Feeding the TrollsFollow

While I'm sure this is going to be classed as a dead-horse topic, and to some extent it is, I'd like to address an increasingly common occurance- trolls in the forums. I'm not talking about the karma trolls- that's been done enough. I am referring to the flame trolls... the ones that feed off of all the responses they get to any given post. There are currently three voracious specimens on the forums, who seem to renew their posting frenzy when they start fading into relative obscurity.

These people (and I realise it is a very loose description) post inflammatory threads or replies out of a deperate need for attention. They are, however, either antisocial in general or have not gotten positive reinforcement from positive posts, and have found the opposite (i.e., trolling) to get better results. They see it as a form of infamy or notariety, and hence, every reply is a boost to their egoes. When the responses stop, they crave another fix, and post yet again, not necessarily believing in what they said but posting what they hope will get the most flames. It's a way of getting noticed, usually stemming from the fact that they are ignored in most other aspects of their life.

What can we do to stop it? Well, trolls are eternal. When one fades away, another pops up like a diseased fungus to spread his or her spores of discord. However, just like Tinkerbell needed people's clapping to stay alive, the trolls need people to reply to their posts. Stop the replies, stop the troll. You'll initially get a posting frenzy as the troll, desperate for any attention, tries to get anyone to respond; but when there is no response from anyone, they'll fade into obscurity as well- just like the trolls that preceded them. People are already rating them down- if all their initial posts are sub-defaulted and nobody replies, then they will simply cease to exist to anyone using the Default filter.

Again, apologies for the dead horse... I'll go dig a hole to bury it again.

woot, this guy has his socks all hard at work. I think I'll talk to kaolian about our sock-o problem!


How many socks you have? 2? 4?

Goddamn people are you deaf, dumb, or blind?

Feeding the trolls includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Replying
• Rating them down
• Rating them up
• Making threads about banning them
• Giving them cookies

Please refrain from doing any of the preceding acts.

I thank you.

~Blix

No love for the admins I see O.o

Thought he had a discussion with you about camping :)

There was a point? Call the CIA, FBI, and the PTA! Trolls have POINTS to make!