What does the phrase "Troll" Mean?

A malcontent that posts messages specifically designed to enrage, confuse, and/or infuriate as many people as possible.

Truly "talented" trolls may even enter the realm of Stealth Parody. They insult and cause problems but remain mostly invisible to whoever they are causing harm to.

A case-in-point of the GIFT, the troll delights in sowing chaos; he is enamored by the thought that he can set off total strangers and derail entire forum topics by posting one simple message. At the same time his anonymity shields him from the uncomfortable realization that total strangers are currently fantasizing about his brutally beating the snot out of him.

Sliding Scale of Trolls

Trolling seems to mean different things to different people. To some, it means cruel manipulation of people's emotions For the Evulz. To others, trolling is like pulling pranks, yanking people's chains and provoking a reaction for harmless amusement. This scale is about those variations and comes in 5 grades depending on the cruelty of the person in question.

How funny the audience finds the trolling and how cruel the "troll" is are not mutually exclusive, though it should be noted that Type 5's are so cruel and malicious that's very rare for them to be funny in contrast to Type 1, who's almost always funny.


Type 1: Harmless Amusement



These characters only seek harmless amusement when they mess with people. Their antics entail minor pranks and good spirited yanking of people's chains to get a reaction. At this stage, even the target is unlikely to really mind much.

Type 2: Mischievous



Mischievous. The mischievous grade's acts are still more annoying than malicious and motivated by entertainment, but they will involve more intense pranks and will start getting on the nerves of their targets. Unlike a type 3, a type 2 will get upset if their pranks actually hurt people physically.

Type 3: Jerk



These trolls don't actually commit outright evil acts, aren't motivated by evil, but by amusement. These people are morally ambiguous and don't care if people get hurt by their pranks and mischief. These characters are usually neutral, tending towards chaos.

Type 4: Malicious



Mean Spirited. Type 4 is where the troll in question starts becoming cruel. Their trolling is mean spirited but can still be darkly funny to the audience depending on the delivery. These characters are usually evil, however they are always Laughably Evil. This is because even though they enjoy seeing people suffer most of the things he says and does are so funny that it barely prevents then from being a type 5.

Type 5: Cruel



These trolls are at maximum grade cruelty, motivated not by direct amusement but rather by causing emotional torment. Rarely are type 5 trolls ever funny. And rarely do they combine the motivation of being both direct amusement and emotional torment. I HATE this guy.

Who knew there were so many catagories for trolls.
A god article I agree i do not like the mean cruel trolls.

The one part is using he term trolls regarding to those late night in a bar-looking for someone to be intimate with