We all know what "troll" means in blog-speak: someone who visits a blog and posts primarily to disrupt normal conversation. Once identified, blogs such as DK work quickly to hound them out of here--a bit like an immune system response. The
FAQ has more.
Once identified, trolls did what any virulent organism would do--they evolved! dKospedia defines several mutants, including the concern troll, conspiracy troll, and others.
But now I think I see another mutant...(more below the fold)
A recent rash of diaries and comments (see
here,
here, and for a slightly lighter shade of grey, see
here)
shows a different kind of troubling trend: something between a concern troll and a primitive troll. The specimen says things that are blatantly anti-party ("Why I hate the Democratic Party"--this was a diary posted within the past week, but oddly enough, I can't find it now), but poses as a Democrat. The role portrayed is that of a frustrated but otherwise earnest and loyal Democrat.
This is different from a concern troll, since a concern troll doesn't necessarily pose as a Democrat. This species is clearly not a primitive troll ("Democrats suck!"), because the comment/diary takes care to distinguish between individual Democrats, kossacks, and the party leadership. Nor does it match either of the other troll species noted in the dKospedia entry--conspiracy troll or purity troll.
But what is it? I think we have a new species! The good news is, we can have some fun naming it; the bad news is, strategies to eradicate this species of troll has a high false positive rate. That is, we tend to stomp on too many genuinely earnest Democrats (see this comment thread, for instance).
A few weeks back, Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly held a contest to name the practice of trawling through the blog comments of the opposition to find particularly virulent expressions of partisan hatred: he called it nutpicking. Why not try that here!
So here's the contest: what name should we give this species of troll? Please post your suggestions in the comments. Please recommend others' comments for ideas you like. I'll pick the winner tonight, going by the recommends.