Re-post: How to deal with trolls

+1 to all of these comments.

And when someone apparently appoints themself BLF Moderator and breaks numerous rules to call out someone publicly for breaking or allegedly breakinging a ruleā€¦. something is inherently wrong.
It is especially sadly comical when this is ā€œsupposedlyā€ done to protect the integrity of BLF. Give me a breakā€¦ :person_facepalming:

Then they use thinly disguised words such as ā€œa-hole, ice-holes, etc.ā€ and think they are blameless. Calling a member ā€œEinsteinā€ in a condescending manner.
It does not washā€¦ā€¦

The excuses donā€™t wash, the reasons donā€™t wash, nothing washes. They, by their lack of discernment & people skills in a particular situation; have not only created a problemā€¦ but also escalate it to a much worse level as they continue to righteously defend their mistakes.

And it is especially disappointing to me when a ā€˜self appointed moderatorā€™ calls someone out in a confrontational manner & then cries all kind of foul when the called out person makes a simple reply. :person_facepalming: . It utterly amazes me.

IMOā€¦ā€¦ we would all be much better off if we worried less about being ā€œoffendedā€ by every little thing and concentrated on ourselves instead.

I thought it was a good idea at the time.

Why allow over 900 f-words to litter BLF?

Of course hindsight is 20/20.

If I knew it was going to to blow up like it did, I wouldn't have said anything publicly.

Apparently I'm terrible at deescalating bad situations and I should leave that work to Mr. Admin.

No need to point fingers, the last flare-up is under control. The more important matters are 1) preventing future conflicts, and 2) identifying and banning malicious offenders.

:+1: ā€¦ā€¦ A kind word in private or possibly in public possibly would have achieved a better outcomeā€¦. weā€™ll never know. :wink:

Yepā€¦ Hindsight is 20/20 ā€¦. learn from it & move on.

And if you get right down to itā€¦ā€¦ there are very, very, few true TROLLS on BLF.

Alsoā€¦. Nev is not a Trollā€¦ā€¦ nor is he a constant troublemaker.
He, like the rest of us; sometimes does, says, or posts something that someone may not like. So whatā€¦ we all do it from time to time. Canā€™t we just relax a bit??

His manner & sense of humor may differ from someā€¦ but so what?? Do we label anyone a troll who does not fit in our particular box??

Nev has an avatar atm that I personally think is hilariousā€¦ but that is just my opinion. Others will love it & others will hate itā€¦. that is their opinion.
Who cares either wayā€¦ move on.

Everything is not politicalā€¦ā€¦ :smiley:

Thank you teacher ,
Iā€™m learning to use different words from now on ,I didnā€™t realise some folk were so intolerant of others & their language & their humour, who would of thought that a simple little word like snowflake would cause so much misery to some , itā€™s my fault ,I shouldnā€™t assume all people are blessed with a good sense of humour :frowning:
Does my bum look big in this avatar?

Yeah, but TBH, your bum always looked big. :smiling_imp:

My feeling has been bent :cry:

My pleasure yaā€™ ole reprobate!! :smiley: . :beer: :face_with_monocle: :beer:

Yeahā€¦. sadly it appears that is the way some of the world is going. :frowning:
Words that used to mean one thing now mean something totally different. :person_facepalming: ā€¦ Tis sad. :cry:

But in real lifeā€¦ā€¦
ā€¦ I & most of the people I know missed the political correctness memo. :wink:
We stick with the basic values we were raised with.

You changed your avatar!! I like that one, it reminds me of the festive Holiday & Christmas Season. :+1:

As far as your ā€œbumā€?? Beats meā€¦. :smiley:

No, my avatar disappeared, I presume sb removed it on behalf of someone else , I hope this one is good to stay, it does look Christmasy ,Iā€™m feeling very festive.
I hope itā€™s not too religiousy.

Banggood has some on sale, Iā€™ll bet M4dM4x has a coupon somewhere

I like it. It looks like Christmas Star decorations I have. They are bigger of course :smiley:

PSā€¦ Just noticed you had a bent feeling. :open_mouth:

Rememberā€¦ I have a couple of spares if you need one. :wink:

I think Iā€™ll wait for the bogof coupon :smiley:

bogof = buy one get one free.

Thanks mate but Iā€™m ok , I just straightened it out , I used a big hammer.

This 6 branches suriken covered with blood seems a bit offensive/deadly but definitely looks cool.

:smiley: :smiley: . :+1: . :beer:

Your welcomeā€¦. I understand. It is always best to recycle those feelings if yaā€™ can.

If it is really bent badā€¦. use some heat from an acetyl torch as you hammer.

Itā€™ll straighten right out. :wink:

I try not to say too much in these threads, lest it could be construed as escalating, but I agree with very much of what has been said above.
I will add, however, I find the people who canā€™t just let things go, and always have to have the last word, sometimes even well after the subject has been dropped or changed, far more annoying than the so-called ā€œtrollsā€.

Yes, exactly. Thatā€™s why the ā€œdrop the subjectā€ rule is so incredibly important.

Please be assured that is precisely what I do almost on a daily basis. But thereā€™s a huge difference between somebody who is having a bad day or genuinely doesnā€™t understand the rules, and a malicious troublemaker. I will only continue to gently remind or reprimand users until their real character and intentions become apparent.

I care. BLF is not meant to be a place for people to pile on others or flaunt their most offensive traits. There are plenty of forums and social platforms where such toxic behavior is tolerated or even encouraged. Here, itā€™s prohibited. No ifs or buts about it. If such behavior has cropped up here at any given point in a certain thread, itā€™s either because I was unaware of the situation or else I was in the process of evaluating/moderating the situation as I described above.

Exactly. For a long time, I was happy to accept anyone and everyone. But over time, and after a lot of drama, I ended up with two simple rules or requirements for the people Iā€™m willing to associate with:

  1. Good intentions. Must not do harmful things on purpose.
  2. Runs out of pencil before running out of eraser. People arenā€™t perfect, so they fail sometimes. Thatā€™s fine, but if they fail a lot and they fail at me or in ways which hurt people I care about, then I generally try to cut ties.

Yeahā€¦ itā€™s not about intolerance or snowflakes or free speech. If the strongest justification one can make for saying something is that itā€™s not literally illegal to say out loud, thatā€™s a pretty weak argument.

The question we should be discussing isā€¦ What kind of forum do we want to be? Who gets to feel welcome or unwelcome? Should we allow posts which pick fights? And when it happens, should we allow posts calling out the bad behavior? Does hosting the words of troublemakers (or to a lesser extent, troubleshooters) foster or detract from the kind of environment we want to create? These are the type of questions we should be discussing instead of the irrelevant question ā€œIs user123 a troll?ā€ or ā€œDoes the forum allow free speech?ā€ Because whatā€™s up for discussion are not Constitutional rightsā€¦ but the norms of conduct for a particular forum. No one who understands the workings of a community would say that there should be no rules. That is the position of a badly-behaved person who is angry that he canā€™t say rude things without meeting resistance.

In general itā€™s pretty clear what the policy should be for troublemakers ā€” basically a big ā€œNOPEā€. The more complicated part is the policy for troubleshooters. Because attempting to deal with troublemakers is ā€¦ difficult. Attempts can make the situation better, but can also make it worse. And people arenā€™t usually great judges of which way thatā€™s going to go. It ends up as a battle of wits, but itā€™s not a fair fight. The person causing trouble has a pretty big advantage, since itā€™s a lot easier to break things than to fix things.

So ā€¦ itā€™s complicated. Good solutions take a while to figure out.

sb has it sussed :+1: