Advice on dealing with internet trolls?

Miscellaneous Topics
#1

Does anyone have some good advice for me in how to deal with “trolls”, a.k.a. somebody that annoys you on the internet?

Although I definitely have grown wiser over the years, I still sometimes react like “OMG! Sombody on the internet is WRONG!”

What do you do to refrain from entering in a flame war or turd-throwing contest when you get annoyed by someone on the internet?

#2

Ignore them. It takes two to keep an argument going. :wink:

#3

http://a.gifb.in/25yuswsw28295.gif

#4

Yeah, I know that ignoring is the best approach. However, what do you tell yourself to get yourself to ignore the troll? Thats the kind of advice I’m looking for.

#5
  1. If they are on my property and being insulting or rude I instantly ban them. If there is a facility to do so I also tell them they’re a “twat”. Steam Community Hubs is good for this.
  2. People with different opinions than myself are not necessarily trolls unless you know they’re just having different opinions for the express purpose of actually having an argument. Fortunately I’m cleverer than most trolls and occasionally I like to bait them, giving them just enough rope which which to hang themselves publicly. That’s quite fun.
  3. Or if I just can’t be arsed to bait and can’t ban I ignore them.

The worst thing that ever happened to the internet was forums and comments. Discuss. LOL.

Cas :slight_smile:

#6

Trolling is a phase in everyone’s life in one way or another. Understand that the troll is a human being and that its cause and agenda are whimsical at best but above all utterly uninteresting to you.

Trolling ranges from the playful jokes you pull on your best friends - and to the harmful bullying of inexperienced individuals inducing suicidal thoughts.

Somewhere out there there are people who utterly despise and hate you for being who you are. It’s a beautiful thing, really.

Lighten up, don’t take it too personally. I’ve found that comedy is the one and only true panacea out there in this world.

Try looking at things from the funny side of life once in a while. Learn to laugh at yourself. Also honesty is always funnier.

#7

Ok, good points, thanks a lot. Here’s some of my take aways:

  • understand the difference between when people just disagreeing with you (maybe from being wrong, maybe from being right, maybe just dfference in opinion) and when people seek out arguments just to be argumentative
  • approach trolls with humor and laugh at yourself (good one for me, I sometimes tend to take myself / percieved insults to my person too seriously)
  • whatever a troll has to say is of no interest or relevance to you, do not let it touch you personally

Hmm, some good things to practice ;D

#8

I haven’t met a troll yet, but maybe that’s just because I never collect mushrooms.
Let’s go on a mushroom foray :cranky:
But we should have a look at Grunnt, his name is one of those undercover-troll-names :persecutioncomplex:

#9

Stay calm. If a person tries to annoy you, the best way to annoy them is to stay calm. If you get angry, they are amused, because a) they achieved their goals, b) it’s fun to see a guy being annoyed.
Of course time to time I lose my patience with them, but the good thing about being behind a keyboard is that, you can take your words back.

#10

“Attack the argument, not the person.”

Of all the advice, this allows you to evade trolls the best. As long as you fight facts with facts you can evade a lot of garbage talk. Ignorance loses to knowledge, and most of the time, trolls don’t like to lose. So they’ll attack your integrity, personal beliefs, or friends to pull you down to their level. It is a primal tactic, but only one that is effective if this person is next to you and the size of a 60 ton grizzly bear. Being on the internet, you aren’t next to that person so just be respectful, attack the facts, and avoid getting dragged down.

#11

I’d like to give some advice on handling criticism.

First of all, you need to have your expectations right. If you aren’t looking for honest opinions and criticism and just want to show people what you’ve accomplished, then say so. There’s nothing wrong with being proud with what you’ve accomplished no matter how small it is. If you however ARE looking for constructive criticism, then be ready to actually consider other’s opinions. What some people seem to do wrong here is that they believe that any criticism is an attack that they need to defend themselves against. First they deny or downplay the importance of the problem, and if they’re proved wrong they start making weird excuses like “I have no idea what I thought when I wrote that” and stuff like that. The thing is that this completely misses the original goal of asking for opinions: opinions. >_>

When I give criticism on something I generally don’t blatantly point out something as a problem. For example, if something is confusing, then it is a potential problem that the person receiving criticism may not have taken into consideration. For the person receiving criticism, such a statement should be taken as something to be considered and further analyze, not a challenge to disprove that statement. If you do not reach the same conclusion as the person who complained, then the person A: is either wrong or B: haven’t managed to explain the problem in such a way that you understood it. Obviously you can’t just dismiss criticism on the basis of not understanding what they meant, but sometimes simply asking for clarification can make a person who just wrote “ur gaem sux” to think through what they meant and actually come up with something constructive. If they can’t or refuse to clarify what they mean, you can just safely ignore them, since they won’t ever help you become better at what you’re doing. This is a really nice mentality to have, since it can help you a lot when trying to ignore flaming against you.

TL;DR: Try to understand what people are criticizing you about, and if something is unclear ask for clarification. If the person refuses to come up with understandable criticism, you can safely ignore them since they’re not helping you get any better. Remember, the goal is to expand your own knowledge; not to defend your honor.

#12

You cant deal with those who have no-life.

I cant be more clear than that.Ignore them. Or fight them back non-stop and you may win.Though , when you fight back, they like it. Unless when everyone starts insulting them and make him feel bad for it.

#13

Humiliate them.

People troll because they think it’ll make them seem cooler to their ‘friends’.
Being publicly humiliated brings down their ‘coolness’ by quite a fair amount.

Usually finding the right way to humiliate them is a case-by-case thing, but if all else fails, use this argument and target their insecurities that led to them trolling in the first place.

#14

Thanks a lot for the advice, I find it helpful. I´m not sure I´ll go and try to humiliate them though, as I think it bears the risk of becoming a troll yourself if you let yourself get carried away with it :wink:

#15

Direct humiliation usually results in more trolling… you need to humiliate them with silence. Let them look like fools in front of their peers, recorded there in black and white.

Cas :slight_smile:

#16

Not sure if trolling?

Good luck with humiliating someone anonymous on the internet. Only thing to do about it is to ignore them silently and if their posts break the rules of the given forum, delete them and ban the user.

#17

Generally if I fall into temptation, I do it by getting into a huge comedy act at the expense of the troll with everyone else responding in there while utterly ignoring any post the troll is making. Good fun but it requires some careful planning to not give the troll any kind of reason to think he/she has made any kind of impact.

#18

Click “ignore”. :slight_smile: Not ignoring is rewarding them.

#19

You are a mad person, if you don’t feed the troll it will die of starvation :’(

#20

Exactly