When someone calls someone esle a "troll", how do we know if he means 'impersonator',?

Question

or liar, or atheist making fun of atheism, or general sh**-stirrer......?

Troll isn't a clean cut term.
For instance "myreligion is bigger than yours" posted a funny question about atheism, but we all know he's atheist. And someone called him a troll.
Confusing......

thanks ((alli)) and ((prirate))
giving knowledge is a form of respect.

Answer 1

Just like any other part of language, internet terms get created and then their meanings change over time. Basically "trolls" are people who like causing "flame wars" or causing reactions.

In the case of your example, the person using it was probably thinking myreligion was just trying to cause a reaction.

Troll has nothing to do with atheism or lying.

Edit
Impersonation is called "cloning".

Answer 2

The term troll can be fairly ambiguous and is often an easy catch-all which can be applied to many people and in many ways. Usually when someone is "trolling" it is because they just want to see how much they can get away; how much they can push people towards anger; and because they are insanely bored with no other outlet. I guess that it also gives them a sense of accomplishment by making people angry because it give the troll a sense of power that he or she does not have in everyday life. I would not call myreligion is bigger than yours a troll because it appears that he is trying to make people think rather than just posting questions for the sheer shock value or to make people angry. I guess using the word troll means different things to different people. It's akin to calling someone a jerk.

Answer 3

I've always taken it to mean sh!t-stirrer on any discussion board I've been part of.

Answer 4

Yeah. Okay.

Answer 5

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ea/DoNotFeedTroll.svg/150px-DoNotFeedTroll.svg.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll