On 5/10/07, Neil Randall <nrandall@watarts.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
Except that "troll" was originally a verb in Internet usage. It was the act of injecting comments, often subtle digs, into a discussion for the purpose of getting people upset. It was the fishing sense of trolling.
So in that sense, flaming is not troll-like behaviour.
Indeed. In fact, frequently trolls were often the oldest subscribers on Usenet, who toyed with newbies by making ridiculous statements that would *encourage* flaming. Indeed, that is the definition that still appears in the Jargon File (though I'm not sure that makes it canonical). But I'm not sure that is all that different from Elijah's definition. "Subtle digs" are indeed antagonistic to open discourse, and while they are not, generally, flames themselves, they are intended as flame-bait. Thus the admonition: DFTT.
The names of actions and programs in the early years of the Internet showed a delightful creativity that I think we should avoid losing. "Lurk" still strikes me as perfect; and "ping", "finger", etc. had their superb moments.
I second the idea of not tossing out "the lurker." It may say something about the culture of early internet adopters that lurking doesn't seem to carry some of the real world sense of a pejorative to those who used it. It was considered an element of nettiquette to lurk on a new list before diving into discussion. Without reinscribing a stereotype, I wonder if this reflected a culture in which gregariousness and garrulousness were not particularly valued traits, and being a "lurker" didn't carry special social stigma. I don't think "lurking" suggests particular inattentiveness, or inactivity--just a lack of direct engagement in conversation. I don't think it can be used without provisional definition, but I don't think the potential RL negative connotations should remove it from our discourse. As an aside, "ping" and "finger" are, I think, different sorts of animals: unix commands that happen to also be easily vocalized. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say "fsck" or "rm -rf" in a conversation, but that may just be because I don't talk to people in real life. (In any case, I would be reticent about mentioning people I was planning to "finger" in mixed conversation.) Alex -- // // This email is // [X] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais // Social Architect // http://alex.halavais.net //