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96 Posts
1) First and formost, if you want the troll to go away, ignore him. Don't post telling him to go away, don't post telling him you are going to ignore him, and don't post telling him what you think of him. Trolls have nothing of value to contrubute to a discussion, therefore the only attention they can get is negative. They ARE WILLING to settle for negative attention. Since the whole purpose of a troll's existence is to seek negative attention, any response at all encourages him. DO NOT RESPOND IN ANY WAY TO HIS POSTS IF YOU WANT HIM TO GO AWAY.
2) Troll baiting. It can be a lot of fun to bait trolls. However, this takes some effort to do correctly. Remember, a troll uses all the negative attention he generates to inflate his otherwise small and flaccid ego. So getting mad and cursing him out or telling him to leave doesn't make him want to leave - just the opposite, in fact, since he was going for that result in the first place. Trying to reason with him is not very effective, either, since he is still generating the attention from you that he craves.
The key to effective troll baiting is to deflate, rather than inflate, his ego. To do this you have to determine his weak points, and then expose them in such a way that the troll will not be able to dismiss or gloss them over. For example, during a recent spate of mustang trolls, the troll was quoting statistics from Car and Driver to "prove" his car was better. I simply posted some excerps from the relevant mustang and Charger Car and Driver articles. Car and Driver was actually very critical of the mustang's braking and handling, while they absolutely loved the Charger's. BAM. It was the Silence of the Trolls. Kind of hard for the troll to dismiss a magazine that he'd just been using to support his arguments.
When baiting, don't let the troll pull you in with an "I've seen a car do X at the local track", or "I know this guy..." Keep control of the debate and only respond when the troll posts verifiable facts - magazine articles and track videos showing the car and its ET. Individual car runs are only valid when talking about a particular car, not the car model in general.
If you follow these suggestions, we will have fewer problems with trolls, and more fun when dealing with them. Good Luck, and Happy Hunting.
2) Troll baiting. It can be a lot of fun to bait trolls. However, this takes some effort to do correctly. Remember, a troll uses all the negative attention he generates to inflate his otherwise small and flaccid ego. So getting mad and cursing him out or telling him to leave doesn't make him want to leave - just the opposite, in fact, since he was going for that result in the first place. Trying to reason with him is not very effective, either, since he is still generating the attention from you that he craves.
The key to effective troll baiting is to deflate, rather than inflate, his ego. To do this you have to determine his weak points, and then expose them in such a way that the troll will not be able to dismiss or gloss them over. For example, during a recent spate of mustang trolls, the troll was quoting statistics from Car and Driver to "prove" his car was better. I simply posted some excerps from the relevant mustang and Charger Car and Driver articles. Car and Driver was actually very critical of the mustang's braking and handling, while they absolutely loved the Charger's. BAM. It was the Silence of the Trolls. Kind of hard for the troll to dismiss a magazine that he'd just been using to support his arguments.
When baiting, don't let the troll pull you in with an "I've seen a car do X at the local track", or "I know this guy..." Keep control of the debate and only respond when the troll posts verifiable facts - magazine articles and track videos showing the car and its ET. Individual car runs are only valid when talking about a particular car, not the car model in general.
If you follow these suggestions, we will have fewer problems with trolls, and more fun when dealing with them. Good Luck, and Happy Hunting.
