Best way to deal with trolls?

[cryptotalk]

Some good posts and responses... its not an easy one to know what to do... here is some good advice about responding to trolls.

While you can’t control whether you will become a troll’s target, you can decide if you will make yourself a troll’s victim. Knowing that the troll’s goal is to embarrass, humiliate, ridicule, demean and shame you, you have a choice about how you are going to react.

You can either be devastated, angry, or whatever emotion they want you to feel, or you can look at the attack for what it is – a mean person being mean. It isn’t personal if you refuse to take it personally. Recognize that the troll is the one with the problem. If the attack is directed at you exclusively, via email or as a comment on your site, document it so you can report the abuse, then delete and forget it.

If the attack is directed at you on a public site, understand that the troll’s “audience” – other participants in the conversation such as forum members, social network contacts or other gamers – can see the troll’s behavior as the vicious attack it is.  We all learned at an early age how to identify mean, nasty people.

Call out their behavior. Many people recommend you simply ignore trolls and don’t respond in any way, but this gives the trolls even more power as it gives them the power to silence you. Instead, ignore the troll but address the problem with the “audience” in a matter of fact way. Do NOT respond in a manner that stoops to the troll’s level or you risk two outcomes: 1) Feeding the troll and engaging in an unwinnable argument that will escalate, or 2) having the “audience” see you as another irritant/troll rather than as the balanced, decent and aggrieved party.

Frame your comment to the group along the lines of “Wow. Looks like we’ve got a troll trying to attack people on this site, derail meaningful dialog and control our conversation. I suggest that this forum doesn’t give them that power by ignoring their unproductive comments and continuing our discussion, or even take a moment to create a guideline for how we want to deal with trolls.”

Understand that where there’s one troll, there may be many more waiting to pounce once the first troll has started. All too frequently, you see cases where others pile on with additional nasty comments. This just means there may be more than one troll that needs ignoring.

Alert the site moderator if there is one, but even on unmediated sites there is usually a “report abuse” feature. Sometimes this is found directly on the discussion page, other times – like with Facebook – you first go to the help center using the help link at the bottom of the page, then select “report abuse,” and file a bullying report.


Do you think this is likely to help?

[1714092542]

1714092542

[1714092542]

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[Vod]

I simply ignore their immature insults, and persist with logical easy questions without being rude.

Eventually the troll realizes they are not going to win and gives up.

Sometimes it make take a few weeks, depending how much of a persistent troll it is.

[ArrogantPeacock]

it's no sense fighting against a troll, just ignore them.. therefore the expression "don't feed the trolls" which means don't give them input for them to produce output

[lightjack]

ignoring the trolls is the best way to deal with them, remember what they say don't feed the troll!

[0verseer]

Play along with them till they get bored and give up.

[Kikestocio23]

Never lets their words affect you the best way to deal is to ignore them and if you're bored then try an argument with them. I am talking about an healthy argument.

[dante golo]

if I think it's better to just ignore them so they can realize that in looking for an opportunity to make people suffer less and less it will make a boredom of its own.

[VertigoSTAR]

Ignore them. That's what they fear the most; or ban them if you are an administrator

[FJNuñez]

Ignore them. That's what they fear the most; or ban them if you are an administrator

+1 must report to mod or you could never ban them and also ignore because they need to be repsonsed.

[kylekyle2000]

Just disregard them and do not engage them in a heated discussion.

[Vod]

it's no sense fighting against a troll, just ignore them.. therefore the expression "don't feed the trolls" which means don't give them input for them to produce output

That gives the trolls power to silence people.   

[zedkiel08]

Just ignore them for what they do , because if you always keep answering all of their replies or whatever they do they will just continue to troll you , and better to treat them just like nobody or just seeing them as parasites in internet , those always cause trouble tobl other people. You can also get to play along to what they do. Just go with flow.

[ljtronics]

Send them a PM, if they ignore it, move on to the next

[natasha1]

just ignore them.

[Rasmusa]

The best way to fight trolls is to completely ignore. If you do not pay attention to them, they quickly calmed down.

[MiniMountain]

it's no sense fighting against a troll, just ignore them.. therefore the expression "don't feed the trolls" which means don't give them input for them to produce output

That gives the trolls power to silence people.   

Maybe we can make them feel like invisible on a thread for example just continuing the discussion with others and don't care about what the trolls says or posted 

[mhine07]

It does not make sense fighting trolls , the best way to deal with them is just ignore them in what they do , just let them in a way that they wanted to. Trolls are every where , in social media sites , in blog sites and here also in forum there are trolls , they just want someone to interact with them and have their attentions.

[CryptoRothschild]

Never speak with idiots, people may not notice the difference. I guess this applies also for trolls.

[vossybiglady]

I think it's best to ignore them.  By talking back, it's almost like you engage them more.  At least that's my experience.

[yona_hime19]

Just ignore them they'll get tired afterwards.. Trolls are the biggest famewhores ever, they become more powerful the more you pay attention to them. They are just pathetic human being with too much time in their hands and they don't know what to do in their free time.