Wrong. An 'act' can be either accidental or intentional (malicious) - my
statement did not try to determine which.
Similarly, the misinterpretation can be read either way.
Jim Cheetham wrote:
On Tue, Nov 28, 2006 at 11:22:14PM +1300, Rik Tindall wrote:
FWIW, I never knew the term 'troll' until I read about it here. Over
time, I took it to mean 'an M$ user who acts on-list to rubbish
gnu/Linux, so has double reason not to be here'. Think about it.
You're ascribing the actions of a troll to malice; specifically malice
to a specific small set of people - GNU/Linux users. There's nothing so
specific about trolls on the Internet, they do not exist specifically to
denigrate your personal beliefs and values. Trolls are generally less
directed; they are just annoying people, because it's "fun". Juvenile
behaviour, not malicious.
Do we have a better definition?
In any case, instead of trying to intuit a meaning for a difficult piece
of jargon, do a little research :-)
Disagreeing here, and have done.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29
Posted that myself, last week.
http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/troll.html
New, so ta.
I'm sticking with the specificity of M$vsNIX trolling though, here, as
being of most relevance to this list. If we can't sort that one out, why
bother about the vaguer, less harmful examples?
Ah,.. politics.
An OSS-wedge has a lot to gain from granting M$-troll rights.
*Puke*
How about this for a basic (unstated) rule: 'if you don't know the
subject under examination, please keep quiet'? - I'm sure that's most of
what other people are doing.
How can you ask questions about things you don't know, then?
Ah. I was referring to responses, not (free) questioning.
So yes. Tedious OT drivel is a pain. - Get rid of it / show restraint.
Great advice :-)
-jim
This thread was started to probe sentiment for inquisitorial
'witch-hunting'. So it's a free-for-all now, that you are wrong again in
thinking you can stop so easily :-)
To answer Rob's point though, it helps to realise that whereas this
*nix-list is a coalition of sorts, there is practically nothing we all
share in common. Consensus is unavailable to us here, so spare yourself
the embarrassment of asking for it. - Perhaps we are engaged in
perpetual competition to assert which aspect of common culture has the
most weight (bsd / gnu / lnx / oss / ...) fruitlessly. 'One person's
troll is another's freedom-fighter'?.. Sound familiar?..
That 'religious' superficiality of argument is due a full reply, which
will have to wait (until the holidays). In the current climate people
should know better than to fling such guff around. But they don't, so
more education is needed - patiently.
The one thing that is observable most commonly and consistently - as in
what I have replied to here - is the tendency for _every_ Q-A to swing
off on some (generally OT) tangent or other. That is what most convinces
readers not to take this 'group' (of online egos & personalities only)
too seriously.
- The sagest advice of all.
(User Groups manifest differently, at a human level.)
Cheers,
--
Rik
