What we have here is known in cyberparlance as a _troll_, noun and verb.
 
To troll is send an email to a listgroup, chat group, or newsgroup in an
attempt to get a rise and to start an angry series of responses flying back
and forth: this is called a _flame war_; _flames_ are are abusive,
pejorative emails. The origin of this word is in fishing.
 
A troll, the noun, is a person who does this kind of thing. The origin of
this aspect of the word is in the deformed nasty creatures of fairy tales.
 
Trolls are usually sent by adolescents who are not well socialized yet, or
by young adults whose personal development was arrested at that stage, or by
people with chemical imbalances.
 
Trolling and flaming are cowardly acts--note, for instance, that this poster
conceals his or her identity. It is like the little dog yapping at the big
dog on the other side of the fence. Email gives these little people a chance
to nip at the heels of others without the requirement of study, thought,
knowledge, or the personal risk that one takes when confronting someone in
person, but it is usually marked, as this post was, by stridency, pomposity,
and the baiting of a group dedicated to a particular subject. Trolls rarely
express a carefully developed opinion, and never an intention of entering
into a sincere dialogue. They don't warrant a response.
 
Chris Booth
 
 
> ----------
> From:         Seamus Cooney
> Reply To:     Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
> Sent:         Wednesday, July 28, 1999 10:11 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: <no subject>
>
> > Does this fascination with the self-absorbed, convoluted, and
> > overly-pedantic rantings of a virtual moral dwarf--albeit an
> > intellectually-gifted one--embarrass no one?
>
> Are you nuts? Nothing is more annoying that getting obscure messages
> over and over. Are you doing this deliberately? If so, it's pretty
> adolescent.
>
>
> -------------------------------------
> Seamus Cooney
> English, Western Michigan University
>