5 ms·

Yeah, the meaning has shifted. It used to be that if people knew you were trolling, you weren't a good troll. Now a troll is just an asshole on the internet.

by bhntr3 10y ago

kazinator 10y ago
Some of the newbies don't understand that "troll" refers to "trolling" as in "fishing troller": evoking the metaphor of casting a net to collect responses like fish. They imagine "troll" as a metaphor invoking the humanoid creature from Scandinavian folklore, which, in the Three Billy Goats Gruff story, is a nasty, unpleasant, violent creature who wants to eat everyone who crosses his bridge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Billy_Goats_Gruff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Billy_Goats_Gruff Hence the asshole angle.
- mos_basik 10y ago
  Adding to that - all the cool kids these days are saying "baiting" instead of "trolling". The concept (and metaphor) hasn't been lost.
  - WiseWeasel 10y ago
    Trolling is scraping the bottom, stirring the muck up into a net; not quite analogous to luring/baiting, a much more sporting tactic.
    - mirimir 10y ago
      No, that's trawling. Trolling is also called longline fishing, with many baited hooks.
      - WiseWeasel 10y ago
        Ohhhhh... it should be called trawling then! : P
      - kazinator 10y ago
        I suspect that when troll refers to dragging anything, it's just a spelling and regional pronunciation variant on trawl. According to etymonline.com, the etymology of "trawl" is: 1560s, from Dutch tragelen, from Middle Dutch traghelen "to drag," from traghel "dragnet," probably from Latin tragula "dragnet." Related: Trawled; trawling. Now, "troll" verb: late 14c., "to go about, stroll," later (early 15c.) "roll from side to side, trundle," probably from Old French troller, a hunting term, "wander, to go in quest of game without purpose" (Modern French trôler), from a Germanic source (compare Old High German trollen "to walk with short steps"), from Proto-Germanic truzlanan.* It's rather related to "stroll". Nothing in the semantics about fishing. I suspect that "troll" in longline fishing in fact refers to the long line with many hooks being pulled around; i.e. "trawled".
- pessimizer 10y ago
  You measure the success of a troll by the ratio of the number of characters the troll types to the number of characters typed in response. It wasn't a term describing disagreeing with or threatening people, it described annoying and distracting people. The ultimate troll is a well-timed and placed piece of copypasta, which at ctrl-c ctrl-v is impossible to beat.
- caf 10y ago
  As always with human language, the word ends up meaning whatever a substantial plurality believe it to mean.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- k1t 10y ago
  (Disclaimer: Not a fisherman) There is no such thing as a "fishing troller". I assume you are thinking of a "fishing trawler" which catches fish by trawling. Trawling: to fish (the sea, an area of sea, etc) using a trawl-net. Trawl(-net): a large bag-shaped net with a wide mouth, used for catching fish at sea. That said, to troll is also a method of fishing, but involving a baited trailing line rather than a net. Personally I have always interpreted 'troll' (the noun) in the mythical under-bridge-dweller sense, and 'trolling' in the 'to stroll or saunter' sense. That is, the troll has emerged from his bridge and is now strolling around looking for victims.
  - DanBC 10y ago
    Here's an example from 1994 that uses it in the fishing sense: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.scuba/PuZh2Hck_Cc https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.scuba/PuZh2Hck_C... > > The shop told me that Dacor and Scubapro have good reputations for > > stocking spare parts for all their products, no matter how old. > > This does cause their prices to run a little higher. > (Gosh--this looks like a troll for a flame-war. I couldn't help > but visualize myself standing in a used car lot.) Here it's pretty clear that it's being used in the sense of someone dropping a lure, a bit of tasty bait.

Yeah, the meaning has shifted. It used to be that if people knew you were trolling, you weren't a good troll. Now a troll is just an asshole on the internet.

by bhntr3 10y ago

Yeah, the meaning has shifted. It used to be that if people knew you were trolling, you weren't a good troll. Now a troll is just an asshole on the internet.

kazinator 10y ago

Some of the newbies don't understand that "troll" refers to "trolling" as in "fishing troller": evoking the metaphor of casting a net to collect responses like fish. They imagine "troll" as a metaphor invoking the humanoid creature from Scandinavian folklore, which, in the Three Billy Goats Gruff story, is a nasty, unpleasant, violent creature who wants to eat everyone who crosses his bridge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Billy_Goats_Gruff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Billy_Goats_Gruff Hence the asshole angle.

mos_basik 10y ago
Adding to that - all the cool kids these days are saying "baiting" instead of "trolling". The concept (and metaphor) hasn't been lost.
- WiseWeasel 10y ago
  Trolling is scraping the bottom, stirring the muck up into a net; not quite analogous to luring/baiting, a much more sporting tactic.
  - mirimir 10y ago
    No, that's trawling. Trolling is also called longline fishing, with many baited hooks.
    - WiseWeasel 10y ago
      Ohhhhh... it should be called trawling then! : P
    - kazinator 10y ago
      I suspect that when troll refers to dragging anything, it's just a spelling and regional pronunciation variant on trawl. According to etymonline.com, the etymology of "trawl" is: 1560s, from Dutch tragelen, from Middle Dutch traghelen "to drag," from traghel "dragnet," probably from Latin tragula "dragnet." Related: Trawled; trawling. Now, "troll" verb: late 14c., "to go about, stroll," later (early 15c.) "roll from side to side, trundle," probably from Old French troller, a hunting term, "wander, to go in quest of game without purpose" (Modern French trôler), from a Germanic source (compare Old High German trollen "to walk with short steps"), from Proto-Germanic truzlanan.* It's rather related to "stroll". Nothing in the semantics about fishing. I suspect that "troll" in longline fishing in fact refers to the long line with many hooks being pulled around; i.e. "trawled".
pessimizer 10y ago
You measure the success of a troll by the ratio of the number of characters the troll types to the number of characters typed in response. It wasn't a term describing disagreeing with or threatening people, it described annoying and distracting people. The ultimate troll is a well-timed and placed piece of copypasta, which at ctrl-c ctrl-v is impossible to beat.
caf 10y ago
As always with human language, the word ends up meaning whatever a substantial plurality believe it to mean.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
k1t 10y ago
(Disclaimer: Not a fisherman) There is no such thing as a "fishing troller". I assume you are thinking of a "fishing trawler" which catches fish by trawling. Trawling: to fish (the sea, an area of sea, etc) using a trawl-net. Trawl(-net): a large bag-shaped net with a wide mouth, used for catching fish at sea. That said, to troll is also a method of fishing, but involving a baited trailing line rather than a net. Personally I have always interpreted 'troll' (the noun) in the mythical under-bridge-dweller sense, and 'trolling' in the 'to stroll or saunter' sense. That is, the troll has emerged from his bridge and is now strolling around looking for victims.
- DanBC 10y ago
  Here's an example from 1994 that uses it in the fishing sense: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.scuba/PuZh2Hck_Cc https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.scuba/PuZh2Hck_C... > > The shop told me that Dacor and Scubapro have good reputations for > > stocking spare parts for all their products, no matter how old. > > This does cause their prices to run a little higher. > (Gosh--this looks like a troll for a flame-war. I couldn't help > but visualize myself standing in a used car lot.) Here it's pretty clear that it's being used in the sense of someone dropping a lure, a bit of tasty bait.