http://savecatford.org/cblog/?p=45

With only 7% of kiddies white round here I can quite understand why people like that nice Mrs Culnane would want to look after her own.

After all that is what we do back home Abdul.

Anyway what’s wrong with BNP employing some fascist type person .

They are after all a fascist party. It would look odd if they hired a labour luvvie poofter wouldn’t it.

(I must apologise for Mrs A’s choice of words which do not necessarily reflect my own views)

Peace be upon me.

If you have a look at right-wing blogs (etc) no doubt anyone with outlandish/off-topic left-wing opinions will be branded a “troll”, & depending on the content rightly so. It’s not a question of childish insults thrown lightly.

But yes, I think we all need to get out more if this is how we spend saturday night

Not sure what your advice to “get out more” adds? You are right though – I should not be wasting my time with this on a Saturday night.

“it occured to me that the term “troll” was a childish way of labelling a poster with right wing views and I haven’t changed my mind.”

It isn’t. Get out more.

Noted but I had no intention of dragging the debate off topic (by which I think you mean broadening the debate beyond the usual teachers coffee room chat) – it occured to me that the term “troll” was a childish way of labelling a poster with right wing views and I haven’t changed my mind.

Well, yes and no. Unlike banks and newspapers, web forums and newsgroups are very, very good at self-regulation (although some are better than others) and this mechanism is an example of it. An example (but this is only one example) might be:

Poster a: “I think x is true”

Poster b: “You are wrong. y is true.”

Poster c: “Yes, y is definitely true, in therefore z must also be true.”

In a classical logical problem, it wouldn’t be difficult to prove or disprove c’s assertion, however most web forums do not deal with Euclidean ideals. At this point it’s up to the forum to decide whether Poster c has a point or whether he’s pulling everyone’s chain and is about to drag the debate off topic. If the latter is the case, he’s a troll.

@20 is clearly a troll.

Now, what about @23?

Sounds like a useful tool for limiting scope of debate. As if it is not limited enough.

It’s easy as 1-2-3.

Sounds like a useful tool for limiting scope of debate. As if it is not limited enough.

Wikipedia has a fairly extensive article on the phenomenon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)

Recently, the term ‘proll’ was coined to describe professional journalists (such as Rod Liddle and Jan Moir) producing flamebait to increase the hit count on their organs’ online versions and thus inflate their perceived influence, and possibly their rate cards if their advertisers are particularly unwary.

And what is a troll ? I’m not aware that the right use such childish references?

Don’t feed the troll. I imagine (s)he must have a pretty bad time of it to resort to such desperate strategies to seek attention. Pity is an apt response.