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Depends. Are these the kinds of trolls that hunt people down in the physical world, or send nasty letters to employers to get people fired, or send SWAT teams
by cbd1984 12y ago
Depends.
Are these the kinds of trolls that hunt people down in the physical world, or send nasty letters to employers to get people fired, or send SWAT teams to people's houses?
All of those have happened. All of those are trolling.
- adamnemecek 12y agoNone of those are trolling. Those are harassment. Trolling can be used for harassment but is not the same as harassment.
- cbd1984 12y agoJudging by what the media has called trolling, I doubt the line is as clear as you seem to think: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29
- adamnemecek 12y agoHate to break this to you but media is not always right.
- cbd1984 12y agoWhen it comes to defining what a word means, the popular consensus is always right, and the media both reflects and influences that. The exception to that is technical terms used in a technical context. That doesn't apply here.
- adamnemecek 12y agoLol what? You seem to be grasping at straws.
- cbd1984 12y agoThat's basic linguistics. It's not new or controversial among linguists. It's why dictionaries are built by looking at usage and citing sources, as anyone who knows how they're made knows.
- cbd1984 12y agoLook up descriptive linguistics some time.
- adamnemecek 12y agoLook up "two wrongs don't make a right" some time.
- cbd1984 12y agoHow do you think dictionaries are written?
- cbd1984 12y agoWords are defined through usage, unless they're technical terms, which "troll" is not. The media both reflects and creates usage. Therefore, yes, it is very much right in this case. Whining that it's un-PC isn't going to help you.