(for background, those not familiar with the concept, you might want to check out goatse.cx for some background.)
One interpretation of the abstract troll - the concept of useless content. Offensive to the mind, soul, and authorities.
It's like taking a goatse link and giving it to children *
But what is a goatse link? Is it really a link to that place? Is it a link relating to that thing? Is it the more abstract concept of a intentionally misdirected link? No ... the concept of goatse is a type of troll. Not one that wants to piss people off or incite a flamewar...
goatse is porn
What is porn? It makes some people
happy, it offends others. goatse makes the poster happy, and
offends the reader. The troll
gets what they want out of it, the feeling that they
shocked someone, and doesn't feel any
repercussions for that act.
Today, because of your curse thingy, you can't sleep with anyone or else you might feel a moment of true happiness and lose your soul, become evil -- again -- and kill everyone.
That must be what it feels like to be a goatse troll. They find the perfect thread, pick the perfect link, post it in an ooh-so-disguised message, and kill everyone (well, sorta). In their mind, this isn't real life, it's just a fantasy, and we're all caught in their personal landslide, and message boards are their escape from reality...
My god... I can't believe I just said that. That has to be the cheesiest thing I've ever written.
What can we do about goatse? Nothing. In a free environment with anonymous access, people will always have the strange urge to freak people out. So take that and shove it.
* that's supposed to be a quote from the somethingawful theme song, but I couldn't find it for reference.