The internet didn’t create trolls. It made them more widespread because it made being one easier. There are many publications that make a living by trolling and, despite what some would say about the practice, it really isn’t that big of a deal. You know that when you go to popular publications like Buzzfeed, Gawker, or Techcrunch, there’s a good chance that they’ve recently published something that was intended to make fun of the actions of others. They’ve even been known to troll themselves. There’s definitely a place for it on the internet and it can be both lucrative as well as informative. I…

For years, the Gawker network, which includes Gizmodo, io9, and Kotaku, has fought a battle against commenters, particularly trolls. The huge blog network is driven in many ways by the comments on the site and founder Nick Denton doesn’t like it. He went so far as to call comments on his sites “a joke” at SXSW and said the promise of thoughtful discussion never materialized. “It didn’t happen,” he said. “It’s a promise that has so not happened that people don’t even have that ambition anymore. The idea of capturing the intelligence of the readership – that’s a joke.” Now, they’re going to try to reinvent…

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has always had a penchant for replying to questions and accusations over his very public email address, but yesterday he went one step further, verbally sparring with a Gawker writer on topics such as freedom, Flash and pornography. Ryan Tate was angered by an Apple TV commercial that referred to the iPad as “revolutionary”, and immediately penned an email to Jobs. It’s not surprising that Jobs answered, but the debate continued over several emails. Tate is clearly writing out of frustration or anger, but Jobs remains cool and calm, calling Tate on misinformation and biased…