Not to be confused with Dubya\'s term of endearment for Karl Rove
Ah, trolling, a fishing term for the internet. On message boards, such as 2+2, when a poster has no intention of starting a real discussion or honestly contributing something but posts strictly in order to generate responses (the more, the merrier), that poster is a troll. He's like a fisherman trailing a baited line from behind his boat.
Do not confuse with flaming, though. A poster is flaming when he starts insults or personal attacks which cause the whole thread/message board to degenerate into a flame war (=the trading of insults and personal attacks between a number of posters).
A poster can start a trolling thread without any flames (personal attacks). For example, a poster can start a thread proclaiming the many benefits of using the Martingale to beat roulette. Since we assume that the people who frequent 2+2 know better, we can safely assume that such a poster is probably trolling.
But, sometimes, the reader of a post cannot immediately understand its true meaning, mistaking it for trolling. And he accuses the original poster of being a troll. This situation is called a gin blossom.
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