Trolls. Love ‘em or hate ‘em they are here to stay. Whether they invade actual movie discussion , post in Post Whoring Threads or patrol local bridges attempting to extort chickens they seem to be everywhere.
While we do have a means for reporting these vile creatures to the Powers that be, there is no outlet for discussion. Discussions about how to define a Troll, what constitutes trolling behavior and how to handle said Trolls, aside from burning them after they reach zero hit points.
Message Board Trolls generally arrive at a message board and post comments meant to derail threads by offering posts that bare little or no relevance to the topic being discussed, post offensive material or comments or simply to shill a product of some sort.
But the problem that continues to arise is the Rush To Judgment in the labeling of a Troll. A Troll is not necessarily someone who disagrees with commonly held beliefs, but rather someone expresses those conflicting beliefs with little or no explanation or common courtesy. i.e. – “Your (sic) wrong, fuck you!” Or they may be someone you has failed to grasp the etiquette of message board posting.
Often the latter type of poster can be steered in the correct direction with some helpful suggestions and support, and usually you can tell if they are going to accept the help or continue to be a distraction almost immediately. But one of the problems is in the method that established post try to ‘Help’. Accusing a new poster of being an old Troll under a new name is not usually helpful unless there is enough evidence to back it up. There are methods at the board moderators disposal for detecting such activity and they normally handle the situation promptly.
Piling on a new poster will almost never help turn that poster around, they will simply become defensive and lash out resulting in the Troll label being applied and pitch forks being drawn.
All I’m saying here is a little bit of patience goes along way.
If this post is frowned upon and against the No Discussion Rules I apologize.
While we do have a means for reporting these vile creatures to the Powers that be, there is no outlet for discussion. Discussions about how to define a Troll, what constitutes trolling behavior and how to handle said Trolls, aside from burning them after they reach zero hit points.
Message Board Trolls generally arrive at a message board and post comments meant to derail threads by offering posts that bare little or no relevance to the topic being discussed, post offensive material or comments or simply to shill a product of some sort.
But the problem that continues to arise is the Rush To Judgment in the labeling of a Troll. A Troll is not necessarily someone who disagrees with commonly held beliefs, but rather someone expresses those conflicting beliefs with little or no explanation or common courtesy. i.e. – “Your (sic) wrong, fuck you!” Or they may be someone you has failed to grasp the etiquette of message board posting.
Often the latter type of poster can be steered in the correct direction with some helpful suggestions and support, and usually you can tell if they are going to accept the help or continue to be a distraction almost immediately. But one of the problems is in the method that established post try to ‘Help’. Accusing a new poster of being an old Troll under a new name is not usually helpful unless there is enough evidence to back it up. There are methods at the board moderators disposal for detecting such activity and they normally handle the situation promptly.
Piling on a new poster will almost never help turn that poster around, they will simply become defensive and lash out resulting in the Troll label being applied and pitch forks being drawn.
All I’m saying here is a little bit of patience goes along way.
If this post is frowned upon and against the No Discussion Rules I apologize.
