I like the recipe approach happening in one particular thread there now.
It allows people to acknowledge the presence without feeding one.
You really, really need to stop taking the whole “fighting ignorance” thing so seriously. It’s just a catch phrase. First and foremost, this place is a discussion board, not a fount of wisdom. It’s not our mission, or whatever, to educate a bunch of doofuses with too much time on their hands. If you want to poke at them with a stick, go for it, but don’t get all high and mighty about “fighting their ignorance”.
While the Board is a general discussion board, parts of it are still a fount of wisdom. GQ, GD, Café Society.
And I dare say many members of the Board take delight in trying to educate the random doofii than wander in. Our reward is that some per cent of them get enlightened., Most don’t. But better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
I am afraid of the pit and haven’t dared to wander in. Can I have a police escort, please?
And we have another case where trolling is against the rules in the Pit.
Welll, true, there are areas of intelligent discussion. But when it comes to trolls, most of them aren’t here to learn, nor are you really going to teach them anything. It’s like the old saying about wrestling with a pig.
The plural of doofus would be doofi. It would only be “doofii” if the original word was doofius.
As to the problem - the problem with Trolls is not with the people who feed them. The problem is the Troll. If you want to solve a problem, you can’t just bite your tongue and hope for the best. If you want to get rid of pests, you have to start by actively removing the pest.
In this case, if you want to solve the troll problem - start banning trolls more aggressively, even in the pit.
As long as we tolerate some vague amount of trollery, we’re going to have to accept that there will always be trolls here, pushing the envelope.
Mind you - I’m not really advocating for a change in the amount of bannings. It’s just that, the mods and admins have it in their power to solve the troll problem. They’re the ones who should be willing to handle it if they think it’s a problem. Getting the mods to solve the problem will be a lot more effective than hoping everyone bites their tongues.
I think from a general poster point of view the best course of action is to not respond and simply report. I’ve asked twice in this thread for ruleset suggestions but nothing actionable has been offered. Here is my personal take:
From a moderation point of view it’s different. It’s my view that we try to operate under certain guiding principles that transcend individual posters. I think in general the line for trolling is not always clear cut. Pulling the trigger on banning is a response we’ll likely never get feedback on - that is we won’t know if it was too early and the poster in question could have had potential future value. We all take that decision seriously.
So the upside of earlier banning is less muck to deal with, and the potential downside is the loss of what could have been an otherwise contributing poster. The upside of allowing more time is that we can be more assured of the choice to ban, and the downside is additional time dealing with the poster. In that decision matrix, I tend to err on the side of delay.
I think in general dealing with a potential troll for a bit longer is worth the tradeoff of not making the wrong choice on banning which is permanent. That’s the thought process I engage in - I’m new though so maybe that’s too optimistic. Hope springs eternal.
Good point. There is one thread dedicated to calling a new member a bigot and all manner of hateful things. It’s a trolls paradise down there. And they are out in force.
I finally got up the nerve to peek into the dreaded pit, and to be honest, I was a bit horrified.
Not sure what all exactly is meant by “trolling,” but I would think if someone is very obnoxious/offensive, the mods would ban them once they got enough complaints and it would be handled that way.
Allowing bully pile-ons where someone is publicly called a bunch of nasty names and other abuse instead, wow. I could see that not ending well at all.
That’s not what trolling is.
Trolling is when someone posts something only for the purpose of getting a rise out of people. They might not even believe what they are posting but just get entertained by posting something obnoxious and seeing how people react.
Being called out for trolling is a good thing.
Being called out for trolling might be a good thing but that doesn’t really excuse other behavior in return that’s just as bad or worse. I would caution people, if nothing else, to remember that you can be held accountable in the real world for what you say online behind a screen name.
Examples?
I’m not up for a research project right now but you can google that yourself if you want. Or don’t believe me, whatevs. 
I just hope you don’t start trolling people or I am sure I will get the blame.
LOL!
No, the Pit is actually a safety valve that helps preserve polite behavior in the other forums. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re distressed by what people say about others in the Pit, keep in mind that if you’re a good, sincere contributing member, you’re unlikely to be pitted. If you are pitted, you have two choices. Some members don’t go into pit threads about them and don’t pay any attention, while others can dish out as much as they take.
Twenty years ago, I was a forum moderator and I was against banning pretty much everyone. Today though - I’m not convinced that trolls will spontaneously turn into valuable posters.
Take the recently banned blinkyandpinky for example. We all pegged him as a troll from his first post. We all knew how that was going to end. When he went full retard, no one was really surprised. When he was finally banned, no one minded.
Would we be poorer for pulling the trigger faster? Did he contribute anything while he was here? Do trolls come to this board in order to learn things?
What’s our track record converting trolls, anyway? Would anyone hazard a percentage of trolls who fit in vs trolls who get banned?
I don’t have any answers. I just feel like, you know, we’ve been at this internet thing a long time now. I think waiting and hoping for a troll to suddenly feel enlightened has been shown to be ineffective.
And again - I’m mostly playing devils advocate here. I don’t know that I really want the Dope to be more proactive in bannings. I just think that troll-management is mostly in the hands of the authorities.
I think this is a terrific post and a good policy. I get as annoyed as anyone else when an Obvious Troll shows up, but I immediately saw the wisdom of The Clash’s 2nd album title: Give 'Em Enough Rope.
I don’t think we as mods are slow acting because we think we can make a troll a good member of our Board. Rather we are slow to ban because that is the moderation culture of long standing. Yes, we probably are too lenient, especially on trolls, but trolling is something that is harder to pin down than something like spamming the board with links.