Don’t Feed Them.

Breda Has a Great post on Trolls. It boils down to 4 rules:

Rule #1: Ignore them completely.

Rule #2: If a troll writes a blog post about you, refer to Rule #1.

Rule #3: If a troll comments on your blog, delete the comment as soon as possible* and refer again to Rule #1.

Rule #4: there is no Rule #4

I must say, rule #2 is difficult, but not impossible. I simply must try harder. Rule #3 works with amazing ease. I was originally conflicted as I blog for discussion, so by nature I LOVE people with opposing views voicing their opinions. Of course by nature Trolls don’t actually voice opinions, nor are they interested in discussion. They want to fart as loudly as they can in Church. Their comments are garbage, and are handled appropriately.

Stephen has More.

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0 Responses to Don’t Feed Them.

  1. Stephen says:

    Thanks for posting this! I likewise LOVE people with opposing views coming out in the open … but making intelligent arguments based on history, statistics, human nature, etc. with someone who just screams “shut up poopy head!” is just not worthwhile.

    • Weerd Beard says:

      Yep, also I think it’s an important distinction between somebody wanting to talk about gun rights/control, and somebody wanting to use gun control to talk about themselves.

      Some trolls and bigots do honestly care about the gun-rights issue (tho some undoubtedly don’t care) but let’s face it, even if they do care about it, it’s not why they blog/comment.

  2. Tracie says:

    I used to have a hard time with Rule #1 in my profession – where daily I hear, read or see something not nice about me or something I wrote. But now I just don’t care. Especially when it’s the same people over and over again and they complain about EVERYONE ELSE.

    I also understand the desire to allow everyone to have their say. As First Amendment people, it kinda feels weird to say NO OPINION FOR YOU, but then again, this is your blog and you can do whatever you want. Which is also protected under the First.

    • Weerd Beard says:

      My rational is that it ISN’T an opinion. I let one troll comment on my LJ back in the day (and all but 3 of his posts are there still for anybody interested in digging through LJ’s byzantine archive system) He’d leave about 1 or 2 posts a day, often outlandishly flagrant or inflammatory, but he would never RESPOND to any of the comments he’d kick up. People would question his posts, or offer competing facts….no response.

      So he wasn’t actually offering an opinion, he was just stirring the pot to see how cloudy he could make the water. His comments weren’t opinions or discussion, they were litter, and litter other people were reacting to. For each of his posts there might be 3-5 responses, all 3-4X the length of his, and he didn’t have the respect to respond to them?

      So I saved everybody a bit of trouble and just deleted his comments manually. When I started this blog I emailed him that I’d give him one more chance, and that any comments he makes must add to the discussion, or I would remove them.

      More of the same, so thanks to wordpress technology, their posts go directly to the trash, and the blog is neat and tidy and a free place for discussion without the meddling of those who would intentionally derail the discussion.

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  4. Linoge says:

    The funniest things about this current set of trolls? How insignificant, even taken collectively, they are… I get more hits from the smallest of pro-rights weblogs’ blogrolls (a notoriously crappy source of hits) than I do from anti-rights weblogs when they write an entire post dedicated to me.

    Nobody cares about them – not even their compatriots – which might explain why some of their more-recent lashing out is getting more and more vicious… they appear to have grasped that their previous tactics are not working, so it is obviously time to up the ante.

    As the saying goes, whoever loeses their temper first, loses.

    • Weerd Beard says:

      I think the latest vitriol is from all the interest in Joan Peterson. She’s a Brady-anointed idiot, and they are second-string idiots, and there’s nothing sadder than a second-string idiot.

      Also as Chance at Say Uncle said “The Brady Campaign linked me, and it took me a week to notice”. Funny and true. If one of my posts gets picked up by 2 smaller gun blogs, my sitemeter hits double. Chance links me, Triple.

  5. Eck! says:

    Yep them is the rule. For 25+ years on the ‘net trolls have been an annoyance and the rule was don’t feed them. The usual solution was
    then as now, moderation. Now theres more automation and tools but same gig.

    As to the idiots out there.. If they were smart, or trainable they would be effective. Instead they got lucky and the luck only goes so far then you really have to work and without skills the work result is really poor. Get their number and done play their game.

    Keep cranking.

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