How to best handle trolls?

With the appearance of a new master troll on the SL forums, I was wondering a bit about some of the reactions of seasoned veterans here. I must admit, that I am not very experienced in online forums (or chat, or IM ). But given what I know or seem to know about the phenomenon of "trolling", those reactions seem a bit counterproductive to me.

Isn't a troll someone who starts flame wars just for the sake of the war itself, someone who revels in the anger and frustration that he or she inflicts in others?So, isn't it completely futile, to discuss with a troll? Isn't any kind of reaction - no matter if in an attempt to fight him, ridicule him or attack his arguments - just a way of "feeding the troll"?

But, as I said, I am very inexperienced and would like to hear the opinions of more veteran members of the forum community. What is the best way to handle a troll?

First rule of forums: Don't feed the trolls. Ignore them.

I have found that most trolls are not really trolls but rather people who hold dissenting views.

Unfortunately, debate and dissension can be very counter productive because our minds generally work more efficiently when we are dealing with ideas we agree with and understand.

Also, the odds of a dissenting view being accurate is generally small, otherwise more people would probably have already supported the idea. Note that I am talking statistically here: ideas are not wrong because they are not popular, rather they are merely probably wrong.

A small minority of people can deal with the confusion created by these dissenting ideas better than others, so perhaps LL could be convinced to add a forum that they could use to discuss their various thoughts and opinions.

I have found that most trolls are not really trolls but rather people who hold dissenting views.

Unfortunately, debate and dissension can be very counter productive because our minds generally work more efficiently when we are dealing with ideas we agree with and understand.

Also, the odds of a dissenting view being accurate is generally small, otherwise more people would probably have already supported the idea. Note that I am talking statistically here: ideas are not wrong because they are not popular, rather they are merely probably wrong.

A small minority of people can deal with the confusion created by these dissenting ideas better than others, so perhaps LL could be convinced to add a forum that they could use to discuss their various thoughts and opinions.

I vote for option five (not listed):

5) do any of the above depending on how you feel that day.

- for entertainment, poke the Troll!
- for satisfaction, dissect the ridiculous arguments of the Troll
- if irritated (and especially before the first cup of coffee), ignore the Troll.

I think it depends on the troll

If the troll is simply too thick to even get what you're saying to them, then saying anything at all is kinda pointless.

On the other hand, if they get it but just don't care, then saying anything at all is kinda pointless.

I vote for Dianne's option. Today, I think I'll leave well enough alone though. I do have better things to do than argue with a persona that is so mentally unbalanced.

That reminds me, what has become of Blaze?

For me, it depends on the troll... there was a truly excellent troll on the City of Heroes forums about a year ago (if you're out there, Salsa Shark, I miss you!) who took great pride in his work and was very, very entertaining.

The troll du jour here, however, I've had on Ignore for days. He believes in quantity over quality, and is producing really substandard trolling.

Juani was whining about having to do the work of 3 posters. In addition to Panda he claimed to be covering for Blaze while he was on Christmas break.

There's a great article here discussing the phenomenon of internet trolls.

IMHO - the best advice is not to feed them.

As it says in the link above: "The only way to deal with trolls is to limit your reaction to reminding others not to respond to trolls."

I choose option 7: Whine and whine, tell teacher, then whine some more. Make a bunch of threads with colorful posts in a hilarious attempt to make the poster that you hate angry, tell the teacher again, then do some more whining. That is the proper way to handle anyone that who is talking about things that you don't believe in... when you're a teen.

Sounds cool, fair and level-headed. And I believe that said troll has - and is proud of - his "dissenting views". And thats OK and does not qualify for "troll" IMHO. But I don't think you have to behave like a troll when you have a worldview dissenting from the perceived minority.

If I understand the definitions correctly - and I agree with them, from what little experience I have - it is not what opinions a troll expresses, but how he does it.

And even if they are not intentionally (or conciously) trolling, I still think the satisfaction such a personality obviously gets from the negative reactions of others is dangerous.

Don't feed the troll. It does you (and him, too) no good!

Here is an interesting example:

If you were on an anti-bush forum and you called George Bush a jerk, you would probably not be called a troll. However, if it was a right wing forum, you probably would.

Personally, I generally do not mind the debate, however I do prefer it not to be mixed up with general news and fact, because I am getting old and I can no longer context switch as fast as I used to.

Here is an interesting example:

If you were on an anti-bush forum and you called George Bush a jerk, you would probably not be called a troll. However, if it was a right wing forum, you probably would.

Personally, I generally do not mind the debate, but I do prefer it not to be mixed up with general news and fact, because I am getting old and I can no longer context switch as fast as I used to.

A lot of forum trolls are fabrications used entirely to be the voice of dissent. If there's a thread about kicking a dog to death, s/he will be the person who comes in and says it's fine, just because everyone else is outraged.

Since it's nearly impossible that anyone that brain dead isn't hooked up to machines, the only logical conclusion (and the one best for remaining sane and keeping any faith in humanity at all) is that it's a made-up persona designed just to antagonize.

Remember that kid who would pokepokepokepokepoke people until they either cried, lashed out, or yelled for mom/teacher/911? It's that kid.

I guess when you don't have the ability to read and understand words, you get confused like this a lot. In that thread about the dog, the position I took in the beginning was based on the fact that there was barely any information in the petition that was linked to, so I thought it was pretty silly that a bunch of people in the thread were calling for the dog kicker's execution without even knowing anything about the story.

But you go on pretending that I'm a troll, so you can dismiss me without having to accept that I'm right about so many things that you're wrong about.

If you were on an pro-Bush forum, and you posted that those who were pro-Bush were traitors, morons, or worse and if you then ignored the content of their replies and simply used those replies as occasions for more namecalling, you would then be a troll.

Which is more or less what the new troll has done.

Its hard not to respond, until you accept in a zen-like manner that that's exactly what they want you to do. There's always going to be people that respond to them, but you can at least keep your own blood pressure down by staying out the kiddie pool.

I support option 5! Number 5 Alive!

The troll really isn't much of a bother at all. I, for one, can get irritated with even the most well reasoned and poetic post out there. The troll posts, especially the low brow and repetitive posts, don't rile me up much and I like to poke anyway.

I would say not to "feed the troll" in the sense that you give any response that would seem like you are taking any of it seriously, but I doubt most of them can tell the difference.

Use the mute if you have to. Otherwise, help me poke! Here's a pointy stick....

When a human being runs across a stick laying next to a knotted bag, fesstooned with a sign that says "do not poke with stick", what is the most probable outcome of this situation?

You might want to check out the forum TOS here, I believe that intentionally contrary opinions are strongly discouraged.

Absolutely. However, if you expressed the same thoughts on an anti-bush forum, I suspect most people would simply agree.

Oh, have I? You don't know how to read either, I guess.

Intentionally contrary? I believe everything I've said on here.