Trolls in the traditional sense troll for the sole purpose of making their targets upset in order to gain entertainment (known as "lulz").
A textbook example of a troll is Martin Shkerli, notorious securities fraud convict. He is well known for his sexual harassment of a journalist on Twitter, and for using Facebook to ridicule the government prosecutors who tried his case. Most recently he attempted to orchestrate, via Facebook, an assault against Hillary Clinton, which got him put back in jail prior to his fraud sentencing:
Martin Shkreli Heads To Jail For Offering To Pay For Hillary Clinton's Hair
Shkreli can't help himself. He's in my observation addicted to the glee of having caused a disruption.
There are bad actors here on TMC, but their motivation is a bit different than a true troll like Shkerli, in that their actions appear to be motivated by financial concerns and/or frustration at Tesla's successes. Basically, they aren't posting to gain entertainment. They are posting to attempt to depress stock price via FUD (which obviously hasn't worked), or to take out their anger at a company they view as an upstart userper.
Put another way: trolls in general act to cause disruption. In contrast, bad actors here at TMC are reacting out of resentment to Tesla's rise. I saw the same thing play out at Apple related forums from 2008-2012, when iPhone went from being a bit player to a dominating product.
