Ignoring the trolls is the best policy for all involved – including the trolls!
although we are all progressive people who believe in free speech and debate, traffic on a messageboard needs some kind of direction and moderation or the loudest voices shout down all the others and if not stopped intimidate those who stand up to them.
In many cases this involves peoples computers being hacked, or confidential personal information about them being posted to the entire Internet.
some of the “younger” users may not be aware of this, but in the early days of the public Internet there was an unmoderated message facility called Usenet.
This worked for a bit, but eventually trolls systematically destroyed it. In many cases peoples personal information was misused – worse still trolls even went to the effort of writing complicated computer programmes to deter filters by posting random text, and there was a definite link between the trolls, extreme right/racist politics and misogyny. Sounds familiar?
Well this was going on years before even SJ or Dirtycircus, and now Usenet is virtually empty, unseable and heavily filtered or blocked in most workplaces.
furthermore if a troll war escalates into an automated attack on a server or a denial of service attack (which has happened on many occasions), a hosting company or any ISP who is being affected by the unwanted data traffic can go straight to the cops without even telling webmasters or moderators (like ourselves) as their business and peoples livelihoods are being disrupted by a few silly boys’ games.
its the same as like the local corner shop having its staff harrased and the shop vandalised by chavs, they wouldn’t need to ask their customers before they went to a bobby…
thats when things can get a bit ruffer.. if one of the SJ trolls gets nicked (which I fear may happen soon) that’s no victory for us but a disaster for everyone – particularly as their computer kit would probably contain all sorts of juicy(!) info about those involved in the underground rave scene, and the cops would also inform the media about the “sort of people who are involved in underground raves”.
so its best to stop these silly conflicts before they get worse for everyone involved.
