Re: Paid trolls

[Bernd Jendrissek]

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In article <8ac.40967ceb.8a9e7@voltaire> Antonios Christofides
<anthony@itia.ntua.gr> wrote:
>Reinhard Mueller wrote:
>> >    a) too blind by rage of unemployment
>> >    b) payed to act like this
>> >    c) gratuitously engaging a malevolent agenda
>> >    d) plain stupid
>> 
>>  I would rather believe it's b), because that's the only logical reason
>>  for neither telling his real name nor his employer, and using an
>>  (AFAICT) anonymous method of posting.
>
>OK, but what would they gain from trolling? Create FUD? What kind of
>company would use such means? Large companies as part of a strategy to
>create FUD about free software, perhaps? It sounds a bit far-fetched to
>me, that's why I'm asking.

They might imagine that trolling free software newsgroups is a way to
slow free software down.  Free software authors replying to usenet
trolls are not writing free software.

Is Snuffellufogus a human, or is it a bot?  If the former (human), then
trolling is a Colonel Blotto game - particles collide with and
annihilate an equal number of antiparticles, so the only question
becomes: who has more human capital - the "evil corporations" or the
free software movement?  I hope free software has more people working on
it; then those "evil corporations" would slow down to a halt while we
*still* keep on producing output (albeit at a slower pace).

Actually, I think the answer is more like a) as a result of d),
resulting in c).

- -- 
http://voyager.abite.co.za/~berndj/ (f1084a555d2098411cff4cefd41d2e2a1c85d18c)
"years from now, we'll look back on this, laugh nervously and quickly
change the subject" - lee
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