Steve Bennett wrote:
My definition of troll is basically someone who enjoys
conversations about
themselves, and particularly their behaviour, at the expense of getting work
done.
That's a novel definition, appropriate to the troll-hunter of
Wonderland.
The good ones usually have both supporters and
detractors, because
they are nice to some people and mean to others. The exceptionally good ones
are nice to those with genuine authority (ie, the power to block them), but
torture people with symbolic authority or rarely-used powers ("don't make me
block you, I haven't blocked anyone in years"). They relish the challenge of
making people second guess their character judgments.
And in any given discussion of their behaviour half the people will be going
"look at all these great things he's done" and the other half will be
going
"look what a prat he is". And everyone's time is wasted.
That is more characteristic of ass-kissers and brown-nosers who savour
the odour so much that they can't bear to flush the toilet.
Far better solution: when it's obvious there is
trollish behaviour, label
and ban, and leave open just one small avenue for redemption which will
require hard work and will waste the time of only a couple of people who
genuinely care.
"Obvious" is obviously a trollish word, especially when
used in the
context of an eccentric definition. Another way of putting this idea is
that the law is exactly what the cop[ on the beat defines it to be.
Ec