I have troll troubles is there anything that can be done

[gpowerlifting]

I have a forum and am curious if there is any solution for trolls that does not limit others. What I would like to know is if there are specific ways to combat specific trols without laying down rules that would limit others. Is this too convoluted to understand? If so I apologize I hope someone can help me. I trace the IP's and they are of course bogus, etc.
Thanks,
gpowerlifting

[greyhairedwolf]

I don't have alot of help for you but I found an article or two that might be of some help. Hopefully some of the more knowledgable people on this site might be able to give you some more educated advice

here is a site or two that have spoke about how they handled it the first is not technical as in hardware/software means of handling it but it at least sounds good.DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS

Is there any chance of making your forum a moderated forum where any/all posts have to go through yourself or a trusted SysOp before it get's posted. That is a simple solution (simple for everyone except you and the sysop that is)

let's define what a troll is
From the Jargon file (
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/troll.html
):

troll v.,n.

1. [From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase "trolling for newbies" which in turn comes from mainstream "trolling", a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you don't fall for the joke, you get to be in on it. See also YHBT. 2. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that they have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand - they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the net, as in, "Oh, ignore him, he's just a troll." Compare kook. 3. [Berkeley] Computer lab monitor. A popular campus job for CS students. Duties include helping newbies and ensuring that lab policies are followed. Probably so-called because it involves lurking in dark cavelike corners.

Some people claim that the troll (sense 1) is properly a narrower category than flame bait, that a troll is categorized by containing some assertion that is wrong but not overtly controversial. See also Troll-O-Meter.

The use of `troll' in either sense is a live metaphor that readily produces elaborations and combining forms. For example, one not infrequently sees the warning "Do not feed the troll" as part of a followup to troll postings.

[Conf1rm3d_K1ll]

I don't know much about getting rid of trolls.......but I do know that noneckjoe isn't going to be happy when he see's your avtar!

[ivan37]

Stopping trolls is really your forum program's job. Obviously nothing can first catch and then stop all trolls (except for moderating). Of course, you can always elist the help of the readers by having systems in place like the "report this" button on all of the posts here on AntiOnline's forums.

Also, what do you mean by bogus IPs? If they are posting to a web site, they would have to have an IP and they couldn't be spoofing it. Just because you go back and ping the IP later doesn't mean much (could be a dialup, ICMP disabled, etc.) Put the IPs on your banned list (whether through the forum software or your web software) anyway.

[gpowerlifting]

Originally posted by Conf1rm3d_K1ll
I don't know much about getting rid of trolls.......but I do know that noneckjoe isn't going to be happy when he see's your avtar!

noneckjoe already uses it huh. We sound alike, My neck is 23" but in college they called me no neck. When your 5'6" and 330-340 I guess the old neck goes away.