Trolls

[Peter Goodey]

Do you not think it might help to ward off the trolls if posting on the non-genealogical forums were only allowed to people who had already posted something to the main genealogical forums?

[Ed Bradford]

Let's see, we try to keep the trolls under the bridge by first making them go elsewhere. I think then we'd then have trolls under two bridges trying to sneak up on the right-of-way. In a free forum such as this getting trolls every once in a while is inevitable. I think we do a pretty good job of beating them back when they appear. They hobble off beaten, never to return.
.............Ed

[Rod Neep]

It happens extremely rarely. We have ways of making it very confusing for each one to return.

[Ladkyis]

ok so I have obviously missed something here so I'll ask.

Apart from a small hairy scandinavian creature that likes living under bridges and scaring goats what the heck is a troll?

Ann

[DebbieAnn]

Hmmm,

Fishermen troll by lowering a weighted net which scoops up everything in it's path, scraping the bottom of needed life and making the place uninhabitable for the next couple of years, at least, causing the fish to go elsewhere to live.

Web trolls post non-relevant and unwanted postings in a forum, and generally make nuisances of themselves to the point where some of the regulars go elsewhere to post...

Debbie

[Lottie]

Debbie

Fishermen Trawl not troll - U N is attempting to veto trawling as Dolphins , porpoises, sharks etc. get caught in nets as well as the edible fish and drown!!
- trolls, are as stated bu others previoysly nasty little creatures that live under bridges , or so I've been told !!

Yes ,they also frequent mail lists and are usually the ones who stir with out care for others or provide useless information.

Lottie

Downunder

[MarkJ]

Technically, even in the UK, there is a term for a type of fishing called "trolling". It is basically towing a lure behind a boat to attract a fish - in a similar manner to spinning. More common in the US and some other countries than in the UK, but it does happen here too. Trawling - as mentioned already - is a method of commercial fishing using a net. There are various forms of trawling - but not really relevant to the discussion
Trolling in the forum sense is to post messages which encourage people to argue - generally used where people often have a deep opinion on some particular topic. It also seems to be being used by a particular type of spammer now - they post something which creates debate and sometimes division - but is carefully constructed to boost the page rankings of specific advertising sites on search engines, such as Google. Hence the messages referring to specific products which, at face value do not seem to be spam.

[Lottie]

Mark

Thanks for the description of differences ref Trolling and Trawling -
Debbie
I apologise for correcting you. Honestly I had not heard of trolling - other than in the List sense.

Lottie
Downunder

[Guy Etchells]

Hmmm,

Fishermen troll by lowering a weighted net which scoops up everything in it's path, scraping the bottom of needed life and making the place uninhabitable for the next couple of years, at least, causing the fish to go elsewhere to live.

Web trolls post non-relevant and unwanted postings in a forum, and generally make nuisances of themselves to the point where some of the regulars go elsewhere to post...

Debbie

Fishermen troll by dragging a baited line (with many hooks) behind a boat.

Trawling comes in different varieties it is bottom trawling where the net is dragged along the ocean floor that Greenpeace is trying to ban.
A further type of trawling uses the otter boards to keep the net up off the bottom.
Cheers
Guy

[Peter Goodey]

On this board, if someone starts a thread - which may be on a more or less controversial subject - in one of the general, non-gen forums and has never before posted anything genealogical, the chances are it's a troll.

The best approach is almost always not to rise to the bait.