So it seems a old dogs can learn new tricks. In my previous post: “The larch guide on how to spot a forum troll” I questioned the methods I use to react to people who where looking to get a reaction out of me, by trolling the forums I regularly post on. So after last night I tested my theories the next day and it has worked flawlessly so far, I do need to tweak it here and there to make sure it is 100% troll proof but so far it seems to be working nicely.
- Anonymous forum member- I spotted a troll earlier today. He was an ugly critter. He was easy to spot. He was busy criticizing someone or something in hopes of stirring up controversy and causing a flamewar.
But now that they have noticed that I don’t react when being “called out” so they have been laying multiple flamebait traps for me. To try and provoke a reaction out of me, by using topics and subject matter I like to discuss and adding small comments and insults in them. (On a side note they seem to have become more organized now as they now move in packs.) But I was expecting this reaction from them so I instituted the next phase of my anti troll defense system. And hopefully the next phase will also go according to plan. Don’t know what a flamebait is:
Flamebait is a message posted to a public Internet discussion group, such as a forum, newsgroup or mailing list, with the intent of provoking an angry response (a “flame”) or argument over a topic the troll often has no real interest in.
The best course of action to deal with these flamebaits is just to totally ignore them and move on. The idea behind a flamebait message is to provoke a response from the target that is being flamebaited. But if no one responds to these then they quickly loose interest and move on. I highly recommend reading The Troll Files & Flame Warrior so that you can get to know your different troll species and what there different habits are.
I have been called a flamebait a couple of weeks ago.