Thoughts on Forum Trolls and Flame Wars (DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS!)

[Superstretch18]

I think that we are all doing our best to make mcx7.com as friendly, fun and informative a forum as I've ever encountered. That said, it is inevitable that "unsavory" characters will be attracted to our group. This post is a public service announcement, so that we can all better deal with those that are not here to benefit the group.

If you take one thing away from this post, it's that we should all collectively not feed the trolls; ignore their posts:

Troll -

Originally Posted by Urban Dictionary

An obnoxious user or member on a forum that goes out of their way to make pointless, offensive, or annoying posts and messages. Often these users are labeled as spammers and will post random off-topic junk in many sections of a forum.

In general, trolls are looking to illicit a reaction, turn a conversation to fit their needs or generally waste people's time. There have been cases where an internet troll will intentionally post incorrect information, wait for people to respond with the correction and then effectively respond "gotcha". All of the attempts to correct the troll were simply a waste of time. Here are some of the techniques that a troll will employ:

Troll Methods -

Originally Posted by Please Do Not Feed the Trolls

Trolls try to disrupt or change [forums and discussion groups] to fit their own agendas.

They often use techniques as:

* flooding by excessive posting
* attacking regulars in a group
* attempting to divide and conquer
* making themselves the savior of the group
* trying to impress others with their knowledge
* threatening people (overtly or with subtlety)
* spreading rumors
* violating [forum or discussion group] policy, [or getting as close to violating without CLEARLY violating them]
* posting under multiple aliases
* disguising their [thread titles and] headers
* [questioning moderation techniques or moderation level]

Trolls often have serious personal issues that lead them to try to control others.

Trolls don't hang around in [forums and discussion groups] where people don't respond to their rants.

The best way to deal with trolls is to IGNORE them.

Also, be wary of any posts whose main theme is "The CX-7 is a piece of crap" or "[insert car model] is better than the CX-7 because..." There is no purpose to these posts, other than to illicit a response. Ignore these posts!

Another interesting way that a troll can operate is to agree with the general forum consensus, but then feign concern over an irrelevant issue. Wikipedia has even gone so far as to classify these trolls as "concern trolls". If you are interested, there is some good information on the history of trolling here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

My main goal with this post is to avoid flame wars:

Flame War -

Originally Posted by Urban Dictionary

A flame war is a heated argument between two individuals, that results in those involved posting personal attacks on each other during or instead of debating the topic at hand.

Most forums have rules that forbid flaming. This is because the quality of conversation on a forum can be seriously degraded by a flame war. Topics can be "hijacked" by two people who would rather flame each other than discuss the subject of the thread.

Some of the topics that we discuss can understandably get heated and every forum member is entitled to expressing their opinions. However, baiting and inflammatory posts for the sake of drawing a response will not be tolerated.

So how do we deal with the trolls? Ignore their posts. Period. If you have even the slightest inkling that you are dealing with a troll, do not respond. I realize that it is hard sometimes, but please DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS (DNFTT). Learn it, love it, live it!

Originally Posted by DNFTT

en: Please do not feed the Trolls
de: Trolle bitte nicht füttern!
fr: Ne nourrissez pas le troll!
nl: Trol! Niet voeren a.u.b.!
ja: 荒らしにエサを与えないでください!
es: Prohibido dar de comer al troll!
sv: Mata inte trollen!
pt: Não alimente os trolls
pl: Prosimy nie karmić Trolla
he: אל תאכילו את הטרול
zh-cn: 请不要饲养小白
zh-tw: 請不要飼養小白
ru: Пожалуйста, не кормите Троллей!

The surest way to banish a troll is to ignore them.


I may be feeding trolls simply by posting this, but my hope is that we can all better deal with the trolls among us. This has been a public service announcement from Superstretch18. Thanks and have fun everyone!

[MAZOOM]

So, why don't we give the troll(s) the ban hammer?

[ottoblotto]

giving them the "ban Hammer" would be a violation of their first ammendment rights and they would start another thread on that...

[Cue]

I'm down with this...

[shadow1]

Great public service announcement.

[Raider]

This is an excellent thread, and I have made it a sticky.

[Superstretch18]

Originally Posted by MAZOOM

So, why don't we give the troll(s) the ban hammer?

No one wants a heavy handed moderation staff less than the staff here. I personally don't want to get to the point where anyone that doesn't agree with the moderation staff gets banned either. That said, there are some clear lines that people can cross to get the ban hammer. Until those rules are clearly broken though, we are relying on the community at large to help us limit the drama. If you think someone is posting crap just to stir the pot, please ignore it.

Everyone is also welcome to hit "report" on any threads that you think are inflammatory. I can guarantee you that anyone that you think is trolling is already on our radar screen, but hearing how the other members feel is also helpful. I know I'm more likely to react if other members feel the same way, rather than me just being "sensitive."

[bscar]

The report button is alright, but when we had that "flood" the other day, I was limited to hitting it once every 30 seconds, which limited how many I was able to report. Though they all got deleted before I got finished reporting them