A Modest Favor

[Mr. Anderson]

Let me help everybody here.

http://members.aol.com/intwg/trolls.htm

[Ericnmel99]

since i cant go to aol at work, you want to give me an idea what that is?

[Xevious]

I've heard of the term Troll here at the forum but I was never 100% sure what it meant. Thanks for clearing it up.

Maybe you should put a list of terms in the FAQ section. Just a thought...

[scsg75]

done and done. I'm through with responding to trolls on here. I will ignore their cries for attention.

[Rodimus]

I haven't encountered a troll at CAG yet. Anyone know who they are?

[XboxMaster]

Yes, thank you for posting this. I really think CAG is about to turn into a living hell if we don't get the trolls picked out of the wave of new-comers

[Cornfedwb]

I haven't encountered a troll at CAG yet. Anyone know who they are?

Okesmokey, DennisDFat, DragonLordFrodo (recently banned)

[ElfAngel7]

I haven't encountered a troll at CAG yet. Anyone know who they are?

Okesmokey, DennisDFat, DragonLordFrodo (recently banned)

Yah, that about sums it up neatly

[dtcarson]

A faq about internet trolls...
I'm guessing the 'take-away' Mr Anderson is alluding to is this:
"However, if the person persists in being beastly, and seems to enjoy being unpleasant, the only effective position is summed up as follows:

The only way to deal with trolls is to limit your reaction to reminding others not to respond to trolls."

Don't Feed the Trolls.

[MrBadExample]

DLF was banned? So that's why it's been quiet. Not gonna miss him a bit.

[XboxMaster]

I haven't encountered a troll at CAG yet. Anyone know who they are?

Okesmokey, DennisDFat, DragonLordFrodo (recently banned)


I would call Denis a mild troll. He usually only makes nasty comments about games--actually, those are the only nasty comments I've seen him make. Either way, he's not even close to being as bad as Okesmokey or DLF.

[Cornfedwb]

And for those of you that don't understand not feeding the trolls.. DLF wouldn't have been nearly the problem he was if people just ignored him and didn't feel it neccesary to get into a flame war with him. If people had just ignored his man-tit picture that was obviously posted just to incite people.. it wouldn't have stemmed into him flaming people. If people hadn't flamed him back, it wouldn't have continued as it did.

We had the same problem with.. star something (the other recently banned troll). If a troll can't find a good reaction on a board.. he'll go somewhere else.

edit - And I agree with Xboxmaster, DDF isn't nearly the same caliber of troll as OkeSmokey or DLF or star-whatever he was.. but he's still a troll.

[XboxMaster]

Hmmm. I have a question. OK, I'm a very impatient and spiteful person, so if someone flames me, I usually flame back with a vengeance. If, say, a troll flamed me, would it be considered inticing him if I just replied with, "I refuse to feed the troll"?

[dtcarson]

It's a cliche, but sometimes mom's advice is best:
"If there's a bully [which is really what a troll is, in part], just ignore him, and he'll go away."
Trolls want attention.
Even saying 'I'm not feeding you' can count as attention, and they could then spin it like "ha ha! I win! I chased you away, long-time legitimate poster!"

[Squirms]

Hmmm. I have a question. OK, I'm a very impatient and spiteful person, so if someone flames me, I usually flame back with a vengeance. If, say, a troll flamed me, would it be considered inticing him if I just replied with, "I refuse to feed the troll"?

Everyone needs to use this line. Absolutely brilliant.

[johnnyoski]

DLF was banned? So that's why it's been quiet. Not gonna miss him a bit.

Its almost like the circus has left town! That dude was quite a sideshow.

[ElfAngel7]

Hmmm. I have a question. OK, I'm a very impatient and spiteful person, so if someone flames me, I usually flame back with a vengeance. If, say, a troll flamed me, would it be considered inticing him if I just replied with, "I refuse to feed the troll"?

Most likely you would entice he/she/it, but would amuse everybody else on the board. And while I don't agree w/ most of what DDF posts, it is funny to see him post at times and he rarely gets out of hand like DLF did.

[Cornfedwb]

Don't even respond with Don't feed the troll. If you must respond, just say "He's just trolling, everyone ignore him". And if someone has already posted it.. then just ignore the troll completely. Every bit of attention, no matter what sort of attention it is.. just feeds them and keeps them going.

Remember, if they don't find food here, they'll go somewhere else (hopefully back to GameFaqs)

[snotknocker]

I think a lot of CAG's like to feed the trolls and consider it fun. I really don't thing we could get a concenrtrated group effort here that would allow us to ignore trolls, only a concentrated effort to get them banned when they go to far.

[daphatty]

Ignoring trolls is the best way to deal with them. But every now and then they need to be dealt with. DLF was just such a troll.

[Rodimus]

I wanna be a troll.

All of you smell like fish! Does that sound good?

[Squirms]

Triple T won't stand for that.

[XboxMaster]

I'm a little puzzled. When we know someone is a troll (DLF, Oke), that troll has continuously started flame wars (DLF, Oke), and that the forums are suffering from the troll (DLF, Oke), then why don't we just ban 'em? One down, one to go.

[SilveRaven]

I wanna be a troll.

All of you smell like fish! Does that sound good?

Oh yeah well......... you smell like bait :wink:

Oops, feeding the troll, sorry guys.

Interesting article but the question being whether or not it is possible to get a concentrated group effort ignoring. The problem with groups of this size is there is bound to be at least one person who will continue to feed the troll, but I guess if most people ignore them they are still likely to move on.

[Ledhed]

We had the same problem with.. star something (the other recently banned troll).

I think it was Starman98 (NOT to be confused with current user and non-troll starman9000).

Let us not forget MWL. As far as I can remember, he was the first troll to attack someone personally, which is the samething that led the others to the land of wind and ghosts.

[Mr. Anderson]

I'm glad to see this topic has come along like this.

[CTLesq]

We had the same problem with.. star something (the other recently banned troll).

I think it was Starman98 (NOT to be confused with current user and non-troll starman9000).

Let us not forget MWL. As far as I can remember, he was the first troll to attack someone personally, which is the samething that led the others to the land of wind and ghosts.

Personally I wish we could have kept MWL in a cage for entertainment value.

[Xevious]

Personally, I didnt have a problem w/ Dragonlordfrodo. He was a weird kid but he was high on entertainment value. Admittedly, I dont know exactly what went down that got him banned from CAGs.

[LoganDX]

Admitedly, I too know I should keep my mouth shut but damn sometimes you just have fight back. It's the animal instinct in most(some) of us. With DLF and Oke I just wanted to snap their damn necks. In DLF's case I couldn't have gotten my hands around his fat neck though...

[SneakyPenguin]

I usually ignore them, but Oke just began attacking me and DZ for no reason that I can see, so I snapped. I try to ignore them now, and so far I think I'm doing a pretty good job.

[Cornfedwb]

MWL wasn't really a troll. A smart-ass and quick to flame, sure.. but not quite a troll.

And yes, I don't understand why OkeSmokey hasn't been banned, I have yet to see a constructive.. or hell, even a non-trolling, post yet from him.

I understand Cheapy wants to keep bans to a minimum, we're a pretty open forum here and he doesn't want to make it seem draconian. I think the powers that be have done a very good job getting rid of the trolls (except for Oke) before they got too out of hand.

[Steggy]

I'm a little puzzled. When we know someone is a troll (DLF, Oke), that troll has continuously started flame wars (DLF, Oke), and that the forums are suffering from the troll (DLF, Oke), then why don't we just ban 'em? One down, one to go.

I dont see what gives people the mind set to ban people. Just for trolling is a lame ass excuse. I could see if the person slandered sumone or used hate/racial slurs or anything along thsoe lines. But someone who just meerly trolls doesnt deserve to be banned. This is the internet theres always gonna be people like that, and you just gotta learn to ignore them if it bothers u that much.

[Cornfedwb]

Basketcase.. this community is much more mature than many of the forums on the internet. It was always a good place to have good conversation about video games and other aspects of life.. now the CC sale has seemed to bring in an onslaught of newbies.. they'll either get used to the community, or learn its not for them and leave. So in another month or so I expect us to return to that idyllic peaceful, good-natured, flaming we've all come to expect and love.

However, we've also acquired a few tremendous trolls.. and they bring the entire community down a few notches. Why should we allow them to stay here and turn everything into a flame war? Why shouldn't Cheapy ban them when its obvious they're here for nothing other than trolling?

[Steggy]

Basketcase.. this community is much more mature than many of the forums on the internet. It was always a good place to have good conversation about video games and other aspects of life.. now the CC sale has seemed to bring in an onslaught of newbies.. they'll either get used to the community, or learn its not for them and leave. So in another month or so I expect us to return to that idyllic peaceful, good-natured, flaming we've all come to expect and love.

However, we've also acquired a few tremendous trolls.. and they bring the entire community down a few notches. Why should we allow them to stay here and turn everything into a flame war? Why shouldn't Cheapy ban them when its obvious they're here for nothing other than trolling?

I agree wuth you too an extent. Im just saying people whom are minor trolls and flame people dont realy deseve to be banned. DLF scared the hell outta me but i realy dont see why he was banned. He edited a pic of deadzone... ok... What if this forum is all he has in life? You may have taken away his only crutch of belonging.

[jimbodan]

Call me crazy, but I actually think it's funny when everyone gets all riled up about a troll. It's just a message board, jeez...

[JSweeney]

Basketcase.. this community is much more mature than many of the forums on the internet. It was always a good place to have good conversation about video games and other aspects of life.. now the CC sale has seemed to bring in an onslaught of newbies.. they'll either get used to the community, or learn its not for them and leave. So in another month or so I expect us to return to that idyllic peaceful, good-natured, flaming we've all come to expect and love.

However, we've also acquired a few tremendous trolls.. and they bring the entire community down a few notches. Why should we allow them to stay here and turn everything into a flame war? Why shouldn't Cheapy ban them when its obvious they're here for nothing other than trolling?

I agree wuth you too an extent. Im just saying people whom are minor trolls and flame people dont realy deseve to be banned. DLF scared the hell outta me but i realy dont see why he was banned. He edited a pic of deadzone... ok... What if this forum is all he has in life? You may have taken away his only crutch of belonging.

He stepped over the line. Getting into arguments fairly often is fine, and even sometimes adds a bit of life to the board if it's a slow day... but some people just lack the discipline to restrain themselves, droping a post that is so degenerate that it requires action from Cheapy. That was the case with MWL. Some people won't go to that extreme, but they'll very,very close many times... leading to a ban.

There there are some people that outright go and get in pissing matches with CheapyD, Defender and some of the mods... this eventually leads to thier ban. Dragonlordfrodo and eros show us this.

[x0thedeadzone0x]

We are still talking about DLF when he is already gone, this is exactly what he wants and what the article is talking about. He also claimed that he had an IP tracker of some kind and would keep coming back.

EDIT: You might wanna check out his blog, but be warned he posts his nasty picture in the beginning. Don't say I didn't warn you. He goes off on a tangent on how he got banned and (me).
Here's the link: http://blurty.com/users/dragonlordfrodo
WARNING:: man-boobs !!!

[OkeSmokey21]

Call me crazy, but I actually think it's funny when everyone gets all riled up about a troll. It's just a message board, jeez...

Agreed. Who cares what people think of you on the internet?

[Darkwebs]

Let me help everybody here.

http://members.aol.com/intwg/trolls.htm

Thanks for that link. I've heard that term here on CAG quite a few times and always wondered what it meant exactly. As for why trolls are detrimental to the online community, consider this quote from the provided link:

"It would be nice if everybody was so easy-going, but the sad fact is that trolls do discourage people. Established posters may leave a message board because of the arguments that trolls ignite, and lurkers (people who read but do not post) may decide that they do not want to expose themselves to abuse and thus never get involved."

"Trolls threaten our continued enjoyment of this beautiful forum for ideas."

[Nirvanaguy777]

that was actually interesting read, a well wrttien approach too the whole trolling topic, thanks for that