Good advice...I'll follow it from now on

I figure this, if youl really want to tick a troll off, ignore him. He's looking for attention, don't give him the satisfaction.

Glad to see some people are maintaining a sense of humor

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

PULL!!

I know what has me concerned - reactive behavior.

I've been part of on-line communities for going on 20 years now. I started off by running BBSes and what happens is that you have 3 groups:

Group 1: Core group of regulars - 5% of the population.

Group 2: The Trolls - 1% of the population

Group 3: The casaul readers - Everyone else.

The core group will tend to believe that they decide what is and isn't acceptable behavior because they post the most. They tend to feel a kind of ownership. The problem is that people are naturally reactive. So as trolls come and go, especially when there is a rise in them, the regulars will tend to demand and implement an increasingly more confined set of behaviors that they will tolerate.

This in turn creates more trolls which in turn calls more reaction until eventually the message board ends up basically an ugly, narrow minded, quasi-fascist message board where the regulars run out everyone who isn't behaving exactly as they should (in their minds).

We're seeing that here unfortunately. An increasing tendancy of the regulars (moderators included) to narrowly define what is acceptable behavior and taking very strong action on those who they feel fall outside those boundaries. This incites bordlerine people to enter the realm of the troll.

You can see this in the Mac world a lot more since they have been around long enough and are small enough communities to have this go on for awhile. Anyone remotely critical of a Mac will get creamed on those sites.

People should have the right to post things here that the majority don't agree with. The boundaries should be as wide as possible - as long as it's not harming anyone, as long as no personal attacks are made, as long as the posts don't exist purely to hijack or detract from the conversation, etc. then it should be okay generally.

And if it's not okay, a polite note from a moderator pointing where the author went wrong can be made and life can go on.

We're too large a community now for us to get into a bunker mentality. We're way beyond the time where we can just circle the wagons. Doing so only makes the message board reek of elitism, snobbery and intolerance.

My advice is for everyone to try to be as tolerant as possible, mellow out as much as one can, and for those inclined to the melodrama to try to resist the temptation of making a post telling the world how unfair life is to you and how you're going to leave, take your skins, stop skinning, stop posting, or whatever cry for attention that one may be tempted to make.

At the end of the day, this is a site for personalizing the very thing many spend hours in front of each day. It's supposed to be fun. It's a means to an end, not an end in itself.

ditto; Frogboy

Frogboy;

Your response is what I probably should have added to post #2.

An increasing tendancy of the regulars (moderators included) to narrowly define what is acceptable behavior

I agree with that.

People should have the right to post things here that the majority don't agree with. The boundaries should be as wide as possible - as long as it's not harming anyone, as long as no personal attacks are made, as long as the posts don't exist purely to hijack or detract from the conversation, etc. then it should be okay generally.And if it's not okay, a polite note from a moderator pointing where the author went wrong can be made and life can go on

And wholeheartedly agree with that.

We're seeing that here unfortunately. An increasing tendancy of the regulars (moderators included) to narrowly define what is acceptable behavior and taking very strong action on those who they feel fall outside those boundaries. This incites bordlerine people to enter the realm of the troll.

Some would think I am a troll... but i am not. I might have done things in the past that irratated people but I have tried my best to behave since then. I think of this site as home sort of.

People should have the right to post things here that the majority don't agree with. The boundaries should be as wide as possible - as long as it's not harming anyone, as long as no personal attacks are made, as long as the posts don't exist purely to hijack or detract from the conversation, etc. then it should be okay generally.

but i agree with that wholeheartly...

Hey now, if it's true we've got tension on this message board then I for one am really sorry it's gotten like that - I'm a Group 3er, I have a wife, 4 small children and a job that keeps me going FULL TIME - I come here (when I can) to relax, and read other peoples meanderings and thoughts - and to (very occasionally) add my own.

So I'll be mighty sorry if the regulars have either gone away in disgust or have turned into ogre's.

What's that expression, "Live and let live"...?

Something like that

Good 'Speech' frogboy. Yes, I must say I agree with all of it.

Indeed, ditto

The question for me, is what is considered a troll? Is it only someone with a different opinion about society? Is it someone who feels that everyone is different, and it is that difference that keeps society expanding and growing in positive ways? Is it someone who goes against the majority?
My opinion is that there is a problem in society as a whole. That problem manifests itself in all facets of society behavior. With the majority in society, there still exists many problems(drug dealing, rapes, killings, gang problems). Maybe, there needs to be more tolerance in society for different opinions. Because, if society, speaking to the majority, was a well entity, maybe there wouldn't be these problems we find in society. Let's try to keep a open mind, and realize that everyone is different and not always with bad intentions.