Do you go through your comments and find that one comment (or maybe more) where the commenter is either goading other commenters or even trying to goad you into an argument? What is your reaction? Here's my advice:
Trolls have existed since USENET was the Internet service of choice. Heck, I think they existed back before the Internet took off, when BBS's were the primary online communication services.
Troll tactics include attacking regular commenters, attacking authors, making out like the troll is a victim or a savior of some kind, making comments that require an angry response as the only kind of response suitable and other things that generally don't go with good conversation practices.
The best way to defeat a troll is to ignore a troll. A troll will not hang around and comment further if he or she does not get a response. I spotted a troll earlier today. He was an ugly critter. He was easy to spot. He didn't leave any kind of URL in the header of the comment. Trolls are notorious for not identifying themselves with anything but their first name or some strange phrase.
If you think you saw the troll, let me know. I want to make sure I'm not seeing things.
[...] posted an article on his blog with a piece of advice which is fairly common on the internet: do not feed the trolls. But day after day, month after month, year after year, trolls continue to enjoy the same level of [...]
[...] Originally Posted by GreekSlav No, I do not speak SlavoSkopian. What is that, anyway? The Bulgarian dialects of FYROM. To everyone else: Please Do Not Feed The Trolls. [...]
[...] Posted by Draco The Bulgarian dialects of FYROM. To everyone else: Please Do Not Feed The Trolls. I was simply asking a question, but your comment was the trolling one. A little funny, too. [...]