# The Economics of Trolling, the SDMB, and Moderator Decisions.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-economics-of-trolling-the-sdmb-and-moderator-decisions/843474>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [November 15, 2019, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-economics-of-trolling-the-sdmb-and-moderator-decisions/843474 "2019-11-15T03:57:02Z")\
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**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2019, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-economics-of-trolling-the-sdmb-and-moderator-decisions/843474/9 "2019-11-15T05:20:53Z")

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> [@JohnT](#):
>
> I undercited the personal insults in this one:
> 
> 6! 6 unwarned personal insults in one paragraph! And this done under a business model of _voluntary_ payment! Seriously, guys, are revenue considerations a part of the moderation process? Because, imho, they should be.

All the things you think are insults - aren’t. People are routinely talking about ignorance, confusion, or misunderstanding arguments. To curtail those as you would have us do here, would severely inhibit discussion throughout the board.

I mean, HD posts a sorta relevant response, gets confronted on the relevance, and says he’s comfortable with his answer. In your post report, you label this as an admission of trolling. Seriously? Some of the post reports (not necessarily by you) may have been close, but then I’m reminded of a previous post of mine:

> [@I disagree with CarnalK's warning](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-carnalks-warning/841337/47):
>
> I’m not opposed to putting the kibosh on JAQing off, and quickly curtailing pointless focus on minutiae so if those things are reported, then we can take a look. There have been multiple times where I’ve interceded for JAQing, and put on guide rails to avoid getting hung up on minutiae. Both of these things present challenges for moderation though. If a person asks questions and people respond, that looks a lot like actual discussion even if it may not be the highest caliber. If a person points out some minutiae and people respond, that can be organic flow of a discussion even if it may not be very interesting or relevant. If a person does this repeatedly and no one responds, I’m much more likely to intercede than if the conversation is naturally flowing that way. It seems counter intuitive so I’m not sure if that’s the best approach, but that’s how I’ve thought about it thus far.

As to the question of whether revenue is a consideration in moderation? It’s not for me, not a single iota. I stand on principle.

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