Never troll a troll, say men and women much wiser than moi.
To them, I say no, in this case it’s perfectly fine to troll the troll.
From the funny dude who brought you the Mark by Mark Zuckerberg collection, now comes a website where you can, basically, send him $9 via PayPal.
But in return, the funny dude will package and send an actual troll doll to Intellectual Ventures, the patent-holding firm that manages to claim that it’s in the business of creating “a more efficient and dynamic invention economy” without breaking out in loud, slightly evil-sounding laughter.
Here’s how the funny dude explains it, albeit more eloquently than I ever could:
how it works: you donate $9. we package and ship a troll doll to intellectual ventures. intellectual ventures frowns. we smile.
why trolls, why intellectual ventures: IV is like the 6th grade bully thieving lunch money. but worse. because this lunch money would otherwise go to building the next paypal/farmville mashup.
TechCrunch would be in dire straits without the possibility for a next generation of such mashups to blossom, so please donate. Or not, which is cool too.