Trolling is a misused word?

[The_Tired_Philosopher]

Nooo, you see I'm just blind
Your wisdom knows no bounds.

I was going to add more but was like, woah, This is way meaner than it sounded when I sarcastically typed it all, addition was cause mid type realized I...

Am still digesting beer I drank 6 hours ago, because It needed to say hi to my trash bin for me. And I think I still am...
Or
It still does.

More to come, I'm sure.

[Jade]

Yes, the word trolling is very misused. The word, as it was originally intended to be used, is:

fish by trailing a baited line along behind a boat.

So yes, what a troll does is say things to get an intended reaction out of people. It's a neutral term, and it's an interesting pun that it also means the nasty kind of baddie troll under the bridge, but the true, original meaning of the word, as I always have understood it, is "baiting" someone.

I think a good example of someone who does this in a positive way is Aion. He often asks questions to try to lead people to a conclusion. It works well because he doesn't have an attachment to them reaching a specific conclusion, just the goal of furthering one's self-exploration, by "baiting" them and leading them from the boat.

And of course there are the more negative type of trolls (not common here), and they are often indeed more "trollish" in the ogre sense, but to say someone is trolling is not necessarily calling them a "troll". But, it is so ingrained to be associated with the more negative version of the word, so I can see how people have an emotional reaction to the word towards that end of the spectrum.

[AnthroHeart]

Thanks for your honesty Jeremy.

I call him Jerkemy.

Considering that the most common definitions of "trolling" are the ones that have been provided in this thread, I'd wager to say that no one would peg you as trolling.

Thanks isis.

[Nicholas]

Yes, the word trolling is very misused. The word, as it was originally intended to be used, is:

fish by trailing a baited line along behind a boat.

So yes, what a troll does is say things to get an intended reaction out of people. It's a neutral term, and it's an interesting pun that it also means the nasty kind of baddie troll under the bridge, but the true, original meaning of the word, as I always have understood it, is "baiting" someone.

I think a good example of someone who does this in a positive way is Aion. He often asks questions to try to lead people to a conclusion. It works well because he doesn't have an attachment to them reaching a specific conclusion, just the goal of furthering one's self-exploration, by "baiting" them and leading them from the boat.

And of course there are the more negative type of trolls (not common here), and they are often indeed more "trollish" in the ogre sense, but to say someone is trolling is not necessarily calling them a "troll". But, it is so ingrained to be associated with the more negative version of the word, so I can see how people have an emotional reaction to the word towards that end of the spectrum.

Yes I had no idea what it meant until I saw it in comment sections. Rather than ask or go to dictionary corner, I tend to analyse the context in which it was framed and attempt to understand it that way. So from that position I can now totally understand why I perceived it as derogatory. I have to admit that aged 39 I am still relatively uncultured. Take the proverb, 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush'. I had assumed it to mean 'let nature take its course' via my own analysis. I was over 30 years old before I discovered its actual meaning!

That's what happens, I guess, when you spend most of your adult like smoking Mary Jane every evening   

Thanks Jade for deepening my understanding 

[Nicholas]

Edit:
Note to Self: Don't post when drunk/hungover

Absolutely!

I had 2 days of remorseful thoughts with regards to Monica & Diana in the "you know what" thread, and from Jade's explanation of trolling, I have to admit to baiting them both. I publicly apologised to them in the same thread the next day (while hungover), and realised how overdosing on alcohol merely acts as a shuttle back to orange ray thinking.

[Nicholas]

I was scanning through archived episodes of In The Now radio shows today and funnily enough came across one where I feel the person calling in had no intention of asking honest questions. Rather they seemed bent on arguing about the concept of free will and what Ra meant when they used the term. He also took the opportunity to plug his own book. It got Jim's back up a tiny bit imo! But on the whole I think the crew handled it beautifully.

About 14.56 minutes into the show to be precise...http://www.blogtalkradio.com/llresearch/...a-and-crew

Ah, my favorite episode  

 I think debate is quite healthy and good but we were not at all prepared for a call like that, and it definitely seemed like he had ax to grind, didn't it?

Yes it did. I took that position after he said "well you shouldn't call it free will then" while advocating that it should be called "restricted choice". 

Funny though, this is a great example of the discussion at large - judging by that one show, one could jump to many conclusions about him and his intentions. Truth is, we've had correspondence with him outside of that one show, and he's a very nice and intelligent guy.

That was precisely my initial feeling to begin with. By the end of the call however I had omitted the "nice" part.    But yes, it does offer a good example of presuming or prejudging a persons motives.

My guess is that he maybe misjudged the tone of the show and we were caught off-guard, and contrasting his approach with our being flustered, it leaves a bit of a bad taste.

Well not all bad. It turned out to inspire a well thought out synopsis of the LOO material that Gary shared in the following episode. The very episode I was actually looking for!