What is a troll? What do I do about them?
A troll is an inflammatory, controversial message posted with the intent of causing an argument or ” flame war” (ongoing exchange of insulting, inflammatory posts). The term also applies to the person making said post. To check out the psychology of trolls, try faqs.org or the anti-troll-faq. The best response is no response. Trolls are looking to get people riled up; if you ignore them, they’ll usually go away. If a post is particularly offensive or insulting, you may want to consider taking action with the poster’s ISP. Keep in mind, though, that the “professional” trolls know all the tricks of hiding their identity over the internet, so you may be in for a few days of intense research in order to identify them. A detailed guide to tracking down the sender of a particular email or post can be found at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/net-abuse-faq/spam-faq/index.
