Trolls

[diebitter]

I just wanted to talk about trolls on 2+2. Not sure this is the right place, but not sure anywhere is.

If you feel it's not appropriate, MicroBob, please move it to OOT.


We've had a small spate of trolling in OOT. Nothing major, and no great issue. I personally used to delight in exposing trolls ASAP, but these days, if they are harmless content (and we've had trolls in the past that have been upsetting for some of the regular posters, but these are very infrequent - these I would act on), I let them ride, and sort of get amused by posters reacting strongly to the obvious trolling. They usually get outed by someone with some sense, and end the game though (it is however amazing how people still act like they're real, even when they've been exposed - I guess they're grunching or something).

Here's a link to wikipedia on trolls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll), to make clear what I mean. Note I'm talking about the inflammatory kind, rather than offensive.

Anywa, I wondered, what do any of you feel about trolls?

Can you spot them?

[jokerthief]

I kinda like trolls. It's fun at times. Other times it's really annoying. I would deal with them on an individual basis. I sometimes find pleasure in trolling a troll.

[cambraceres]

I've noticed an upswing since the beginning of the year, and most of what I've seen has been rather tame. I'm sure you have seen some of the uglier stuff, and I won't speak to that as it is obvious what should be done in those cases. For general disruptive behaviour, if it is funny I can appreciate it, I can also see value in those posts that we can have fun ripping apart. That said, trolling is a matter of degrees and context, so long as productive conversation is not materially hindered for some lame ass joke then I am cool with it.

Cambraceres

[Elevens]

I smell a troll.

[Nut4Dawgs]

[ QUOTE ]
I kinda like trolls. It's fun at times. Other times it's really annoying. I would deal with them on an individual basis. I sometimes find pleasure in trolling a troll.

[/ QUOTE ]

[[censored]]

its rather simple for me. If they are lame, boring or otherwise suck they get banned.

If they are amusing, smart, funny or otherwise don't suck they stay.

Basically the same standard I use for all posters

[Dids]

Given that one poster was the source of the majority of the recent trolls, I'd be all in favor of letting him know that if he does it again, he's toast. This is because, basically using censored's reasoning, non of KKF's trolls were the least bit funny or well executed.

[diebitter]

[ QUOTE ]
Given that one poster was the source of the majority of the recent trolls, I'd be all in favor of letting him know that if he does it again, he's toast. This is because, basically using censored's reasoning, non of KKF's trolls were the least bit funny or well executed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree, but the responses were. There's the rub. Once you get some decent responses, I'm loathe to bring the hammer down on the thread.

[Dids]

I feel the same way. If a thread takes off, don't kill it. That said, when oot is good, it will be good regardless of the thread. I still think that rampant sock puppeting (which to me is different from gimmick accounts) should be discouraged.

[BaHorst]

i think trolls exist b/c of the anger of other posters. People come here to ask poker ?'s.. not be flamed for asking them. Trolls will exist as long as there are flamers.

[Metal_Rat]

If someone makes an inflammatory post, i'll consider the OP a troll if they do not make a compelling arguement.

If the arguement is somewhat intellegent then it's a little tougher to decide if this is true troll post.
Others may consider the person a troll, but I tend to just think the poster is very narrow-minded and i'll ignore him/her as trying to convince him otherwise is impossible.

That said...
Compared to other forums I think that 2+2 has an amazingly low number of trolls.

I think it's due to the fact that the board mods are very active and care about their forum(s). Banning/deleting posts are also effective tools.

Maybe a bigger deterrent is that the existing 2+2 posters are quick to spot trolls (it's more of a team effort).

After a troll posts, they expect a 'posting war' to ensue that argues the issues in the troll's post.

But, what seems to happen here is that someone points out that the poster is an idiot and thread gets hijacked to discuss if the guy is a complete or partial idiot.

This is not what the troll wants and in a short time the troll's post rolls of the first page and the troll either disappears or becomes less of an idiot-poster.

So, to summarize, I think 2+2 has a very good handle on this problem. Trying to eliminate all trolls may not be worth the large effort that would be required.

Plus, some of the trolls aren't as bad as some of the regular posters who can be very rude and mean spirited.

Note: Just my honest opinion based on 1 or 2 months of reading these boards (so I could be way off base here).