**The term "troll" is often used by some to describe a poster they
don't agree with or don't seem to like (even thought they don't even
know them).  Many times it seems to be overused or misused to describe
a person.  Let's explore exactly what a "troll" really is.  (Of
course, in folklore they were creatures that lived under a bridge but
the Usent version seems to have taken on another dimension.)

***A "troll" is basically a person who comes to a group, writes a post
of substance that is intelligently and logically presented and that
deals with a subject that might require effort and thought in order to
properly process.

***This immediately triggers a very nervous condition within the
elementary minds of many of the group's regulars as their brains are
asked to actually respond to logic for the first time in ages.  There
is a whirlwind of neural activity as synapses snap and pop from one
side of their cranial area to the other.  A tumultuous period of
disorientation follows and dizzy spells of varying degree envelop the
hapless creatures as they try to deal with something now foreign to
their neanderthal psyches.

***Thoughts like "OMG, I have to think," "Isn't there a rule that no
one can post anything that requires the use of brain waves or personal
effort?"  "Why an I being asked to think?" "Do I have to arrive at a
rational and intelligent decision on this idea?" race through their
troubled minds.

***As this confusion reigns supreme and the unanswered questions
heavily burden the simpleton minds of some of the old-timers in the
group, the tortured creatures now band together, as their cave
dwelling ancestors once did, and begin to utter the only words of
response to these new ideas that they know.  In true misguided
behavioral fashion coupled with the fear of the unknown and their
"deer in the headlights" mentality, they lift their gnarled fingers,
point toward the post and, in a guttural, near-unintelligible and
almost animalistic tone, scream "HE'S A TROLL!."

***This seems to the only way their near-empty minds can process
something so far above their intelligence and inbreeding since
advanced problem-solving techniques using logic and intelligence have
yet to be introduced into their primitive culture.

***Now that they feel they have responded to this new thought or idea
in the only manner their cretin minds can muster, they gather around
the ancient campfire, drooling and belching, rubbing their bright red
baboon butts together and munching on blackened bananas before heading
back to their cave, single file, their knuckles leaving small furrows
in the soil as their arms scrape the ground.

***Once back in the womb-like sanctity of their primitive, waterless
RV park, inside a huge cave in the side of a mountain, they lick the
day's fleas off of one another while employing a rudimentary form of
congratulatory behavior in having met and "dealt with" yet another
"threat" to their retarded and backward society.

******The intent of this new poster was never to incite, aggravate or
disturb the "old-timers" and he did not do this.  What disturbed and
agitated them was not the messenger, but the message and the
"disturbance" came in the eye and ear of the beholders, not the
poster.  In other words, their insecurities and their lack of embrace
to new concepts and ideas created some if not all of the turmoil they
felt.  Their unrest, therefore, was basically their problem not the
alleged "troll's" problem since they manufactured said unrest from
within.

***It proves the old maxim that NO ONE can MAKE US feel or do anything
if we are truly proactive and have control of ourselves.  To express a
negative reaction (i.e. anger and denigration) to a new poster and
call said new poster a "troll" simply shows a lack of self-control and
self-guidance in the reader, NOT THE TROLL.  Simply putting blame
where blame should lie.

-MRG