Please Do Not Feed the Troll
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| Mon, 06-04-2007 - 4:21pm |
I hope no one minds if I post this here, since this wasn't my original idea in the first place. I did think it was a great post from HJNTIY from the Online Dating board, and I do think it can be applied to this board as well.
HJNTIY tends to be somewhat long-winded, so I've edited it a little. Hope he doesn't mind. And I hope I'm not violating any TOS. Just trying to be helpful.
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Someone used the acronym the other day- DNFTT- and I thought I'd take a moment out of your day to explain it in case anyone hadn't seen it.
What's a troll?
...lots of people have taken to using the term "troll" to refer to anyone in an online community that's intentionally a giant pain in the butt. Even someone who, on the surface of it, doesn't seem to be intentionally trolling for comments might be called a troll based on the types of posts they put up, or the types of responses that they seem to continually draw.
Many in the greater online community think that it's wrong to call such people "trolls" since they aren't necessarily doing it intentionally.
The bigger question is how a community deals with a troll. Some trolls are so good at what they do that they continually skate right along the lines of being banned; they're experts (whether consciously or not) at writing their posts in such a way that they're not technically violating the terms of service of whatever board they're on, but they're still basically trolls who are disrupting the group.
The problem with these trolls is that even if the group complains to the moderator or service provider, they can't get the troll removed.
Other times, people simply suggest "DNFTT". This stands for "Do Not Feed The Troll". The theory is that since the person just wants attention anyway, if you withhold that attention sooner or later they'll go away and leave the board alone.
On boards that have an "ignore" feature, not feeding the troll becomes very easy; you just ignore them and voila! their posts disappear.
The danger in not feeding/answering the troll is that newcomers to the board won't know who the troll is (or who the trolls are, should the board be unlucky enough to have multiple trolls) and they (the newcomers) will start chatting with the troll- or worse, arguing with it.
This, of course, can lead to a big giant flame war, and trash a perfectly good board.
Other people advocate a single respose to the troll and then ignoring the person from then on in a given thread.
My own personal belief, particularly here on iVillage, is that we're better off not feeding the troll at all. Even to a newcomer, it becomes quickly obvious if absolutely nobody ever responds to a troll's posts that the troll is someone that the community has chosen to ignore.
Obviously, being a community, you can't enforce a DNFTT policy. If someone else wants to feed the troll, there is little you can do about it. That's fine, it's their personal choice; the biggest thing to remember is to NOT start arguing publicly about it, because that's essentially the same as feeding the troll directly.
My own suggestion for iVillage to other posters is this: DNFTT. Ignore the trolls. Don't discuss it, just don't do it. Privately report the trolls to the moderators any time and every time they make a post that's disruptive to the board or attacking, and occasionally report to the moderators that the troll is driving people away from the board, but DNFTT in any way in public.
If needed, posting a reminder- DNFTT- is a good idea.
Not feeding the troll is hard. Trolls are, by nature, very very very good at manipulating us without us even realizing it. Even if we have ignored the troll's posts, if we start talking with another user on the board about a subject that we know is intended on tweaking the troll, that's feeding it.
Attacking the troll, even in what we think are subtle, sneaky, non-obvious, compliant-with-the-TOS ways, is feeding the troll. The troll has gotten us to write about them, and they feed off of that.
Therefore. Please DNFTT in any way, shape, or form.
Pound out that angry message. Point out all the ways that the troll is so full of crap their eyes are brown. Then back away from the keyboard without hitting "post", think about it for a minute, and think to yourself "do I want to feed the troll?"
Then click on "cancel message" and know that you've done you part to help the board stay out of giant flamewars.
DNFTT.

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Edited 6/4/2007 5:25 pm ET by tallgirlcolo
Edited 6/4/2007 5:29 pm ET by tallgirlcolo
AJ, enjoying life with C.
I see you have bumped my troll message. Good idea.
On my part, I am taking a permanent leave of this board. I'm tired of it. If I wanted to read about politics or ongoing debates I'd be on a relevant board. But this...
I've got better things to do.
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