On FramGov, we do not encourage speculation about an individual’s motivation.
However, it is clear that a number of folks believe that trolling behavior has
been happening on our list, so I am going to open up a discussion to talk about
the general topic of trolling and how to discourage it. To be clear about what
I mean by trolling.
Trolling: Posting a deliberately provocative, off-topic, or extraneous message
to the forum with the intention of 1) causing maximum disruption and argument,
2) deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or 3)
otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion. Thread-jacking, (taking over a
discussion thread with a subject unrelated to the original posting while
maintaining the subject line) is a behavior that is example of #3 above.
There’s a thin line between promoting public discourse that as good forum can
(and should) and feeding trolling behavior. So, as a community, how can we most
effectively respond to trolling behavior? For starters, don’t feed the trolls!
(I am going to try to do a better job of that myself!)
1. If you respond emotionally to the troll, on or off-list, you are feeding the
troll. Don’t take the emotional bait.
2. If you feel that you must respond to misleading or inaccurate information,
do it in a matter-of-fact way by either 1) stating the correct information or
2) questioning the misleading information. See also #1. Don’t take the
emotional bait and respond to the emotional content.
3. Don’t respond to threads that start off-topic or begin with a provocative
subject line. If you don’t like the subject line, but want to talk about the
issue, then restart the discussion under a new subject line. If someone else
starts a new thread with a less provocative subject line, respond to that
thread. Anytime the same provocative subject line is responded to and shows up
in everyone’s inbox, again, it feeds the troll.
4. Discourage thread-jacking, and avoid doing it yourself. Don’t respond to
thread-jacking, especially if it is emotionally baited. Make an extra effort to
respond to those posters who are on topic. Ignore all extraneous information on
a thread, even someone you do not feel is trolling. Allowing the troll to
successfully change the subject in a thread feeds the troll.
5. As noted by an earlier commenter, starting new subjects about that which you
are interested in discourages trolling, especially when everyone works together
to prevent thread-jacking.
6. Unless you have other specific suggestions to help prevent trolling
behaviors, I suggest we stop talking about it and start doing something about
it. I suspect that talking about it and complaining about it also feeds the
troll.