What Is The Best Way To Deal With Internet Trolls

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Using algorithms and bots to battle internet trolls? What ever happened to the good old fashion policy of "don't feed the trolls" and banning them?

“Anti-social users tend to focus on a few threads. They write a lot but only on a small number of threads instead of spreading out like other users would,” says Danescu-Niculescu-Mizi. By identifying this behaviour, the team was able to create an algorithm that would predict, quickly, whether users were being anti-social. “It turns out that there’s enough information in the first five or 10 posts to actually predict whether they’re going to be banned in the future with an accuracy of about 80%.”
 
I imagine the killer robots of the future will use a similar algorithm to decide which humans should be terminated and which would be excellent slave cattle.
 
Don't feed the trolls has never worked. It's basic human psychology. Somebody attacks us, we feel obligated to retaliate, even if it's a blatant troll. I can't count how many times I've seen such a troll and the first reply is "Don't feed the trolls", only to have the post escalate because people still do. Banning them, well, yes, that works. But I guess it depends on how many trolls you get. I'm not sure how many trolls [H] gets, but other sites can be downright horrible, depending upon popularity. And when you get to scams, particularly on financial sites, well, let's just say I wouldn't want to be a moderator.
 
I like reddit's shadow banning policy. The troll can keep posting, but only the troll can see his posts. The posts don't show up for the other users.
 
As a former troll when i was younger the best way to deal with them is to act like whatever they say doesnt effect you and even makes jokes about it. When 15 year old kids try to troll me online i just act really condescending to them and really sarcastic. They seem to get bored and mad that i am not giving the response they wanted. Just like with little kids, if say one kid was picking on another just to get a rise out of him then continuing to give them that response is just going to egg them on more to do it. But if you act like nothing is happening they will give up.
 
Time2Kill said:
I like reddit's shadow banning policy. The troll can keep posting, but only the troll can see his posts. The posts don't show up for the other users.
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youtube also uses shadow banning, and unfairly too. I was shadow banned at youtube after being falsely accused of being a spammer, I was posting pertinent news article urls to discussion threads and not posting spam. I figured out I was shadow/ghost banned because no one ever replied to my new thread posts but they did to my reply posts. I then used a different browser and didn't login to search for my posts and saw that they were not showing up. Like I said though, I am just shadow banned on new thread posts and not replies to threads. Still, it pissed me off because I was not spamming at all.
 
rezerekted said:
youtube also uses shadow banning, and unfairly too. I was shadow banned at youtube after being falsely accused of being a spammer, I was posting pertinent news article urls to discussion threads and not posting spam. I figured out I was shadow/ghost banned because no one ever replied to my new thread posts but they did to my reply posts. I then used a different browser and didn't login to search for my posts and saw that they were not showing up. Like I said though, I am just shadow banned on new thread posts and not replies to threads. Still, it pissed me off because I was not spamming at all.
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Obviously other people thought differently. Maybe your "pertinent news article urls" weren't really that pertinent, or you just kept posting them all over the place.
 
It appears if anyone says something someone else doesn't like that person is a TROLL.

Those of us who appose groupthink are trolls for sure. :facepalm:
 
What would the internet be like without trolls? They are a necessity, they go against the grain, against the status quo, encourage uncomfortable discussion. I'm not easily offended, I don't mind them. Save the Trolls 2016
 
Zigmorph said:
What would the internet be like without trolls? They are a necessity, they go against the grain, against the status quo, encourage uncomfortable discussion. I'm not easily offended, I don't mind them. Save the Trolls 2016
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I highly doubt any 'net trolls are shaping up to be the next George Carlin. The vast majority of them are limited to an arsenal of childish retorts such as "your stupid", variations of "I know you are but what am I?", outright malware spam, and pr0n. Most lack any subtlety and are painfully obvious, they help boost people's post reply counts but in a non constructive way in almost every instance.

I almost feel like a troll posting this for some reason.
 
It would all be easier if forum moderators just quit worrying about what everyone else thinks about their banning someone and just DO it. And yeah, ban the IP address for a while too. Most trolls are not savvy enough to figure out how to force a change of IP.

Get rid of trolls early, often and with no remorse and there isn't enough time for them to build up a little sycophant group that can produce drama over the banning. Do it quickly enough and no one even knows they were there.

We're too soft on behavior these days. The internet is a big place. Being banned on a half a dozen online forums doesn't mean you can't improve and change your behavior and do better elsewhere.

Site forums aren't a freedom of speech issue. They're private not public.
 
rezerekted said:
Anyone else notice that heatlessun only posts in Windows threads? That classifies him as a troll.
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You're missing a whole lot of non-Windows related threads. And I can see why he didn't post in them for a long time.

Not a troll, but he deals with a lot of them.
 
but...what would we do with the 'Not sure if serious...' and smiling troll GIFs? I'm pretty sure they are here to stay.
 
Best way to deal with trolls is to not feed a troll. They are like goats, they devour anything that keeps them going.
 
SWAT them. Then ignore them.

J/K on the SWATTING. Please don't SWAT anyone. It's a waste of resource and real innocent peeps could die.
 
-Strelok- said:
Obviously other people thought differently. Maybe your "pertinent news article urls" weren't really that pertinent, or you just kept posting them all over the place.
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Shadow banning is as Orwellian as the situation allows. You are putting limits on speech without wanting the consequences of admitting you're putting limits on speech or allowing people to get an idea what those limits are. You create an illusory world. I know a lot of people live in one ow want to already. It shouldn't be that easy.
 
There are some trolls that, at times you just can't help but reply to. Sometimes just to troll them. Are you truly trolling if you're truly trolling a troll?
 
This probably should be placed in the forum general rules and info
 
jpm100 said:
Shadow banning is as Orwellian as the situation allows. You are putting limits on speech without wanting the consequences of admitting you're putting limits on speech or allowing people to get an idea what those limits are. You create an illusory world. I know a lot of people live in one ow want to already. It shouldn't be that easy.
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That's the whole point. If you ban someone and they know it, they'll just come back with a new username and do the same stuff. Shadow banning is perfect, the troll seeks attention and gets frustrated when he doesn't get any. It makes them more likely to leave. Most legit users aren't going to get flagged for spamming.
 
-Strelok- said:
That's the whole point. If you ban someone and they know it, they'll just come back with a new username and do the same stuff. Shadow banning is perfect, the troll seeks attention and gets frustrated when he doesn't get any. It makes them more likely to leave. Most legit users aren't going to get flagged for spamming.
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It sounds like you haven't been on Reddit or Twitter in the past 2 or so years.
 
-Strelok- said:
That's the whole point. If you ban someone and they know it, they'll just come back with a new username and do the same stuff. Shadow banning is perfect, the troll seeks attention and gets frustrated when he doesn't get any. It makes them more likely to leave. Most legit users aren't going to get flagged for spamming.
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I am a legit user and was not spamming at all. Fact is, googles algorithm is crap and flags people unjustly. There are videos on youtube about this subject too and any troll worth his salt is smart enough to figure out what is going on and will just open a new account with a new mac address, IP address and throwaway email account, it's quite easy to get around bans. They are simply not effective and those that think they are are just fooling themselves.

I even have a plugin in Firefox where I can make it look like I am running a different browser and OS to thwart fingerprinting.
 
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@rezer - So what - leave the troll to be a dick and piss on everyone's fun? Hardly. In other forums we've had great success rate in just banning and moving on. Maybe a fraction actually come back and try IP hopping or some other evasion technique. So they are a thorn in the side for a few days, but eventually quit. Subsequent accounts get the 'shadow ban' and that, as a whole, tends to take the steam of their sails and they leave.
 
It would never pick up on quality trolling. People seem to forget trolling is just a way to elicit certain responses out of people not all trolling is hate based, derailing is the most simple and fundamental way of trolling.
 
What's the best way to deal with internet trolls? Make me a [H]ardforum moderator of course!
 
-Strelok- said:
Most legit users aren't going to get flagged for spamming.
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You are so naive. Like others said, you haven't been on Reddit or Twitter as of late, have you?

Just post something that discents with certain groupthink from a 3rd wave and you will see how fast they try to get you shadow banned by trying to flag down your posts. Apparently they don't really like to debate but to just state their position as fact instead of as an opinion.
 
There was a Troll or just someone to piss off this Twitch guy playing Dark Souls 3 he stopped playing the game and ordered one of his Mods to Permaban the guy who just called him gay.
I never seen anything like it before but it was his Twitch channel so he could do whatever he wanted I suppose.

I was banned from a Twitch Channel once cause the Mod was banning everyone this one time.
 
Comixbooks said:
There was a Troll or just someone to piss off this Twitch guy playing Dark Souls 3 he stopped playing the game and ordered one of his Mods to Permaban the guy who just called him gay.
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Seems like the proper way to handle it to me. Your aren't going to be able to reason with the troll and this stops him/her from ruining it for everyone else.
 
The definition of a troll is so vague, you basically can shutdown any opposing view. I guess if you want a curated garden of thought (propaganda), you have no fear of the abuse this way, you welcome it.
 
jpm100 said:
The definition of a troll is so vague, you basically can shutdown any opposing view. I guess if you want a curated garden of thought (propaganda), you have no fear of the abuse this way, you welcome it.
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There is only one definition of an internet troll, but it has been twisted to mean any undesirable or "offensive" thing on the internet after the mainstream media picked it up. Wikipedia actually has an accurate description on this, for a change.

"In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory,[1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion,[3] often for their own amusement."

As in it's all an act because the trolls feed on the reaction their posting creates. They more often than not don't actually believe the screed they spew.

But you're right: it's an easy strawman being used by regressives to shut down any opposing viewpoint.
 
Time2Kill said:
I like reddit's shadow banning policy. The troll can keep posting, but only the troll can see his posts. The posts don't show up for the other users.
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That also is abused, largely by admins that don't like anything that doesn't add to the echo chamber of the channel. That, and going through every single post you've made ever for a reason to ban is just as bad as people trolling to get a response.
 
Or.. you know.. figure a way to present your shit in a more receptive way. If you are in someone's subreddit about positive body image affirmations then think once about "do I really need to spend an hour slam posting 'fuck you fatties' " for the lullz, or if you maybe spent time posting something about healthy alternatives than their larger life style. If you are some rude lewd dude with a 'tude spitting crude pre chewed food and you get banned that's all on you. You can opt not being a prick.
 
Most of today's Internet users don't even know what a troll refers to, they think it is those things that lives under bridges when it is actually referring to trolling for fish. Back in the days of Usenet trolling was an art form and there is/was a Usenet group just to go and practice your trolling skills on each other. Why so serious about people just doing the old windup?
 
You are saying there were places where pricks went off to some prick-enchancing-camp to train to be bigger, more twisted, pricks and engage some group of like minded picks? FFS peope, go plant a tree or help habitat for humanity on the weekends.
 
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