Tam, a "Troll" and a "Troll Starter" are much the same thing: a person who starts a thread (message group) with a comment that is intended to incite riot, or who inserts such a comment into an existing thread. "Troll" is also used to refer to the thread itself. It isn't the content of the message that makes it a troll, but rather the intention of the individual. Sometimes trolls aren't recognized for what they are, and sometimes people respond to inflamatory comments as though they were trolls when they actually represent an individual's real opinion.