I saw this youtube video of an early 90s broadcast about this thing called internet, and they pretty much talked about how great it is to have a civilized conversation, without trolls.
So early on it wasn't a problem, my guess is that trolls probably didn't really appear until AOL.
Specifically, on the Internet, when AOL got a Usenet gateway. No-one cared when they stayed within AOL, not least because AOL had moderators.
The real Internet is not HN, it's not Facebook or Livejournal. It's 4chan and the comments on Youtube. That's what we built, that's the glorious future, the pinnacle of high tech, the global collective consciousness. How proud should we be?
Honestly, 4chan just reminds me of alt.* in Septembers. I'm not a regular visitor, but at least 4chan doesn't pretend to be anything other than the filthy underbelly of the net, and the community there has both a sense of humor about itself and genuinely likes kittehs...plus it has the merit of being funny if you're willing to accept the possibility of being offended.
What's really depressing to me is going to visit the San Francisco Chronicle website, CNN or wherever, and seeing the comment space overrun by arrogant idiots who think they're superior to 4chan, or would if they knew about it. I would far rather be trapped in a lift with a bunch of /b/tards than the over-earnest moralists (of all political stripes) that attach themselves like limpets to the mainstream news and political sites.
4chan and Youtube comments are part of the internet. The ghetto parts, to be specific. The 4chan-style scum and villainy gets concentrated at 4chan, the Youtube-style tomfoolery stays on Youtube, and the rest of us can sit in our small splinter forums and have discussions without somebody yelling about how 9/11 was an inside job (WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!!) or posting pictures of naked underage anime characters. There have always been a bunch of people in the world that you'd rather not live near, and it's the same way on the internet.
The real internet isn't HN, but it's also not 4chan or Youtube. The real internet is the internet -- the whole internet. Tautological but true. As long as there's always some readily-accessible part of the internet without troll problems, then I'd say we're doing okay.
The real progress, though, would be figuring out how those civilized parts of the internet can stay civilized. Some forums have a small population. Some forums have a strong sense of community and ban-happy moderators. Some forums have downvoting, although that doesn't seem to stop persistent trolls. If you've got a better way, discussing it would be fun.
I can't offer the link (reddit is blocked on my computer :D ) but the WAKE UP SHEEPLE guy was one of the best and most useful trolls I have ever seen. Look for his "good bye" post - the guy was way over the average, and not just as a troll.
The comments on Youtube and 4chan have absolutely nothing in common. One is a group of people who recognize they're acting like idiotic jackasses and do it because they find it humorous. The other group is simply mentally retarded.
Only a subset, which is called /b/. The rest hang out there, and a few related sites, and basically troll themselves. Better to have them (more or less) all in one place than randomly distributed everywhere else, no?
And anyway - not all "trolling" is created equal, IMO. Smart, organised, (dare I say) funny trolling beats random hate and idiocy anyday. I haven't noticed 4chan moving with any particular malicious intent; they just try to amuse themselves, and the causes are as often defensible (Scientology, Sarah Palin mails) as not.
We're always going to have trolls. If 4chan sets the standard for trolling I think we've done pretty well actually. At least they're intelligent.
I remember this story about a psychologist who pretented to be a woman, and I don't remember exactly who, or where, but it was in a movie about the net beginnings...
Found... don't know if it counts as a troll, tough: Google for "The Strange Case of the Electronic Lover"
my guess is that trolls probably didn't really appear until AOL.
I'm old enough to remember that there were trolls on Usenet before AOL built its gateway to Usenet.
I'm pretty sure that verifying the earliest use of "troll" in the sense of this thread and comparing that with the date of AOL's gateway opening would confirm this.
So early on it wasn't a problem, my guess is that trolls probably didn't really appear until AOL.