RE: What is a troll

["Ron Teitelbaum" <ron@...>]

Not it's not.  A Troll is someone that lives under ...

Sorry couldn’t resist responding as a troll might!  :) 

Don't feed the Trolls!

All the best,

Ron Teitelbaum


From: Andrew Starks
Sent: Friday, September 2, 2016 12:23 PM


A troll is anyone who, with *obsessive frequency*, starts conversations with the primary intention of fostering a constant debate or argument. They do this, in spite of any negative results and some times because of them.

Once the troll puts his/her message or email out there, someone feeds them by answering an honest question, sometimes even knowing where this will end up, because of prior experience. This is frustration to everyone else, who is keeping quite[1].

The troll pretends (or has led themselves to believe) that she or he is throwing an intellectual stone to the ground for us to kick at.
Each time the debate winds down, they do what they can to keep the fire brewing. No matter the intent or motivation, since the point of the conversation is to keep it going, it ends when people tire of it and in frustration.

Is that a fair assessment of what has come to dominate this list in the last 3 months?

I read Lua-l for fun and occasionally to solve a problem. Conjecture on what the language could be is something that is like salt. A little goes a long way and a lot can ruin the [dl]ish. I think that this is especially true for Lua, which is a language designed very carefully by PhDs over decades.

Many of us have been trolls, maybe when we didn't even realize it.
Most trolls do not have malice. Some take coaching well, some need time to mature and some are jerks. Regardless:

Don't. Feed. Trolls.

-Andrew


[1] I'm looking at you, Sean.