[Air-l] Doctorow on Dealing With Trolls

[Alex Halavais]

Given a recent definitional discussion over the evolution of the
meaning of troll, I figured I would point folks to a column by Cory
Doctorow in Information Week entitled "How To Keep Hostile Jerks From
Taking Over Your Online Community." It begins:

"""
The Internet Tough Guy is a feature in all Internet social forums.
These are people who poison discussions with anger, hatred, and
threats. Some are malicious. Some are crazy. Some are just afflicted
with a rotten sense of humor. Whatever their motives, they're a
scourge. It takes precious little trolling to sour a message-board. A
"troll" -- someone who comes onto an online community looking to pick
fights -- has two victory conditions: Either everyone ends up talking
about him, or no one talks at all. And where two or more trolls
gather, they'll egg each other on, seeing who can anger and disrupt
the regular message-board posters the most.
"""

The rest is here (with apologies for the ads):

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199600005

It provides an interesting exploration of the art and science of
maintaining online discussion-based communities, and what to do with
the trolls, including employing a "troll whisperer."

Best,

Alex


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