In a way, true, but the main characteristic of the troll is that a troll will not accept any argument - trolls cannot say: You are right, I was wrong.
in a healthy academic debate, we expose ourselves to other ideas in order to see things differently, to tweak our own views, to grow. the troll does not want to grow - only provoke but without there being grounds to meet on.
I would also find it boring to discuss with people who agree with me all the time. There would be no reason to participate.
BUT, our job ahead is a big one - expand the use of Esperanto - in its richness of expression and in the number of people using it to express themselves. The troll will not do this - the troll will only find the negative in every suggestion. In German they have an expression for this: Tiefflieger - deep flyer. The metaphore is pretty good.
And I agree, Vestitor, that we shouldn't immediately assume that someone is a troll. Just one or two entries don't give off a sound picture. But when someone constantly and insistently only looks for the negative and then also gets personal in their attacks.... then I stop answering them, no matter how they challenge me. I just shut down. I have noticed that several other forumanoj do the same.

Tempodivalse:

Well - why should we care what the troll thinks? ... I don't like to dignify their comments with responses.

(Rough parallel: Creationists like Ken Ham are totally ignored by the scientific community, not because the latter struggles to provide a response, but because even acknowledging them would make them look more legitimate than they are.)

Doesn't do much to stop them though does it? And leaving people like that unchallenged actually gives them some credibility with a certain (large) audience. The Stephen J Gould approach might leave one looking dignified, but that's easy when the Richard Dawkins of the world are doing the spadework - and then getting it in the neck from people who should know better.

Doesn't do much to stop them though does it?

Not really, but neither does trying to engage them in some kind of conversation. Either way, they'll press on. Trolls - from the garden-variety Internet types to the anti-science losers - want you to respond, because like the attention, and they enjoy getting a rise out of you. It is impossible to intellectually engage with them, because that would require a level of reciprocal sincerity.

I've moderated websites and chatrooms for years, and I long ago learned that the best way to frustrate a troll is to ignore and ban/block him with the least possible fuss. Eventually, he just gets bored and moves on to fresher meat. If you engage with him, he'll just keep coming back for more.

In real life, there might be concerns about how audiences will perceive your ignoring the troll, but this seems less important on a web forum. On this website, I only react to trolls when I sense they are misleading learners with factually incorrect statements about Esperanto usage (for instance: "nobody uses the accusative anymore", "everyone uses na", etc).