One of my pet-peeves is seeing people use words for which they don't know the definition. For one, it can make the person doing it look stupid. More importantly, words which are misused consistently lose their original meaning and in some cases that original meaning is valuable.

The misused word of the day is "Trolling".

The use of the word online comes from a fishing method. When trolling (fishing), you would cast your line out into the water, secure the rod to the boat, and then cruise around at slow speeds waiting for fish to take the bait. This is why, for example, bass boats come equipped with trolling motors. They're not for playing pranks on people.

When trolling (internet), you throw a comment out into a forum or chat with intent to attract (usually negative) attention. You drop bait and wait for a bite.

Trolling is now being used to describe activities and situations such as ordinary disagreements, pranks, jokes, debates, bullying, and individual harassment. None of these things fits with the metaphor. An easy rule that covers most misuse of the word is, if an individual is being targeted, it's not trolling. Make a new metaphor: sniping, hunting, I don't know... but trolling makes no sense here.

People always argue that it's evolution of language, but there is also an argument to be made for preserving valuable words. I happen to think this is a valuable word, largely because there is no replacement for it.

Also, preemptively... yes, blankfist, the internet is serious business.