Slashdot Mirror
How To Deal With Internet Bullies?
creyes123 writes "I run a free website with an online model airplane design calculator. The number of registered users has quickly climbed and I've gotten many compliments. Out of nowhere, a fellow shows up and proceeds to bad mouth the calculator in a posting in one of my forums. After I politely point out that he's mistaken and should have looked at the documentation before posting, he changes the subject and bad mouths a different 'flaw.' The cycle repeats a few more times, with no apparent end in sight. I want to encourage folks to share their opinions, but constructive criticism was clearly not his goal. I feel that the whole episode was just a massive time waster for me. What did I do to deserve this? Could I have handled this better?"
Killfile him. Ban him. Ban his IP. There's many options available for that. Use them.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Or just ban the douche. Its your call Lynn Doyle
So many injustices..so little time..
No kidding! I actually RTFA for a rare change, and the "bully" in that thread actually seemed like he wanted to help improve the product.
The "criticism" included hateful words along the lines of "you might want to lower the warning threshold for propeller speed because plastic propellers often can't tolerate those forces". Again, bullying? No! That's called a bug report.
If you're reading this, creyes123, you might really want to consider laying off the caffeine. Not everyone is out to get you.
Crap. Did I just bully?
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
yes! mod parent up. he should thank them for their input and move on. maybe even make some changes to his calculator once he calms down and goes off the defensive. if you're wasting time arguing with someone, it's your own fault.
So, you basically add him to everyone's ignore list. That is a rather neat solution.
Bearded Dragon
The first step however... would be to establish a Terms of Use for the forum. Lay down some basic things that the users can or cannot do. Then if someone becomes a pest by voliating the terms of use, you can safely send them a nice little warning, then ban them.
It's possible. Just watch how Eric Cartman did it:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103946
(If the link doesn't work select Season 5 Ep. 4. It's all legal)
Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
However, dicks stand out in a crowd, and it's obvious when a repeat offender comes back. Simply rinse and repeat. Few clicks, done.
It's your site, where you are god. Delete the junk and ban the fucker! How hard is it ?
I know we're supposed to be non-confrontational and all that bullshit, but if someone barged into your home, started harassing you to the point of frustration, would you ask your shrink how to peacefully deal with it, or would you shove the bastard out the door and release the hounds ? /thread
-Billco, Fnarg.com
They'll do it regardless. You might as well blow off a little steam in the process, and then ban them when you're done.
They are using phpBB which has some really cool mods that you can use to deal with trolls. Some of them are quite inventive. See here if you'd like.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Most cable and DSL providers will assign you a different IP if you merely change the MAC address of your router (a 10 second procedure from your browser). You don't even need to use proxies; IP bans are useless and trivial to avoid, unless you're willing to ban an entire ISP (and I've gotten Shaw banned completely from quite a few IRC channels in my day).
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
Actually, let everyone from his IP address see his posts. Else trolls with half a clue will "verify" with a second account whether they're being heard.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You sound like a total pussy.
Don't like it, don't make a free website. It's because of people like you that we get all these crazy laws for the interwebs.
I like parrots.
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
Sometimes.
On target as always.
The Something Awful Forums have had "hellbanning" since at least 2004.
fark.com has this type of banning implemented, and thoroughly abused by moderators, since a while ago...
Terry Gilliam was American.
You've bought into the new-age feel-good philosophy that's taken America like cancer. All opinions are not equal, and you must realize that humor itself can be objectively defined to some limited degree.
Making a funny reference involves making a non-obvious connection to something with which your audience is familiar. It's clever. It requires wit.
Extending a reference is exactly that. It is pasting more of the script. All of the intellectual heavy lifting has already been performed. There is no joke. No punchline. No real value at all.
Judging someone's sense of humor gets into tricky territory, but it is easy to objectively view this situation and realize that if no joke is being made, the only fashion in which it can be funny is an ironic one unintended by the author.
"Tachy Goes to Coventry" is a feature in vBulletin 3. Some people call it the hellban. Basically what it does is have people it is assigned to completely ignored in the forums. Their posts, threads and so forth are never seen by regular users.
From the vB3 Control Panel under vBulletin Options -> User Banning Options:
This option allows you to effectively add a user or users to every member's 'Ignore List'. However, users in this list can still see their own posts and threads...
vBulletin 3 also allows timed bans for periods as short as a day up to and including permanent bans.
http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-222.html
Terry Gilliam IS American....
Travelling forward in time at a rate of 1 second per second.
Now the troll can point his friends to Slashdot and say "that article's about me!"
According to Wikipedia, "In January 2006, he renounced his American citizenship". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Gilliam
um, guys... it was your MOTHER was a hamster and your FATHER smelled of elderberries... sheesh... obligatory joke explanation follows... you see when dirty peasants get drunk from their own homemade elderberry mead wine, they have a tendency to have sex with hamsters, the result being King Arthur. there... fixed that for you.
I've seen board trolls before, and that guy was not a troll. He had legitimate crticism of the calculator and supported it with many details. Also, he admitted that he didn't read the instructions and shoud hae, which is a clear sign he wasn't a bully or a troll. Trolls never admit they are wrong. Waste of article, this guy was a typical dumb end user, not an AHole. OP, stop crying about nothing.
I put together an annotated bibliography on Dealing with hate speech, flaming, and trolls for this year's Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference. It's got tips for dealing with this, experiences, and a bunch of other references. At the bottom, it's got links to a handful of example moderation policies -- including Slashdot's and Boing Boing's, natch, as well as others that aren't as well known. The general principle: decide on the guidelines you want to have, discuss them, and enforce them.