How to report trolling?

Originally posted by Majic
Trolling, And What To Do About It

The subject has come up before.

and

Contacting Staff: Alerts, Suggestions, Complaints

Trolling Far And Wide

Originally posted by zorgon
Okay that pony with the whistle scared my ferret

Rainbow Dash has been known to do that.

Originally posted by zorgon
So just for clarity if a person follows you to thread after thread with the same comment say for example "It's only rocks... you nuts"

Does that count as trolling?

Using my rule of thumb (which isn't necessarily "official", but hopefully helpful), if someone is trying to disrupt discussion, it's trolling. Thread stalking, spamming similar or identical messages, ad hominem attacks ("you nuts") and other forms of harassment are also trolling.

Or as described here:

Originally posted by Majic
Rather, trolling requires activity that falls outside the boundaries of topical discussion, such as ad hominem attacks, off-topic digressions, spamming, flooding, shocking images, foul language, threats, falsehoods, hoaxing, garbled/bizarre/absurd posts and other inappropriate behavior.

That's not a complete list, but hopefully offers a good idea of what we're talking about.

Since just about everyone will tend to have different opinions about whether any specific case amounts to trolling, decisions regarding that are the purview of the moderators. Because we can't read minds, we must go by what is posted when gauging intent.

The simplest way to put it is if someone manages to convince the staff they are trolling, they are trolling. If not, then we give the members in question the benefit of the doubt.

As for whether you should alert something or not, that's up to you to decide. The part about 1-liners and off-topic posts is intended to discourage "mini-modding" and "complaint spamming" (i.e., alerting everything as "felony jaywalking" to make a point that we're not perfect), and shouldn't be construed as barring anyone from letting us know when there's a problem that truly needs attention.

ATS brings together people from all over the world with many different points of view, so it is natural that strong disagreements will arise. To the extent those points of view are applied to the topics we discuss and are expressed with civility, they are the heart and soul of our community.

Taking things beyond that in the form of abuse or harassment works against all of us, which is why we devote a great deal of effort to minimizing disruption and keeping threads on topic as best we can.

It's by no means a perfect process, and understandable that some of us will be frustrated when things aren't handled the way we would like, but until we can come up with something better, it's the best we've got.

I am reporting myself...I have in the past trolled a thread!

I didn't mean to though...and have learned since then that reporting a troll seems to be the most effective way of getting rid of said troll!

Usually the moderators are quick to rectify situations involving a troll...sometimes though patience is the key...be patient...the members usually chew them up pretty quick too!

Treat the trolls the same way I treat my 4th wife "just ignore her and she will go away"

Originally posted by Majic
Trolling Far And Wide

Using my rule of thumb (which isn't necessarily "official", but hopefully helpful), if someone is trying to disrupt discussion, it's trolling.

So someone repeating the same "This theory fails." over and over in literally every post they make on a thread is not considered trolling? If they don't believe it, is it not sufficient to state it once and leave it at that? There is nothing added to the thread by the successive repetitions yet that was not trolling. When another joined in, it was getting somewhat annoying and increasingly disruptive, with no added value. My alert and complaint went unnoticed or unheeded. And although my replies to them were a bit less than patient, no staff member thought the situation worthy of note. How are we to know whether our concerns are simply being ignored or whether no one has seen them or whether what we consider noteworthy is not so to staff?

The policy of "ignore it and it will go away" is a bad one. It is not a mature way to handle things because it's not handling things. It is ignoring things. Things that are not resolved are not handled. They are still festering under the surface somewhere. Your policy needs attention and sharply.

Learning By Example

reply to post by CosmicEgg

We do not have a policy of ignoring trolls. Please review my previous posts with greater care.

As I mentioned in them, you may disagree with a specific decision, and that's fine. The appropriate way for dealing with that is spelled out here.

Where this seems to be going, and is not an appropriate way to handle things, is what appears to be a why me scenario.

Ironically enough, attempting to turn this topic from a policy discussion into a personal grievance thread is, in fact, trolling, so let's not go there.

Having reviewed the staff actions you appear to be complaining about and having full access to what you posted, please understand that further attempts to air your grievances in this thread or elsewhere in the public forums will not work to your benefit (see the forum description at the top of each page).

Such posts will be subject to removal or other corrective action, so let's choose a more constructive approach and save us all the hassle.

reply to post by Majic


I agree entirely. I have learned a great deal about how you handle things. I used to work for a governmental body that had similarly biased practices that simply could not be construed as even-handed by any measure. I see the same situation here. Some "are" and some "are not and will never be". I've been here for three year and a bit and this is not the first time I've seen and commented on this stuff.

How you run things is your business but that doesn't make it right.

Sad thing is, there is a subspecies of humans these days, whose only joy in life is upsetting people on the internets. I pity these people really, it must royally suck to have such a "life".

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Why is that showing up so much today?



Reporting trolling to authority is effete.

reply to post by Majic


Posting falsehoods is trolling? Really? Here?

Don't worry, you're not even allowed to post anything humorous with some actual potential to lead somwhere if it even has the remotest potential of making someone a little sad. I suppose they've gone totally PC.

originally posted by: aching_knuckles

Originally posted by Aloysius the Gaul
reply to post by aching_knuckles

 

No - that's stalking!!

He provided good advice in that reply - what's the problem with it?

Because I want to report the actions over a whole thread...each post individually can be argued "THAT wasnt trolling!" but when taken all at once in their context show the greater whole.

But obviously no one cares. Spread lies and hoaxes about UFOs on ATS and you get banned...spread lies and hoaxes about socialism and they make you a mod.

I am having this problem in a thread right now, and not sure how to report it....

originally posted by: hidingthistime

originally posted by: aching_knuckles

Originally posted by Aloysius the Gaul
reply to post by aching_knuckles

 

No - that's stalking!!

He provided good advice in that reply - what's the problem with it?

Because I want to report the actions over a whole thread...each post individually can be argued "THAT wasnt trolling!" but when taken all at once in their context show the greater whole.

But obviously no one cares. Spread lies and hoaxes about UFOs on ATS and you get banned...spread lies and hoaxes about socialism and they make you a mod.

I am having this problem in a thread right now, and not sure how to report it....

Hit the report button on one of the offending posts, and use the form to describe the situation. If it's the thread of yours I think it is, though, don't count on much (if any) action from the mods. People pointing out logical flaws in your statements and disagreeing with you is not trolling, and is entirely permissible.

In any case it's up to the mods to decide.

a reply to: AdmireTheDistance

Alrighty, I cant find the button, but thanks.

Found it! Thanks!