Tom, It’s an interesting theory, and trolls come in all flavors. I had not considered that a student could use provocative claims to elicit lots of educational responses. Other trolls simply enjoy the rush of saying outrageous things and watching the reactions from others. However, to carry this on for long, they’d have to be pretty good actors, and in cases like Robert and other fringe-of-the fringe YECs such as Baugh, Juby, Hovind, and Brown, on balance think it’s more likely that they are simply at the far left of the graph in the Dunning-Kruger article. It is interesting that some people who regularly post in these blogs, including Joel, Christine, and Paul seem eager for new ideas and info from others, and freely admit when their knowledge about something is limited or could be wrong, despite their in-depth expertise in certain fields and wide knowledge in general, suggesting they are at the far right of the chart.