Recently a lot of people have been reported (and possibly warned, I don't know) for using the word "troll" or "trolling", because "trolling" is a violation and therefore accusing someone of "trolling" is discussion of a moderation issue.

I think this policy should be re-evaluated, or clarified at least, because I really doubt that most uses of the word "troll" or "trolling" have any intent to reference breaking of the forum rules.

Here's how the forum rules define it:


The rules definition of "trolling" is much narrower than the general internet definition: the intent to provoke other players to break the rules.

The word is a common one, and often used much more broadly: just to provoke an argument or just annoy an opponent. As I interpret it: It's not against the rules to provoke arguments or simply to make posts meant to annoy others, only to do so in such a way that it is meant to provoke the other player into breaking the rules. Or if you start flaming or name-calling, than it is past acceptable.

While the rules definition of trolling may be encompassed in the general definition of "trolling", there are many potential uses of the word "troll" or "trolling" that the forum definition doesn't encompass. References to "trolling" that aren't meant to fall under the forum definition shouldn't be treated as discussion of moderation issues. Reports for simply using the word when there is no intent to discuss moderation issues have been getting excessive because it's really just getting someone on a technicality rather than an action that breaks the spirit of the rules.

This has been a part of the rules for a long time now. That specific phrase was banned for 2 reasons:

1) It was horribly overused and misapplied. Many threads would devolve into "Well you're just a troll!" with "NO, YOU'RE trolling me!" as a response. We are fully aware of what it means elsewhere on the internet, but we chose to clarify the term for the sake of having codified rules that were less ambiguous.

2) Most of the usage of the word comes in AA and other IC forums. Using that phrase is completely and utterly OOC, thus it's usually a warn for both discussing moderation issues outside a mod forum AND for OOC in an IC forum. There's no need to either engage in the practice or start labeling people in an IC forum. Pointing out that someone's argument is faulty or they're just attempting to start trouble is totally IC, but throwing around names like "troll" or accusations of "trolling" isn't.

The only difference between Trolling and Flamebaiting as far as rules go is that Flamebaiting targets a single person while Trolling targets more than one. If someone posts something clearly to annoy someone and goad them into responding with a Flame or Troll post, that is purely and utterly warnable. Unfortunately, Flamebaiting is somewhat ambiguous, which is why we only address cases where it is extremely blatant.



I hope this clarified the issue a bit for you. We still will not allow people to use the term outside of the mod areas, because that's the only place it really belongs.