Internet Troll http://i39.tinypic.com/167a5bt.jpg
Don't mind the trolls. What are trolls? They are the people who write inappropriate comments after on-line articles. Most of the time they have some agenda. In a recent on-line post Paul Graham identified four reasons for their existence. It is worth sharing his ideas. Two of his ideas are distance and anonymity. People will say things that they never have to take accountability for, because they can fake their identities and cannot be seen. Third, they may want to make their mark on the world but have no competence to do so. So, they make their mark by using what Graham refers to as "Graffiti." They just leave their remarks on the wall of the Internet. Lastly, without specified ground rules, trolls tend to act accordingly to what they can get away with, kind of akin to children.
This can have the effect of chasing away competent and thoughtful people to the web world. Here are some tips in dealing with trolls. First one should just ignore them. If you can ignore them, they are likely to go away from boredom. If they persist one can just identify them and put them on alert i.e., troll in area: dre@iamatroll.com. If that does not do it for them, one can direct them to this link . It is harmless, but may get the point across to the troll. Lastly, one can confuse a troll by asking them questions that a competent person would know. Still, the best advice is to ignore them.
However, if a troll starts to attack a writer personally and/or threaten them, then this may not be a troll. It may be a stalker. The first line of defense with a stalker is to treat them like a troll and ignore them. Use common sense. If someone is threatening physical violence, contact authorities.
Most of the discussions about Trolls are still works in progress. Trolls were seemingly first identified in the 80's. There is no guarantee you will get rid of trolls. The key is to not let trolls discourage competent people from educating the public. Don't mind the trolls and remember why you are writing in the first place to inform and educate with factual information.
Comments
Hahaha, what a great picture for this article.
Instead of calling names ("Troll"), it would be more honest to deal with the arguments of people you disagree with. This is particularly important for controversial topics such as Islam. There is a difference between comments which are plain nasty and comments which raise unpleasant issues.
I loved the article, and I admire your way of thinking.
Oh, by the way, that "Abdulameer" guy is a Troll.
What he wrote here below is the most coherent and relevant thing I've ever read of his. Usually he is vicious and confusing in his notes.
I read ALL the Muslim examiners on here and I find his repetitive and provocative and OFF TOPIC comments all the frickin' time. I know he doesn't come back to the pages that he leaves comments on because he simply repeats himself over and over even after people have answered his questions sufficiently.
A Muslims job is not to convince 'Abdulameer', it is only to tell the truth for those who will listen. He doesn't listen and he brings the most left-field subjects into the picture to distract and attack the author and readers alike.
So yeah, basically, Abdulameer is the king of the trolls on here as far as I can tell. If you see his name, just skip on ahead because you won't find nothing there, unfortunately.
Salaams:
Great article! Love the troll link and the image!
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