World of Warcraft®

Does not matter what Blizzard does to curb trolling or discourage it altogether. Every forum/message board environment has these troll problems and nobody has yet to come up with a solution to keep them off.

Just remember we are using the Internet and so long as these environments exist the bad apples will still find ways to be the biggest pests ever.

The trolls would most certainly leave these forums if the Internet and it's Anonymous nature went away but until that time comes.....Trolls will be trolls and it's up to us to flag them as such.

My real job as it stands now, is dealing with trolls. Trolls can be easy to spot but some trolls get so creative you need to analyze the posting habits, and trust me it's a nuisance but necessary evil to deal with.

For every troll that gets banned at my jobs message boards 20 more replace the 1x banned troll. Sucks but tolerable.

I find that the vast majority of people who are labeled as trolls are really just people with differing opinions. Crying troll is often just the last ditch argument of those who can't come up with a counterpoint or those who don't respect other opinions. In short, it's an over used word and the "dislike" option will be equally over used.


Question:
What does using the dislike button do to posts that are in the middle of threads? I understand that it will bury a whole thread if the thread is deemed "disliked" but what about single posts in an otherwise good and constructive thread?

And don't forget to use the "like" button either.

I just hope it doesn't turn into a big popularity contest. Unfortunately, I can see this becoming very much abused.

Is it wrong that I totally clicked "like" on this?

I don't mind the trolls, they are pretty amusing at times but the QQers really get to me. Especially those who have a false sense of entitlement. Can't wait to use these new options :)

If you guys seriously think that these new forums will be any different, you're in for a nasty surprise.

uhmm, you haven't seen any evidence yet that they are different? im still seeing troll threads and posts being deleted immediately now, and im seeing trolls phrase their insults in a non-insulting manner now. yeah, these new forums are different. open your bubble.

I like this.

i sure hope this will get most of the trolls to move on....its incredibly frustrating to come on to the forums and see all the stupidity run a muck.

Internet vigilantes can sleep well at night knowing they made someones font grey.

Here's the deal, people. Trolls are out there and will always be out there, but they are also outnumbered by the regular users of the forum by a large amount. I would suggest that the best use of your energy concerning the rating system would be to encourage others to use it responsibly and do so yourself. To be perfectly honest, the only way the irrational and trollish individuals will abuse the rating system to the point where their abuse is effective is if we do nothing. If we use the system intelligently, however, they will not have an impact.

What does that mean in practice? Simple.

• "Like" intelligent discourse. That doesn't just mean use of proper English, mind. Have standards. If someone seems to have a great deal of logic behind their argument and does not resort to a great deal of unnecessary hyperbole and handwaving to get attention, give it a Like, even if it's not a subject you care a great deal about or if you disagree with their conclusion. The purpose is to encourage good discussion through positive reinforcement.



• "Like" people who give good answers to posed questions. The previous forums were a frightening minefield for people new to the game who wanted to ask a question; they'd get trolled six ways from Sunday. Encourage people to give good answers by rating up their posts when they do.



• "Dislike" posts on a topic that are not constructive or community-building. What does this mean? This is going to be subjective, of course, but we've all seen posts that are constructed with the pure intent of getting attention without any real thought behind the topic at hand. People who refuse to see the forest for the trees, for example. You might want to give it a few posts to try to get them on the path of proper discussion, but eventually it becomes apparent that they're not interested in that. This is the sort of post we as a community should discourage. The power is now in our hands to do that, and we should use it.
  
  Note that this doesn't include posts that are written for the sake of amusement. Parodies and humor posts are fine; I'm instead referring to the people who are serious.



• Rate trolls as trolling; no exceptions. Trolls do what they do for amusement and attention. They love when the spotlight's on them or when someone takes the bait they leave dangling. If we as a community are diligent with rating trolls down instead of responding to them, they won't get what they're after, and that means there will be less trolling as they get tired of never hooking their prey.

Now more than ever, the power is in our hands. Our biggest enemy isn't the people who will misuse it, but the apathy of the average individual that cruises these forums and wants to see them constructive and clean. Take the extra second to make that click and encourage your friends and guildmates to do the same. Rate responsibly and you'll counteract any abuse that might take place.

As I said, it sounds like a great idea, but it's really not. There are too many kids who play this game who will ruin the system just as they did in allakhazam. Anyone who has ever posted there knows that if you're an intelligent person with lots of good information to give, do not post there or you'll be rated below the filter.

And as I said, this is because of normal user apathy. The reason why rating systems fail on some sites is that the normal users do not make use of them. Just like game forums are more likely to have negative opinions of the game on them rather than positive -- if it's positive, people don't feel the need to do anything. It's only when people feel something is wrong that they're stirred to action.

What we need to do as a community is encourage positive and responsible use of the rating system. The reasonable people who play this game outnumber the people you term as "kids." We outnumber the trolls. All it takes is a second to support good, intelligent discourse on the forum, and that's what we should be encouraging.

The rating system isn't going to go away, I'd wager. Instead of throwing up your hands and giving up before this new community's even gotten started, why not take steps to make sure what happened at Allakhazam doesn't happen here?