If you ignore it, maybe it will leave

“maybe...”

“i tried that but that bacpac dood is still hear”

“I tried ignoring it once however it stood up and demanded service.”

“I tried that too but it just got even redder and redder until it got all full of puss. By that time it was too late to save the little guy. I?m sorry but I won?t let it happen again!”

“Didn't yo mama never tell you not to pick at a scab?”

“If spot had an email addy... he be gettin flamed.”

“What wuzz that Shakespeare line:

"Out Out damned Spock!"”

“I don't think so...if it's attracted or attached to you...it's not gonna leave.”

“That was Shakespeare? I always thought that was from a laundry detergent commercial or a more effective menstrual product commercial.”

“Maybe it will leave if we entice it to another site. What kind of bait do you think will do it?”

“I wonder if we draw the shades, turn off the lights and hide behind the sofa, it will think we're not home and leave.”

“Militiaboy has been ignoring me?!?

I am outta here....”

“Violin, that's like an IQ test. It only works on the ones who are smart enough to know when they're not wanted.”

“The troll, apparently a large poodle dog, has been seen approaching the power plant...”

“LOL Tilt, should we revisit that "got pee" cap?”

“I know this is a giant freakin' slab of ASCII, but I found this a while back and it brought a few things into focus re: trolls. See whatcha think.


About Trolls and Flamers

Diane Wilson speaks from her soapbox:

As someone in another newsgroup said, it's troll season.

For what it's worth......

We have two people here (at the moment, anyway) who have certain basic troll characteristics:
They are unable or unwilling to take responsibility for their words or behavior.
They are unable or unwilling to consider the possibility that they have brought a great deal of dislike upon themselves.
I don't know for certain, but my feeling is that each of them is filled with self-hate, and is unable to face that issue.

OK.

I've dealt with self-haters before, and this is what you can expect:
The only thing they can do with their venom is to flush it out on other people.

As a result, everything they say about you is a reflection of their feelings about themselves.
Because of their self-hate, there is nothing that you can say that is as bad as what they see in themselves. You can't hurt them, no matter how hard you try.

The only thing that relieves their self-hate is to see other people in pain. If you let them get to you, that only encourages them. That's why they're here in the first place.

The point is that flaming them hurts you more than it hurts them.

What makes it worse--been here, seen this before, too--is that these trolls are insiders. Yes, they hurt, they're depressed, they are at least as far down as any of us. What that means is that they know all the right buttons to push to make us angry. They have no conscience that prevents them from pushing those buttons.

That is the difference between them and us. They have turned abusive. Yes, that does make a difference. I've encountered some recovering abusers on the net, and I learned a few things from that experience. The one thing that sustains an abuser is denial; an abuser cannot allow himself to be open to the slightest possibility that he is harming another human being. They blame anyone and anything else in sight, but virtually all of that blame is directed at the victim, in one way or another. Abusers REFUSE to take responsibility for their behavior.
In dealing with an abuser, particularly from a treatment perspective, the first and most important step is to break that denial. It is not only breaking the denial about hurting other people. It is essential to break the denial that they are not responsible for their behavior. They must learn that they have to take responsibility for everything that they do, and it is a hard lesson to teach.
Until an abuser's denial is broken, it is dangerous to give them any sympathy. Sympathy gives them a way out, a way to avoid taking responsibility. Someone else made them the way they are; they're not responsible. This is utter garbage, and to give them this opening is truly a disservice.

So.

They are here to feed on our pain. We don't have to give them that satisfaction.

They stay only as long as we feed them well. If we want them to go, all we have to do is to stop feeding them.
The solution for trolls is in two parts. First, recognize and understand that they are here to hurt us. They way that they hurt us is to beat on us with their own rage. Recognize that everything they say about us is a reflection of their own self-hate. Even when they hit our triggers, it is their rage, their self-hatred that they are giving us. We don't have to let ourselves be hurt by the fact that they hate themselves. We don't have to accept that. We can let them drown in their self-hate, simply by ignoring them.

And that is the second part. If you want a trolls to go away, ignore them. When no one responds to them, they are left with their own venom.


That is the last thing that a troll wants to have to deal with.


Let us build an ASD zoo. Let us build cages, and put the appropriate names on those cages. Then let us put a sign in front of those cages:

DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS.

Then, most importantly, let us not feed the animals. Killfile or ignore them, but do not respond to them, and do not accept their pain as your own.


In a more practical manner, John Timothy brings it all down to five simple rules:
(1) Don't read posts from or about abusers;
(2) Don't read email from or about abusers;
(3) If you can't resist reading, don't respond;
(4) If you can't resist responding, do so by email--not by posting here;
(5) If you are compelled to post a response, if you just can't stop yourself, at least do the rest of us the favor of adding the abuser's name to the subject line, so we can avoid reading that post. Thanks.


Copyright © 1996, 2001 by Diane Wilson. All rights reserved.”

“But spock and melissaboy are such fun!”

“Coolness.”

“I don't go in for what could be called psychobabble by some, but some of that made sense to me.

Now, the second-hand soapbox goes in the fire! (for the time being, anyway)”

“I never looked at the problem that way before - made sense - trolls as addicts in denial - addicted to causing pain or addicted to pain I am not sure but the addict part is more obvious to me now.”

“LOL BacPac!”

“Just seemed worth repeating today.”

“Where's the yo-yo thread?”

“We ignored it, it left.”

“That was meant as a joke all along Spock. Notice how I snuck a ?Ban Steve Hiker!? in the middle of all that? It doesn?t matter to me if you stay or go. I am impervious to you and solitary Hiker. Heck you can even start a thread calling my wife a slut if ya want, I don?t care.”

“Now, take my wife, please....”

“Nigal: The Jewish Buddha.”

“He sure knows how to deflect 'em, doesn't he? They try to strike, but no one is there.”

“Crouching Spock, Hidden Nigal”

“The Vile Lyn jams one home!!!”

“Good one! I hope you are not Dun that was a dandy.”

“SCREAMING : who are you people !?”

“I am all things and I am nothing. I am everywhere and I am nowhere. I am One and I am all.

[BURP!]

Pass the Manashevits please!”

“Naivete with a capital "N".”

“I was looking at the past ignore threads for another reason and came across this little dity....


.....Blast from the past.....back when we had REAL troll problems. I like the advice given from Tilt, via cut and paste. Maybe we all need a little refresher....”

“But laqtis, troll bashing is a sport, LOL.

But, you are right.

Now if I can just restrain myself from bashing on Ohio Hiker. Come to think of it, he is a little like spock reincarnated.”

“Spock never left.
He simply creates new usernames.
Spock is now Alaska.”

“He left for a while before coming back as Alaska.”

“My guess was that Alaska was Solitary Hiker, but I could believe it.....”

“Same tune, different lyrics.”

“This remains one of the great untested hypotheses.”

“It's because we are so mean.”

“Are ya'll kidding me? The only thing that gives me saticfation is knowing this guy gets so more ate up than than those who read his drivel.”

“A møøse once bit my sister...”

“What kind of car did he buy? My only guess is he bought one of those huge SUV's or a Honda Element.”

“Hyundai, perhaps a Sonata, I don't remember exactly, but a Hyundai.”

“laying off the flesh there, dude?

speaking of cars, has anyone seen the Infiniti FX? those things are HOT!”

“Sadly violiN, the only thing they seem to want to ignore is good advice.”

“eeeeeek, it's skullz! :-)”