Trolls.
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- derek20050
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Examples
Common types of troll messages or activities:
off topic messages — "Can anyone help me make a webpage?" "No, this is a music forum."
inflammatory messages — "You are an idiot for including this type of message in your list."
messages containing an obvious flaw or error — "I think 2001: A Space Odyssey is Roman Polanski's best movie."
intentionally naïve or politically contentious messages — "I think George W. Bush is the best/worst President ever."
intentionally posting an outrageous argument deliberately constructed around a fundamental but obfuscated flaw or error; often the poster will become defensive when the argument is refuted but may instead continue the thread through the use of further flawed arguments; this is referred to as "feeding" the troll.
a subclass of the above is the flawed proof of an important unsolved mathematical problem or impossibility (e.g. 1 = 2); however these may not always be troll-posts and are sometimes at least mathematically interesting.
a new USENET newsgroup alt.genius.bill-palmer was created by Igor Chudov for the purpose of creating an outlet for discussing a controversial USENET personality Bill Palmer, himself an alleged USENET troll who managed to make his personality the center of all discissions. A swirl of messages attempting to disprove his geniality, crossposted to hell and back, made a.g.b-p the most popular new alt.* newsgroup of the year. Its creator was nominated for Troll of the year 1996 award.
including offensive media such as annoying sound files or disturbing pictures in a message, or linking to shock sites that contain such media. Often these links are disguised as legitimate links.
after a flamewar ensues, pretending to be innocent
posting plot spoilers to popular movies and books without warning, sometimes surreptitiously buried in an otherwise innocuous message
posting politically sensitive images in inappropriate places
off-topic complaints about personal life; sometimes this is the "cry for help" troll.
deliberate and repeated misspelling of other people's nicks in order to disturb or irritate them in a conversation.
plural or paranoid answers to personal opinions expressed by individuals — "I don't believe that all of you really believe that, you are teaming against me."
insulting people for bad grammar, which can be a highly sensitive topic; obvious overuse of bad grammar, or AIM-speak; or even insulting people for bad grammar while employing bad grammar, for an "ironic" effect that can often call people to call them out on their hypocrisy.
any combination of the above. For example a troll will combine inflammatory statements with poor grammar and AIM-speak. "lmfao you foctard u are so weak minded and predictablei thought i wan iggied i play ya like a card"