Flaming Nasty Troll

[lady cop]

at that other forum where i am a moderator, i had quite an experience yesterday. it could never happen here i am sure. a really ugly vicious "troll" :slug: decided to attack me personally, and i dealt with it for nearly 24 hours before it was finally escorted off the premises by admin. :cuffs: it was really a shock to me, although once before i had a real internet stalker that i had to actually sic the Law onto in real life. :sirens: people here were witness to it, Carla, Kensloft and Koan. as was Shaguar :unitedkingdom: . :beating: ..that is another story, he was so angry because it was causing me chest pain, he wanted me to leave the place.but i am constitutionally incapable of backing down. it was so virulent and vitriolic and crude that i was stunned :explode: . anyway.........i know i said that forum was a bore, but i will tell you, the posts supportive of me,100% of them, hundreds of them, astounded me! it was a rally and a rout. it blew me away. and made me feel very very humble. why is it, in a place like this where you can say anything, these creatures don't occur?

[livius drusus]

These creatures haven't occurred yet, lady cop, but we're still small and unobtrusive. One of these days we're bound to be hit and it'll be a real test of the community.

It really sucks shit that you had to go through that. I've been there and it's amazing how much of an assault it is. You think before it happens to you that it's just words on the page. How bad can it be? Well, it can be a hell that takes over your days and nights, that's how bad it can be.

I feel you, my sister. :badday:

How are you today? Have you had your blood pressure checked out? Any more chest pains?

[lady cop]

Thankyou Livius! i was tense all day until it was gone, but feel ok...i am happy you understood what it does to you, even in cyberspace. at one point Kensloft said he'd love to invite it here to watch it get its ass kicked :whup: , but did not mention FF by name of course. i simply could not rest until i had beat it up in a battle of wits.(for which it was ill-equipped). so i am tired but victorious! LOL (we cops have an attitude...we HAVE to win, there is no other option.) thankyou again for the comforting!

[koan]

One of the problems in ending the abuse was that he began with a thread on censorship so as to prevent administration from deleting his posts without proving his point. A number of people expressed annoyance with the troll but did not like the concept of banning. That created yet another problem. Something had to be done because the entire forum went to shit as he chased lc around the boards destroying all of her threads and transforming them into his. He was intentionally trying to annoy and undermine every moderator at the forum in his protest against authority. I was about to edit all his posts under Religion and Beliefs to add LYING TROLL at the top of all his posts but the administration dealt with him before I had the chance.

[beyelzu]

well,

lady cop,

sooner or later we will get some evil trolls and then we will see if freethought and speech really works or not.

I am sorry that you had to deal with a dipshit. if you need some kneecapped in the greater atl area let me know.

:tmgrin:

[Ex-zombie]

The trolls will find this place. However I think it will be quite amusing to watch them get taken apart by some of the members of this forum. I don't have the wit nor the intelligence to do it myself, but there are lots of other posters who do.

Ladycop, take it easy. I'm sorry you had to go through such a bad time. :(

[lady cop]

well,

lady cop,

sooner or later we will get some evil trolls and then we will see if freethought and speech really works or not.

I am sorry that you had to deal with a dipshit. if you need some kneecapped in the greater atl area let me know.

:tmgrin:
Why Thankyou...as it worked out i pepper-sprayed and tased him. don't know his 10-20, but first it was arizona or someplace like that, then he changed it to scotland! LOL dumbass was trying to disguise himself. i will, however, keep your kind offer in mind! :whup:

[lady cop]

I don't have the wit nor the intelligence to do it myself

:(
au contraire, i am certain you do! :cool:

[Dingfod]

The trolls will find this place. However I think it will be quite amusing to watch them get taken apart by some of the members of this forum. I don't have the wit nor the intelligence to do it myself, but there are lots of other posters who do.Neither do I, but I do have the 'aggravate to the point of frustration' superpower.

[CARLA]

LADYCOP, :bow: You displayed total GRACE UNDER PRESSURE.. :yup: Koan, and Kensloft were magnificent with their words.. :qex:

I on the other hand turn into a GANGSTER BITCH.. :fuming: Calling the moron out for a fight... :whup: Stating that if he wanted to insult someone I was ready... :giggle: willing, and more than able .. :doh: Thank God he declined.. :D :D

SO SORRY YOU HAD TO BE PUT THROUGH THAT HELL FOR 24 HOURS.. :whup:

[kensloft]

I have this really big problem with people that try to demean and assasinate the characters of people that I know are not :innocent: what they are claiming is fact.

I wouldn't dare send a troll over here for whatever reason. The suggestion to the troll was that in other places lc wouldn't be able to debate(? his word) with him because she would be pushed to the back of the line and only be able to witness the destruction of the bonehead.

:bow: There was an upside to the fiasco and that is that lc found out that she has a lot of friends and respect in that forum. :cool:

Next time some idiot decides to take a shot at our lc she would be well advised to sit back and watch the bonehead get torn to pieces by some very enraged :fuming: people.

Although, I am not sure that they should have removed the threads because I was going to use them as a "troll 101" course in how to detect these miserable specimens of humanity but...? :popcorn:

[lady cop]

LADYCOP, :bow: You displayed total GRACE UNDER PRESSURE.. :yup: Koan, and Kensloft were magnificent with their words.. :qex:

I on the other hand turn into a GANGSTER BITCH.. :fuming: Calling the moron out for a fight... :whup: Stating that if he wanted to insult someone I was ready... :giggle: willing, and more than able .. :doh: Thank God he declined.. :D :D

SO SORRY YOU HAD TO BE PUT THROUGH THAT HELL FOR 24 HOURS.. :whup:
Carla you would have kicked that pond scum's arse! you have more weapons than my entire sheriff dept. and i would be very afraid of you!!! hell girl, you were fantastic! and so were Kensloft and Koan and Shaguar .simply fantastic! :bow2: :bow2: :bow2:

[xouper]

lady cop: at that other forum where i am a moderator ....
Having been an occasional target of some vicious personal attacks on various forums, I can empathize.

It sucks.



Say --- how did it happen that a troll got in that "other forum" when I can't even find out where it is??

:sadnana:


:kickscan:

[viscousmemories]

Although, I am not sure that they should have removed the threads because I was going to use them as a "troll 101" course in how to detect these miserable specimens of humanity but...?
I hate it when threads are removed and/or posts deleted, because it makes it impossible for the 'citizenry' (so to speak) to judge the situation for themselves. I'm something of a relentless debater, with very strong feelings about free speech, censorship and forum moderation. Because of this I've been called a troll before, and it couldn't have been further from the truth.

One time I got into a heated debate about forum moderation in a small, tight-knit forum I had recently joined. When I wouldn't cede to the administrators flawed argument I was accused of trolling and fiercely attacked by a handful of the popular members until I eventually left. It's my feeling that no objective reader of my posts would conclude that I was trolling, and in fact I got support from several other members who were well known there.

However if they had banned me and deleted all my threads and posts after the fact, anyone who didn't get to read what I had said for themselves (whether they be active members who weren't around, or new members) would have gotten an entirely skewed view of my arguments and me personally. Some people would be saying I was an evil troll who was viciously cruel to some of the members, and others would be saying I was making perfectly valid arguments in a firm but respectful manner. Still others, I'm sure, would be saying altogether different things about me.

So... this brings us to your situation.

It wasn't difficult to find the forum y'all are referring to, but it was of course a bit difficult to find any evidence of your troll, what with all the threads and his posts having been deleted. I got a taste of his comments from reading LC's 15 page thread, though, 'cause he was quoted numerous times. The thing is, none of his quoted comments indicate anything spectacularly offensive, and most of the people who commented about whether he should be banned said they didn't think he should be.

So now all the evidence I have that this guy was a vicious troll who got a well-deserved verbal beating from the group and an equally well-deserved banishment from your community is the word of the people who hated him the most, and whose friend he allegedly assaulted. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not in any way suggesting that y'all aren't being honest or accurately representing what happened. All I'm saying is that nobody who wasn't there has any way of judging for themselves except some traces of what look like mostly fairly innocuous (albeit obnoxious) posts.

Don't think I'm trying to tell you how y'all should run your forum, 'cause I'd join up and post my opinion there if I meant to do so. I'm just explaining why I am personally so strongly averse to censorship of the variety in practice there and elsewhere. Basically I just don't want anyone telling me who I can and cannot associate with and what I can and cannot read, and that's what bannings and censorship do. There are very few people whose word I would take without reservation. I much prefer looking at the data myself.

I do know that trolls exist, and I'm sure we'll eventually have one or two here. And yeah, it will be a real trial for the community here and I hope we live through it. But honestly in every forum where I have seen a troll wreak major havoc, the worst of the mess comes from the good people gone wild with bloodlust. If a troll can generate pages of 1000 word hostile rants in response to a single sentence or two, he can effortlessly flip the tone of many threads to the negative and have a far greater impact than he should.

Want to tell a troll to go fuck himself? Go for it. But after that just let it go. If you contribute any more negativity to the environment after that you cease being part of the solution and start being part of the problem.

Anyway please forgive my rambling. I usually start rambling after midnight, and it's after 2:00 am. :D

[lady cop]

actually VM, even his quotes were deleted. if you saw any , they were very few. i do understand your point. but this went deeper..the jerkwad was a stalker that i had to report to law enforcement in his state once before. in the real world. i am not sure why he has a hard-on for me, but it got very personal and close to home. he even threatened my son. so there is the line in the sand. censorship? no. but threats of a personal and obsessive nature. oh shit yeah, bring it on. when he found out my name, googled me, saw my public commission, and threatened my kid...WELL IT IS ON. while i appreciate the aversion to censorship, i really do, he threatened my kid!

[lady cop]

oops.excuse me. :doh: error.

[Brimshack]

I am so disappointed in the topic of this thread.

Glad you made it through though LC.

[Seven of Nine]

These creatures haven't occurred yet, lady cop, but we're still small and unobtrusive. One of these days we're bound to be hit and it'll be a real test of the community.

Agreed, Captain. A troll can bring a community together or tear it apart, and trolls are likely to hit FF when it's large enough to attract their unwanted attentions. They want an audience to shock, and they'll unmercifully scapegoat the first member, mod or not, who stands up to them, as lady cop can testify.

At one board at which I worked, a number of members of another board raided us over a holiday weekend, and I was the only mod there. When I attempted to ban them, which mods could do there, I found that our banning function no longer worked, so I had to deal with them for thirty-six hours straight without help. The best I could do was to make certain that I was the one they most wanted to attack, so as to spare our membership.
I salute you, lady cop, for enduring the nearly unendurable! You were on the job when a board most needs a dedicated mod; the kind who just doesn't quit. I don't suffer from high blood pressure or chest pains, and I can't imagine how you were able to persevere.
I hope that the gratifying show of support from your members will always be something which you remember later with pleasure. Good members always trump trolls. :)

It really sucks shit that you had to go through that. I've been there and it's amazing how much of an assault it is. You think before it happens to you that it's just words on the page. How bad can it be? Well, it can be a hell that takes over your days and nights, that's how bad it can be.

Too true. :(

How are you today? Have you had your blood pressure checked out? Any more chest pains?

Yes, lady cop, are you okay???????

[koan]

I was unhappy when all the posts were deleted but it was done for good reason. He made a few really inappropriate and creepy comments earlier in his trolldom that caused me to stay up all night when the other mods logged off. One of the reasons I'm unhappy is that a lot of really awesome post of my own had to go with him. :sadangel: At least Carla's double machine gun attack is still there. LOL. I keep going back to look at it every half hour or so. :haha: :nyahnyah:

BTW we put him on global ignore for a while in attempt to get him to go away when no one responded anymore (but he wouldn't know no one could see his posts except him). Then, after he left, his posts could have been restored. Unfortunately it turned out more serious than that and no one will ever know the full story. Makes the administration look bad when they showed a lot of restraint. :deepsigh:

[LadyShea]

:couch: Sometimes trolls post tubgirl :shudder:

Other than that, I say engage or ignore them. Banning them just makes them get creative with their IP anonymizers and such.

[Seven of Nine]

erm...anyone wishing to give all trolls full access to a board, and to leave all their posts in place, might wish to keep in mind that they sometimes plant worms.

IMNSHO, there is no ideal solution.

[CARLA]

I understand freedom of speech, and censorship issues.. :yup:

Sometimes a total ASSHOLE, has to leave, or be removed. :whup:

If I arrive at a gathering of friends for fun, and good conversation, only to find a TOTAL ASSHOLE threating my host, and my hosts family. If everyone has tried to reason with the ASSHOLE for an extended period of time, and this ASSHOLE doesn't get it. :whup:

Sorry ASSHOLE goes, and everything he/she brought with him/her goes as well. ASSHOLE started the insults, now ASSHOLE can leave, with an escort if necessary. :glare: ASSHOLE abused his/her privilege to be a guest at my friends house, just that simple. :whup: :whup:

[livius drusus]

Agreed, Captain. A troll can bring a community together or tear it apart, and trolls are likely to hit FF when it's large enough to attract their unwanted attentions. They want an audience to shock, and they'll unmercifully scapegoat the first member, mod or not, who stands up to them, as lady cop can testify.

I'm hoping they find us a little harder to shock than some of the sites with behavioral rules. Testing written boundaries to dick with a community is a lot easier than testing cultural boundaries.

I've never been scapegoated by that kind of troll, actually. I've had rather interesting coversations with some of the more well-known assholes who fucked with IIDB and JREF, mainly because I can don a certain coldness which freezes them rather than feeding them.

The times I've been assaulted viciously it was by people who genuinely felt abused by me, either in my role as moderator or on a personal level. They weren't just out for a reaction; they were members in more or less good standing who just hated my ass for more or less fair reasons.

erm...anyone wishing to give all trolls full access to a board, and to leave all their posts in place, might wish to keep in mind that they sometimes plant worms.

Well, we do have provisions in our rules for any posts which seek to damage the rendering of the site or members' computers, so any attempts at technical sabotage would be deleted while flames etc. would not.

IMNSHO, there is no ideal solution.

I'll drink to that. Trolls are a hard thing to figure out, really. With few exceptions, there is no consensus on whether someone is trolling vs. just being a dick. In my experience, deleting posts due to distasteful content causes more problems than it solves, not just because it's hard for everyone else to figure out what exactly went on, but also because someone who is already obnoxious is unlikely to become less so when super pissed off.

Also, as vm points out, the reactions to trolls are sometimes far more abusive than the troll posts themselves, and if you start deleting those for consistency's sake, then you have a big ol' group of pissed off people as well as bunches of threads which make no sense at all. Besides, I've been shockingly vicious to trolls/weasels, and I can't very well delete myself, can I? ;)

I just keep my fingers crossed and my mind working on creating ever-more effective ignore options in the hope we'll be able to handle whatever comes our way.

[viscousmemories]

Hi LadyCop,

I'm sorry to be so longwinded about this. I really don't mean to minimize or discount your stress or hijack your thread, I'm just naturally very interested in the whole meta-issue of forum moderation, trolling and censorship so I'm taking advantage of your discussing the issue here to go into it. I'm more than happy to split my posts into a forum administration thread if you'd prefer I do that. :)

actually VM, even his quotes were deleted. if you saw any , they were very few.
The only thread I read was the one about your sig line, and I saw maybe half a dozen quoted posts/comments from 'saintsman', was it him or someone else? Those quotes I saw were obnoxious and grammatically abhorrent, but otherwise not terribly offensive.

i do understand your point. but this went deeper..the jerkwad was a stalker that i had to report to law enforcement in his state once before. in the real world. i am not sure why he has a hard-on for me, but it got very personal and close to home. he even threatened my son. so there is the line in the sand. censorship? no. but threats of a personal and obsessive nature. oh shit yeah, bring it on. when he found out my name, googled me, saw my public commission, and threatened my kid...WELL IT IS ON. while i appreciate the aversion to censorship, i really do, he threatened my kid!
If he explicitly threatened you or your kid with real-life physical violence then your reaction makes perfect sense to me and I'm deeply sorry that you've had to deal with this. I hope you don't interpret my comments here as insensitive or uncaring. I've had many very stressful and upsetting interactions with people online over the last few years, so I can definitely relate. But I've also seen stories get blown way out of proportion by the people involved.

The problem for me is that all the evidence I have of this having happened as you have explained it is your personal testimony, and I'm sure that as a cop you know how reliable personal testimony (especially from victims) can be. I am emphatically not saying that you are misrepresenting what happened intentionally or otherwise, I'm just saying that absent any of the evidence from his posts all I have to go on is your (and your friends') version of it.

I know from experience that there is a tremendous difference of opinion between other people and me about what constitutes 'stalking', 'personal', 'obsessive' and 'threatening' when it comes to online interactions. I just don't know enough about how you weigh things or the details of what happened to know if I would assess the situation the same way you have.

Again this isn't to say that I disbelieve your version of events, I'm just pointing out that I have no way of examining the evidence for myself because it has all been removed. My lack of trust has nothing to do with you personally or forum administrators/moderators in general, I just have never in my life met someone who I trust enough to decide for me what information I need to have to judge a situation accurately. My Mom blames it on the fact that she named me after the doubter, St. Thomas. I think I'm just a skeptic. :)

As I mentioned in my anecdote in the previous post there are a fair number of (as far as I know intelligent, reasonable and good-hearted) people who think I am the worst kind of Internet troll, bent on smashing up friendships and destroying communities, all over a misunderstanding of who I am and what I'm about, a distaste for my personal style or some other disagreement.

However there are also a lot of people who like and trust me, and who know that I have never acted with deliberate malice in an online community. Naturally, I would rather people read my posts and/or listen to my explanation of events than trust second-hand accounts. Fortunately I've never been banned from a forum or had any of my posts deleted (that I'm aware of) so that is possible.

Anyway again, if you want me to split off to a new thread of my own I'll be glad to do that. I really don't want to contribute in any way to your stress. :)

[livius drusus]

Sometimes a total ASSHOLE, has to leave, or be removed. :whup:

Yeah, but it's not always easy to make the ASSHOLE call. As I mentioned above, I've been an asshole to an astonishing degree when I believed it necessary. My target was completely polite and courteous, never rude to anyone, but he was also a lying Nazi bitch and I goaded him mercilessly. In that scenario, I was far and away the asshole and had I been on a moderated board with consistently enforced behavioral rules, by all rights I would have been banned and he would have remained.

Sorry ASSHOLE goes, and everything he/she brought with him/her goes as well. ASSHOLE started the insults, now ASSHOLE can leave, with an escort if necessary. :glare: ASSHOLE abused his/her privilege to be a guest at my friends house, just that simple. :whup: :whup:

I don't really groove on those kinds of analogies, though, Carla, because my house isn't a words-only website open to the whole world in cyberspace. Speaking only for FF -- because I totally agree that any board owners/administrators get to make their own calls on these kinds of issues based on their own personal standards and preferences -- this is a public board open to discussion of all kinds, even really shitty kinds, although as a matter of forum culture we prefer the non-shitty kinds. ;)

[CARLA]

livius drusus,

I see your point. :yup: Yes forums are words only, and that does present many different kinds of issues.

Still, be it a public or private forum you have to gain access somehow, be it by invite, or registration. Once you do that you are to adhere to a certain set of guidelines (behavior). If you can't adhere sometimes you have to go, and maybe the person taunting him/her has to go as well.

Sometime there has to be a line in the sand, it can't alway be fuzzy, or explained away.. You display who you are in words, as much as you do in person, even if your posing as someone, or something your are not on a FORUM. Eventually the ASSHOLE always shots themselves in the foot.http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/10/10_5_134.gif

You may have been an ASSHOLE, we all have. The real ASSHOLE continue their behavior at all costs, with no regard for anyone. I'm a guest at this forum, and at many others. Good manners should alway apply whenever your a guest. :wink:

I don't really groove on those kinds of analogies, though, Carla, because my house isn't a words-only website open to the whole world in cyberspace.

[JoeP]

The trolls will find this place. However I think it will be quite amusing to watch them get taken apart by some of the members of this forum. I don't have the wit nor the intelligence to do it myself, but there are lots of other posters who do.Neither do I, but I do have the 'aggravate to the point of frustration' superpower.
But warren, sometimes it's your frustration. Take care!

[pescifish]

lady cop and others who were involved in the situation, I read through what I could find yesterday at your forum and came to pretty much the same conclusion as viscousmemories.

Because the main thread and all the FlamingNastyTroll's posts were all deleted, except for a few of his quotes, I am unable to see the real offense. I agree with vm's assessment of the quotes that remain: inarticulate, but still an attempt to engage in discussion (not my definition of troll.) As an outsider, I would say it probably would have been better to leave the now-deleted horror intact except for surgical deletions of anything of a personally damaging nature (IRL or private information).

I'd agree that what is shown is that lady cop is truly beloved. :squeeze: Hugs to all of you who had to live through that. Trust me, I definitely know how gut wrenching such shitstorms can be. Still, if you were having chest pains, perhaps you might want to rethink that mod position! It ain't worth it, lc!

...at one point Kensloft said he'd love to invite it here to watch it get its ass kicked, but did not mention FF by name of course. Two things on this note: one -- I really hope we could handle such a situation without becoming a lynch mob out for blood; and two -- trust me, it only took one Google search to find your forum the first time you mentioned it. I'm sure FF is no less visible to anyone caring to check it out.

----

One thing I would be interested in, if you guys are willing, is to know whether your forum has any written policies, rules and/or guidelines for behavior that are available for review to someone like me (not a member). For instance, are there established behaviors that are "ban worthy", are they published?

vm and livius put an enormous amount of thought and invited discussion before establishing the policies of this forum. I'm always interested to see what other forums have developed.

[lady cop]

Seven of Nine, thanks for asking, i am fine, but really really whipped. just tired as hell today. and VM and pescifish, i do appreciate your points!. BTW, i can't recall seeing rules and regs there, does not mean they don't exist.

[CARLA]

At many of the forum I'm associated with they have what are called TOS = TERMS OF SERVICE :yup:

They are usually the top most thread in all the forum sections, and on the main page as well. :wink: It doesn't matter if your a paying member or not. If you don't adhere to the TOS you are asked to leave. :wave:

[viscousmemories]

I read their rules and policies (http://www.forumgarden.com/terms.html) this morning. I've always found it a bit odd when people include such extensive lists of editable and/or bannable offenses, when it would be much easier to simply say "We reserve the right to edit or delete any and all posted content and/or permanently remove your posting privileges for any posts deemed inappropriate by our staff". It would be much easier for the users to understand and much harder for anyone committed to skirting the rules to find a loophole in them.

I'm tempted to make a sig line that says "I'm not trying to tell anyone how to run their forum, just sharing my personal views on the subject", just to deflect any possible accusations to the opposite.

I'm glad you're hanging in there today, lady cop. :yup:

[xouper]

One of the big reasons I participate on this forum (and the Skeptical Community forum) is because of the way the owners run it. I very much agree with their minimalist approach to censorship and moderation. And that's also why I tend to stay away from boards that are run like ForumGarden. I generally do not want to be part of any online community that is pro-censorship, regardless their reasons for it.

(Which is why I have deeply conflicted feelings about posting on IIDB, where my postcount has shot up to an alarming 16 in the past few weeks.)

I confess I am deeply disappointed to discover there aren't more people who value free speech as much as I do. Many people give lip service to free speech, but when they are put to the test, they value safety and comfort more and demand to be protected from speech they don't like. All I can say is thank Jeebus for the First Amendment, or else it seems the majority of Americans would vote for more government imposed censorship than we already have.

[xouper]

Here's a good example of a position I strongly disagree with:




I understand freedom of speech, and censorship issues.. :yup:

Sometimes a total ASSHOLE, has to leave, or be removed. :whup:

If I arrive at a gathering of friends for fun, and good conversation, only to find a TOTAL ASSHOLE threating my host, and my hosts family. If everyone has tried to reason with the ASSHOLE for an extended period of time, and this ASSHOLE doesn't get it. :whup:

Sorry ASSHOLE goes, and everything he/she brought with him/her goes as well. ASSHOLE started the insults, now ASSHOLE can leave, with an escort if necessary. :glare: ASSHOLE abused his/her privilege to be a guest at my friends house, just that simple. :whup: :whup:
Thank you, Carla, for expressing your position on forum censorship. I consider myself duly warned to stay away from any forum you moderate.

[kensloft]

[quote=kensloft]If a troll can generate pages of 1000 word hostile rants in response to a single sentence or two, he can effortlessly flip the tone of many threads to the negative and have a far greater impact than he should.

Want to tell a troll to go fuck himself? Go for it. But after that just let it go. If you contribute any more negativity to the environment after that you cease being part of the solution and start being part of the problem.

Anyway please forgive my rambling. I usually start rambling after midnight, and it's after 2:00 am. :D

There were many inconsistencies in who he was. His esteem grew in his own eyes as he became a lawyer , marine, father of 27 children with one in the oven, and so on. The problem was that we couldn't tell him to go fuck himself because he came in under the censorship debate by using the term censorshit.
Bottom line was that he was posting his fantastic life all over the site and it was all negative. He would never answer questons. Just assertions of how powerful, intelligent and wonderful a person he was. He used to have access to studio tours of the Simpsons through his cousin in California. The list goes on but when the numbers of the children changed it was time for him to go. Thankfully, he was removed. Cut and paste was his motto.

As I said, it was too bad that they didn't copy his rantings down because it would have been a spectacular "Troll 101" course.

[koan]

For the record, I'll repeat, I am not happy about all the posts being deleted. I have been attacked on a few threads in the forums that I moderate being accused of self righteousness and egotistical behaviour among a large number of other evil characteristics. There was a mysterious lack of evidence on the part of my attackers particularily the fact that I could have edited any and all of their posts if I had been of that nature. Hell, I could have rewritten their posts to be of glowing admiration towards me. I didn't even point this out to them. It took a couple of days but they did eventually go away.

That being said, the troll in question was intent on having his posts control the board. He took over every new thread that was posted and posted a number of new threads himself all on the same topic and with the intent of being the only member to talk to on the forum. There wasn't a single thread I could readily see on the home page that was not about him and his self proclaimed popularity. It was kind of like trying to have a cocktail party while someone stands in the middle of the table with a bullhorn and talks incessantly while doing the riverdance on our crumbcake. When he started changing his profile and making personal references to a number of female members I felt something had to be done and was glad action was taken even if it was an unpleasant solution. ie) I'm glad you took me off ignore so we can be together now...I live in the same area as you...and trying to post assumed knowledge of personal details.

For the most part, I am looking forward to the remaining evidence of his existence dropping away into the archives. I hope we didn't lose many members because of an objection to banning. Beyond what I am aware of, the "head gardener" had other, more serious information that couldn't be divulged yet when the decision was made.

[xouper]

koan: ... I hope we didn't lose many members because of an objection to banning.
If you did lose any, then you are better off without them.