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First Amendment Ruling Protects Internet Trolls
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "A recent ruling by the Court of Appeal of the State of California (PDF) in Krinsky v. Doe H030767 overturned a lower court ruling and decided that the First Amendment right to anonymous speech protects internet trolls, too. Specifically, the ruling said that 'this juvenile name-calling cannot reasonably be read as stating actual facts.' And, even though some of the statements were crudely sexual and accused Ms. Krinsky of being among 'boobs, liars and crooks,' the statements were held to 'fall into the category of crude, satirical hyperbole which, while reflecting the immaturity of the speaker, constitute protected opinion under the First Amendment.'"
"Troll" and "Flamebait" are at times used to shout down people with unpopular stances.
Not nearly to the extent that "overrated" is used though. Overrated is used to shout down people with unpopular stances by moderators who don't want negative meta-mods(since over/under rated is not meta-modded)
Monstar L
Speaking of over/underrated, I tend to use underrated in place of funny, because funny doesn't give the poster any karma. (A single funny mod actually reduces the maximum karma a person can receive for a post, making it in some ways WORSE than a negative mod - at least if a post gets down-modded, it can get modded back up, reversing the karma loss.)
Sometimes I'll find that the post has an insightful, interesting, or informative component, and will use that mod (which at least allows it to be metamodded, and follow the system,) but sometimes funny is the only appropriate mod... so I go underrated.