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[Edited by Administration on 11-28-2000 at 09:44 PM]

I'll add one thing to what was said. The only effective way to deal with trolls (instigators, for those unfamiliar with the term) is to completely ignore them. Don't attempt to reason with them, point out their remarks are uncalled for, or give any response at all. You'll just be giving them the attention they want and make it easier for others to join in and do the same.

Societies like the Quakers and Amish use a similar treatment for dealing with those who violate the rules of their society. They refer to it as shunning.

It works because people don't like to be ignored. The same reason it works for them is why it works in any society or on any board. I've seen it work on other boards that had severe abuse of various sorts when everyone learned to say nothing. The abuse ended and it's been quite civil for months now (with only an occasional bit of flaming).

All you have to do is do nothing. Please do.

Those Quaker and Amish board moderators are tough. Maybe we should call Rent-A-Quaker and hire up a couple...

Ahh, but it's the whole society doing the shunning that makes it work, not just the leaders.

There was an Outer Limits episode using this principle for lawbreakers a couple of years ago.

Duster, thank you for adding that last bit. It is 100% correct, and I do believe that. If everyone would skip over the post without repsonding to it, the Admins could delete it and no one would have even known it was there. End of story.

For those of you who see junk email/spam message board posts/etc. on websites, the following little trick makes the spammer's life truly miserable (this is if you have some spare time on your hands by the way...like when you're at work for example :)

Take the spammer's URL and (if it's from a message board) the IP address, and repeatedly mass-submit it to search engines/FFA boards/Classified Ad sites as quickly and as often as you can. After about 10 or 15 of the same site post in a day, these sites will generally blacklist the user, and generally the spammer gives up, seeing no traffic coming to his site from search engines and things as a result. (A good free resource for quick mass submission is http://www.worldsubmitter.com.)

By the way, do the Amish have any web hosting plans out there somewhere? :)

You're welcome, Chicken. I've seen it work and the benefits of it at work. A particular board I know, (that I alluded to above), used to get horrible abuse of various sorts, including insults and attacks on a large scale, usually ny some anonymous cretin. Despite someone urging to ignore them, nothing changed until everybody learned to do the same.

When the uncivilized got no attention at all the attacks ceased. The nature of the board has improved considerably and now suffers only the occasional outbreak, but nowhere near the scale as before.

A discussion board can be a great place when everybody learns when to keep quiet.