A quick question

[Billiarmus]

To all of you en-worlders:

I've seen the term "troll" used often on the boards and i was wondering, exactly, what one was.

Thanks!

PS: I know that one wiseguy might site the monster manual and tell me about the creature and its various abilities, but a real answer would be appreciated

 

[EricNoah]

Trolling is related to fishing -- just as you might dangle some bait and hope a fish bites, you might create a thread that you just know will get people riled up in hopes they might bite. www.m-w.com has this as one of the definitions: "to fish by trailing a lure or baited hook from a moving boat."

And as an FYI, this isn't a term common only to these boards -- it's been around on all sorts of message boards for a long time.

And finally ... we have a forum just for this sort of question -- it's called Meta, and that's where I'm sliding this one...

 

[Mark]

Or, perhaps, The Mister Eric Noah is just leading us down the garden path...


(Trolls have a way of making you paranoid after a time. )

 

[Billiarmus]

Thanks!

I now post far wiser than before

 

[Tharkun]

That's right...

An example of what a troll might post is something like this.

Rangers got the shaft! Or

d20 sucks! Or

D&D is unbalanced!

those are but a few examples of what a troll might post to get peoples emotions running and counterpost. They do it for fun mainly, but their are people who honestly feel that Rangers got the shaft and want to talk about why they feel that way.

The most well done trolls are the ones you don't even realize are trolls until you've already had a good couple pages of talking about it.

 

[Darkness]

Re: That's right...

An example of what a troll might post is something like this.

Rangers got the shaft! Or

d20 sucks! Or

D&D is unbalanced!

...

Nah; these dead horses of topics are below the standards of even the most unimaginative trolls, nowadays. Usually...

 

[isirga eth]

Re: That's right...

Rangers got the shaft! Or

d20 sucks! Or

D&D is unbalanced!

Or

The fantasy setting search is(not) a contest!