You may notice that Electrolicious’ commenting option has been removed. This is because, for the second time in a month, I caught the fancy of a troll.

What’s a troll? Well, there’s all sorts of reading you can do about the subject, but the simplest definition is this: An Internet “troll” is a person who delights in sowing discord on the Internet. He (and it is usually he) tries to start arguments and upset people.

There is a stark contrast between a troll and a reader who disagrees with a post. The most pivotal is that the comments will not be constructive. I welcome criticism — I’ve even used my blog to post criticisms provided elsewhere! But I do not welcome abuse or insults from people unwilling to discuss their opinions.

Another key identifyer is that trolls post anonymously, since they are fundamentally cowards — trolls aren’t interested in dialogue unless it’s public and insulting. They also absolutely love attention, and so the worst thing you can do is reply to their comments. If you see a trollish comment on a website, the best thing you can do is e-mail the website’s owner privately letting them know. Don’t reply to the troll’s comment.

Realistically, this very post of mine is probably spreading a smile across the face of my most recent troll friend. I’m fine with that. I think it’s important to let my readers know why my comments aren’t up right now.

I’m not the only one who deals with this sort of negative internet attention. In fact, trolls are directly correlated with a site’s popularity. That said, it seems like the Internet Troll Academy just had graduation last week, because there’s been excitement all over! Ernie’s dealing with a troll right now. Mrs. Kennedy e-mailed me just yesterday about a troll that was making her dread reading her comments. Dooce recently posted about her overabundance of comments…in fact, one of her trolls posted something meant to be derisive, but was actually quite accurate: your self shrine is very shiny.

And it’s true. Bloggers pay out of our own pockets to host our sites. So we’ll run them however we please.