How do you respond to Trolls?

Namsnanny It was. I could never work out why the Moderator did not exclude the troll. Even of they were autistic, they should not be allowed, as one person, to disruppt a forum used by 100s. It was a specialist subject forum and this guy would go through everyone's posts wanting evidence

You know the sort of thing someone would comment, to make up an example, that there is no evidence anyone ever made a sea-going cargo ship out of paper, and this guy would come back and say that as a paper boat would never last to appear in the archaeological record, there could have been paper boats but we just because have no evidence, it did not mean that they never existed. In principle true but......

After a while people just stopped using the forum because rational discussion was impossible and never came back, in case the troll also returned.

Moderation is quite a tricky thing, we have a local Facebook page that is hardly moderated, it is mostly just people asking for a good local plumber or advertising a coffee morning but every now and then a controversial post is made and it turns into the wild west. Posts that are deeply unpleasant are left up for ages.

Seems a shame that one person caused the closure of the forum M0nica

On another Forum I was on, it was effectually killed by someone, who appeared like troll, but I suspect was actually someone who may have been autistic, they questioned and asked for proof of every tiniest detail in contributions anyone posted.

The Adminstrator wouldn't ban them, for the reason suggested above, so gradually we all stopped using the forum and I have just heard that the organisation that ran it has closed it for lack of use.

I agree with everything that has been said by Galaxy

What exactly is the point of this thread?
Going by the op’s understanding of ‘troll’ the opening post itself can be perceived as a bit ‘trolly’

Not sure if there are really any trolls on GN.

Narcissistic behaviour, plenty of.

Often starts with character assassination of people who dont share the same views.

Oh and a pet one is to attack the spelling and grammar of the disliked post or poster. Notice above!

NanaDana
I absolutely take your point. But I still think we need to be careful. In my short time here I can already recognise people who are more than averagely...errr...negative. Doesn’t upset me and I hope they feel better for it. Nice to note that I haven’t seen anything extreme yet. Best to leave it to the people who do the moderation I guess as I clearly don’t know my trolls from my goblins.

Caramme. I'm not suggesting that occasionally "off-loading" or even throwing your toys clean out of the cot here on GN or anywhere else means that you're a Troll. We all have bad days.. Ok, one such post may break the house rules and be deleted, but it takes a repeated pattern of such behaviour to indicate that a Troll may well be at work, and to perhaps result in that individual being banned. So yes, you may well experience "plenty of mild, patronising disparagement", but as a one-off, that's not Trolling. However, what it brings to the quality of the debate or adds to the credibility of the argument is another matter..

I report them. I don’t actually respond if I suspect a troll.

I guess GN have widened the basic meaning of 'troll' out a bit. They are saying that trolling could mean someone trying to fulfil their own perverted agenda, which could include other things apart from trying to annoy and upset people, such as trying to get attention or trying to get a dodgy sexual thrill.

Fair enough. I think trying to annoy people is the main meaning, but the other ones could apply too. Maybe trolls are trying to feel powerful at other people's expense.

If they get no response, they won't get a feeling of power.

According to the OP a lot of what is written on MN could be seen as trolling. There’s plenty of mild, patronising disparagement and heated discussion and we are all, sensibly, guarding our anonymity. There is plenty of controversy too.
So are many of us sociopathic, psychopathic trolls, relishing a touch of sadism? Or are we just enjoying the chance to get involved, or off load? I’m still new here, but I’ve seen those long posts with lots of detail cited by another poster, as well as the obviously angry, defensive responses from others, but I have no idea whether they are from trolls or from someone with real issues. Maybe I would get angry and defensive if my views met with derision, but I would suggest that holding an ‘other’ view would not necessarily make me a troll.
If the OP is representative, then that is disappointing and will make MN a rather anaemic place that won’t attract new users or keep old ones. That would be a shame because there are so many positive, helpful and supportive people on here that it seems to me to be a force for good.

I prefer this definition to the GN one.

'Trolling: the act of leaving an insulting message on the internet in order to annoy someone'
- Cambridge Dictionary

You could troll using your own name, rather than when posing as someone else.

The Australian government website says:

//Trolling is when someone deliberately tries to upset others online...

Don’t feed the trolls – responding is likely to make things worse. Report the abuse instead.//

- Australian eSafety Commissioner

www.esafety.gov.au/young-people/trolling

There used to be a Trump troll on MN who I assume was paid, he was hilarious and infuriating. As soon as the election was over I never saw him on MN again.

strive to introduce controversy

I learnt from another forum, that these people may be paid.
It had never entered my head before that that could happen.

I have watched quite a few people (mostly on MN) banned for troll hunting. It's a waste of time and people arent always right. Just report if you have concerns.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

How to respond to trolls? As dogsmother says up thread: Don't.

It's that simple.

What is trolling? Well one example would be if say, I were to follow you around on this site, singling out your posts and making vexatious comments,
criticising your opinion, belittling the subject if you begin a thread, picking you up on spelling or punctuation, or grammar,
with deliberate intent to upset and impede the natural too and fro of commentary.
All this and on a regular basis
This could also have the affect of putting other posters off and so shut down avenues of discussion.

I remember a few a long drip drip of information always thinking if another drama rather like a soap opera does. There was an interesting one on MN yesterday.

Galaxy

Still not my understanding. When I think of trolls on GN I think of the majority of the 'problem' threads. Long complex family problem obviously made up, by a poster with no posting history. Sometimes introducing dodgy sexual stuff, sometimes looking for money, sometimes because they get a kick from drama.

We've had some funny ones too, or at least the ensuing threads have been funny.

Plimsolls, school uniforms, onesies.

Don’t feed a troll.

Galaxy

Still not my understanding. When I think of trolls on GN I think of the majority of the 'problem' threads. Long complex family problem obviously made up, by a poster with no posting history. Sometimes introducing dodgy sexual stuff, sometimes looking for money, sometimes because they get a kick from drama.

Once again, Galaxy, I find myself agreeing with your examples. However, I still feel that that little "titbit" of controversy, carefully affixed to their "hook", is often the bait which then allows the Troll to reel their victim in. It's carefully designed to provoke a response, without which, the Troll can't continue to play their game.

Still not my understanding. When I think of trolls on GN I think of the majority of the 'problem' threads. Long complex family problem obviously made up, by a poster with no posting history. Sometimes introducing dodgy sexual stuff, sometimes looking for money, sometimes because they get a kick from drama.

Galaxy

I dont think what you are describing is a troll. Introducing controversy isnt being a troll in my understanding of the word.

I agree, Galaxy. On its own, the introduction of controversy into a discussion is perfectly natural, positive, and often leads to a healthy, energised exchange of views, What I'm saying is that when it becomes the "go to" standard approach regardless of the topic, and is accompanied by the raft of other behavioural pointers which I describe, then that tells a whole different story. So just a very small part of the overall, anger-fed picture, IMHO..

I’ve never understood what a troll is tbh😳