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Art on Slashdot

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Every once in a while, there's something on Slashdot worth reading. More often than not, it's in a comment rather than one of their "articles" (quotes intended to convey ample contempt for the editing process there). There's a discussion there, <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=187044&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=15433293" source="Slashdot">High Court Trims Whistleblower Rights</a>, in which one participant got pretty shrill in responding to a troll<fn>, trotting out all of the arguments that trolls dearly love to feed on (as well as those ever-delectable tears of frustration and rage). Some helpfully responded with <iq>[w]ow, I'm struggling to remember the last time I've seen someone get so close to getting a joke yet be so far away</iq> and <iq>the parent poster was clearly being ironic, and I fail to see how people can miss that (unless you were being double ironic, but I somehow doubt that)</iq>, which, for Slashdot, are to be looked at as incredibly polite and helpful. However, this little bit of <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=187044&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=15433564">ASCII-art</a> topped them all: <box align="center"><pre> o <- Joke O /--\ <-You | / \</pre></box> <hr> <ft>In internet parlance, a <i>troll</i> is someone who deliberately goads others into anger online. More often than not, the troll has no personal stake in the argument or discussion and does so only for the sheer joy of watching a potentially high-minded online discussion (ignore the inherent contradiction for the sake of argument) devolve into a spittle-spewing chaos of ad-hominem attacks and trite, fact-free statements.</ft>