I'm still a work in progress, as I hope we all are. I'm sharing a few little internet epiphanies just because. As a reader, you probably already know this stuff. No one should feel lectured by the following, it is not intended as such. And no one should feel attacked, as no attacks are intended.
The first thing I'll share is that having to start with the above disclaimers is onerous. The internet contains just enough bad actors that such assurances are de rigueur.
Which leads me to point 2. Text is not speech. Without inflection (or emoticons), misinterpretation of meaning or intent is all too easy. It may not seem like it from responses I have made, but I really do try to read other people's posts objectively and try not to make assumptions about what they are trying to say.
But this thread is about trolls and that is what I want to get to. We see that Han's description earlier in this thread of one of the ways to recognize a troll is all too accurate. I'm talking about how a troll will repeat objectionable or emotional content, bumping a thread to keep the hurt going. This is actually the essential feature of a troll.
It has been a most desperate personal struggle not to respond to trolling. I see objectionable prose and it rankles me. More on that in a minute. But the only way to kill a troll is to stop feeding it. I do think it is a PSA to label a thread or response a troll, but I have to even remind myself not to argue with a troll about whether of not they are in fact a troll. So, a single post labeling a thread or post may be useful, but that must be followed by total silence, no matter how inciteful the posts may be after that.
Related to the above - tactless, rude and inflammatory posts, and those laced with profanity and name calling should similarly by challenged -once. The poster needs to know that they have overstepped the boundaries of our community conversation. For me, the conversation ends with this kind of discourse and I won't re-engage the offender until they acknowledge that they are out of line an apologize.
We should not be faceless on this forum. Hiding behind the anonymity of the internet should not be an excuse to engage in conversations that would in person get you a busted nose or law suit. I have always tried to converse with others as though we were standing face to face.
So, 2 basic new rules for me that I will try very hard to follow:
1. A troll thread or post gets a label and then complete silence.
2. Objectionable language gets the same.
There are plenty of other entertaining, funny, useful and informative threads to choose from instead.