2 expressions I didn't understand

leelee

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Hi sorry to bother you but I was reading the TCS forum rules and I came across 2 expessions I do not understand: trolling, flaming . If you could tell me what these mean I would appretiate it very much.
 

hissy

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Hi Lee Lee-

Trolling and flaming are two internet terms to describe troublesome behavior.

A troll is someone who comes on a message board and posts something that is very disturbing emotionally. If could be anything really, most of the trolls that land here try to touch on the sensitive subjects like spaying and neutering, declawing or disciplining a cat. They apparently get their giggles by getting others very upset, and sometimes it is hard to figure out if we are being played or not.


Flaming is when a thread gets personal by someone throwing around insults at another, hurting people's feelings intentionally by telling them off in a crude manner. All the mods do a great job at stopping these posts from getting out of control. Sometimes, the post will vanish for awhile, get cleaned up and put back. Worse case scenario is it vanishes altogether or gets locked down.


Hope this helps!
 

sammie5

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Trolling is kind of general, the example Hissy gave is one kind of really bothersome troll.

In general, on bulletin boards, trolls are people who post just to get a reaction. They say inflammatory things, or stupid things, or ask silly questions, all with the intent to draw attention to themselves and cause a disruption in the board.

So in the case of the Cat Site, someone may appear to be a new cat owner with a bunch of questions, and only after a day or two will it become clear that they are just wasting everyone's time. Its a nuisance, because people spend time and energy and bandwidth answering them, and then find out that they wasted that time. Which is what the Psychic Vampire thread refers to.
 

deb25

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And here's the link to that thread, in case you have trouble digging it up.

We had a member recently who posted cat emergencies non-stop. When people finally stopped replying, she suddenly just disappeared and hasn't been back since. Makes you think that all the time people were replying with genuine concern, she was sitting behind her monitor having herself a good laugh.
 
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