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