If this is true then 99% of we members are trolls.

I would like someone to point out one (1) thread (that has numerous responses) that has not gone If there is one, I will eat this guy's hat.

Exactly! We are all trolls, but some trolls are malicious, some are disruptive, and some have an agenda.