How to identify - What is a TROLL, what a troll does

[adasal <ad...@gmail.com>]

Don't know if this is helpful.
I have been wondering how people know if someone is trolling.
I have been reading through recent mailings using Mark Mail, which I find
very precise for filtering by search.
I have found three main things.
First of all it is not always known, but this may not be as destructive as
at first it seems.
Trolling is characterised by surreptitiously gaining a footing in an email
thread and then rubbishing the project software and community.
(If you want to know, gaining satisfaction from primitive expulsive
behaviour.)
OS software projects by their nature make gains in some areas in comparison
to others.
These gains may well be made up if important to this project and, quite
aside from being rubbished, it is very irritating to have these things
pointed out when there is no intent to focus on and work in the areas in
question. These are things that could be worked on but the only intent of
the troll is to rubbish. They are unlikely to be working on the subject they
are trolling about.
Lastly, I was concerned about the possible destructive effect, but when the
last occasion is looked at on this list, just few days ago, in fact the list
recovered immediately and in the same thread. When someone else introduced a
topic that they really were working with this was immediately recognised and
responded to.
On the last occasion the thread went on to become very interesting.


Adam Saltiel