http://tech.msn.com/products/articlepcw ... 166&page=1
#5. Trolls in forums
Aggravation factor: 58 percent
The Internet can be a spacious platform for all sorts of community interaction, provided that the participants conduct themselves in a civil manner. Too often, though, they don't.
"I hate when I am on a forum and people just post random comments about how much somebody is a jerk or how their religion saves," said PC World reader Roberta Dikeman of Dublin, California. "Can we please stay on topic--or post that drivel on your own sites!"
Hiding behind the pseudonymity of a Web alias, trolls disrupt useful discussions with ludicrous rants, inane threadjackings, personal insults, and abusive language, deliberately baiting forum regulars into pointless controversy and disharmony.
Trolls lurk everywhere--in Google and Yahoo newsgroups, in blog comment areas, and on specialty message boards created to offer technical help to users.
The free and fruitful exchange of ideas on the Web suffers when Web community owners have to moderate discussions and keep a tight rein on membership. But such actions are among the few effective ways to maintain civility and sanity in online forums. Another approach is for users to police the community themselves by collectively ignoring or dismissing malicious interlopers.
