There's a small handful that ruin it for others. They do nothing but criticize; driving from the back seat, not knowing where the op is going. But when they are called out on their errors and shortcomings they start name calling. They dish it out but can't take it...
The trolls thrive off our replies to their posts. Rather than use the ignore function, we choose to defend ourselves. That's human nature. But the trolls counter attack, and the fight to get in the last word erupts. I would like to suggest that we launch an Anti-Troll Campaign. This would require discipline on our part. Just as 'We will not negotiate with terrorists, 'We will not reply to trolls'!! Just as a dog will stop barking if you ignore it, the troll will get no satisfaction if ignored. The troll is the dirt we walk on. If we let the dirt get into our shoes, it will affect how we walk. Now, if we can get Baron to cooperate by giving members the option to put a 'I do not reply to trolls' badge on the bar next to our names, many/most trolls may hesitate to attack, or at least will limit their posts to one. Also, it will help restrain us from feeling that we have to defend ourselves. I think the above has a chance of at least reducing troll attacks to a certain extent, and is worth a try. Even if it reduces the attacks by only 30%, it would make ET a better place, wouldn't it? Our discipline to refuse to reply coupled with the badge just might work!
@learner2007 the thing is how do you define a troll? The only way I see it happening is some kind of a voting system. The more votes against your name the worse for you. Then it becomes a self regulating system and a poster is protected from the one or two crybabies that cant take criticism. 1. Each person can only vote once 2. Voting rights enabled only after 50 posts or something. If a poster gets say 50 votes against their name using a voting system like this then the community has expressed themselves which means the person has obviously been exhibiting trollish behaviour. Kind of like an immune system getting rid of the trash.
It sounds as though you mean a system to get the troll banned. That would be great too, but I only meant that the poster who got attacked would refuse to reply as to not entice the troll to post further attacks in order to prevent an all out war that destroys the thread.
Not responding to trollish behaviour comes down to personal discipline. Beyond that perhaps some sort of colour coded mark next to a users profile that defines each one of us as either reliable and courteous or disrespectful and constantly harassing. Sponsors of this forum are identified as sponsors and they easily stand out but the reputation of each poster as defined by the community is lacking. So Im not saying ban a poster necessarily but have some sort of reputation metric (as defined by the community) that is visible to all on our profiles.
To bone, learner, grant et al: The troll issue has been a problem for years. It obviously has not gone away and won't until members -- and sponsors -- are given the tools to deal with it. The easiest and simplest tool is the self-moderating thread option, whether confined to journals like T2W or offered site-wide. Private Threads are not the answer as the main reason why members post here is to address the membership. If one's posts are visible only to a select few, there's no point in posting. One can just as easily set up an email group or chat room or twitter feed, and that does nothing to increase the views number or the time-on-site. "Ignore", of course, doesn't work as the ignored post invariably gets quoted and then you're off to the races again. Nor does reporting posts do much good as it can take quite some time for those who have the authority to act to do so, and they don't always agree that the post should be removed (and by that time there are all the following posts to deal with and the dialog is off the rails). The self-moderating threads at T2W have two simple options: those who are on the thread-starter's Ignore list are automatically blocked, or, only those who are on the thread-starter's Contacts list are allowed to post (this serves the same purpose as a private thread except that everyone who's interested can see it and read it and ask the thread-starter's permission to participate). The effect of this, and the benefits, would be immediate, and those who are particularly obnoxious but don't qualify for banning but who are regularly blocked from this or that thread would soon depart for greener pastures. Until the sponsors demand this change, however, it is unlikely that any change will occur. And those who'd like substantive discussions will continue to be frustrated.
Bad suggestion. Often times people who disagree with the OP would not have the chance to participate, even though they are right/have valid points.
In which case they can open their own threads and pursue their own discussion of the matter. What is much more often the case is that the individual who disagrees just won't let it go, and the bickering continues until the OP just gives up and abandons the thread altogether. The self-moderating threads at T2W have not encountered any of the problems those here who are against them claim they will have.