What are Trolls?
The word "troll" is Internet slang for a person whose participation
in an online community is intended to create controversy or anger other
members of the community. Many on Talk City use the term to refer to any
troublemaker. As a room owner, it is up to you to deal with the problems
trolls and troublemakers create. There are limited cases when Talk City
Staff can help, but those cases are rare. Because the role of the Room
Owner is so important, Talk City gives you several tools to deal with
troublemakers. Before you ask for help from Talk City Staff, you must
first use all the tools at your disposal, repeatedly, consistently, and
firmly.
In any case that involves a threat on somebody's
life or property, contact your local law enforcement agency immediately.
Communication
First, if it seems at all reasonable, communicate with the troublemaker.
Some people don't know they are a problem or what your rules are.
Post your rules on your Start page, or in your forum, and point
to them as often as necessary.
Don't get into public arguments with troublemakers. They like
the attention and you can't win arguments when logic plays no
part. It is better to completely ignore than to argue. Remind
other members that they can put individuals on ignore. Use e-mail
and private messaging to encourage your regulars not to engage
the troublemakers.
Deleting Content
If the situation is beyond reason, you can Delete or Edit offending
messages on the boards. Consider the effect of what you do here.
Deletion of a message in a thread is visible (although you can
delete whole discussions). It is better to Edit out a message,
leaving a short explanation of why. Never Edit a message to change
its meaning. When you edit, explain with a short note what you
have done, such as deleting abusive language.
In chat, moderators may gag a member to prevent them from talking
or sending whispers or private messages in the room. The moderator
will see the nickname with a strikeout line through it, until
they again click on the name, and ungag. You may also use /gag
nickname. A member who has been gagged can receive whispers, but
not send them. If you want to block a member from PM'ing you,
use the Ignore button on the PM box.
Keeping Troublemakers Out
Use Kick and Kick and Ban. Kick is a temporary
command, that will remove someone from your room for 1 minute.
If you kick and ban someone, it will last for an hour. (/ban
nickname will also work.) These two commands are available to C,
and A flags. You can kick using the
text command (/kick) using the nickname. A flags have the option
to do a Forum Gag, Ungag, or Lockout right from chat.
You can Gag or Lock out people from your forum, by giving G or
L flags in the Set Privileges menu of Controls, or through the
Options link below messages. Don't delete their account, because
that also deletes Gags and Lockouts and they can come right back
with the same account.
More Drastic Measures
If it has reached the point where troublemakers keep coming back
with new accounts and it seems beyond your ability to handle with
the G and L flags, consider setting delayed posting for new members.
Your Main Settings include this capability and it is easier to
keep up with them. Try a few hours. If that isn't effective, try
a few days or even more. It will interfere with potential new
members, but you have to judge which is worse. After the trouble
is over, you can reset it again.
The next step is to put messages on partial or full moderation.
You can use your word filters to set aside any message that contains
certain words or phrases until you release them. Use your imagination
here. Or, you can go a step further and require review of all
messages before they are made public. This will annoy members,
but there are occasions when it is the best strategy. Used in
conjunction with the Voice flag, your regular members will never
even know the forum is on moderation.
If you need more help to handle it, consider giving C or E flags
to trusted members using the Set Privileges menu. Be very careful
in asking us to set additional A (for Assistant) flags, because
it gives access to the Controls page and as much power as you
have. The E (for Editor) flag lets a staff member edit messages
and give out G or L flags using the Options menu. The Controls
page is not accessible to those with E flags. Give clear guidance
to your staff what you expect them to do or not do.
When to ask TC Staff for Help (and When Not To)
First of all, Talk City Staff can lock out accounts system wide.
That helps other forums, perhaps, but it doesn't do anything more
for you than you can do yourself. TC Staff cannot lock out accounts
that do not exist yet! On the other hand, TC Staff can often recognize
existing accounts that belong to the same person. TC Staff can
close many accounts at once, and this may help you if a troublemaker
has prepared a lot of accounts in advance. TC Staff uses this
tool reluctantly, since it can sometimes sweep up innocent people
along with the guilty, but it can be done in very clear cases.
TC Staff will likely ask you for logs to justify site-wide lockouts.
TC Staff must judge whether an offense is serious enough to take
system-wide action. Disagreements, arguments, name calling, and
profanity may be unpleasant and violate your rules, particularly
when carried out to extremes, but they are not necessarily grounds
for closing accounts. Many times when a situation gets to the
point of name calling, both sides are doing it, and then no one
can tell who did it first. TC Staff does not have the personnel
or time to read hundreds of messages or logs to find the source
of problems. We do, however, rely on our room owners to alert
us to troublemakers who are a danger to your rooms, and the Talk
City services.
TC Staff cannot monitor messages in your forum, or sit in chat
for you. TC Staff cannot set a watch for new accounts. TC Staff
cannot block IP addresses except in extraordinary cases; blocks
are not effective anyway and easy to get around. TC Staff cannot
go to court for you. TC Staff will not give away personal information
or write to ISPs or employers about troublemakers for you.
In other words, TC Staff can help handle system-wide problems,
but you must do all you can to persistently protect your forum,
both message boards, and chat.
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