rosco rathbone
1. f3e5 2. g4??
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2002
- Posts
- 42,431
trolling
The more likely derivation can be found in the phrase, "trolling for newbies," popularized in the early 1990s in the Usenet group, alt.folklore.urban. The usage was somewhat different from the current notion of trolling; it was a relatively gentle inside joke by veteran users, presenting questions or topics that had been so overdone, only a new user would respond to them earnestly. Others expanded the term to include the practice of playing a seriously misinformed or deluded user, even in newsgroups where one was not a regular; these were often attempts at humor, rather than provocation. In such contexts, the noun, "troll", usually referred to an act of trolling, rather than to the author.
Some long-time Usenet users continued to insist on these earlier definitions, even after the term was applied more generally to inflammatory actions, previously characterized as "flamebait".
----Wikipedia
The more likely derivation can be found in the phrase, "trolling for newbies," popularized in the early 1990s in the Usenet group, alt.folklore.urban. The usage was somewhat different from the current notion of trolling; it was a relatively gentle inside joke by veteran users, presenting questions or topics that had been so overdone, only a new user would respond to them earnestly. Others expanded the term to include the practice of playing a seriously misinformed or deluded user, even in newsgroups where one was not a regular; these were often attempts at humor, rather than provocation. In such contexts, the noun, "troll", usually referred to an act of trolling, rather than to the author.
Some long-time Usenet users continued to insist on these earlier definitions, even after the term was applied more generally to inflammatory actions, previously characterized as "flamebait".
----Wikipedia
(<---- Not a typo, it's a smooch. I should get a copyright on that thing.) 
