While reading the forums...

[Laconfir]

I've been reading the forums since I joined, just trying to catch up and learn, as I'm sure I could find for the most part what type of locks to buy for a first time, and how to make/where to buy my first lockpick. But one thing escapes me.

I was reading the forum rules, and it said something about "Trolling" What in God's green Earth does this mean?

Also, I am a very political person, and it kind of saddened me to see that political/religious debates are prohibited. I understand why, but is there no room for maybe, a trail run of an off topic political debate?

Anyway, there is so much information here, I'm having a hard time getting the hang of it, I'll be going back to reading now. Ciao!

[Ezer]

Trolling is saying things for the sole purpose of upsetting others.

[Elijah]

Laconfir,

US citizens go to Canada to get away from political debate. For the same reason, we wear Canadian flag shirts on vacation. I'm personally proud to have never seen political debate on this forum.

-Elijah

[WhiteHat]

from the jargon file: http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/troll.html


1. v.,n. [From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase “trolling for newbies” which in turn comes from mainstream “trolling”, a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you don't fall for the joke, you get to be in on it. See also YHBT.

2. n. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that they have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand - they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the net, as in, “Oh, ignore him, he's just a troll.” Compare kook.

3. n. [Berkeley] Computer lab monitor. A popular campus job for CS students. Duties include helping newbies and ensuring that lab policies are followed. Probably so-called because it involves lurking in dark cavelike corners.

Some people claim that the troll (sense 1) is properly a narrower category than flame bait, that a troll is categorized by containing some assertion that is wrong but not overtly controversial. See also Troll-O-Meter.

The use of ‘troll’ in any of these senses is a live metaphor that readily produces elaborations and combining forms. For example, one not infrequently sees the warning “Do not feed the troll” as part of a followup to troll postings.

[Varjeal]

Trolls are ugly little critters that like to pop up in unexpected places and cause trouble and attempt to tease people into blowing up and doing something less than intelligent.

They do this by dropping information-less posts into a thread full of snide little comments such as "perhaps if you weren't stupid you'd be able to figure out how to do that." etc. I realize we all have bad days and sometimes say things we shouldn't, but if I go into your post history and find that 85% of your 200+posts are like that...chances are your going to get a firm pm, and if it continues, get run off the site.

The purpose of prohibiting political/religious debate is simple. Debates on topics such as these, in our experience, tend to sink into the lowest common denominator. Although a debate may begin with intelligently structured theories and fact-based opinions, over time they tend to degenerate to flame wars whether subtly inferred or just outright transparent.

Since this site is dedicated to the sport of lockpicking we try as much as possible to keep the discussion on those lines. There are many other sites on the internet for various debate topics dedicated to specific subjects.

We do have General Chat for lighter conversation, and there's always pm's of course, but in order to maintain peace on the site, we've chosen to prohibit the discussion of two topics that can very easily cause disruption.

Regarding religious debate, this is another area that we try to avoid. As some may know I call myself a Christian, but I do not push my faith on others and I attempt to be sensitive to others who choose to publically declare their faith regardless of what it might be.

These two topics in particular tend to lead into heated discussions that are best left to other, more appropriate sites.

Because we are trying to promote the sport of lockpicking to the widest audience of enthusiasts possible, we've chosen to go this route having the best interest of all in mind.

If you have further questions regarding the policies and rules of the forums, feel free to pm myself or any of the moderators and we'd be glad to help ya out. Enjoy the site and welcome.

[Ezer]

I suddenly wonder why I replied at all.

[Laconfir]

Thanks a lot for the info.. lol, didn't expect such detailed answers..

Ezer, your post was of great help, the others were too detailed, but much appreciated.

And I guess I could say I expected an anwser like that Varjeal, but thanks for the post. I came here for the locksmithing/picking info, not for politics, but doesn't hurt to check.

[Varjeal]

No problem. We try to help.

Nice work Ezer, btw.

[raimundo]

so thats what it means, I was wondering too, but I have little experience with internet except this site and one other locksports@yahoo, now moribund but still hanging on.

[WhiteHat]

sometimes when I'm bored, I read through the jargon file

http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/go01.html

personal favorites include.... no, on second thoughts I won't admit to having personal favorites - that's just too geeky...