Troll?
What's a troll? I've never seen anyone adequately explain that.
From my observation, a troll can only be described as one who states a conflicting or opposing view, at odds with the general consensus of the community to whom he posts, with the sole objective being the creation of hostile reactions, for nothing other than the troll's amusement at the reactions.
I've seen it a lot on other boards, who's communities are far less ambiguous than ours. In those instances, trolls are easy to define. The communities to whom the trolls post are communities whose very raison d’être is the ideological consensus of their respective communities.
Take, for example, some of your guy's little foray into the PETA boards. You were nothing but trolls, posting just to agitate, and making no bones about that.
The question is.... has the OC become the political equivalent of the PETA boards? Where there is but one overriding consensus, and anything said contrary to that consensus is automatically branded a troll - the merits of the argument be damned?
Has the OC reached the point where it has leveled off into an ideological comfort zone? I think that's what some of you seem to expect. I think it's why some of you find it so damned easy to call something a troll.
You think that you know what this community is. You think that you understand it's norms. When you cry "Troll!," all you're really doing is calling attention to the fact that someone is saying something at odds with what you think this community will tolerate.
ie.:
"Expressed opposition will garner an outcry here, and the expresser of that opposition must know that, thus that expression is a troll."
I call bs.
If Beet1e's post was made on a Freeper board, it would definitely be a troll. Of course. But since when is the OC the undisputed land of freepers?
Nothing about Beet1e's sharing of his experience in Qatar and his thoughts about it could ever constitute a "troll" in a community where ideological differences are accepted as part of this community.
Or.... are ideological differences no longer a part of this community?
You folks better come to terms with that before all you're left with is trying to shout down your own selves.