Absolutely. Before I started listening to him on TWiT, I used to just think he was incredibly dumb. He's not - and he knows EXACTRLY what he's doing. He's a MASTER at creating controversy and posting "maybe true, but definitely inflammatory" stuff that will generate more clicks - and he's openly admitted doing this before on TWiT (and apparently this YouTube video too).
Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?
31–40 of 47 posts
Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?
#32What's really interesting is that no one here seems to be interested in asking whether Vivek Kundra is indeed unqualified for the position. That's what's really important. I mean the CIO of the United States should be a total tech badass, right? After reading Dvorak's post on Kundra, listening to the No Agenda podcast where they played clip after clip of Kundra speaking like a moron and after reading Om Malik's response and Kundra's Wikipedia entry, it seems like Dvorak may actually have a point.
Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?
#33Dvorak is a troll, but by discussing him we are just validating him and he will continue doing what he is doing. Trolls generally do their trolling to bring attention to themselves.
Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?
#34Can't the same thing be said about people like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter? They twist and turn facts, drum up controversy and spread hate/fear.
Oh, definitely. But they might not be trolling on purpose; there is the off chance that they actually believe the stuff they're saying.
I assume their purpose is it makes them lots and lots of money. Whether or not they believe some of what they say is probably not what gets them out of bed each day.
Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?
#35No.
He is a gossip columnist. Always has been, ever suince PC Mag in the 80s.
I like his personality though. He put a funny face on what was considered a boring and drab industry back when beige boxes prevailed.
Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?
#36http://www.isdvorakaprofessionaltroll.com coming in 3... 2... 1...
Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?
#37His status as a troll was cemented with his infamous anti-CSS tirade:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1987181,00.asp
My favourite quote: "The first problem is the idea of "cascading." It means what it says: falling—as in falling apart. You set a parameter for a style element, and that setting falls to the next element unless you provide it with a different element definition. This sounds like a great idea until you try to deconstruct the sheet. You need a road map. One element cascades from here, another from there. One wrong change and all hell breaks loose. If your Internet connection happens to lose a bit of CSS data, you get a mess on your screen."
Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?
#38For journalism the proper term is "hack".
Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?
#39Can't the same thing be said about people like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter? They twist and turn facts, drum up controversy and spread hate/fear.
They're more like comedians than trolls. People who agree with them enjoy listening to them say audacious things and people who disagree with them enjoy getting a rise out of the audacious things they say. I think some people must really enjoy outrage, because there's a surprising number of liberals who read Coulter, listen to Limbaugh, and watch Fox News.
Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?
#40His status as a troll was cemented with his infamous anti-CSS tirade: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1987181,00.asp My favourite quote: "The first problem is the idea of "cascading." It means what it says: falling—as in falling apart. You set a parameter for a style element, and that setting falls to the next element unless you provide it with a different element definition. This sounds like a great idea until…
I almost instinctively downmodded you for how stupid that remark was before remembering it was Dvorak saying that and not you.