Have you ever been a troll on forums?

I don't think so, but others on this forum may have differing opinions.

I've been labelled a troll as evident by my reputation...

3 minutes ago, Vexen said:

I've been labelled a troll as evident by my reputation...

Well, you don’t appear to be trolling today 

34 minutes ago, Vexen said:

I've been labelled a troll as evident by my reputation...

Don't you already have a thread where you're complaining about your reputation?

And why are you complaining when you put that label on yourself? Did anyone else call you a troll?

1 hour ago, Vexen said:

Have you ever been a troll on forums?

Only when my team wins a game. Then I troll the other team's fans.

It's not my intent but I think many people find me a troll.

The Wikipedia definition of 'Internet troll' mostly fits with me.

 

1 hour ago, MigL said:

I don't think so, but others on this forum may have differing opinions.

I don't think I have, but I have been accused of it plenty of times on this forum!

The nearest I get to "trolling" is when I can summon the patience to be relentlessly polite to someone in the face of their idiotic posts and insults.

In the early days on usenet, I did post a few really arrogant comments, but that was being young and overconfident rather than trolling. (I hope.)

On 3/2/2019 at 8:30 PM, Vexen said:

Have you ever been a troll on forums?

Some people might think that a troll is the sort of person who starts dozens of threads with simplistic questions and then doesn't have any further discussion.

Some forums (the present one not included, necessarily) have been infested with cranks. I have not had much inhibition to trolling cranks and crackpots. Maybe not having been really good at it, but at least it gave the exercise. Too bad that a site like mathsci.net is no longer(?) alive; always a lol to be had there. 

Edited March 5, 20196 yr by taeto

Trolling in most cases is annoying and useless but there are cases when trolling can be turned into something useful and be an art used for the greater good. Like trolling a troll for example. 

I try to be sometimes but only when the level of a thread is so low that the only way you can answer is by being a Troll - one of the few species that can inhabit that deep cold and empty environment. The other species being a mod.

45 minutes ago, koti said:

Trolling in most cases is annoying and useless but there are cases when trolling can be turned into something useful and be an art used for the greater good. Like trolling a troll for example. 

There have been some brilliant examples of people trolling "Nigerian 419" (advance fee) scammers. Getting the scammers to send them photos doing stupid things, and even send money.

On 3/2/2019 at 10:33 PM, Phi for All said:

Don't you already have a thread where you're complaining about your reputation?

And why are you complaining when you put that label on yourself? Did anyone else call you a troll?

I have negative reputation points and I've been here for years. Of course I'm a troll.

4 minutes ago, Vexen said:

I have negative reputation points and I've been here for years. Of course I'm a troll.

Real trolls don't last here for years. What you don't realize is that science-types are usually pretty exacting, so if you said something factually wrong about science, nobody here could leave that alone. They'd be forced by pedantry to either correct you or vote your comment down. 

You're more of a fish who left the school too early, and you're getting beat up trying to go it alone. I've been there. Come on back and learn.

42 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

Real trolls don't last here for years. What you don't realize is that science-types are usually pretty exacting, so if you said something factually wrong about science, nobody here could leave that alone. They'd be forced by pedantry to either correct you or vote your comment down. 

You're more of a fish who left the school too early, and you're getting beat up trying to go it alone. I've been there. Come on back and learn.

Maybe I am a fish that left school too early.