The majority of people, and by majority I mean everyone except me, do not understand what the term "Troll" means.

Let's start briefly by dispelling the idiocy that has cemented itself in the minds of the people:
1- Trolling is not arguing
2- Trolling is not disagreeing
3- Trolling is NOT griefing
Understand? probably not but let's keep going.


Trolling:
a) Comments and actions that must be off topic.
b) You must have intent(Desired emotional reaction).
c) You cannot believe in what your actions/words.
d) You must utilize deception or subterfuge to a certain degree.


a) + c)
I.e. if I'm a white supremacist and I walk into a black neighborhood and say
"F*** all N****s"
That's not trolling.

If a LoL player goes to the HoN forums and says
"LoL rulz and HoN sux"
That's not trolling.

Both of the above examples are just people being retarded, it's not the same thing.
They firmly believe that their stance is correct, they are simply voicing it in the wrong place in order to establish supremacy of their preferences. That is to say; if you truly believe in what you are doing or saying, you are not a troll, you are just a retard.


b) + d)
If you're arguing something that is ridiculously incompetent and upsetting a great deal of people , but you are completely oblivious to this, you cannot be a troll.

Let's compare it to murder; let's say you leave the gas on and end up killing someone.
By definition, you cannot be a murderer.

Going back to the original points; even if you have intent, even if your actions are off topic, shouting wildly in order to "stir people up" is not trolling, it's griefing.
The key difference in trolling and griefing is that it is easy to successfully grief people as opposed to trolling, which cannot be done as easily since it requires a level of deception, subterfuge , lies, etc.

Example:
A guy walks into a bar and says "You're all a bunch of F*gs" and sits down.
That's not trolling, that's griefing.

A guy walks into a homosexual bar and says "You're all a bunch of F*gs" and sits down.
Now you might be thinking that's too on point, but no, if it meets the four criteria I mentioned, it's a pretty solid example of disruption with subterfuge as you don't really feel that you should do or say that and your intent is present.

TROLLING =/= GRIEFING
Trolling can be very entertaining for the "Victims" and nearby individuals.
Griefing is not. Griefing by definition is not entertaining to the "Victims" and is generally irritating to everyone except the griefer(s).


Examples of Trolling in media:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPyqk8YuZpI
Pretty decent summary of trolling,a bit light but the sentiment is very accurate.
Post knowingly false information, hope for chaos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lich59xsjik
Very popular segment of a well known cartoon.
The character mispronouncing the word intentionally, in order to irritate the other character. Intent. Deception.

I'll post other links/examples a bit later.



Basically, deceiving people with something you don't believe in, in a place/situation that is not standard in order to acquire an emotional reaction , this reaction does not have to be negative.