Internet Trolls

The Oxford English Dictionary Definition for the word troll as in Scandinavian mythology, one of a race of supernatural beings, now, in Denmark and Sweden, as dwarves or imps, supposed to inhabit caves or subterranean dwellings.

Wikipedia Defines an Internet Troll as, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response^[1] or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

The Encyclopedia Dramatica Defines a Troll as the term derives from "trolling", a style of fishing which involves trailing bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. As a verb, "to troll" is probably a corruption of "trawl." Troll is fine as a verb since trawling for comments and flames is innate troll behavior. A "Troll" is a mythical monster that lives under a bridge and surprises people who try and cross the bridge with some bizarre puzzle or challenge that they must complete before crossing. It has been suggested that people who lurk in groups and suddenly enter discussions with unwanted and provocative contributions inspire the same type of fear in law-abiding netizens. More rational people know that Trolls are, in fact, monsters who live under a bridge, probably in Utah, who flocked to the information superhighway after real superhighways were declared obsolete by Al Gore. Bad things happen when trolls meet IRL.

All of these definitions for the word troll are actually leading up to something. There was a very interesting article in this weekend's NYTimes magazine about Internet Trolls, malicious mischief they cause. There was even an update on the troll profiled in the article, Jason Fortuny, where one of his victims actually tracked him down and sued him. Accompanying all of this is a very interesting and lively discussion on slashdot about this whole affair which people might find interesting.