Can we have a solution please to the trolls?

[StephenKingman]

Hi Scott, you may not have noticed this but a lot of members here are getting annoyed with the amount of trouble a particular troll is causing here. This used to be a lively and friendly forum but people are leaving over a member who originally was known as "dindindin" (and who I banned) and has come back several times before, harassing people by PM, trying to get people to send him/her email (and hence share viruses), generally being very abusive towards certain members and bringing down the atmosphere.

This person has returned now several times as a different username (they have a distinct writing style and usually descend into abuse before long). I have tried banning them but I have no way to compare IPs like the old software so its usually too late when I find out its dindin. I would ask you to keep a keen eye out for all the new members joining this place and see if the IPs tally up as its gone beyond a joke now, one other long standing member was teased and annoyed by this person and many people here are now suspicious of new members, myself included, which is a sad state. This place has been built up by its members from a ghost town to a bustling and popular forum, enough is enough. Can you please look into this issue please Scott.

Mike.

[Scott]

I am looking into this now.

[Fran]

Just a suggestion Scott .... perhaps if we had an option so that a user could block an individual poster, kind of a personal banned list. I know on a politics forum I am a member of there is an option that allows me to block anyone for whatever reason, that means they can post all the like but none of their posts are visible to me nor can they send me a email or a PM.
I think someone has already pointed out that because there are so many internet cafes it is not difficult to get around the IP issue.

[Scott]

One can have all posts by another member hidden by adding that other member to one's "foe" list which is basically an 'ignore' list in the last page on the User Control Panel:

ucp.php?i=zebra&mode=foes

At this time, these ignored members would still be able to send PMs to the ignoring user. But I'm sure I can find a way to change that.

I also think I may simply take away the ability for new members to send PMs until they reach the appropriate post count, but then I want to add a replacement contact form for official, private contact of you moderators and I. This may be preferable to what happens now which is that many of these PMs are blocked anyway by the spam filter.

-- 06 Sep 2012 02:26 pm --

I have given you two, Mike and Fran, some admin permissions to help address issues like these.

[StephenKingman]

Thanks Scott that will help somewhat towards eliminating members like this because eventually even the sad and pathetic trolls will give up if banned instantly. I will forward the other usernames to you.

[Fran]

Excellent Scott .... now hopefully we can get the forums back to the fun loving place it was before the invasion.

[DATo]

I do not mean to pass judgment on on the named poster one way or the other. I am just making an observation based on years of chat room experience.

If you ban a handle by placing them on the "Foe" list, that does not ban the INDIVIDUAL ... just that particular handle. If the individual creates a new account with a different handle the "Foe" list database will not keep that person's new posts - those under the new handle - from being seen by everyone. Admin would have to ban the IP address but in the event the poster has a "dynamic" IP (one which changes each time the person logs into his or her internet provider) even this will not solve the problem. In this case one would have to ban the entire domain. Now, if this person has a major-name provider domain such as AT&T or Charter virtually all posters who use AT&T or Charter would be banned.

The easiest way to solve the problem, and the ONLY way I have found through years of experience which is effective, is to simply ignore posts that you find offensive. The saying "Don't feed the trolls." means what it says.

A true "troll" (and I am not saying this person IS one) is a poster who enjoys creating disruption. A person who disagrees with you, even vehemently, is not necessarily a "troll", that is just a person evoking his or her right to free speech even though they may have chosen a controversial stand or manner to make their point. A troll, by popular definition, is a person who has no interest in the discussion but is rather more interested in seeing to it that no one else can participate either.

[Scott]

I agree. What this means in the general sense I think is having an effective set of policies of dealing with offensive posts and disruptive members that does not require much individual discrimination. If someone is banned and then rejoins under a new name but from then on follows the rules and is not disruptive and we cannot not tell whether it is that person again, then what is the harm? If someone joins and is disruptive, mean or otherwise rule-breaking, then it doesn't matter much whether they are someone who was banned under a different name who re-registered under a new one with a different IP in regards to how to deal with them, which more specifically is a forum culture of ignoring them and quick moderator/admin action to warn the user on a first, minor offense (for that account) or to ban the user for a major or repeated offense.