[Castout]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

And that can be a problem, especially when it comes to newer members who don't know the history involved - someone starts a thread that seems (given the lack of context that knowing "the history" would provide) to be just another topic being raised for discussion... and they may respond in the manner to which they've become accustomed through interaction with most of the rest of the membership and get blindsided by what happens. Or run into a troll in their first tentative delurking here and NOT have the benefit of seeing more established members respond in a way that makes it clear that trolling is not welcome and likely to result in a loss of credibility and goodwill.

I saw that happen in a large and (at the time) incredibly busy Yahoo Group I belong to... completely unrelated subject matter, but it had much the same community spirit and general civility that typically reigns here. The owner/moderator had a very light hand, and for years that was all that was needed. Then one day, unbeknownst to us, Yahoo decided to promote us as a "featured group" on their home page.

Suddenly we were inundated with new members who all began posting, most of them sincere and well-meaning, but among them a few trolls who were obviously so to the longstanding regulars but not to the other new members who had no idea how long anyone else had been there. We went from 25-30 posts a day to a couple thousand during one (looooong) weekend, during which we had people joining at the rate of about 1 per minute. At the time there was ONE moderator.

Within a few hours there were flame wars erupting all over the place, because the people who didn't yet know any better were feeding trolls they didn't know were trolls based on the assumption that what they were reading in those trolls' posts and the other new members' sometimes equally abusive (if provoked) replies reflected the status quo of the group when it absolutely did not.

Personally I'd rather see people deflect a troll thread's purpose by harmless mockery or humorous deflection, even if it counts as "feeding" said troll, than have some new member stumble on it right off and get caught up in a flame war and then log out thinking that's how things are done here.

Anyway tTM is easy enough to ignore - the forum does provide one with that option, after all - but when the interaction of others in response becomes entertaining, it's very hard to resist.

Yeah all it takes to destroy a forum good spirit is a few regular trolls. But as long as the mods are in control things will fall to order.

I was once a member of a Singapore forum which lacks moderation and in the end civility. Abusive posting would go unpunished even down to personal insults and even explicit death threats. Because I couldn't take it anymore I went on the defensive myself and the trolls reported me and bam I was banned temporarily while they were not at all. Obviously there was no civility nor fairness in it.
And no it wasn't because I was posting abusive postings and there were many people there who were critical of Singapore regime but I was singled out to be abused to kick me out of there by government employed trolls no less. I figured my well being is much more precious so I started blogging instead. it's hard when you're fighting a spoiled 7 year old brat who thinks himself creator of the universe and mankind. In the end you get confused whether to hate that kind of person or pity them. They are pitiful in every standard but their own mind.