[WikiEN-l] A despised underclass

[Fred Bauder]

While user names with troll in them provide a handy guide as to which users
to ignore or deprecate, they consitute an underclass of despised users with
kick me written all over them. However like all users they are entitled to
respect. A schizophrenic situation.

Viewed in their most favorable light trolls as a group consititute a faction
with only the most nebulous viewpoint. A division promising conflict but not
resolution of issues.

Fred

> From: Mark Richards <marich712000 at yahoo.com>
> Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
> Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 20:29:09 -0700 (PDT)
> To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] On trolls, usenet and Wikipedia
> 
> Well, I'm not advocating for the rights to troll (I
> don't think vandalism has anything to do with this,
> since its already covered) - I'm just saying that the
> current way of dealing with trolling isn't very
> effective.
> 
> Ignoring things that are not vandalism or malicious
> article edits might be better than providing fertile
> ground for more trolling. The username issue is the
> biggest one of concern to me, I think that we're
> setting ourselves up for a whole new round of trolling
> over 'if admins can ban users with 'troll' in their
> name, what other names can I get away with'. By just
> ignoring these usernames (unless they are attacks on
> users, genuinely offensive etc) this game would not
> start.
> 
> Mark
> 
> --- Rick <giantsrick13 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Unfortunately, there are far too many people on
>> Wikipedia (most of whom do little actual editing of
>> articles) who are more concerned about giving the
>> trolls the right to troll and vandalize, and will
>> attack and try to get banned those of us actually
>> out to make an Encyclopedia instead of a
>> trollopedia.
>> 
>> RickK
>> 
>> Mark Richards <marich712000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Hang on a second, I thought vandals were easy to
>> deal
>> with? Revert, ban if necessary, done. The problem is
>> users who have not vandalised anything, but seek to
>> engage in endlessly convoluted arguments with anyone
>> who will play. Unfortunately, if you play, you have
>> lost already.
>> If the troll vandalises, ban him immediately. If
>> not,
>> don't feed him.
>> Mark
>> 
>> --- Christopher Mahan wrote:
>>> On Usenet or any of many online forums, trolls can
>>> be ignored (not
>>> fed) and they mostly disappear. On wikipedia, they
>>> escalate their
>>> vandalism, learning ever-sneakier ways of damaging
>>> articles that
>>> people have spend countless hours of their
>> precious
>>> time crafting.
>>> 
>>> Ignoring a troll on wikipedia is the worst thing
>> you
>>> could possibly
>>> do, since it will bite you in the proverbial bum.
>>> 
>>> =====
>>> Christopher Mahan
>>> chris_mahan at yahoo.com
>>> 818.943.1850 cell
>>> http://www.christophermahan.com/
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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