JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Brian Austin Whitney Blog How to deal with trolls

Over the years we've had several internet trolls at JPF. An "internet troll" is someone, usually anonymous, who posts provocative inflammatory statements designed to get emotional responses and lure people into arguments. They often have an agenda, a vendetta or simply a joy of troublemaking. If you do a search on internet trolls, you'll find out most folks agree...including many psychologists...that the best way to deal with them is ignore them. Here's a good tactic on dealing with trolls that I found on the imbd site:

Remember, trolls feel rewarded by creating the biggest altercation possible. They want to get a reaction out of you. When you fight with a troll, he wins. When you reason with a troll, he wins. Any time that you give a troll attention, he gets exactly what he wants.

The best way to deal with trolls is to ignore them. When you ignore a troll, he doesn't get the satisfaction of creating an escalated conflict.

If you decide to leave a discussion because of the negative tone, do not dramatically announce that you are leaving. While that message may make you feel better, it only convinces the troll that he is winning.

You may also bring an abusive post to the attention of our moderators.

Please remember: the best way to deal with trolls is to ignore them.

http://www.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?boardstrolls

So please, folks, don't feed the trolls.

Mike

So I'm asking the folks here: When an anonymous poster starts attacking people, name calling or over-the-top negative criticisms, don't respond to their posts, just notify the moderators and write in "troll." (click on "notify" at the bottom of the post) Please don't answer them, don't acknowledge them, don't write about it in the "shout" box, just ignore them and notify the mods.

Don't forget, you can click on someone's name and between the "profile" and the "contact" bar, you'll find a button that says, "ignore this user." Click on that and you won't see their posts.

And moderators, there's a fine line between negative criticism and constructive criticism, but someone who is anonymous writing nasty reviews and finding absolutely nothing good about a lyric or song has, in my opinion, given up their credentials to criticize. If someone claims they are from the industry but wants to remain anonymous, have them contact Brian to confirm their claim. If they don't want to do that, as far as I'm concerned, anything over-the-top from an anonymous poster is grounds to remove their post.

Thanks Much,
Mike

I just wanted to add a bit to Mike's words above, which I agree 100% with.

The only person who can remove a troll from the site is me. No other moderator can do that. Mike and Kevin (and a few others on specific boards) can help however. They can take immediate actions until I can take final actions. (And if you are a moderator and need more info on this, please send me a PM about it).

I always welcome PM's about any problems on the site. I won't always agree with your viewpoint, but I welcome you to continue on the next occasion you feel needs a look. Please include in the PM a direct link to the post in question, as often folks just say "Mike Dubar's post was mean!!!" and I have no idea which post you are referring to and having to search for it is a problem time wise. But I read all PM's and respond as best I can to each one, or I take immediate action, which will be apparent and needs no response beyond a thank you! = )

Anonymous people here have no rights nor benefit of the doubt should they behave badly. We don't know who they are and if they are doing inappropriate things, in most cases I don't take their side, but there are exceptions (such as cases where you disagree with them but they were not unprofessional in words or tone). There's really no reason for anyone to be unprofessional in words or tone, though sometimes even friends can get heated including myself. But that is where REAL people who we can verify (not just a name that looks real) can get the benefit of the doubt. Anonymous users don't. It is their choice to remain anonymous and in the world of Facebook and Twitter where most valid users are real people, it is expected that people will come out of the shadows here. If you want to remain anonymous, that is fine, just be friendly, polite and professional and there won't likely be an issue. Act rudely, and you're gone.

And we also automatically remove anyone using a Proxy server, no matter who you are. If you are a known member to me and you use one, you MUST let me know. Otherwise I will have to remove you until you either explain or go away.

You can't respond to this post, but if you have questions, PLEASE feel free to contact myself or Mike or Kevin and we'll do our best to answer your questions or concerns.

And finally, no one should EVER accept abuse or threats from someone here. Don't confuse that with strong disagreement where an idea is attacked and not you personally. But if someone sends you an email from this site or a PM or any other contact that originated from this site, please let us know so we can take actions. We DO cooperate with Police requests for information about threats, attacks, bullying, harassment or anything else they need to know in regards to a case. Don't mess with people here and expect to stick around or get away with it if you break the law.

Thanks to Mike and Kevin for your help with this.

Brian

Moving this to my Blog.