# How to Identify and Handle Trolls



## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Knowing how to identify a troll and knowing how to deal with one after it has been identified is an important part of forum life. Since it is obvious that TC folk are generally of a gentler nature than the populations of many *big, bad and scary* places whose names end in "chan" (there are more than you might think), I thought it might help to have a little guide on hand to help them deal with these matters. Most of what I'm saying will seem quite obvious to most people, and yet it is most people who fall for the same simple trolling tactics again and again. So, let's look at the most common identifying traits of trolls and what to do when confronted with one. And please note that this isn't the absolute extent of trolling in all its myriad forms, I just don't have enough time to go through all of it.

When an opening gambit is made, either by way of starting a thread or interjecting, the most obvious sign of a troll is an offensive or false statement given forcefully but without any substance. Conversely, more elaborate trolls may construct labyrinthine walls of vague rhetoric in order to confuse people in to giving credence to the argument. One of many common trolling tactics is to play on great atrocities (either classical or current), denying their occurrence, claiming that they had positive effects which outweighed the negatives, or even that they were wholly positive events. Such arguments might appear in the lower fora, but to give an example more relevant to the mainstay of TC's discussions, let's take the following hypothetical: Tchaikovsky was a bad composer because he was homosexual. It's a simple argument and one which seems quite ridiculous in this context, but in the forum proper it is guaranteed to draw in quite a few people and anger them simply by way of presentation, it also defends itself from properly pointed attacks by avoiding any details. Some trolls will attempt to hold their argument at that point, rewording but never saying much more or less regardless of the counterargument to which they are responding, a tactic otherwise known as _brickwalling_. These are generally considered lesser quality trolls, but they are still effective against an unwary opponent.

If all parties are already engaged in discussion, be on the lookout for heavy use of logical fallacies. They are quite easy to spot if you know what they are and how they work. Common fallacies include the _appeal to authority_, _appeal to popularity_ and the _strawman_. Lesser trolls may eventually resort to _ad hominem_ attacks (e.g.: "you're stupid") at which point they will be seen by all for the imbeciles that they are.

A *good* troll speaks forcefully and confidently on any subject regardless of their level of knowledge in order to present themselves as someone who knows what they're talking about, thus making them seem intimidating. They are also likely to avoid questions either through side stepping, nonsense responses or simply ignoring them, and to engage in pettifogging by way of taking smaller points of an argument out of context rather than addressing the argument as a whole in an attempt to constantly shift the focus of the argument. This "debate" between William F. Buckley and Noam Chomsky provides classic examples of all of these tactics.

Some trolls make deliberate use of grammar and spelling errors in their presentation. da moar hevvy handid stuf lyk dis iz prittee obvus but can be effectively annoying all the same, while quirks SUCH AS DOING THIS at seemingly random points in the post THAT don't need emphasis can have much the same effect. The overtly unusual style is used to draw attention away from the lack of substance of the argument. It's also a sure fire way to annoy certain people who are prone to falling for the "grammar nazi" routine.

So, that covers the most common basic elements of trolling, but what do you do when you actually encounter a troll? Ignore them. Simple as that. Trolls are performers, they want an audience, if no one's buying their shtick they will either leave or keep trying new bait until someone bites. After a while they'll tire of being ignored and either leave or attempt to be civil. If you've already been suckered in to the argument it's the same deal; regardless of what's been said and how far -if at all- the argument has progressed, if everyone just ignores the troll they'll eventually get bored and either stop or leave entirely.

If you managed to read through all that, I hope it was informative and that it helps you to avoid those pesky trolls in future.


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## Bone (Jan 19, 2013)

Is this where I post something deliberately offensive/inflammatory? Just kidding - but I get your point. Bear in mind that some trolls are more benevolent than others: an injection of "dialogue encouragement" is sometimes just the right treatment for bland, colorless conversation.

And, yes, I have absolutely been wearing out "Yellow Shark" lately and retract my previous opinion re: Boulez recording. "YS" is definitive.


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

To the time-honored "don't feed the trolls" wisdom, we'd like to add that examples of trolling can be flagged via the »report post« function. Furthermore, one can always Private Message someone on The Leadership Team.

One of the improvements we've made to this board in the last couple of years is that we now have a robust anti-trolling policy... and (as has been clearly demonstrated recently), we WILL enforce it.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

None of us are perfect & I think at times its easy to fall into some of those 'troll' type tactics. Even by default such as not having time to respond to all people properly, thus doing what you call brickwalling. But I think ignoring trolls is the best thing to do & another method of mine is to openly say I don't accept this behaviour. Not abuse them back, just let them know that you think its absolutely not on (unacceptable) to do what they are doing. But the less engagement with people of this negative/toxic attitude the better. Waste of time.


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## Guest (Feb 13, 2013)

Sid has a point. I would regard 'trolling' as a deliberate policy, whereas I'm sure that some posters are just poor posters: they're not very skilled at arguing their points and draw unwittingly on some of the tactics used by trolls. This means that they're not always easy to spot, let alone ignore.

I must say that trolling annoys me less than being ignored (!)


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

Trolling can indeed be a complicated game when contending with sophisticated trolls. Most of the internet has become so filled with trolling, that I have come to ignore most provocative posts.

The part of all of this that still amazes me is that people still engage with trolls. Surely they have seen this bad act played out countless times, you would think that by now, they would have become inured and jaded to it. Alas.


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