Webupon

Having posted a humorous piece on How To Be A Successful Troll, this companion piece is to alert Mods as well as users to the very real danger.

The character who posts *&^& can easily be banned, gagged, and disposed of. The one who launches a vehement attack on another member of the message board can join him.

These are no brainers, on the part of the Troll and in the ease of banning him. The most dangerous and successful trolls will not resort to “no brainers.” They will never post obscenities or coarse insults.

They employ the term; “Freedom of Speech” as license to deconstruct a message board.

The idea of an organised attack on a Message Board seems ridiculous if one isn’t aware there exists a virtual Union of Trolls which congregates on particular sites regaling others of their exploits.

Taking down a Message Board is a like a Role Playing Game, (RPG) played with real people and real places. Just as winning an online game gets you meaningless points, so too does taking down a Message Board.

The first alert of an attack is often a complaint made by another poster to the Moderator. Disregard at your peril. If a poster takes the time and trouble to complain, (instead of the more usual logging off never to reappear) check it out.

Don’t check it out with the attitude the Troll wishes you to adopt that is, Freedom of  Speech. Trolls translate this term as absolute license. When you receive a response from a poster using the term; ‘Freedom of Speech’ your radar should blip…’Troll’. Only Trolls resort to this “defense”.

As a Mod, when you examine a post, do it with these caveats:

1. Is it relevant to this site/topic?
2. Does it insult other posters?
3. Is it offensive on the face of it?
4. Would someone logging on for the first time get the correct sense of what this Message Board is about if s/he saw this post first?

If your answers to those questions are “no” for (a) and (d) and “yes” for (b) and (c) delete the post.

Depending on the history of the offender; how long has he been on this MB? What has been his contribution? Banning should be considered.

Most Mods/Owners make the mistake of waiting. They want to be “fair”. They want to hear the Troll’s side of the story.

Once this happens, the Troll knows he has clear sailing. The complaining poster who is disregarded logs off. She joins the battalion of others who have logged off without making the slightest attempt to reveal disgust. If a Mod does his or her “roster” it is easy to discern how many posters have ceased to log on since the offensive post was made.

Of course, most don’t bother. The Troll does. The Troll has all the time in the world to check when his “enemies” last logged on. He knows when a “Veteran” poster has not logged on for three days, she’s gone forever. He sees when a “hot” topic that was collecting posts every day is now cold. The Mod doesn’t notice this.

Often a Troll, to keep up the number of “hits” and posts will fill the Message Board with active duals and “best friends”. The Message Board has now become what the Troll wants; moribund.

Moderators, who might have originally banned the Troll but have been overruled by the Owner will cease to moderate. The fact that a perfectly useful message board has now become a sewer can happen in an hour. All it takes is one committed Troll.

It is better to ban hastily, then to allow one Troll to destroy a message board. Yet, the majority of owners, reading this, will supply all sorts of reasons and excuses as to why not to ban a poster or delete certain threads.

A month or so down the line, (if that long) when the Message Board is empty, Moderators have quit and the Troll has left the site, the Owner might realize why it was wiser to please the complaining poster, not the Troll.