Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Carlos 
I'm not blaming the victims here, but I am certainly holding us all accountable. I've seen troll threads reach well into the hundreds of responses and dozens of pages long after the fact the the OP was a troll was made manifest and even acknowledged. Why do we feel compelled to engage with them, let alone to such a ridiculous extent? That's not just feeding the troll; that's practically rolling out a red carpet and hosting a charity banquet in his honor.
Beyond such extremes -- which are common -- you have a generally thin skinned populace who feel the need to argue with known trolls rather tban putting them on ignore.
Again, it's not about putting all the responsibility on us, but it's about our taking a bit more conscientious responsibility ourselves. Remember that it takes two parties for a troll attempt to be successful: the troll and his (responsive) audience.
Beyond such extremes -- which are common -- you have a generally thin skinned populace who feel the need to argue with known trolls rather tban putting them on ignore.
Again, it's not about putting all the responsibility on us, but it's about our taking a bit more conscientious responsibility ourselves. Remember that it takes two parties for a troll attempt to be successful: the troll and his (responsive) audience.
I agree with your basic assertion, but I think that in most of those long threads, you'll see two things happened:
(1.) There was a revolving cast of members who engaged the troll, because those who first engaged then realized it was a troll and backed off. Someone else came in, didn't realize it was a troll (or didn't necessarily believe it at first), and fired away for a while.
(2.) Sometimes some of us realized it was a troll and just hung around and had fun. Think of Pio, me, Thomas, and several others who just made obvious pokes at Butter or Hey Man just for poops and giggles.
Of course, there are always people whose temperaments won't allow them to turn away from even obvious trolls, but I don't believe most of us are like that.
