eHow.com has a few interesting articles like "How to Spot a Forum Troll". Online troublemakers, known as Forum trolls, create discord within a group. They pride themselves on stirring up trouble, often taking great pains to place blame on other members. Part of the thrill for online troublemakers is hiding in plain sight. Online troublemakers often present themselves with an air of authority, as though they are group management. Most trolls operate completely anonymously on websites. This is to some extent due to their inherent cowardice, but is also a result of the fact that they like to quickly bounce from one website to another, so they have little time to establish themselves as a contributing member on any one of them. Trolls tend to side with management on all issues. They email or IM group managers with "I just thought you should know about this" information about group members. This person can often present an "us-against-them" attitude when referring to other group members. Trolls argue repeatedly, using irrelevant facts, so that they disrupt the flow of the thread. Trolls expose the stupidity of new, unsuspecting members by trying to engage them in an argument. Trolls plague specific forums for years. Trolls view their troll activity as a form of art. The one very simple step to getting rid of forum trolls is that they must be completely and totally ignored by everyone. Understand that if a troll gets any response whatsoever to thier postings, that will be enough motivation for him/her to continue. This is the case even if the troll posts something seemingly positive in nature, and people post messages in agreement. The troll's goal is only to derail, stir up trouble, and divert attention to him/herself. If every single non-troll agreed to totally ignore all trolls as though their posts were invisible, Internet trolling would become a thing of the past.
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