If this teeny not-quite-a-troll can cause this much damage, what happens if a real troll shows up? Can we be prepared? Is there anything we can do without damaging the community?
I think the thing to do is to ride it out and have a good sense of humor, personally. Let it go. Accept that some people were just raised by wolves. Use your mental M.A.R.C.I.E. filter, and do not respond even if (ESPECIALLY if) your blood is boiling.
Because you know what? This is the Internet. Nine times out of 10, it Isn't Worth It to get into a stupid fight that will ruin your day and provide a little safe danger to some jackass in Indiana. It's not your job to educate and correct the behavior of everyone else-- you can only control yourself.
And if everyone does this -- if no one engages -- what you have is one lunatic talking to himself, and probably not having very much fun doing it.
It's harder in the short term to not respond, I know (and yes, DNFTEC IS responding. It shows that they're getting to you.). But long-run, it's healthier.
ita, how would you define a "real troll," just out of curiosity?
Not ita, but answering. To me, a real troll is someone who posts only to cause ill feelings or a fight, who never contributes anything but dischord. And who has fun doing this.
ita, how would you define a "real troll," just out of curiosity?
I don't have a clear definition, but ... from USENET, from TT, it's someone who's there to disrupt or destroy, quite on purpose. Not even someone who wants to change the community to match their own ideals, or who's abrasive and impatient, and doesn't have the same degree of civility to which we strive.
Some bust in like the Dark Angel person, others do it slower. I don't think we've had a persistent example of one yet, and I wonder if m/S/A can cause this much strife, how we'd deal with someone clever and bent on destruction.
And no, I don't mean technologically, or even rules-wise. I mean as people, and as a community.
I don't see much of an opening to change the rules -- but that's because I can't think of any better ones. I don't want power shifted, and I don't think we can outline enough scenarious without leaving our knickers showing somewhere else.
I'm just sad that the reverberation is still being felt, although I don't want to tell anyone they shouldn't be feeling what they're feeling. That would be absurd.
Mostly I hope we would be strong enough to resist or deflect any real onslaught that may come our way.
OK, so I just googled myself, and have a request: Can my last name come out of the FAQ? Thx.
Thank you for that post, Cindy.
OK, so I just googled myself, and have a request: Can my last name come out of the FAQ? Thx.
I fixed the old Geocities FAQ. Jon or ita need to to the Phoenix FAQ.
FWIW, sometimes a hypothetical question is exactly the means I use to recast a situation and get a handle on what bothered me/didn't bother me/where I draw the line. I'm sorry if my hypothetical comes in the middle of a lot of others, but it was a small thought that I didn't see that anybody else had posed, and it showed me an important distinction in the overall wrongness of m/S/A's conduct.
I see no problem with playing with hypothetical situations. It helps us know what is/is not worth worrying about, and be mentally ready in case we do get an idjit posting on the board. I think that as a community, we were not ready for the reality of a shit-disturber turning up in our midst.
I don't think we can outline enough scenarious without leaving our knickers showing somewhere else.
True. It would be sheer madness to think we could come up with a plan for every possibility.
I do think that reminding ourselves how to behave properly in the face of improper behavior is a good policy. Basically, I think that when someone says something that is hurtful or angering, 9 times out of 10, on-board Doblerization solves the problem.
