The Darkest Evil

As you saw from my last post, there was a little troll on my site spamming her link and lying like her life depended on it. Basically, when someone spams your blog with baseless accusations, racial slurs or insults, that generally is considered trolling. Trolling is wrong on so many levels but if you handle trolls improperly, it could rub off badly on you. Here’s how to deal with trolls on your blog:

1. Take the higher road and try to treat them with more respect than they treat you with. Basically, when someone trolls your site, they are looking for attention and sadly, Skye decided this was the only way to get the attention she so desperately craved.
2. Consider the troll’s situation. Basically, the troll in my situation lived in a desolate farm area. Maybe she is quite illiterate because her father and mother did not know how to read? Her about page stated that she needed help (from two of her friends) before she could get the basic grasp of Angelfire. Considering the wealth of books and information already out there about the subject, why couldn’t she just look it up? Illiteracy? It also says she was a loner if you read her about page.
3. Warn the troll that if they do not stop, they could get banned from your site. IF trying to relate to them and treating them with respect does not work, consider removing them from your site. If they are a frequent commenter and make a lot of good comments, consider giving them a warning first before removal. This will hopefully tell them that they are going too far.
4. Block them. If they do not want to stop attacking you, block them. Skye has not yet been blocked but she has been warned. Basically, I fear that maybe she is misunderstood.
5. Make a set of anti-troll rules. Basically, make people realise what is okay and what is not okay. Skye appearantly did not know that it is not okay to insult people on the net. Probably because her father did not raise her right but make sure to implement some rules of courtesy and ensure that they are visible to commenters (a place such as under the comment box works well).

Remember to offer forgiveness to your trolls. You have to take the higher road at all times.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 30th, 2006 at 6:03 pm and is filed under Compy, Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.