Wikipedia defines an online troll as someone who comes into an established community such as an online discussion forum, and posts inflammatory, rude or offensive messages designed to annoy and antagonize the existing members or disrupt the flow of discussion.
In a nutshell, that's what the Sri Lankan weblog community has been plagued by during the past two weeks. Although Internet trolling is by no means a new phenomenon, this is the first time that the Lankan blogspace has been seriously affected by it.
The troll, who we will not link here for fear of feeding [1] it, seems to have an in depth knowledge of the community and its members – something which is not often seen in troublemakers of this kind.
What is most interesting however, is the filth the blog has fueled. The comment threads of the offending posts have filled up with messages that vary from mildly rude to thoroughly disturbing, with varying degrees of profanity. I've tried to sum up what's happening in a blog post of my own [2], which outlines, among other things, a possible explanation for this behaviour.
All in all though, the .lk community is going through a bit of a slump, with many bloggers refraining from posting in fear of being targeted by the newcomer. The upside however is that these recent happenings are a sure sign that the Sri Lanka weblogging community has finally arrived. And of course, never forget that drama brings hits [3].