Internet Trolls

Wikipedia

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response"PCMAG_def">

or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion."IUKB_def">

Etymology

The contemporary use of the term is alleged to have first appeared on the internet in the late 1980s,"nyt">

but the earliest known example is from 1991.oed>Oxford English Dictionary Online s.v. TROLL n.(1) and TROLL v., both added in June 2006 It is thought to be a truncation of the phrase trolling for suckers, itself derived from the fishing technique of slowly dragging bait through water, known as trolling. The word also evokes the trolls portrayed in Scandinavian folklore and childrens tales as they are often creatures bent on mischief and wickedness. The verb "troll" originates from Old French "troller", a hunting term. The noun "troll", however, comes from the Old Norse word for a mythological monster."Online_Etymology_Dictionary">

Early history

The most likely derivation of the word troll can be found in the phrase "trolling for newbies," popularized in the early 1990s in the Usenet group, alt.folklore.urban (AFU)."Porter">
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Commonly, what is meant is a relatively gentle inside joke by veteran users, presenting questions or topics that had been so overdone that only a new user would respond to them earnestly. For example, a veteran of the group might make a post on the common misconception that glass flows over time. Long-time readers would both recognize the posters name and know that the topic had been done to death already, but new subscribers to the group would not realize, and would thus respond. These types of trolls served as a Shibboleth to identify group insiders. This definition of trolling, considerably narrower than the modern und read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll+(Internet)