What do you when you encounter a troll on another site?

[Bolletje]

I usually ignore them. Mostly because I'm not always sure whether someone is trolling. I've mistaken a few people on these forums for trolls, just because some people have an unusual way of expressing themselves.

 

[Mia]

Have done various things, especially at Yahoo. If they emailed me, I traced their URL in the message header and threatened them, if they were abusive. Sometimes I would troll a particularly nasty troll, and report them over and over until they lost that particular account. Most people were reasonable, and some I simply ignored.

BTW there are lots of different types of trolls, both nasty and kind, haters, grammar trolls, white knights, experts, griefers, frost trolls, cuckoo trolls. Many types that I've encountered over the years, attempting to figure out who and what they are has been an interest at one time or another. Many troll simply to get a reaction and therefore attention, others for the lultz. Best to ignore, if they can't get a reaction, they move on to troll others.

 

[Karen S.]

Don't "Feed the Trolls", they just want attention, don't give it to them. Of course if you contribute to a group called "Deviant Art", there's a very high probability of running across unkind people!

 

[Ambi]

Title says it all, pretty much. What do you do when you're on another website (or, as rare as it is, this site even), minding your own business and all, and then some troll decides to show up and ruin your day?

Normally, I try to avoid DeviantART at all costs because of the sheer amount of insufferable ***holes that regularly patrol that site and the fact that the admins there do little to nothing about it. Yes, there's a "blocking" and "hide comments" feature, but both are notoriously bashed by the users there, often calling it "immature" whether you had a justifiable reason to do it or not. Anyway, I've lately being doing some crossover fanart here and there for a couple of my favourite cartoons and finally decided to upload it there. Unless you purposely submit to groups and the like or if you have a lot of watchers/followers, it's likely to be ignored anyway. The thing is, there are at least five groups that I almost always submit my arts to.

While comments are few and far between on the pictures I upload, one of them got a good number of favourites and more are still rolling in. The only real comment on that picture in particular was some chick calling me out for drawing a picture of something she didn't like. A look at her profile page seems to imply that she's one of those "holier-than-thou" types.

We've only exchanged like two comments until I finally said this: "You know, if you don't like it, then why are you even wasting your time here?" Long story short, I have yet to get a response back from her; I sent my reply about half an hour ago. Looks like I win this round. ^^

But, in all seriousness, what do you guys do when you have a run-in with ***holes like that? A long time ago, when I was much younger, I often tried to out***hole them, which rarely worked. Nowadays, I often just use logic on them or @kill them with kindness"; if they persist regardless, I usually either hide their comments and block them (if I've decided their little more than a run-of-the-mill troll), or do the former and forget it ever happened, including ignoring any following responses. I find that that seems to work the best for me. But what about you guys? Any other things you've tried and have found to work?

I think you gave a good final response to this troll! That said, for me, I would be worrying for if/when they would come back with their next troll comment. Block, block, block. It is not immature, it's for mental health. In normal life, we interact with far fewer people, and they do not troll us nearly as much - there is much more of this behavior concentrated on the internet, and they can keep pestering you as long as they want. Block and move on.

 

[Thursday]

I run the other way. I seriously can't count on my self control when I meet one of these people so I back off before it becomes a bigger issue. When I'm in a particularly good mood, I let things play out first to see whether the troll really is a troll or I misunderstood something.

I remember, I was really down one time and went to one of these online counseling sites...I said something about my situation and the person pretended to be listening, then all of a sudden he/she (it?!) said "that's what you get for not aborting that child" before logging off. Well that's the end of that, no more online counseling, ever.

As for Deviantart, there are alternatives. Tumblr, maybe? Some of the artists I keep an eye on have migrated their stuff there...don't know if it's good for exposure, but at least it doesn't seem as toxic.

 

[StephF]

I used to be a member of another online art group called Renderosity. It used to be great but gradually went downhill so I don't go there regularly anymore.

 

[Crossbreed]

I don't really know what that means but it still sounds entirely accurate.

It is a literary reference to Dante's Inferno.

 

[Bella Pines]

And even if the former is the case, that doesn't give them the right to put everybody else down like that.

“Congress shall make no law...abridging freedom of speech.”

Well actually they kind of do have the right However, the first amendment speaks of the "truth" and does not cover deformation of character. So if their statement can be proved to be false then technically they do not have the right. However, the truth is then open to interpretation.

So, the overwhelming reaction from everyone here but me (usually the case, such is my life !!) is "they can't say things like that!". But that's the thing. They can. And they do. According to my elected moral code it is wrong and I would never do that, but the trolls clearly do not share this moral code. But you can't control them, you can't stop them, you probably will never even meet them. You can only control yourself and how you react.

So when faced with absolute horror, like that comment about aborting a baby, which is quite frankly sickening, ask yourself what do you want to get out of it?

• Do you want to educate this person? Well, they seem pretty far gone and probably not worth the effort.
• Do you want to tell everyone else reading the comment that this is unacceptable? Well yes, that would be worthwhile.
• Do you want revenge or justice? Which is probably not achievable.
• Do you want them to apologize and admit they are insidious? Even more unlikely to happen!
• Do you want feedback from them? I wouldn't say their opinion is worth much.
• Do you want to learn about the worst members of society? In which case go right ahead and engage with them.

I had one who did nothing but correct my grammar because I used to comment in nothing but text speak (looking back on it now, I want to hit my younger self with a lead pipe).

Which is another interesting slant.

I do this. Not maliciously. I correct people's grammar and spelling all the time. But not to attack anyone, but to help them communicate. If the grammar is really bad then it detracts from the message. Other people won't listen to them because they are so busy being distracted with actually trying to read the text. So really slander is a matter of perspective. Maybe someone I corrected in good faith thought I was insulting them?

I guess my general rule how I would act to a rude or crude person would be as follows: Be polite, be confident, be positive, and be constructive.

As well, in real life we cannot always run away from rude and crude people. Sometimes, at least temporarily, we have to be politically correct and have a good come back line to diffuse the situation and show our strength

Agreed.

 

[Mr Allen]

I've been the victim of trolling on most gaming forums for years, till I discovered the ignore list is my friend

If someone starts on me, I just mark them for trolling or flaming (not that the Mods ever do anything) and put them on ignore.

 

[Myrtonos]

Huh, I had no idea there were any trolls on AC. I thought there was some sort of anti-troll barrier surrounding this site that keeps them out.

First account creation here is free - note that many here would be on "disability". I have never heard of an anti-troll barrier here.