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Written by Larry Dearing
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Sunday, 20 December 2009 09:35 |
Trolls. We've all seen them on some social networking platforms like discussion forums or in blog comments. They are the irritating individuals that attempt to provoke fights by openly insulting someone or taking a very offensive or controversial standpoint on a topic strictly to cause trouble and solicit response. How do you handle such situations; ignore, engage?
The best way of course to deal with them is to not buy into their rants.... not responding at all is the best way. However it is human nature to want to jump in and challenge someone like this for what they are or to defend the side of logic. This gives them exactly what they want. The consequences for engaging can be damaging, bringing you down to that level and allowing your other followers to see an unprofessional and ugly side of you. Should I even mention it's bad for your branding?
According to Wikipedia "An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who intentionally posts messages about sensitive topics constructed to cause controversy in an online community such as an online discussion forum or USENET groups in order to bait users into responding".
Trolls are not to be confused with those that seem to be sincere in posing an offensive or controversial idea or opinion. Discussion, learning and sharing are important with those we disagree with as well as those we agree with. You might want to double read and make sure of your response before jumping in to this type of response, but it certainly doesn't need to be avoided.
Taking a breath and thinking through a posting or response is a really good process in any on-line interactive activity. People are watching you. They watch what you say, how you react, and how you relate to the community. Make sure you're not accidently feeding the Trolls and hurting yourself in the process. How do you deal with Trolls? |
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