

Feeding the trolls - mgunes
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/6878.html

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chalst
I responded to this in support on my Advogato diary. A quote: "be aware that
if you regard yourself as supportive of women in free software and on their
side, but you are vocally undermining of said women when they face this sort
of shit, be aware that you are a fair-weather friend and some sort of a
backstabber."

<http://www.advogato.org/person/chalst/diary/280.html>

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wccrawford
So what you're saying is that she made the right decision. She found a
community that supported abuse (by ignoring it) and she left that community.
Everyone should do so.

But think for a moment what happens when people DO pile on a troll. The troll
gets what it wants: Attention. The best way to deal with trolls is to ignore
them. They die from lack of attention.

But beyond that, if the entire community attacks a troll, 1 person at a time,
it turns into a very hostile community. By the time the troll has had enough,
everyone is very angry and the forums are very ugly.

Instead, the moderators should be handling it. That's their job. If a
moderator handles it, the troll ends up going away fairly quietly, without
much attention. They don't get what they want, and the community doesn't have
to turn ugly.

And nobody should have to alert a moderator. They should be patrolling. Again,
their job.

So if you want to blame anyone for this, blame the moderators. They were the
only solution to the problem, and they failed.

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Joeboy
This is perhaps a bit off-topic, but it seems to me that there's a problem
with the excessively widespread use of the word 'troll'. Often this is wrong
because it dismisses people who are sincerely trying to argue a point in a
hostile setting. In cases like the one we're talking about it's wrong because
it mischaracterises people who are actually waging campaigns of harassment.
From what I've read (which is admittedly far from comprehensive), MikeeUSA's
contributions (which I understand are both public and private) aren't designed
to provoke an entertaining backlash, they're intended to wear women down into
submission and surrender. Describing him as a troll is misstating the case and
letting him off easy.

