Visualization of the various routes through a portion of the Internet
In the general sense, an internet (with a lowercase "i", a shortened form of the original inter-network) is a computer network that connects several networks. As a proper noun, the Internet is the publicly available internationally interconnected system of computers (plus the information and services they provide to their users) that uses the TCP/IP suite of packet switching communications protocols. Thus, the largest internet is called simply "the" Internet. The art of connecting networks in this way is called internetworking.
Yahoo! attracts the same type of low-level trolling phenomenon as other forums - the common "first post" trolls, petty debates, ad hominem attacks, flamebaiting ("Alaska is the dumbest country in the world!"), etc., but it also boasts some particular distinctions, as many trolls use fads that are only found on Yahoo! forums (similar things happen on the GameFAQs message boards, but to a lesser extent due to their stricter policies). Posters can either start a new thread or reply to another post in an existing thread.
