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How To Deal With Internet Bullies?

Posted by timothy on from the warning-link-contains-classic-deep-trolling dept.

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?"

4 of 724 comments (clear)

  1. Suggestions by jd · · Score: 5, Informative
    1. Your first response was probably correct
    2. Your second response should have been to tell the person to move the discussion to e-mail
    3. If the bully persisted in the public forum(s) and not taken it to e-mail, your third response should have been to ban his IP address AND username
    4. If the bully returns, again ban his new IP and username, then e-mail the administrator account for his service to complain about malicious misconduct
    5. There's not much you can do after that, except maybe enabling moderation for all new users (until he stops trying to be a new user)
    --
    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)
  2. Re:Quit whining by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 5, Informative

    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?
  3. Re:Quit whining by Ignis+Flatus · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  4. Re:Why not just say ... by KGIII · · Score: 5, Informative

    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."