Troll-Spotting ..... a forum user's guide :)
Shoppy
Posts: 1,094
Forum Member
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A few things I've picked up over time for spotting Trolls...
* Will most likely have a very recent join date on their profile.
* Often start by posting a thread or opening with a grand "Hello, I'm new here" speech instead of just joining in.
* May display knowledge of a list of potentially relevant topics but not actual details of the topics themselves.
* May appear familiar in their style of posting, as though you have "spoken" with them before.
* Will often raise discussion on topics likely to frustrate or divide opinion.
* Will begin to ignore, or may attempt to provoke, users who point out discrepancies in their posts or voice suspicions that they may be trolling.
* Will leave people hanging when a potentially revealing question is put to them but will respond more rapidly and more often when they are succeeding in causing arguments.
* Will likely have a sympathy get-out clause .... teenager, dyslexia, aspergers .... anything that will get some forum users to say "give em a break" when they are being questioned by other users.
- Look out for inconsistencies in the repetition of spelling mistakes.
* Will most likely have a very recent join date on their profile.
* Often start by posting a thread or opening with a grand "Hello, I'm new here" speech instead of just joining in.
* May display knowledge of a list of potentially relevant topics but not actual details of the topics themselves.
* May appear familiar in their style of posting, as though you have "spoken" with them before.
* Will often raise discussion on topics likely to frustrate or divide opinion.
* Will begin to ignore, or may attempt to provoke, users who point out discrepancies in their posts or voice suspicions that they may be trolling.
* Will leave people hanging when a potentially revealing question is put to them but will respond more rapidly and more often when they are succeeding in causing arguments.
* Will likely have a sympathy get-out clause .... teenager, dyslexia, aspergers .... anything that will get some forum users to say "give em a break" when they are being questioned by other users.
- Look out for inconsistencies in the repetition of spelling mistakes.
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(couldn't resist)
Bang out of line here!
There are several users on here including myself who suffer from one of the above who are not trolls!
;-)
(in fact, this forum has huge lurking numbers per thread, so many people are doing just that)
The examples I've seen here appear to be young or immature FM's who simply become too high maintenance, especially when they create fake noob accounts alongside their prime one.
I don't think the trolls I've seen here have been deliberately malicious (there have been some genuinely nasty characters on other forums I use).
That said, DS lacks some forum tools that make distinguishing users more difficult, and communication more restricted, eg. no use of avatars, embedding, perfunctory emoticons.
I know at least two other forums as big as DS that use a fuller range of vbulletin features, which cuts down on communication errors as well as being a bit more pleasing to the eye.
I think it's a bit harder here to create a sense of community, which might be why some users just scatter-gun their opinions.
And, finally, I hope I'm doing anyone here, or the forum, too much of a disservice. I hear the other Who forums are much much worse :D