It’s both.
If you really think so, might I suggest sending a PM to Miller with links to some egregious examples.
Also, since accusing someone of being a troll isn’t allowed in this forum, maybe you could post a link to one particular thread that you think makes your point, and let us determine for ourselves who it might be.
It would have to be blind faith, since I have never seen it happen (i.e. never seen no-one respond to obvious trollery). Nevertheless, I persist in this one belief.
I would say no to this. Accusations of trollery are not permitted in this forum and while typically offering a link to a particular pitting is permitted, in the context of this thread that is the equivalent of making the accusation. Let’s keep this discussion to the board rules in general, please. This discussion should transcend any particular poster.
Slowly? 
The Pit should have been killed years ago.
I’ve found “don’t feed the troll” to be successful enough … if I find a Pit thread that’s no more than just a bitch-slap session I just simply don’t follow it … out-of-sight out-of-mind and all …
I’m not certain #3 has to happen.
But the beauty of ignoring the troll is even if they are still being engaged by someone else, it’s like they’re not even there. At least to you.
It’s the Pit. Pissing people off is part of its purpose. If so-called trolls are ruining people’s misanthropic acts in the pit I’m not convinced that the easy solutions of avoiding a couple threads or putting a couple people on ignore are not sufficient.
I also think that if you pile on or Pit other posters you lose sympathy for your own hurt feelings or aggravation.
TLDR version ignore is easy.
So, tricking him into spelling his name backwards won’t make him go away a la Mxyzptlk?
If I was going to have blind faith in a method that might work, I’d pick this one.
If you see what you feel is trolling anywhere including the Pit report it. As the above quote from Miller illustrates there is a higher bar set for trolling in the Pit. It often involves a pattern of behavior. If we miss certain posts and they are not report that pattern may not be readily apparent.
Just remember that there is only one Pit mod and we only let him out for a short time each day.
The problem is that this message board is about fighting ignorance, which means that DNFTT is not really a viable option. Sure, individuals can stay out, but someone needs to fight the ignorance, keeping it from spreading without consequence.
Furthermore, we can’t point out a troll where everyone will see it. And no one is perfect, so a troll will get your goat sometimes. And, when you do, you have the emotional reaction that actually feeds them.
This makes us more vulnerable to trolls than average. To that end we need moderators that are more ready to react to trolling. But the mods here want to give every troll as much rope as they can to hang themselves. Even someone announcing their desire to troll everyone is given the benefit of the doubt.
(It also really doesn’t help when one of those moderators likes to use the Pit to mock everyone who points out trolling in good faith. If we can’t pit moderators for doing their job, then mods should not be able to use information they only have due to being a mod to attack posters.)
We need clear rules for exactly what is trolling, and we need to be able to pull the trigger early. Yes, trolls can come back, but that’s why we have the anti-sock rule. If they are using proxies, then the board needs better proxy protection, preventing people from signing up on known proxies.
Or we need to shore up the weaknesses in the community. Ignorance still has to be fought, but explaining how someone is trolling should not be completely forbidden. We can describe behaviors and impressions without it being a direct attack.
That’s really all I can come up with.
Feeding trolls just encourages more trolley, and more trolls. If you want less ignorance, starve the trolls and they won’t pollute this place with so much ignorance.
You’ve pretty much said this already, but it ignores what has been said about the difficultly of doing such a thing.
I think this is an example of one of the leading challenges in identifying trolls and trolling behavior. If there are many other posters that agree and support the position being espoused, can it really be said that the targeted poster is doing so **solely **to get a rise out of people - I don’t think so.
A well crafted rule should be able to be applied evenly. The downstream impacts of any such rule need to be considered and as **Miller **has stated previously, a looser enforcement of trolling is necessary in the Pit else every third post would garner moderation.
What do you suggest for what these clear rules should be?
No matter how true this is, accept that it’s never going to happen. You can get 95% of the posters to ignore the trolls, but all it takes is a few people to keep it going.
If the goal is how can I as an individual ignore trolls, that’s easy. Stay out of the threads or use the Ignore function. But if your goal is to reduce/eliminate trolls on the board, repeating DNFTT over and over is useless. A different approach is needed.
What different approach do you suggest? We’re talking about the Pit where a certain amount to of trolling is allowed.
I also don’t accept that we have to get “everyone” to stop feeding them. My experience is that it’s only a small subset of posters here who are prolific feeders. Use the 80/20 rule and you’ll make some decent headway.
I just point out problems with others’ ideas. I don’t come up with anything myself.
But honestly, I don’t think there is a good solution. There are a few cases that I personally think deserved moderation in the Pit, but the majority of threads people point to as trolling represent someone with strongly-held beliefs having fun by getting a rise out of the opposition. That might be trolling elsewhere, but not in the Pit, and I don’t see how you can have a Pit if that wasn’t allowed.
This approach has been tried for ~17 years and those 20% have not yet been convinced to stop feeding. How many more years do you think are needed for this to be successful?
Wow. Seems like you are overthinking The Pit™.
Bring back the practice of putting under a microscope those who don’t really contribute outside the Pit. If that forum is their primary reason for being here, no great loss.