ANSWERS: 2
  • It's believed that the term first came to use as a reference to the fishing term of trolling. A troll is usually trying to make people angry or incite argument or get attention. So they post messages until someone responds. So it kind of gives the mental image of fishing. People eventually started using the word more and more. It was likely popular because of it's homonym. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll Whatever you do, don't feed the trolls!
  • Had a chuckle reading the other answer.It's somewhat right and I'll explain why later. The term is actually derived from the behaviour of Trolls in fantasy fiction books. They are ugly critters that lurk under bridges and only come out as you're crossing , and they try to lay claim to the bridge as their own. The Troll is the person behind the PC and the internet, BBS or chat area is the bridge. Orignally the term was Troll as in fishing. That fell off to the wayside mid 90's and the critter Troll replaced it's meaning. Trolling on the otherhand (as in fishing) is still alive and well and involves baiting a noob into saying or doing something to make themselves look stupid.

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