ok, so there is a troll hitting up every forum in my niche it seems, she's doing it one at a time, and she's on my site currently, she's been banned from 2 other sites (that i know of) i'm going through her posts on one of the other sites, and she is a troll... no other word for it, and she's also tried to scam members of the other sites out of $ and free pups... what would you do?-- if i were a member and i knew that staff had this info, i'd be upset... but i don't want to ban her w/o any reason in particular, she hasn't done anything on my site yet, but her MO has been the same, and i've been warned by staff from one of the other sites, and seen her posts first hand... what would you recommend??
troll help
- Thread starter BellieBoo
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Just wait for her first transgression then ban her. Make sure your forum rules are up to speed, too.
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Keep an eye on unusual behavior from that person, and expect to need to have to ban her sometime (the 'colorful history' on the other sites is telling enough already).
In the meanwhile, get benefit of whatever rule-compliant posting she does.
In the meanwhile, get benefit of whatever rule-compliant posting she does.
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As docpixel has said, keep an eye out and ban at the first opportunity....
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If you know she's been trolling on other forums, I'd ban her now. Just did that with a new member at Psychlinks... my moderators dug up some Googled info from other forums and I banned the guy before he had a chance to post.
That's fine if you can ban before they post, but is it really ethical to ban after the first post? It would make you seem rather 'god like' and cause all other types of forum member problems otherwise....?
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I think trolling and spamming is far more disruptive to any forum than a preemptive ban. And I think strict rules against trolling and spamming are generally appreciated by regular forum members - that's certainly been my experience.
It may not work on a general discussion no-holds-barred forum, of course, but most of us aren't running forums like that.
Ultimately, it's up to the forum owner to decide what sort of atmosphere s/he wants for that forum.
It may not work on a general discussion no-holds-barred forum, of course, but most of us aren't running forums like that.
Ultimately, it's up to the forum owner to decide what sort of atmosphere s/he wants for that forum.
I actually agree, in a forum like the one I admin though, there can be problems, as it's for an expat community that can be very 'insular' where everybody knows everybody in real life... of if they don't initially, then they soon will once they join.
Our troll problems have been greatly reduced by using the VB Addon avoidance technique!
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Just because they troll around on one forum doesn't mean they will troll around on another. All the members of my suckage forum are big time trolls, but I know for a fact that several of them act very normal on other forums. One of the members was even a MOD for us on another board and is a very respected member. I think others would be absolutely SHOCKED to learn of some of the outrageous trolling that she has done. So with that being said, I wouldn't take into consideration their behavior from somewhere else. You gotta see how they are doing on your own site first before condemning and labeling them as a troll.
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maybe you should confront her with the evidence in a PM and ask her if she's intending to troll your forum as well.
That would put her on notice that you know about her activities and that it wont be tolerated in your forum.
That would put her on notice that you know about her activities and that it wont be tolerated in your forum.
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I would advise against that. Trial of "intents"?
Also, whether she knows she's on watch or not does not change anything, except she could make effort to evade your notice.
You know about her already. Thats as good a prevention as can be, now that she's on watchlist.
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I agree with Leadcrow.
Although it's good to be proactive and prevent problems whenever possible, in this case I think it's better to wait for her to actually break a policy and then take action.
Especially since it's a troll. Why give one of those even more reason to go after you? Can you just imagine how much fun she could have telling everyone that you banned her when she hadn't done anything wrong? And it would be true.
Just watch and wait for the time being, if she is a troll it won't take long for you to notice. Once you start bringing issues from other forums onto your site you are on a slippery slope imho.