Dealing with Flame Wars and Internet Trolls

Flame Wars

A combination of varied personalities, along with the anonymity of the computer presence, will inevitably lead to online arguments between users. While it is great to encourage healthy debates on your wiki, an outright "flame war" is a problem that spreads quickly. The easiest way to stop hurtful and personal attacks on discussion threads is to delete the thread or post in question. Secondly, Registered Users who are repeatedly causing problems should be permanently banned from the site.
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Please Do Not Feed The Trolls

Someone who purposely joins an online community to cause problems and to irritate other users is often referred to as a "troll". The easiest way to get rid of a troll is to not feed him. (i.e. Do not encourage a trouble maker by responding. It is your heated response that fuels a troll. They want you to notice them. They want you to be irritated.)
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What to do

Don't give them the satisfaction. Instead, if you are a Moderator, delete any troll-like comments they post, and if other users are responding to the troll, suggest to those users (in private, if possible) that they should ignore them as well. Soon, the troll will grow bored and move onto another site. If you are a Registered User, message a Moderator, Administrator, or the site Creator and ask them to deal with the troll.
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If you think the troll has moved to another Wetpaint website, contact the site's Moderators as soon as possible and alert them about the presence of a trouble maker. this can be accomplished by sending a message or posting a discrete comment on the Moderator's profile. Try not to be too dramatic in your message or comment, as this might make your warning seem less credible to the Moderator.

Naru2008	Latest page update: made by Naru2008 , May 19 2012, 11:04 PM EDT (about this update About This Update Edited by Naru2008 46 words added 31 words deleted view changes - complete history)
	Keyword tags: ban banned Delete Post Delete Thread Flame Flame War Post Thread Trolls More Info: links to this page