Earlier in the year, Cory Doctorow had a great piece on Information Week called “How to Keep Hostile Jerks From Taking Over Your Online Community”.
Trolls are a sad fact of life, but I think that Cory’s advice and techniques for dealing with them are spot on. Learning to separate the people who are truly there to make trouble from the people who just don’t know any better can take a lot of time and experience. And, as Cory pointed out, some of it is just an innate sense.
I try to be good, and get better, at this. But I don’t always get it right. I try to assume good will whenever possible — I assume that they didn’t mean any harm by breaking the rules, calling someone a name, or making an obnoxious 50 line signature with lots of blinking images. So I will gently correct them, and invite further conversation about the issue. About 80% of the time, I get an apology, the problem is fixed, and everything is fine. Those who are there just to make trouble will make themselves known awfully fast and very obviously.
How do you deal with trolls in your communities?
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