Fuckin' trolls

[Booker]

We really need some kinda way to deal with the layers of shit that the damn trolls keep dumpin' here. Mebbe the admins could just delete it, but I sure would prefer something more community based and directly effective. Anybody got idears? Does phpbb give any tools? I'm sick of just trying to step around the piles of crap.

[Don Muerto]

Trolls thrive on attention, -including posts like yours. The only way to deal with them is to ban them, which puts someone in the position of determining 'appropriateness'. Or, you can simply ignore them completely and eventually they will fuck off to more interesting climes.

[Lydia Love]

you can simply ignore them completely and eventually they will fuck off to more interesting climes.

Well we might as well discuss it a little. Someone will always feed them - part of the human condition (I'm being forgiving of myself here. Fed one yesterday and then came to my senses.)

Though maybe this conversation is best held the the feature request forum? That's where being a squeaky wheel might get the most grease.

[clandyone]

Trolls eventually get bored and leave. I think we've done a pretty good job of not reacting to the current crop -- that LarryHarveysHat person seems to have expected much more of a response than he's gotten, and his threads are dropping off the bottom of the screen pretty quickly.

I think the best solution is just to not feed them, as has been said. Trolls are inevitable... it's just a matter of not allowing them to do too much damage while they're still sleazing around.

I don't think taking it to the feature request forum is such a good idea. Asking for intervention from the admins sets a bad precedent. I'm sure that none of us want a moderated forum here.

[PJ]

My opinion is that the only defense is to ignore them. Unfortunately, often somebody doesn't recognize a troll (or a Troll) and responds.

Because this is a public forum and not somebody's private dinner party, doing anything else would be censorship--and someone would have to dictate the criteria qualifying what's a troll and what's merely a statement that flies in the face of majority opinion.

Some recent threads have been recognized as bait and are mostly being ignored. Others are participatory despite some people's tendancy to take issue with the writer rather than the specific points of a writer's argument. I can differentiate between these two characteristics to my satisfaction but some other editor's standards would be different than mine. So I don't think banning is the answer--especially since being ignored is the worst thing a Troll can be forced to endure.

[Lydia Love]

I also think banning/moderating would be an awful precedent... however I would love some sort of button "ignore this user entirely". That way they wouldn't be censored... they'd just be that proverbial tree in a forest.

I get tar-babied more often than I like to admit.

[Lothar]

I dunno, I've always thought that a rating system can really help to separate the flotsam from the jetsam. Slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org/) for example uses one to deal with the hordes and hordes of posts they recieve on a regular basis. Without fail the good stuff rises to the top of the thread.

I think the eplaya is good now but as the burn approaches next year I would expect the traffic here to do the same. I'm all in favor of a rating system.

[atari-x]

/ is open source as well. apache+mod_perl+mysql, and ......yummy.



i want to add a+ for using open stuff too.

[Booker]

>My opinion is that the only defense is to ignore them.

Yeah, but I'm sick of stepping around the piles of troll crap. I was a pain before, but it's noticeably (and intolerably, imo) worse now. But I guess that's it. Nothing else will avail that doesn't taste like censorship, and no one wants that. As on the playa, I guess the best solution is each individual doing what suits her/his needs.

My email link will still be active.

[Lydia Love]

Well fuck.

[Spokes]

yup

[clandyone]

Oh no! Booker, if you insist on leaving us, can we at least let you know if and when the trolls wander away?

Please don't go. If you do,t he trolls have already won...

[Kinetic]

I like the idea of a ratings system, yet I'm also afraid of it. My posts can really suck, and I'd likely end up maybe two spots above Larry Harvey's Hat.

I have to admit his pedophile thread got me fired up. And as much as people whine about trolls, sometimes having an open target in a free fire zone is not a bad thing!

[antron]

>...the best solution is each individual doing what suits her/his needs.

My email link will still be active.

come back and play with us as soon as you can. the place will be a bit hollower without you.

[clandyone]

I have to admit his pedophile thread got me fired up. And as much as people whine about trolls, sometimes having an open target in a free fire zone is not a bad thing!

It is if the target is deliberately trying to elicit exactly the response you provide.

LarryHarveysHat is a self-satisfied little person whose purpose is to elevate himself at the expense of all us hopelessly unkewl types who enjoy Burning Man. He isn't trying to provoke intelligent conversation, he's trying to piss us off, and by responding you're obliging him.

[Kinetic]

Reality check and perspective shift in progress.....

Actually I kinda like "playing" or tossing comments at the trolls, a nasty little flame war is good for releasing tension. Since I got bored with Total Annihilation and unleasing 200 fighters and bombers on targets at once, I like having a place to launch some artillery, even if it's the verbal kind.

They use us, we can use them. They want to play games, we play back. They want to mind fuck, mind fuck'em back.

[clandyone]

Here's the way I see it. (And yes, I know that strictly speaking a troll is a post and not a poster, but "troller" sounds weird to me, so I'll just say "troll" for both and trust that my meaning is clear.)

Trolls are useless. Their only purpose is to be disruptive. If you rise to the bait, you ensure that they achieve their goals. If you can make a silk purse -- a meaningful discussion about pedophilia, for instance -- out of the sow's ear that is a hit-and-run troll, then by all means do so. However, by engaging the troll itself, all you're doing is giving it incentive to stick around. We've already lost one terrific eplayan because he couldn't tolerate the troll issue that's splattered everywhere.

By engaging the trolls at all, you encourage them to stay. They feed on flames. Every response Mr. Hat gets will just encourage him to flood the board with four or five more silly threads. Do you really want that?

Personally, I'd rather not have the bastards around at all. I'm a nerd, and I've spent entirely too much time on BBSs in my day, and I can say with all confidence that trolls are the same everywhere. They never do anyone any good. In the absence of moderation, the only recourse we have is to make sure that this environment is inhospitable.

Beating up on trolls may be momentarily satisfying, but I can guaran-goddamn-tee that it won't be worth it in the long run.

[TestesInSac]

Every response Mr. Hat gets will just encourage him to flood the board with four or five more silly threads.

What, did Mr. Hat and Mr. Garrison split up again?

[Kinetic]

Ok, I'll put down the flame thrower and just fire up Total Annihilation again if I need stress relief.

The Pedo thread touched on a subject that Kidsville talked a little about, so it kinda hit home. Otherwise Clandyone I understand your point.

[blyslv]

This is not a troll. Booker -- what they hell? Put away that righteous indignation and play with us. To be hones, while I don't come here aws much as the old eplaya I am coming to like this format. And I participate enough to have a somewhat well formed opinion. I don't think the trolls are that bad here. If I see Mr. Hat, I just go elsewhere. To be honest, I don't see that much of a problem, but maybe I'm missing something.

And my offer is ongoing -- provoke the longest response (purely objective criteria -- sheer length) and get some nice bubbly. For add elegance, use the LEAST amount of words to provoke finger blistering responses from trolls. Or ignore them. But don't let them win, and if you go away -- a thoughtful, honest contributor -- they win.

Is there a feature that allows users to block other users from their own screen?

[Alpha]

And my offer is ongoing -- provoke the longest response (purely objective criteria -- sheer length) and get some nice bubbly. For add elegance, use the LEAST amount of words to provoke finger blistering responses from trolls.

Filibuster the trolls!

[Niacin]

Trolls? Aren't they supposed to turn to stone when hit by sunlight?

[J]

It's gargoyles that turn to stone in the day, not trolls.

[Karma]

Our resident teenage trolls posts have been viewed a grand total of
2,732 times all threads combined.

He's probably not going anywhere.

p.s.
you know it's probably this guy........
http://www.cardhouse.com/drcliff/wreck/ ... isdead.htm

[JezebelinHell]

Trolls are amusing...sorry. Especially really really stupid ones who couldn't write a good inflammatory post if their lives depended on it.

[Kinetic]

p.s.
you know it's probably this guy........
http://www.cardhouse.com/drcliff/wreck/ ... isdead.htm

Even if one applies critical thinking skills and goes to that site with a dead serious effort to keep an open mind, that lad is so clueless it's scary.

[Niacin]

It's gargoyles that turn to stone in the day, not trolls.

I hate it when I confuse my eidolons.

Max

[Don Muerto]

Errr...not to get too geeky nor to contribute to thread drift, but the Tolkien trolls do turn to stone in daylight.

There is a nice set in the Fellowship of the Rings movie showing the 3 petrified trolls Gandalf had tricked into staying out early in the Hobbit.