I can't help but wonder why the author attempts to describe anything he doesn't like, in his moderator role, as trolling. This seems to be a general trend in newspaper people describing their comment sections.
It's a trend with the majority of people. There was a case recently where a UK police force (Cambridge) decided to post pictures of poorly-parked bicycles on Twitter. Many people responded by posting images of poorly-parked cars. They were branded "trolls" by the police. Apparently, peacefully, relevantly and sensibly responding to something is now called "trolling". By the police, of all people.
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Twitter-spat-erupts-Cambridg...
"They are comment-thread poison – men’s rights activists who act as if articles about women’s issues are their gender’s single biggest problem, climate change deniers who will drag any conversation about energy policy into murky pseudo-science, and borderline racists for whom there is no issue that cannot be pinned on immigration (UK) or black people (US)."
...incidentally these are all people strongly opposing (perhaps to an extreme) some political positions of The Guardian. Not a single example of people strongly supporting (perhaps to an extreme) some political positions of The Guardian - these could never become "comment-thread poison."
> climate change deniers who will drag any conversation about energy policy into murky pseudo-science,
That is activism using derailment and off-topic tactics. Not saying that that shouldn't be deleted. Just that it isn't trolling.
Great to have you in this discussion, did you realize you were drawing an exaggerated conclusion from weak evidence when you wrote your comment? Do you realize it now? Would you consider your comment to be one with an agenda as the author theorized or do you have a different motivation?
As to what I think of my comment - I think it shouldn't be removed by a forum moderator, nor should your (IMO tremendously biased) comment be removed by a moderator, and neither comment constitutes "trolling" or "comment thread poison." A moderator removing either and doing similar things consistently is creating a forum I would not like to participate in either as a reader or a commenter.
That is a straw man argument, as you can see nowhere I claim that he chose his examples randomly. Quite the opposite as you quote directly, I think he chose his example to speak to his target audience.
> again, come on, his target audience will be familiar with their fellow extremists' arguments just as much as it will be familiar with the other side's extremists.
Perhaps, but this is a writing style issue. Anyway sure, it's a valid point you could ask of the writer to always perfectly balance his examples between minority and majority viewpoints of his readership. I don't think the "come on" is warranted though, do you really feel it's that obvious that the author should consider this instead of considering for example the sting the nice black/white examples that he uses give?
As to what you think of your comment, I didn't ask what you thought about your comment. I asked whether you realized your argument was exaggerated. I didn't downvote your reply nor do I think a moderator should remove it. I was just curious as to why you would be artificially polarizing this discussion.
Words (and phrases such as "begging the question") mean what they're understood to mean by the majority, much though those of us who understand their "proper" definitions might like to fight those tides.
Sure, you can still use the lesser-known or overtaken meanings in particular scenarios when you know your audience has a shared understanding, but that's true of all jargon or less-common definitions
"Troll" is rapidly coming to mean "person who behaves offensively, abusively or objectionably online". Of course the Guardian will have a different definition of what those behaviours are to, say, the Daily Mail. Or to HN!
I think the overall meaning of his comment is basically "Languages evolve." And I agree with him. It's as inevitable as death and taxes.
Are these people trolls? Depends on your personal ideology.