forgive my ignorance, but what is a "troll"?

Question

I've heard people refuranced to it before, what exactly is it and what do they "do"

Answer 1

A troll is a low-life piece of sh*t that follows you around to anonymously harass you. This place is crawling with them.
*** trolls just gave me two thumbs down. F*ck the both of you.

Answer 2

The term "troll" comes from two different sources. One of them has to do with a fishing technique. A fisherman tows a lure behind the boat hoping to make a catch. That's known as "trolling". People go on sites like this one and they post something that they have designed to lure people to react to it in a way that I guess gives them some sort of thrill. They make some outrageous claim or statement in the form of a question in order to see how many people will "bite on the bait".

The other source comes from the mythical figure of a Troll. An evil beast that supposedly hid under a bridge and demanded payment for people to cross or it would eat them. People who "troll" on the Internet are like that because they seek to make people pay for their beliefs by getting all upset and spending their time answering a question that wasn't put up for a real answer.

Answer 3

A troll is an odd shaped little creature, who usually lives under bridges. There are good trolls and bad trolls. Trolls are an old Norwegian Myth and there are many old Troll stories. Trolls are listed under Fairy tales.

Answer 4

we post sarcastic, humorous, and often offensive questions in order to make statements that shake up the mindlocked fundies on this board--our accounts usually don't last very long, so if someone is still at level one after a while, they're most likely a troll who has been deleted a few times and made new IDs

Answer 5

A troll lives under a bridge with his troll wife and their troll children. A lot of them get on Yahoo Answers and ask really crazy questions. They usually have large heads, and their skin is rather swarthy.

Answer 6

They are people who are deliberately inflammatory on the Internet in order to provoke a vehement response from other users. The term "feeding the troll" means actually bothering to answer or respond to the trolls, encouraging them to post more nonsensical stuff.

Answer 7

it quite is a team of Atheists who have been a huge area of R&S in the time of the final twelve months. that's headed up with the help of none different than the LimeKitty. in case you do a seek interior the YouTube web page and put in "Lime Kitty" and "Atheati" you're able to desire to be waiting to confirm all approximately them.

Answer 8

trolls are people who spend a great deal of time on the forum doing nothing more than asking and answering with rarely rating their questions for best answer. They love to hear themselves speak and see their name in print.

Answer 9

trolls normaly nest themselves on a site--either a message board, form, chat room, or something like this--and make rude, sometimes illogical, remarks just for the sake of making them. they realize that no one on the internet (except for those who are truly 1337!) can make them leave, so they won't leave.

Answer 10

Depends on how you are referring to them

A troll is a smooth humanlike creature with no sexual openings.

Here a troll is a smooth nasty creature who likes to click on the "abuse" links.

Answer 11

They're people who post questions and answers for the sole purpose of annoying everyone.

Pleasantflower: You got it. :-P