They are called trolls. Or should we just call them a pain in our butt? At times they can really get nasty. What do we do about them and their hateful comments?
I have a friend on Twitter and on Facebook that I had the opportunity to meet face to face in Toronto; after we connected on social media. I appreciate our friendship. We have kept in contact and both of us have shared comments from time to time. There’s only one problem; this person has trolls. And their trolls have found me.
And where there are trolls, there are nasty and mean spirited remarks. These comments might even make you angry. You might want to give them back as good as they have given you. Right?
All the advice I have read, and received from others, tells me first not to engage them at all. If you feed them by commenting back, it can make things worse. You may want to give them an ear full; but don’t waste your time or energy. If you involve yourself, expect to have them suck your energy from you.
But ignoring them does not always work. They may start inflaming your network with negative comments about you. One of the first things you should do is record their comments by using a screen capture program. Windows Vista and Windows 7 have a “Snipping Tool” that will do just fine. Store these files you create in a safe play. You may have to provide them to your Internet Provider or even to the police.
One tactic that I have discovered is using your community to respond to the trolls. This will happen only if you have created relationships with people in your community. They will come to your aid if they know what you are really like. This works like “Troll Spray”. It looks better on you when you have a supportive community that comes to your defense. But you must first build this community.
If they leave comments that are not view able or fit for human consumption, first record them and delete them. Try this tactic at first. Let them know about your posting policy. After that, you can usually block them and make your community aware of them. Unfortunately, many of these trolls have several accounts. You may need to block them all.
As a last thought, it’s never a good idea to get into a spitting match with them. Never lower yourself down to their level.
So let me sum my points up:
- Don’t feed the trolls. Maybe they will just go away.
- Build a community of friends that will come to your defense when needed.
- Record their posts if they become bad. You may need them for evidence.
- If you have to delete posts, you have to delete them. But record them first!!!
- At some point, you may want to talk to your Internet Provider to let them know what is going on. They have connections.
- Don’t get into a fight online. It never ends well.
- Make sure you have a commenting and posting policy on your site. Then you cannot be accused of censorship.
For something to be truly hurtful it is based on the truth. This is not one of her trolls, but someone following both sides of the story who see truth from both sides of the bridge. She is not as innocent as you think she is. It’s a good idea to do some research of your own before you go defending someone publicly like this, in the end you might turn out looking like a fool.
Oh, and I am not one of her trolls alternate accounts either, before she goes saying that, I am not a pedophile,drug addict, orrelated to some murderer, nor am I a killer either as she likes to claim people are who catch her in a lie. I am a 32 year old female who lives in Kentucky. I have done my own research and can tell both sides are not being completely truthful. I would suggest before you write a story that you find out why they troll her in the first place.
my jaw is on the floor after reading this, I have been harassed by kemi i live in British Columbia & kemi goes out of her way to say i am related to Jonathan bacon and i am a convicted drug dealer. Kemi has been calling this one INNOCENT man a convicted pedophile for months now and the police haven’t even told kemi olunloyo to shut it!!
Why is her behavior acceptable, but us “Trolls” are bad?
everybody seems to ignore what kind of person kemi is online, she has a foul mouth.
We know who you are talking about Jeff. for over 1 year we have put up with her, accusing us of all kinds of horrible things, crimes that none of us committed. Every time she posts about us, the story changes, the ages change, etc. etc. for me, it was because I stuck up for the young people she was attacking on her Laura Szendrei page. Since then she has used everyone of her pages to attack us. All because we questioned her posts and asked her to get back on track about finding Laura’s Killer. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, but it kept on getting worse and worse. Everything she does is all about her and getting her face on camera. Sad. There are more than a few of us. there are many that are joining our ranks on a daily basis. I will leave you with these words from a TRUE Crime victim Advocate.
quotations”Along the way we have met others who have the faith & conviction to join us in this cause. The joining together of all of us is the classic example of community activism, a term that has been tarnished in recent years by those who call themselves activists but behave like terrorists. Activism should be a positive example, demonstrating the right way to do things. Bringing awareness to injustice and speaking up for those not capable of doing so is advocacy. By advocating for victims of crime, we have restored some people’s faith in justice as a concept, not as a bureaucratic agency.” – Cry For Justice .. Sandie Martins-Toner
My two sense worth. 1. have a defined commenting policy so if you need to pull a comment you are justified in doing so. 2. Do not feed the trolls giving them credibility is not worth the time at all. Social Media is all about community and sooner or late rthe community will come to your aide.
Fights online never do end well especially on my blog. It is funny but I read all these posts and they are personal attacks. One of the thing I state in my blog commenting policy is I will remove comments for personal attacks.
Personal attacks are never worth it. They just show a lack of respect. Trolls are not worth it because they have way too much time on their hands. But that is so typical. They run around with nothing better to do. Ignore them and if need be delete their garbage that is the easy way.
Policies wills ave your credibility in the long run. Use them too your advantage.
What if the comments that are deleted are simply deleted because they do not agree with the persons views. Which is exactly what the above mentioned person does. I simply asked for some links asking where their company was featured on some well known media outlets as they so claimed. Not only was my question not answered,it was removed and I was kicked from the page. This article is completely right in one respect don’t react to the trolls. So why does this poor victim call them names and accuse them of stuff publicly, shouldnt she be the better person and stop being a troll herself?
@redneckdeathfairy That is why you have a comment policy one that states no personal attacks. Very simple..Frankly at the end of the day if a personal attack starts on my blog I remove the comment because my published blog commenting policy says I will. The policy is the key.
@Robcairns What is constituted as a personal attack? Technically any question or statement posted on a webpage, blog, or FB page could be considered a personal attack if you look at it the right way, so when does it change just from being a simple question to a personal attack?
Yes, the obvious name calling and derogatory remarks are personal attacks. When does it pass from being a simple debate to an argument? When does it pass from an intentional personal attack to simply a matter of the other person not having the conversation go their way?
I visit many social media sites, simply because I am fascinated by the social interactions of others. The anthropological side of it. As much as I try to just sit by and watch, I often get dragged into it. I am outspoken, I don’t like liars, and I don’t like to see others or myself attacked for no reason. You are always innocent until proven guilty. I will call you out in a lie if I catch you in it. If you are going to make your life so public as to put it entirely on the internet you should expect others to question you, your values, and morals.
Like it or not we are a society that judges. More often than not snap judgements are made based on race, sex, age, cultural background, and your monetary worth. I can’t place a comma in a sentence to save my life. Does this make me stupid, no, at least I don’t think so, but quite a few people would. Have I been called names? Sure I have, do I let it bother me? Not really.
There are two sides to everything, good and bad. Sure they called me a name, at least they reacted to you. You got a reaction from them, that means they are emotionally invested. I have also noticed that people typically get trolled when they are doing something people do not like. That was the question I asked myself, what has the above person done that would make people dislike her this much. After some investigating of my own I am fast coming to the same conclusion myself. Rather than just blindly believe what ether side says I do my own research and neither side is completely guiltless of trolling, heck at this point by some peoples standards I could be considered a troll.
That would be next question, what defines a troll and by whose standards. What some might call a troll might just be a person asking the wrong questions or pointing out some facts.
@redneckdeathfairy I just love people who justify behavior by getting into debates to justify how they act. I think I am done with this conversation frankly I refuse to lower myself to this in a public forum. I have way too much integrity for that.
@Robcairns Point proven. You had to retort with something nasty. I merely asked questions.
@redneckdeathfairy Actually its not proven i just refuse to get in a subject that will get nasty and is aleady getting nasty in the comments. I refuse to lower my professionalism to getting into conversation of this sort.
The reality of it is a blog is a not a public place. It is owned by the blogger. People assume the Internet is public its not. Domain are property and that has been determined in the courts. The blogger if he owns his domain has the right to set his rules as long as he publishes them. The reality is if you do not like those rules you can go comment and read elsewhere. That is anyone’s personal choice.
The only exception to setting those rules are if they violate the laws of where you live. Law always takes precedence.
I have not been nasty. I just refuse to stay in a conversation that is causing accusations to fly.It is not professional and I refuse to lower my standards of how I conduct myself. I never will. I treat people in the highest regard and will not change.
Jeff in your article you talk about capturing screen clippings, I have been collecting them for quite awhile now & thats the only thing i have been fighting with – the truth.
I am assuming in your article you are mostly talking about the GoodSnitch account on twitter & that has nothing to do with me, so you can’t judge all of us based upon one persons actions.
Since posting here, I have now been sent a private message by the woman above or someone claiming to be her son, calling me a murder, drug dealer and white trash. Is that behavior warranted for what I said?
?That was really gold mine article. Comments have been an indispensable one for social media marketing and I’ve got pretty useful tips just reading here. Now its time for applied learning.
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Jeff they are everywhere, unemployed, obsessed and 4 different blogs about me. They even think I have Fake FB accts. Your company has installed apps on all my Find the killer pages so you know I manage over 10 pages. They think I just build those for fun, then I have my client’s pages too. Today a Toronto Sun reporter told them all off and started deleting their comments and banning them. Judy Parkin, Amber Nagy, Steve Reiss and Shawn McQuaid are all 4 ppl. Detective McBride will figure that out when “they” are arrested. Big one coming. They have also assumed my identity with all their fake pages they used to post garbage in my name. What they don’t know is that I had snapshots of those pages alongside mine. They are SICK, deranges and tag everyone I tweet. TPS said they are really getting irritating now.