>From the Times Magazine : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html
It mostly doesn't apply to us as a community (hopefully), but one paragraph is especially interesting. << In 1981, [Jon Postel] formulated what's known as Postel's Law: "Be conservative in what you do; be liberal in what you accept from others." Originally intended to foster "interoperability," the ability of multiple computer systems to understand one another, Postel's Law is now recognized as having wider applications. To build a robust global network with no central authority, engineers were encouraged to write code that could "speak" as clearly as possible yet "listen" to the widest possible range of other speakers, including those who do not conform perfectly to the rules of the road. The human equivalent of this robustness is a combination of eloquence and tolerance — the spirit of good conversation. Trolls embody the opposite principle. They are liberal in what they do and conservative in what they construe as acceptable behavior from others. You, the troll says, are not worthy of my understanding; I, therefore, will do everything I can to confound you. >> I'd add that trolling isn't always conscious, so everyone of us is potentially somebody else's troll. My personal trick is that I always re-read my posts as if they were addressed to myself on a bad hair day. Denis.
