What the heck is a Troll?

I have been reading and posting on different forum sites for about 2 years now. During this time I have discovered many terms new to me. I figure most of them out eventually or just ask. Like right now, I still am unsure of what a Troll is. Can someone provide me with a definition please?

A troll is someone who offers no benefit to the particular community in question. They drag up old threads as well as destroy new ones. They throw the current thread off topic to instigate bickering and name calling just for the sake of attention. There are quite a few of them here and I am sure someone will feel privy to tell them to you.

A better definition by wikipedia:
In the context of the Internet, a troll is a person who posts inflammatory messages intended to cause a disruption in discourse. The word is also often used to describe such messages.

Common types of troll messages or activities:



One Shot Trolls

One shot troll messages are intended to be disruptive, they tend to be very obvious, to ensure that they will receive annoyed reply

• Off topic messages — "Can anyone help me make a web page?" "No, this is a music forum."
• Inflammatory messages — "You are an idiot for including this type of message in your list."
• Including offensive media such as annoying sound files or disturbing pictures in a message, or linking to shock sites that contain such media. Often these links are disguised as legitimate links.
• Posting politically sensitive images in inappropriate places
• Deliberate and repeated misspelling of other people's nicks in order to disturb or irritate them in a conversation.

• Messages containing an obvious flaw or error — "I think 2001: A Space Odyssey is Roman Polanski's best movie."
• Intentionally naive or politically contentious messages — "I think George W. Bush is the best/worst President ever."
• Deliberately revealing the ending of a recent popular movie or book, such as the latest Harry Potter novel, as a spoiler
• Intentionally posting an outrageous argument deliberately constructed around a fundamental but obfuscated flaw or error; often the poster will become defensive when the argument is refuted but may instead continue the thread through the use of further flawed arguments; this is referred to as "feeding" the troll.
• A subclass of the above is the flawed proof of an important unsolved mathematical problem or impossibility (e.g. 1 = 2); however these may not always be troll-posts and are sometimes at least mathematically interesting.
• Bumping an older discussion, or rehashing a highly controversial past topic, particularly in smaller online communities.
• After a flamewar ensues, pretending to be innocent
• Off-topic complaints about personal life or threats of suicide; sometimes this is the "cry for help" troll.
• Plural or paranoid answers to personal opinions expressed by individuals — "I don't believe that all of you really believe that, you are teaming against me."
• Any combination of the above. For example, a troll will combine inflammatory statements with poor grammar and AIM-speak (which is also known as "netspeak"). "lmfao you fuctard u are so weak minded and predictablei thought i wan iggied i play ya like a card"

Thank you Matthew for the education. Excellent reference.