[WikiEN-l] On trolls, usenet and Wikipedia

Thu May 6 16:03:27 UTC 2004

Christopher Mahan wrote:
> On Usenet or any of many online forums, trolls can be ignored (not
> fed) and they mostly disappear.

That is not my experience with unmoderated Usenet forums.  Typically,
over a period of time, unmoderated forums degenerate as good people
lose patience and people who love to fight come to increasingly
dominate the conversation.  "Pure" trolls, i.e. people who come to a
forum and say outrageous things as a prank do tend to go away, but
that's about it.

Even this forum, which is generally very civilized, is kept so because
of the constant possibility of getting kicked off, which has in fact
happened a few times.

Nonetheless, I do agree completely with this:

> Ignoring a troll on wikipedia is the worst thing you could possibly
> do, since it will bite you in the proverbial bum.

--Jimbo