The word "troll" ... actually refers to a fishing technique of dragging a baited line across a surface of water to see what bites on it. That's where the term comes from, not the cave-dwelling ogre.
There are many people who consider that trolling is culture, it's an art form, it's one of the longest standing cultures on the net. And for these people it's, again, a bit libertarian, it's a statement of free expression. It's a statement that we have to be offensive to others if we want to keep peoples' skin thick. If we want to live in a society where we value free speech it almost demands that we be offensive to others. And they see their job as going around and offending other people, often in a very clever, sort of sophisticated way. They're really upset that the word "trolling" has now come to mean essentially anyone that bullies another individual online. They don't see that as trolling; theirs is an art form.
Smasher200, AggieYell, 2015
There are many people who consider that trolling is culture, it's an art form, it's one of the longest standing cultures on the net. And for these people it's, again, a bit libertarian, it's a statement of free expression. It's a statement that we have to be offensive to others if we want to keep peoples' skin thick. If we want to live in a society where we value free speech it almost demands that we be offensive to others. And they see their job as going around and offending other people, often in a very clever, sort of sophisticated way. They're really upset that the word "trolling" has now come to mean essentially anyone that bullies another individual online. They don't see that as trolling; theirs is an art form.
Smasher200, AggieYell, 2015
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