[WikiEN-l] On trolls, usenet and Wikipedia

Thu May 6 16:10:41 UTC 2004

--- Mark Richards <marich712000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hang on a second, I thought vandals were easy to deal
> with? Revert, ban if necessary, done. The problem is
> users who have not vandalised anything, but seek to
> engage in endlessly convoluted arguments with anyone
> who will play. Unfortunately, if you play, you have
> lost already.
> If the troll vandalises, ban him immediately. If not,
> don't feed him.

People that don't vandalize anything don't bother me, since I'm not
even aware they exist (they're called readers).
People that vandalize then say: "I was wronged, The Cabal is Out To
Get Me" and proceed to make the edit again under the guise of Freedom
of Speech and Your Sources Are Biased Too, those are the troll we are
talking about. 

When you say: "If the troll vandalises, ban him immediately." How do
you separate a troll from a not-mainstream-media edit?
This is the whole sticking point. 

=====
Christopher Mahan
chris_mahan at yahoo.com
818.943.1850 cell
http://www.christophermahan.com/

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