Trolling IS fun. Great way to learn multiple sides of any argument AND to discover why people care in the first place. It's a good way to learn about people.
Not at all, trolling is just a way to provocate people and make th— waaiit a minute...!
But aren't there better ways to learn about people and why they care about an issue in the first place?
Define "better." Nicer? Maybe. More effective? Probably not. More amusing? Certainly not.
More effective, certainly. Trolling invokes emotional reactions that, I think, drown out rational discussion. It's just taking cheap shots for amusement, with no real intention of gaining better understanding.
From my experience, I've found that trolling and Socratic dialogue bring out the key points forthright and also highlight the most severe points of disagreement. That usually doesn't happen so fast when arguing with hard facts (when applicable). You can also hardly say that about a Wikipedia article or a propaganda poster/website/book.
It kind of makes the philosophy student in me worry to see trolling and Socratic dialogue offered as seeming equivalents. Though, I suppose Socrates was a damn good troll in his time.
I don't know, are there?
Non-trolling discussion aimed at achieving increased understanding, I would hope.
"Better"? What, like an objective better which works for everyone? Maybe. Maybe there are better ways of learning coding than by watching videos, but it's still a good way to learn which works for some people.