[luau] Good Guy/Bad Buy

[Jimen Ching]

On Mon, 21 Oct 2002, Autumn  wrote:
>>From: Joe Linux <joelinux at earthlink.net>
><snip>
>>Jimen is on my "good guy" list.
><snip>
>Common sense and the adage "Least said, soonest mended." tell me I should
>keep quiet on this one, however, I think I have a worthy question:  How
>is this one line post/comment *not* that of a troll?

Perhaps by definition?  Trolling, by definition, is the act of making a
negative post that tries to elicit a response.  For instance, everyone
probably knows how I feel about the GPL.  It would be trolling if someone
posted an email that goes something like this...

	Jimen, I think the GPL is total cr*p.  It destroys the basic
	concept of a democratic economy.  It is nothing less than
	communism hidden behind the copyright law.

An email like this would infuriate me.  Anyone else would respond and try
to clearup the misunderstanding.  But I've been around long enough to see
that anyone who posts this email is just trying to get a rise out of me.

Of course, what if it was someone respectable that posted this?  A
respectable person saying these words might give it some truth.  It is
harder for me to keep silent under those circumstances.

Sorry for being long winded.  I guess a simpler answer might be--a
positive comment post is almost never a troll, because most people just
read the response, thank the person and move on.  You can easily recognize
a troll by the fact that the email contains content that could start a
flame war.  Usually, that is the purpose of a troll.

--jc
-- 
Jimen Ching (WH6BRR)      jching at flex.com     wh6brr at uhm.ampr.org