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How to Deal with a Troll! a primer!
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I have to agree with Empyrean on this one, I should have noticed the username.
The fact is that "trolls" aren't real users that we have to be nice or welcoming to. An internet troll is a user who puts up a fake profile with the express purpose of abusing the functions of a website. The double entendre username and the lack of any personal info on the profile shows that this is likely a troll.
This website has open access. Anyone can join. That's a good thing for us, but the website has become more high profile over the years, and I've seen it linked to and mentioned on really high-traffic websites. There are a lot of people out there who just want to cause trouble on websites just like this one for pure S&Gs. And no amount of being "nice" to them will change that. The only thing you can do to a troll is ignore, ban, and move on.
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This is not unusual on the Internet. We have all been lucky. The bigger it gets though, the more this will happen and it is best ignored. I am on many other forums and this is a big issue. Usually you can block or ignore them though. Usually they are deleted for such behavior too.
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Julie: Would it make you feel better if I reword it and say that "We are being trolled" or "She is trolling us"? That way, the word "troll" is being used as a verb to describe her ACTIONS (commenting with the sole purpose of getting a rise out of us for shits and giggles) rather than the person.
Also, I think any sort of banning should be done as a very last resort, it's a slippery slope.
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Also, good catch on the user name Empy!
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I believe you're right Moonflower. PaytonPlays has some pretty in depth opinions on the inner workings of companies in the pole world for a recreational poler. She claims to know things about the owner of x-pole and his dealings with studios, she claims to know about pole competitions and what the competitors use, and which studios use what, as well as things about the whole pole dance demographic. Although the opinions she draws from her "knowledge" are thinly supported.
At first I thought maybe she really doesn't know better, which is why I responded, but it appears she knows exactly what she's doing. It's sad cause PS makes good poles. I think of thier permanent poles as ideal for studio use, and xpoles as ideal for recreational use or for studios that need to set up and take down poles in diff locations. PaytonPlays seems like she's trying to support PS but she's just making PS look really really bad by association alone.
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Lopsijulie – the person with the name Paytonplays is a troll – that is what they are called. ON the internet today, it happens ALL THE TIME. You can't sugar coat it. It's not like miss susie was being a bit of a B and then everyone called her a troll. This is a person that has one purpose, to go in chat rooms and message boards and disrupt things. That is a troll. Call it what it is for gosh sakes. Find out how to ban/ignore/or remove her. It's disruptive. All trolls are. Except on message boards where people know how to deal with them. Then you can kind of fart around with them too…even though every thing that comes out of their mouth is nasty.
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Luvlee – yes most of the posts of the trolls on other boards I am on get deleted. Anyone notice how all of a sudden miss Paytonplays has nothing to say. Oops…..move on to another boards to wreak some havoc I'm sure…..
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It's kinda funny, actually. With that name, she had troll written all over her. I think the problem is that everyone here IS too nice and supportive. If the only response to her original thread had been:
U MAD?
http://gamerabies.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Sony-UMad-300×224.png
She/he would have known immediately that we caught the trolling and it would have ended there. Another good way to flush out a suspected troll is to say, COOL STORY, BRO.
Lol, sorry, I'm on the interwebs waaaay too often. 😉 Besides this semi-serious answer, though, ignoring a troll is really the only way to get rid of it. No audience, no drama.
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I almost replied that but I was like no one is going to know what I mean. I am on the net way to often too. LOL!!!!
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I'm not sure what the rules are here but I personally think posters who insult other members should be banned or at least have their post edited or deleted. I've noticed when inappropriate comments were made towards other members here it was dealt with very quickly and the comment was removed so I don't think that Webmaster should have to put up with insults directed towards him when he and V take time to keep us protected from such abuse. A difference of opinion is great but bashing another person is not. I also see this as trolling.
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I mean making posts to bash as trolling not this thread lol
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I'm curious- is there any other motives behind trolls? Are they working on hacking the system or people's accounts when they come on a website to cause disruption? Are people replying to their antics setting themselves up to become a victim of a more sinister motive? I have a hard time believing that someone has THAT much time in their life to be that bored and want to just go on a website and create problems. I guess nothing should surprise me but I was just curious as if there were some malicious hidden internet schemes going on out there we should all be aware of?
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Luvlee, maybe we could have outtrolled that troll. 😉
Kobajo, I am marrying a network security analyst in February, so I have lots of access to the internet underbelly. I mean, this guy roped me into playing World of Warcraft for a little while (which was an enlightening and entertaining experience).
As far as I can tell, most trolls don't have criminal intent. They see themselves as flushing out the n00bs (newbies) and overly histrionic commenters. They get their jollies from baiting comment threads to get 100+ angry replies. Payton Place was probably rolling over and dying laughing over that comment thread, unfortunately. Just like at the playground, lots of kids are there to have fun, but there are always a few who get their kicks from bullying the others, so as the old saying goes, "Sticks and stones . . ."
One final word–I applaud the way Veena and the webmaster handled the situation. They gave the troll a measured answer and then moved away. It's the only way to answer a troll, if a troll is answered at all. It would have been best if Payton's comment had just been buried at the bottom of the board within a few minutes because no one replied, but at least the webmaster only reacted to the legal terms in her post and moved on.
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I have to agree with LopsiJulie & Cherished.. this is getting out of hand
I vote for both posts to be removed, forgotten about and move on
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I think it's better to treat bad behaviour as bad behaviour – keep it lonely and unresponded to regardless of intent than start worrying about who's a troll, what a troll is, or whether it's trolling to call a troll a troll…
I once got called a troll on another pole dance forum. A group of posters and moderators were talking about a well known studio, claiming dancers took steroids, they looked like men, they had to shave their facial hair, and generally being quite nasty. As someone who'd been to that studio I posted firstly correcting the incorrect belief they had, then pointing out that their comments were mean spirited and that questioning a woman's feminity based on physical traits (especially in a way that implied less feminine = bad person) was not cool.
I had a moderator blast me for being "too politically correct" and tell me I was clearly a troll. I left that forum, and as far as I know they're still all sitting around being catty instead of practicing and wondering why the dancers they criticise are better than them.
I guess my point is, I've seen it happen on a couple on non-pole forums too that when you start thinking about trolls you start seeing them everywhere, and eventually troll comes to mean "everyone who disagrees with the cool group". That hasn't come close to happening here, but I don't want it to ever even get close to that.
I'm talking in general because in the other post things got a bit ridiculous. But, as someone who had the exact same fault with my x-pole as many other people, I'm worried about a slippery slope from "people who make wild and nasty accusations related to x-pole are trolling" which is reasonable to "anyone who says anything negative about x-pole is a troll" which is what I've seen happen elsewhere on the net.
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