http://www.answerbag.com/q_view.php/66296 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll This has been debated. Some say people who just downrate, some say people who create havoc just for fun. I say both. A troll creates havoc and downrates without a comment.

"Creatures" that have fun rating answers and questions down.

They are little guys with funny hair

they are nasty ones

They are immature people with nothing better to do than go through different websites posting garabage just for fun to see how much of a reaction they can get out of people. They also love to go through and downrate everyone just for the fun of it. I don't think it is as bad on here as it is on some message boards that I have seen. Yahoo message boards are full of them.

just to clarify, trolls are no restricted to AB, I mean you'll find people taking about trolls in almost any way of online participation. I have to agree with one of the answers that said: "(trolls) ... subtract from the community..." People who come in and make things worse just for the sake of it

I was down rated by -4 for a perfect answer (http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/96634) without any comment or reason. Will that person be called a Troll? Real trolls create havoc and have no other intention than to disturb few selected categories of ppl. They attack in abusive language and are very agressive in their reply as they know they wont last long.

Troll:a site user who goes around rating people down for no good reason, making obsene or offensive comments, and being spiteful and mean.

Trolls: Users who go around downrating others, making asinine and inflamatory comments, and generally acting like asses. They do it for their jollies or because someone ticked them off.

trolls are people on Ab that like to rate you down on questions for no reason.

I hope I'm not one...

I wouldn't worry about them, they might give you a few negatives here and there, but it really doesn't affect you all that much. They are pretty much just people who feel like clicking the negative button for no reason.

Trolls are people with tiny brains and tiny dicks that stir up trouble on forums and downrate answers needlessly, just to be trolls. They affect your ratings with subtracted points on your answers, even really good answers.

Trolls are people who down rate questions, answers for no reason...They write questions/answers that offend people...or really just not appropriate for answerbag.....one things for sure, nobody likes them..haha

Eh, I think trolls are people who come through and specifically try to start arguments, or just say things that they know will get everyone stirred up.

someone who goes around rating people down fot their answers that may or may not be right answer and also for opinion answers which there is no right or wrong

It's when you ask someone a question, and they tell you how large their penis is.

Trolling on Answerbag is when a user or group of users writes many spiteful or nonsense questions, answers, and comments, and downrates acceptable answers.

Trolling is a fishing technique in which bait is put on a fishing line, the line is put into the water and the boat moves slowly forward so that the bait moves with a swimming action, enticing the fish to take it. Edit: All of a sudden, after many months, my answer is moved to this question from the original question I answered. I'm leaving my answer unchanged to show the stupidity of the change of questions.

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/121637

THE ANTI-TROLL MOVEMENT; A NOTE ON TROLL'S. What is a TROLL? A Troll is usually a newb who opens an account with the intent on using this account for malicious down rating or harassment purposes, they are usually Anonymous accounts. These false accounts have no purpose other than to harrass, defame, spam, or rate down, honest and sincere account holders who have worked hard and have spent long hours on AB to earn their title and position of authority. A Troll's attempt at downrating is usually feeble and futile. AB has implemented a new rating system that went into effect on 11/06 and it is very effective in controlling the amount of downrating a malicious troll can do. Every AB member, including those in high authority are limited on how many positive or negative ratings they can give each user, each week. Thus, it would take a newb Troll months if not years to harm or cause damage to an AB members account. For instance if a Troll was to maliciously attempt to downrate a level 55 authority, the effects would barely register. The new rating system greatly reduces the impact of the malicious Troller, reducing the effects of their presense to the equivalent nuisance, of a knat at a BBQ picnic. Harmless and pathetic... they are more just a nuisance than anything, and their presense here on AB is more than often short lived. AB Members that hold a high ranking authority are very cohesive when it comes to battleing these trolls. Many in high authority are part of the ANTI-TROLL MOVEMENT, anyone can become a member by simply stating it in your profile, ANTI-TROLL MEMBERS voluntarily repair the damage of malicious attacks against forums and individuals when such malicious action comes to their attention. This warning puts emphasis on all those potential trolls, that your efforts to harm an authority will be met with wasted time and effort and total futility. Also, keeping in respects of AB ethics, those in high authority have a greater rating ability than a lesser authority. The damage a high authority can inflict upon a troll or lesser authority who gets out of line can be nothing short of devastating to ones name and credibility. But those with very high authority seem very responsible with it and are in their position to use it justly to preserve the AB forum in and of itself. The high authority is united in this cause. That is the reward and respect that you win every time you gain a level of authority, from contributor, on up to sage, and beyond, we are all subject to our peers. Every member of AB started out as a contributor, just like you, so we all share that same respect and understanding. It is the unsung duty of those of us who have a higher authority to assist our new honest contributors and make them feel welcome and accepted into our forum. Those of you who enter here with malicious intent in your hearts will be dealt with accordingly and swiftly. http://www.answerbag.com/blog_com/119?page=2&

Everything you need to know can be learned thanks to Nevets. http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/94065/197083 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

I've been told they live in a dark damp place underground in the sewer system ... and were a mutant breed of politician that escaped an experiment gone wrong at area 51 ... lol

a.)They are sneaky little b*#^&%!s that stream through a thread and downrate everyone. b.) They are sneaky little b*^#$@*s that don't like your answer so they follow you around AB downrating all of your answers/questions. c.) They are chicken s%*&t little b@!^%*#s that downrate your answer or question because they don't believe the same way you do,and won't tell you why they downrated you. There I think I covered Troll,and wannabe trolls.lol

People that need to get lives. They down-rate you for no obvious reason, and never have the guts to say why.

trolls are people who make fake accounts on the site who rate down as many people as possible, and who also will pretend to be someone they arent. like the other day someone was on here pretending to be AntigoneRising.

On answerbag it's as jlynn said, but on Usenet it is someone who "flames" people alot, and on many forums and such. Basically someone being a major ass.

Trolls are slimy little creatures mentally. They downrate perfectly normal questions and answers purely for the fun of it. They do not answer questions unless they are being obnoxious Their sole intention is to ruin the pleasure other members get from the site. Down rating without comment is also a form of trolling because the person never knows WHY their answer has been given a negative rating

its someone who is always downrating people for no reason. so be ware because there are a few of them

A troll is a person who creates an account on Answerbag for the sole purpose of follwing good users and downrating their answers. They are people to spit on due to their lowlyness. I was trolled myself last night, for the first time

I think that's a person who does mean things to people (in answerbag's case, downrating) for no good reason. On most internet forums, they are people who just say offensive things to get people mad.

I'm glad someone explained this. I thought you were talking about the cute little toys I collect. Cut their fingers off! Oh no. All they do is open their arms wide and smile. LOLOL

Trolls are the answerbagers that look up your questions and answers and rate you down.

There people who have no respect for others and they have no life so they try to ruin it for everyone else - Childish -

People who go through a question and downscore every answer that reflects an opinion they don't share, even if the answer was thoughtful and well put.

To learn more about Trolls, please visit the following link: http://tinyurl.com/yyab85

Trolls!! hahaha But no, in the case of AB trolls...they are the people who downrate just because...if it's not "correct" in their opinion...which is FOR an opinion in the first place. Or, they are the people who just delight in pushing the little thumbs down because...ooohh they're baaaad... they can voice their "opinion" without even stating an opinion! :)

See this answer: http://tinyurl.com/yyab85 Note: This is a duplicate question.

It can mean all sorts of things, but for a basic summary please see this link: http://tinyurl.com/yyab85

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/94065/197083

Please see this link for more info: http://tinyurl.com/yyab85

What are AB trolls? http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/96655 What is a internet troll? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

A gremlin with a hangover.

Trolling is where a user downrates every question and answer of another user, despite the fact that they may be very helpful. Mostly, trolling is the fault of users who have just joined to troll, but in rare cases, other more established users will troll someone

Downrating other members answers for no legitimate reason without leaving a comment to explain why.

There are 2 definitions... 1. A troll is a giant mythical creature that can be found in many fictional fanstasy movies and games. 2. An "internet" troll is somepne who posts a deliberately provocative message in a forum, message board or blog with the intention of causing havok and arguments and to also increase there post count.

A troll can rather be mean or nice, depending what type of troll it is. Yes I agree with "see you next tuesday", that a troll is a mythical creature. But yes it can rathe rbe nice or mean...for example, on th eold wb11 CHarmed, there were some mean little trolls. On the movie trolls sing a long, they are nice. You migh tnot no of that movie, its old,but they sing happily,"Tollies come from acorns"

I didn't know that it was a monster.

I answered a similar question not long ago. Find my answer here: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/149554

A person that follows one or more members around deliberately downrating as many of their answers as it is possible

A person that is spending their time just going around down rating other members answers

People have many different definitions of what a troll actually is, but this is a common definition: A user who down-rates a valid answer (especially if they do not provide a comment explaining why they have down-rated). Here is a link which covers trolling in more detail: http://tinyurl.com/yyab85

A stalker troll differers from a standard troll by the fact that they go onto a users activity page and systematically go through their questions/answers maliciously rating them down. A stalker troll can also be a user who follows someone around leaving nasty comments. Here is a link which covers trolling in more detail: http://tinyurl.com/yyab85

Trolling are people that go to forums,chats,any other social cyber places and infest the place with their bad attitude, foul language and inappropiate things. They try to destroy the peace and tranquility and make it chaotic. A troll in answerbag, is as nevets said: a person who downrates a valid answer, or disagrees with EVERYONE and downrated everyone as well for no reason.

You sit in the back of a big boat, and drive around dragging bait hoping to catch a fish. Or leave unpopular answers as troll bait hoping to catch one of the mindless, little buggers!

Downrating (a) good answer(s) just because you disagree with it/them, or don't like the answerer. I wouldn't exactly say downrating without leaving a comment is trolling, because some just don't deserve a comment.

Trolling on AB is someone who rates people down, for example a whole answer thread or everything on someone's profile. To the rest of the wold, trolling is when someone posts questions mainly, just to get a reaction.

It's a nasty little bugger that always rates you down for no apparant reason.

They also go to your profile and look for questions you've answered just to downrate those too. The AB staff watches out for those.

an ahole

Someone who's whole purpose is to be as mean and nasty as possible by down rating and leaving nocomment or leaving a nasty answer or comment just to rile you up.

(I gave that answer also for another question: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/284878) 1) I have already been trolled. I got a lot of negative points in little time for very different questions. I suppose I upset somebody with one of my answers, and they wanted to rvenge themselves. I looked at my answers and I could not find any ground that I should become negative points on them. Most of them were absoluely not offensive or wrong. 2) here you can read some more information about trolls on AB: What is trolling.... http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/122098 What are trolls and anti-troll members on Answerbag? http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/96655 Why do people keep mentioning trolls and what exactly are they? http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/103666 What is a Troll? http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/158474 What is a Stalker Troll? http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/158527 What is The Anti-Troll Club? http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/96323 Pretend I know nothing about the internet, what is Trolling? http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/286381 Someone is negative trolling me, how do I find out who it is? http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/307652 What is your favorite method of destroying a troll? http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/107319 I'm quite new here. Will somebody please tell me what this Troll business is about? http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/154160 What is the best way that legitimate users of a site can discourage trolling activity? http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/64105 How many answerbag menbers belong to the; Anti troll club? and what is it ? http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/96879

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://communitiesonline.homestead.com/files/troll_2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://communitiesonline.homestead.com/dealingwithtrolls.html&h=352&w=320&sz=18&hl=en&start=19&sig2=akzMSCYh8J-c3rkZwngu-Q&um=1&tbnid=d87hspvT0HXe2M:&tbnh=120&tbnw=109&ei=4x9bRqPxLpeC-gKH_IywBQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtroll%26start%3D18%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN Wow thats a big link hope it works. Hope it answers your question. Here is what they often look like!

Nobody seems to know, some people say they know and have even created a club to fight them. If someone is harassing you simply flag their offensive Q/A and use the feedback link at the bottom of the page to notify AB.

People who give you negative ratings.

a troll is someone who goes around downrating people for nothing.

Yup they give people minus points for no specific reason and do not like people expressing their opinnions even when they ask a question

• The term "troll" is used all the time here on AB. I can see how you might be confused, there is a lot of misunderstanding. "intentionally posts derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll • (-) Points don't change your point tally! So if you are down-rated just force a smile. There may have even been a good reason you were down-rated. ¤ ¤

• The term "troll" is used all the time here on AB. I can see how you might be confused, there is a lot of misunderstanding. "intentionally posts derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll • (-) Points don't change your point tally! So if you are down-rated just force a smile. There may have even been a good reason you were down-rated. ¤ ¤

When stupid people downrate perfectly good answers or write rude comments to nice people they are called trolls and when out on there rampage its called trolling

In the main they are people that are incapable of giving an adequate opinion or answer themselves, so derive their pleasure from the site by Down Rating other peoples answers. Even if the answer has been helpful to the Questioner. They write silly answers to questions Spamming the board. 99% of these people are too nasty and cowerdly to leave a name and a reason. This makes them a troll IMO. I may not agree with people that DR but if they have the manners to leave a name and a reason you can at least know why they find your answer unsuitable. Some people just think that their opinions are more important than anyone elses and DR for that reason.

Trollong comes from the fishing term for throwing out a line or net and see what fish you can get. So on the internet it's when someone (the Troll) tosses out a question or answer (usually rude, controversial, obscene, inflammatory) to see if they can get some kind of nibble of attention. They want to start fights (flame wars) get people angry, outrage them, any kind of negative reaction. If people respond to them, then you have just grabbed onto their hook, you are in their net. The best thing to do to trolls is ignore, ignore, ignore. Here on AB we have trolls that can get attention in a new way, by also giving negative points to people.

Here's one ready to downrate an answer or question for no reason. Afterwards he's gonna nick his neighbour's milk.

Trolls are people that down rate your questions and answers for no reason other then they do not like you and follow you around AB.

A troll is someone who rates down your answers and questions for no reason.

Here is a link with of a similar question to yours, with a lot of info: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/100647 Also: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/96655

Someone who is constantly downrating everybody. If they notice you for something, they may downrate a lot of your questions and answers. I.E. people who have no life.

• The term "troll" is used all the time here on AB. I can see how you might be confused, there is a lot of misunderstanding. "intentionally posts derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll As for someone down-rating your post: • (-) Points don't change your over all point tally! So if you are down-rated just force a smile. There may have even been a good reason you were down-rated. ¤ ¤ If you see a lot of downrates in a row contact AB with the feedback link at the bottom of the page. ­ ­ ­

A coward.

Any person who negatively rates questions without an explanation or just for amusement. As well as... Any person who asks nonsense/offensive questions for amusement.

Here you go - look here - lol - The frist 2 are us and there is the Troll

Those sneaky little varments that come out (usually at night around here) and rate you down because they think it matters.

A "Hater". It's either their way or no way.

jerk

someone who is really unhappy in life and generally thinks little of themself. It's like this is all the power they have in their life--to be a troll. Sad.

Someone who downrates for the pure fun of it.

a Ab troll is someone who downrates you for no reason, who asked rude questions and in general is a troll.

Troll is someone who downrates people without reason or due to some personal reasons, and not on the basis of the question or answer.

This is as gentle as I can get:

It comes from looking through forums(trolling) for the opportunity to cause trouble, grief or generaly be obnoxious.

Here you go: http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/197083

:)

A guy that sits under a bridge with his computer maliciously downrating people without rhyme nor reason.

People who get their jollies by attacking others.

Trolls are short statured people that keep the rif raff from progressing further down life's path.

I will put it in a simple way to understand, they are mean people who suck and if you ever run into someone who just doesn't act like their not quite right, it will be safe to assume you have the attention of a troll.

one who follows other users and downrates each of their questions and answers for seemingly no reason other than spite.

A troll is someone who downrates people for no good reason.

Please search for similar questions before posting your own!

People who go to your profile page and steady down rate you