Candydoc

[Georg Wrede]

Bill Baxter wrote:
> I agree, though, that ignoring Trolls is more productive than hurling
>  insults at them.

Right.

> The first step to a Troll becoming a non-Troll is to apologize for
> past trolling behavior.

Hmm. This is akin to the 12-year-old mentality, i.e., expecting that 
they suddenly display maturity above that of the average poster here, 
before they can be forgiven.

It would mean that we are capable (either alone or with the crowd 
gathering with us, against them) to make the Troll's life so miserable 
that he has no choice but to bow down, become humiliated, and beg for 
forgiveness.

This is the behaviour I see all the early morning cartoons teaching my 
three kids: after an Epic Fight, the Hero states "Now you either crawl 
and apologize, or I'll Righteously Behead you!!! What's it gonna be?"

My kids have watched those every morning (7 days a week, living at my 
ex-wive's). I wouldn't be surprised if they'd behave like this as 
adolescents or even adults in a newsgroup.

Wanna guess if I think G. Bush grew up watching this kind of cartoons? 
Personally Conjuring up the "Axis of Evil" would be a logical result of 
this mind set. ("There's those that are with us, and the rest are 
Against Us. If you're not our Friend, then you're our Enemy". Good 
grief. As if nations, states, corporations, or individuals would only be 
Good or Evil, with nothing in between. Gee, so which is it, is your 
brother or your mother Evil or Good? Oh, sorry, but this is a yes/no 
question, with no other alternatives.)

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My take on how to address any Troll (especially /not/ talking about Ty, 
but very much in general), is to give them time. They'll calm down, once 
they feel that the community is not grouping on them. -- And, if they 
still don't, then it's time for some action.

This action would obviously be to ignore them.

But still, only as far as the uncalled-for posts are concerned. If the 
same "troll" writes some "serious" or "proper" entries in the NG, those 
entries should be answered with appropriate correctness, that is, as if 
they'd been written by anybody else. And the posts the "troll" writes 
that aren't correct, THOSE should be silently ignored (and not even 
ridiculed or challenged or offended). Simply ignored.

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"Let every post earn its answers."