Wed. Apr. 28/10 Pace51
How to responsibly deal with trolling
Trolling comes in all forms, many situations, and is done by many people with all sorts of intentions. So, below are tips on how to deal with people as sincerely as possible and effective ways to end trolling. Also included are “What not to do” rules. Nobodies perfect, but no one’s unblameable either. So, by reading the below, you take full responsibility for your actions and know what you are doing. Also included are ways to minimize trolling as much as possible. However, there are also “emergency break” tips on how to stop a troll/trolls if reasoning has failed. Below is a list of circumstances. Since not all trolling incidents were intended, but since this is the internet and most were, the severity of this trolling, whether it is an innocent misunderstanding or an intended insult, is indicated too. The circumstances also deal with arguments and conflicts. Now, please read. Mod input is greatly appreciated, modify it if you would like. I tried to make this as unbiased as possible. Also, many of the actual site rules are displayed. And mods, this is a serious thread, not one attempt at humour has been included. Although I am not a mod, these are very legit concerns. I do not mean to come across as mini-modding, but hopefully this can help you.
Many of us can relate to these; however, do not take them personally, only if they refer to you:
The bad day: A user logging on to the forums is having a difficult real world issue, often involving anger or sadness. The irate user logs on to bf2s, and starts browsing through EE. Suddenly, they spot a post. This post sets them off, or triggers a bad memory. They proceed to go into the chat, and have a monumentous meltdown, or get angry at everyone. In this situation, nobody is really to blame, at least, not in a moral sense. The poster didn’t intend on insulting the user, and the user didn’t mean anything personal. However, in this situation, the user must take responsibility for their outburst. You are responsible for your own emotions. If you fail to keep them in check, and seriously violate the rules or insult the innocent user, just accept the ban, or the fallout, and apologize. By doing this, you redeem yourself in the future. Also, until you admit you were completely wrong, and the user is innocent, your treatment of the user is a personal attack.
The one timer: One day, someone in the forums does something stupid, often a racist post or something that greatly resembles spamming. They’ve probably never done this before, but it is insulting, or irritating. However, this will stick on their reputation. In this case, that person is to blame. If they simply apologize or promise not to repeat their mistake, they should be fine, and everyone should treat them the same as normal. However, in this situation, that person must never be stubborn. Refusing to admit they did something wrong and instead putting the blame on others or even taking every comment or criticism said toward them personally, will always result in their reputation taking a serious blow. Which means, no one will forget about the situation soon or forgive the causer of the situation.
Grammar police/Nitpicking: When someone goes into an article, finds a grammar mistake, and criticizes the user for it. It is not trolling if the articles is full of grammatical errors. However, this is the internet, and the “fast food” typing styles are indigenous, so although using slangs and shortened words is not always reader-friendly, comenting on these mistakes can be considered annoying. If the article isn’t full of these mistakes, though, then it is very annoying to point out these errors. Whatever you do, do not insult the gramma policer. That escalates the conflict.
Post Insults: When a user repeatedly posts negative or insulting messages about a particular users posts, this is very rude towards the user. If these comments do not seem to be criticism, or related to the article, and seem to be present only because the commenter dislikes the targeted poster, then do not try to argue your point with the commenter. It will not work, and others sometimes join in to help them out. Also, any user honestly criticizing your thread will seem like just another troll, and encourage the trolls. This also does not allow you, the OP, to realize which comments are feedback and which are insults. And, as a result, your comments will be one massive off topic troll-fest.
The flamer: The most common type of trolling. Often escalates into a flame war. A particular user log on to the forums, and go into EE, for example. Then, he will proceed to make the most badly worded, retarded, and stupid comments. Sometimes, they are to stupid to be considered insults. This situation is different from a troll insult situation because the flamer isn’t really insulting you, he’s insulting everyone. Often, the flamer seeks attention, even negative, and will say stupid insults to one person. Then, when one person defends the original victim or try’s to reason with the troll, the flamer insults that person. The best way to stop this is to be mature. Do not use conventional insults; just tell the flamer how immature and stupid their acting. Never insult them, that’ll escalate the conflict tenfold. However, if there is a mod online, get them first. They will stop the situation from growing badly. Also, ignore the flamer, and do not reason with them, it’ll fall on deaf ears.
The victim situation: When a user takes every insult or criticism towards them seriously. The problem on the internet is, if one person says one rude thing to someone else, even if they didn’t mean it, the “victim” will hold a permanent grudge. This is the internet, people change. Do not take anything personally. Most would think that that is common sense, but these victim situations happen all the time. You, the “victim”, are the troll if you start to annoy others by complaining about how many people unfairly hate you. However, if a comment is rude and directed towards you, tell a mod and leave it at that. Its there job to keep people in line, not yours. However, remember this. NEVER TAKE ANYTHING IN EE SERIOUSLY. EVER. Especially in the EE chats thread. The mods are a lot more lenient in EE chats, because they know most things said are jokes.
The spammer: Just as common and annoying as the flamer and that is referring to both types of spammer, the spammer’s who post or send advertisements, and the spammers who clog the forums with useless junk. Spamming the same word or sentence over and over can get you banned, and is a direct rule violation. Spamming the same thing a few times in one post is fine. Multiple post spamming, if it goes more than twice, is really pushing it. Same thing with quoting yourself. Only do it a bit, and only do it to get someone’s attention. Now, for the second type of spamming, the user should only stop posting in their current style if mods tell them to. The mods know if you are making junk, or unneeded filler. However, taking the criticisms of users into consideration and modifying your style never hurts.
Necroposting: Reviving a dead topic in order to gain more karma for yourself or to be annoying is very successful in completing the latter. However, replying to a “dead” or old post is not necroposting as long as you honestly have something relative to say.
Spot claiming: “1st” and “2nd” and so on are very annoying. When a user does this, the user may want to be “recognized” as the first poster in a potentially popular thread, but the user should post a productive reply, not when they replied. Then their post will likely just get deleted.
Minimodding: Users who govern a forum like it belongs to them or request others get banned are usually attention seeking. These users don’t always use the report button, either. Their requests will probably never get take into consideration. It isn’t really a bannable offence unless you turn it into “ban spam”, but it is annoying.
Meme’ing: Meme’ing is fine. It’s witty and brings back good memories. However, using it for insulting or parody-ing purposes is quite unnecessary. In this case, just wait a bit and a mod should deal with it. However, if a “gray area” arises, and no one is sure if something is bad or not, notify a mod just in case it could turn horrible. A good example was the “Racist Brigades” a little while ago.
Banniciding: When a particular user decides to go crazy and breaks more rules than actually exist on the site, ignore it. The user may come back, but they deserved the punishment, so don’t get angry at the mods for banning them.
Mod criticizing: Don’t tell the mods what they are doing is wrong, or criticize them. No offence to either user or mod, but trying to change or reason with a mod is not unlike yelling at a brick. It does nothing, so abstain from it. Plus, the mods are often right. They’re not just mods because they have fancy ways of talking. Pm’ing an admin with a serious concern about a mod is fine, but that’s it.
Prolonging: When a user purposely keeps a flame war or troll battle alive for the sake of arguing, this is bad. Firstly, stop talking and ignore the troll, or get a mod. Even if you are sincerely arguing, drop it. You will get nowhere. Also, arguing because you feel like it is also bad. No one may be able to prove you kept the argument alive because you were having fun, but you were doing this at another’s expense, so please abstain. However, if you do this multiple times, the mods will catch on. Seriously, theres over 10 of them, plus admins, plus about 50 users on at a time.
Begging to be a mod: See talking to a brick above.
Evil Untraceable Karma Ninja: When a user gives a peer karma in order so that they may be able to insult that user without leaving a name. This is highly against the rules, and sneaky. When this happens, do not start accusing people.
The bf2s policies:
(Restated because they are often ignored or treated like recommendations)
Karma begging: Illegal
Karma Trading: Illegal
Impersonating: Illegal
Derailing: Illegal, mods will delete your posts
Forgetting to search: Illegal, although it’s usually an accident. However, it’s our responsibility to follow it or accept the consequences.
Official BF2S Spam Policy: STFU.
How to responsibly deal with trolling
Trolling comes in all forms, many situations, and is done by many people with all sorts of intentions. So, below are tips on how to deal with people as sincerely as possible and effective ways to end trolling. Also included are “What not to do” rules. Nobodies perfect, but no one’s unblameable either. So, by reading the below, you take full responsibility for your actions and know what you are doing. Also included are ways to minimize trolling as much as possible. However, there are also “emergency break” tips on how to stop a troll/trolls if reasoning has failed. Below is a list of circumstances. Since not all trolling incidents were intended, but since this is the internet and most were, the severity of this trolling, whether it is an innocent misunderstanding or an intended insult, is indicated too. The circumstances also deal with arguments and conflicts. Now, please read. Mod input is greatly appreciated, modify it if you would like. I tried to make this as unbiased as possible. Also, many of the actual site rules are displayed. And mods, this is a serious thread, not one attempt at humour has been included. Although I am not a mod, these are very legit concerns. I do not mean to come across as mini-modding, but hopefully this can help you.
Many of us can relate to these; however, do not take them personally, only if they refer to you:
The bad day: A user logging on to the forums is having a difficult real world issue, often involving anger or sadness. The irate user logs on to bf2s, and starts browsing through EE. Suddenly, they spot a post. This post sets them off, or triggers a bad memory. They proceed to go into the chat, and have a monumentous meltdown, or get angry at everyone. In this situation, nobody is really to blame, at least, not in a moral sense. The poster didn’t intend on insulting the user, and the user didn’t mean anything personal. However, in this situation, the user must take responsibility for their outburst. You are responsible for your own emotions. If you fail to keep them in check, and seriously violate the rules or insult the innocent user, just accept the ban, or the fallout, and apologize. By doing this, you redeem yourself in the future. Also, until you admit you were completely wrong, and the user is innocent, your treatment of the user is a personal attack.
The one timer: One day, someone in the forums does something stupid, often a racist post or something that greatly resembles spamming. They’ve probably never done this before, but it is insulting, or irritating. However, this will stick on their reputation. In this case, that person is to blame. If they simply apologize or promise not to repeat their mistake, they should be fine, and everyone should treat them the same as normal. However, in this situation, that person must never be stubborn. Refusing to admit they did something wrong and instead putting the blame on others or even taking every comment or criticism said toward them personally, will always result in their reputation taking a serious blow. Which means, no one will forget about the situation soon or forgive the causer of the situation.
Grammar police/Nitpicking: When someone goes into an article, finds a grammar mistake, and criticizes the user for it. It is not trolling if the articles is full of grammatical errors. However, this is the internet, and the “fast food” typing styles are indigenous, so although using slangs and shortened words is not always reader-friendly, comenting on these mistakes can be considered annoying. If the article isn’t full of these mistakes, though, then it is very annoying to point out these errors. Whatever you do, do not insult the gramma policer. That escalates the conflict.
Post Insults: When a user repeatedly posts negative or insulting messages about a particular users posts, this is very rude towards the user. If these comments do not seem to be criticism, or related to the article, and seem to be present only because the commenter dislikes the targeted poster, then do not try to argue your point with the commenter. It will not work, and others sometimes join in to help them out. Also, any user honestly criticizing your thread will seem like just another troll, and encourage the trolls. This also does not allow you, the OP, to realize which comments are feedback and which are insults. And, as a result, your comments will be one massive off topic troll-fest.
The flamer: The most common type of trolling. Often escalates into a flame war. A particular user log on to the forums, and go into EE, for example. Then, he will proceed to make the most badly worded, retarded, and stupid comments. Sometimes, they are to stupid to be considered insults. This situation is different from a troll insult situation because the flamer isn’t really insulting you, he’s insulting everyone. Often, the flamer seeks attention, even negative, and will say stupid insults to one person. Then, when one person defends the original victim or try’s to reason with the troll, the flamer insults that person. The best way to stop this is to be mature. Do not use conventional insults; just tell the flamer how immature and stupid their acting. Never insult them, that’ll escalate the conflict tenfold. However, if there is a mod online, get them first. They will stop the situation from growing badly. Also, ignore the flamer, and do not reason with them, it’ll fall on deaf ears.
The victim situation: When a user takes every insult or criticism towards them seriously. The problem on the internet is, if one person says one rude thing to someone else, even if they didn’t mean it, the “victim” will hold a permanent grudge. This is the internet, people change. Do not take anything personally. Most would think that that is common sense, but these victim situations happen all the time. You, the “victim”, are the troll if you start to annoy others by complaining about how many people unfairly hate you. However, if a comment is rude and directed towards you, tell a mod and leave it at that. Its there job to keep people in line, not yours. However, remember this. NEVER TAKE ANYTHING IN EE SERIOUSLY. EVER. Especially in the EE chats thread. The mods are a lot more lenient in EE chats, because they know most things said are jokes.
The spammer: Just as common and annoying as the flamer and that is referring to both types of spammer, the spammer’s who post or send advertisements, and the spammers who clog the forums with useless junk. Spamming the same word or sentence over and over can get you banned, and is a direct rule violation. Spamming the same thing a few times in one post is fine. Multiple post spamming, if it goes more than twice, is really pushing it. Same thing with quoting yourself. Only do it a bit, and only do it to get someone’s attention. Now, for the second type of spamming, the user should only stop posting in their current style if mods tell them to. The mods know if you are making junk, or unneeded filler. However, taking the criticisms of users into consideration and modifying your style never hurts.
Necroposting: Reviving a dead topic in order to gain more karma for yourself or to be annoying is very successful in completing the latter. However, replying to a “dead” or old post is not necroposting as long as you honestly have something relative to say.
Spot claiming: “1st” and “2nd” and so on are very annoying. When a user does this, the user may want to be “recognized” as the first poster in a potentially popular thread, but the user should post a productive reply, not when they replied. Then their post will likely just get deleted.
Minimodding: Users who govern a forum like it belongs to them or request others get banned are usually attention seeking. These users don’t always use the report button, either. Their requests will probably never get take into consideration. It isn’t really a bannable offence unless you turn it into “ban spam”, but it is annoying.
Meme’ing: Meme’ing is fine. It’s witty and brings back good memories. However, using it for insulting or parody-ing purposes is quite unnecessary. In this case, just wait a bit and a mod should deal with it. However, if a “gray area” arises, and no one is sure if something is bad or not, notify a mod just in case it could turn horrible. A good example was the “Racist Brigades” a little while ago.
Banniciding: When a particular user decides to go crazy and breaks more rules than actually exist on the site, ignore it. The user may come back, but they deserved the punishment, so don’t get angry at the mods for banning them.
Mod criticizing: Don’t tell the mods what they are doing is wrong, or criticize them. No offence to either user or mod, but trying to change or reason with a mod is not unlike yelling at a brick. It does nothing, so abstain from it. Plus, the mods are often right. They’re not just mods because they have fancy ways of talking. Pm’ing an admin with a serious concern about a mod is fine, but that’s it.
Prolonging: When a user purposely keeps a flame war or troll battle alive for the sake of arguing, this is bad. Firstly, stop talking and ignore the troll, or get a mod. Even if you are sincerely arguing, drop it. You will get nowhere. Also, arguing because you feel like it is also bad. No one may be able to prove you kept the argument alive because you were having fun, but you were doing this at another’s expense, so please abstain. However, if you do this multiple times, the mods will catch on. Seriously, theres over 10 of them, plus admins, plus about 50 users on at a time.
Begging to be a mod: See talking to a brick above.
Evil Untraceable Karma Ninja: When a user gives a peer karma in order so that they may be able to insult that user without leaving a name. This is highly against the rules, and sneaky. When this happens, do not start accusing people.
The bf2s policies:
(Restated because they are often ignored or treated like recommendations)
Karma begging: Illegal
Karma Trading: Illegal
Impersonating: Illegal
Derailing: Illegal, mods will delete your posts
Forgetting to search: Illegal, although it’s usually an accident. However, it’s our responsibility to follow it or accept the consequences.
Official BF2S Spam Policy: STFU.
Last edited by pace51 (2010-04-29 05:12:14)
