What is a troll by the way? [offtopic]

[Fredrik Henbjork]

On Sat, 21 Aug 1999, you wrote:
> In article <37BDF3A7.75FEA04F at vision.arc.nasa.gov>, Chad Netzer
> <chad at vision.arc.nasa.gov> writes
> >Robert Kern wrote:
> >
> >> _Troll_ is a USENET term for someone that deliberately posts an
> >> inflammatory message simply to stir up argument.
> >
> >I've found it funny to watch this term evolve over the past few years.
> >It started (I believe) as a reference to the fishing term, and used to
> >mean "trolling for flames" (ie. hoping to bring flames to the
> >discussion), perhaps employing "flame bait" for this purpose.
> >
> ...
> ppresumably the fishing reference is a mis-pronounced form of trawl
> although given the number of English dialects troll might be correct
> somewhere in that sense.
> -- 
> Robin Becker

I think you are wrong. I was an active fisher until I gave it up some years ago
due to animal rights reasons. Trolling and trawling are totally different things.
Trawling means that you basically drag a *big* net behind a *ship* while
trolling means that you have one or several fishingrods with baits trailing
some tens of meters behind the boat. Trawling is industrial fishing done by
professional fisherman while trolling is mostly done by people as a hobby.
Trolling also makes more sense in a semantical way in the expression
"trolling for flames" than trawling since you don't use a bait (remember
"flamebait") when trawling.

--
Fredrik Henbjork

Email: frehe491 at student.liu.se
WWW: http://o112.ryd.student.liu.se