Edit, since people are now seeing this post who did not see the the reason for it:

At the time of creating and posting this, there was an account that was created using a well known username and spamming extremly transphobic hate posts. Some users were starting to interact with this very obvious troll, so I thought it might be a good idea to generally remind people how to treat these trolls. This is not about some light hearted banter or good faith jokes, this is about trolls that are truly only about spreading hate.

  • Zagam@piefed.socialEnglish
    22·
    2 days ago

    Hey discord, my age verification is that I remember when trolls were named after people that went trolling for fights and flame wars by leaving a trail of bait-posts.

    Either way though, don’t feed the trolls and stop making stupid people famous.

    • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 days ago

      stop making stupid people famous.

      um, i would like to apply for an exception please. some day i would like to be famous for a piece of art i make eventually and i am very, very stupid.

        • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 days ago

          oh it’s a worse stupid. there was a dude who once put a bunch of oversized beach umbrellas every 50 meters along the spanish riviera for like 20 miles (i think i’m remembering the story right) and it was gorgeous and everything and a beautiful work of art until the wind picked up and not all of the umbrellas were 100% solidly anchored because beach wind and so they started rolling down the coast and like those things are sharp and if i recall he got charged with involuntary environmental ecoterrorism and i’ve always kind of been inspired by that

          i’m thinking something with kudzu

  • Inucune@lemmy.world
    4·
    2 days ago

    I won’t feed the trolls, but you (moderation) will in part need to remove them from under the bridges and banish them from the town squares. You may even have to remove them from your own ranks.

  • BillyClark@piefed.socialEnglish
    6·
    2 days ago

    Don’t feed the trolls. Report, block, move on

    Very good advice. But if you have some sort of personality defect that makes you occasionally engage with trolls like I do, here is some additional advice:

    Make your comment less effort than the trolls. Don’t argue every point. Focus on their weakest point.

    Essentially, if you can’t resist responding to a troll because you’re an idiot like me, make it like one short sentence where you point out their biggest mistake, and then if they respond to you and you respond back, keep doing that and never let them change the subject. At least you’re causing them to waste effort.

      • tomiant@piefed.socialEnglish
        62·
        2 days ago

        Have you got any examples? Because in my experience a lot of the time people who are block happy just happen to have extreme views they refuse to have challenged and rather just stick their heads in the sand so they don’t ever have to entertain the possibility that they’re wrong.

        Blocking just creates echo chambers, leading to group think effects and fanaticism.

          • tomiant@piefed.socialEnglish
            11·
            20 hours ago

            Hmm, I can’t see anything in there, if anything it just reinforces my suspicion that those are frivolous bans and deletions based on your personal political biases, because it reads as if you personally got offended and decided who should be able to say anything. You still haven’t showed otherwise. Nothing compels you to, but for what it’s worth I think we should be a little bit more restrictive about abusing moderation powers, or we are going to end up like reddit all over again.

            • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.deOP
              1·
              20 hours ago

              You can’t see the transphobia in “trans people should kill themselves” and “trans people are pedophiles”?

              All right, time to follow my own advice. Bye.

          • cepelinas@sopuli.xyz
            3·
            2 days ago

            I saw another account from the same instance spamming porn, it probably is one trolls self hosted instance the instance should probably be banned.

        • Signtist@bookwyr.meEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          Yeah, even in instances where one side is clearly right, it’s still important to be challenged often enough to know exactly why it’s right. As soon as you’re comfortable enough with “knowing” something is right without being able to explain why, you risk believing things that “feel” correct but might not be. You don’t have to actually argue with trolls, but you should still see and process their arguments enough to formulate a counterargument in your head that would stand up to a hypothetical person arguing in good faith.

          • ageedizzle@piefed.caEnglish
            3·
            2 days ago

            I agree with you wholeheartedly. But in this case I one of the two trolls was spamming pornographic images, in which case I don’t think theres any issue with blocking

  • ghost_rider69@thelemmy.club
    11·
    2 days ago

    Do you mean those types of people by the term trolls who often post nonsense stuff like this for no reason or nah?(I don’t understand):

    • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.deOP
      4·
      2 days ago

      To quote myself:

      spamming extremly transphobic hate posts

      and

      this is about trolls that are truly only about spreading hate.

      Not sure what is hard to understand about this.

      • ghost_rider69@thelemmy.club
        1·
        2 days ago

        well the fact that as human being myself I don’t know everything that you do and the fact that I don’t hear the word troll as in that sense often that’s why it was hard for me to understand