Wow, I’ve been talking about my other websites this week, and the mailing lists I run and I must say sometimes it’s quite amusing.
A little flame war broke out on one of my lists earlier today and I have a feeling that I might now have gained myself either a persistent troll or worse a cyber stalker out of it. It all depends on the control measures that I just took on the list as to how things go. You see, as the list owner and administrator I had to step in to put out the flames and the troll that caused the trouble didn’t like that one bit.
The person subscribed to the list with a free email after I put his subscribed email on “no post” status, and sent a semi threatening note to the list stating in it “We’ll be watching you”. With the you being me of course. I think this person needs to get sent on one of those Alaskan cruises and end up not being able to get back on the boat once it reaches it’s destination.
Hopefully nothing much comes of this. I just thought I should warn you that it might flow into the blog. Hopefully any of this creaton’s comments get moderated by Akismet before they get on the blog.
At this point I’m finding the situation mildly amusing in that this person thinks their taunts can get to me. Believe me, I’ve seen better! It could however spill over into something much more serious, and that would not be amusing at all. So my guard is up, I’m watching my email, lists, and sites carefully for any signs of attack and we’ll just have to see how this goes.
I’m confused… what list are you talking about? This sounds intriguing.
You need to track this person by IP number or something. There is no excuse for threats.
I’ve read a little bit about trolls on problogger, but I don’t know what they are. Could you explain a little more about them? I want to make sure I know what to look for. Thanks!
From my limited experience = they’re usually short lived, although scary when you’re in the middle of it.
Cheers
But the truth is that the person whom Tricia is referring made NO THREATS at all. And all he was doing was adding a little humor to the [edit name of list] mailing list. He had no intentions of Trolling. But one joke, led to 15 people yelling at him to stop posting OT info. So human as he is, he responded.
he may be immature…
But make it known…
[edited to protect list flamer identity] IS INNOCENT.. 🙂
Only persons with big personal problems act like that, so I believe that the proper thing to do is to feel pity for him/her.
Pssst. You’ve been tagged… Linky Love tagged….
Hunt him down relentlessly.
I will take informations about trolls! Oh! La! La! Who can loose time in these stupid and bad actions!
Nice to visit your site Tricia!
I really hope whatever the problem is plays out where it just dies a quiet death, and you don’t have to deal with anything. Confrontations, whether they are just internal, or actual situations that need to be dealt with, are never good. Hoping this works out for you.
Hey Tricia – good for you to be so strong – and for knowing how to neutralize him. The only good troll is a dead troll!
I run a pet care mailing list. Actually two of my websites – one that is 12+ years old – are all about reptiles and their care. I run four different reptile related mailing lists as well as maintain the two big websites and uh all of my blogs.
Just like on a forum, or discussion list, personalities clash and there’s always someone there who likes to make fun of others. The trouble on the list actually started due to a teenagers spelling mistake of all things!
The person in question started calling people names. He might have thought he was joking, but it wasn’t taken that way. He’s done it before and he gets quite derogatory. I’d say this was at least the third time he disrupted the list very badly so I first put him on no post status and then when he signed up with a free email account and started up with the insults proving he wasn’t worth keeping on the list, I canceled both of his accounts on the list.
It’s as simple as that, but not really. I’ve received two personal emails from him now and both contain what could be perceived as threats. After he reads this comment, and I’m pretty sure he will due to other activity I noticed on the sites today, he’ll probably send another nice email.
The last email was warning me to take down or change my wording in this post because he said I was making false allegations. Stating “I strongly suggest you rethink the wording on your ‘fun,fun’ page. You will do well to heed my advice.”
Sorry I’ve got the emails to prove what I’m saying and I didn’t say anything all that terrible. I called the guy a troll and possibly that at worst he might end up being a cyber stalker. Considering he’s harassing me through private email now I’d say he’s more than a troll.
I never mentioned his name or the name of the list so there’s nothing he could do against me legally as far as this post goes. If anything I could probably sue him for slander with what’s he’s said on the list, and possibly with making threats. I’m stating facts and opinions and there’s nothing wrong with that.
I have no intention of backing down. In fact I’d be quite happy if he’d just go away. He said that he wasn’t getting much out of the list and had more fun disrupting it so he obviously doesn’t need the information that he could have received through the list, so I don’t feel bad kicking him off it.
BTW i think in the 12 years that I’ve run the list he’s only the third person I’ve ever banned from the list! That should tell you how I moderate and how serious I think a ban is.
I only wrote this post because it’s so strange and sometimes amusing as to what sets people off.
I’m sure he thinks that I kicked him off the list because he accused me of being oh what did he say …. something about being a gelatinous mound, sexually deprived woman, who’s only real power in life is moderating a lizard list? Yeah something like that. Totally hilarious because it’s quite obvious that he doesn’t know me at all! LOL
No I kicked him off because he’s been disrupting the list on and off for the last year and I’ve had it. I don’t have time to babysit. I’m too busy.
Another list member that he had been picking on, but who ended up joining him in the fun decided to write a comment on this post in his defense. I only just posted it with some alterations because he stupidly named the list and the gave the guys name! Geez doesn’t he know this guy might end up suing him for that???? LOL
I ‘ve posted his comment – and since he sent it sometime on Thursday it appears above my reply. Since the guy was writing from his us.army mailing address (duh!!!) I think I’ll list a fake email for him so he won’t get in trouble with his employer. However I did keep my email copy of his message so if he decides to cause any trouble I suppose I could inform his workplace. LOL
I wouldn’t want to hold back his comment and then be accused of being on a power trip would I?
This shit is just too funny.
Goldy I just wrote up a big explanation of what happened on the list and off if you want to come back and read the comment section of the post.
Cybercelt – Oh yes, I have his IP and other info on him.
I’m Soooooo not used to being threatened by people, arguing or getting into fights … but I do know all about tracing a persons ID and what to do with that info.
Thanks for the support.
Mark I encountered this troll on a mailing list that I run. A troll on a forum, mailing list, or on a blog is someone who posts something that is usually meant to incite comments – in a bad way, as in make people angry or defensive, or who posts something outrageous and totally off topic that has the same effect – angering other members/readers.
As defined by the Urban Dictionary
Believe me, you’ll know a troll if you run into one.
This all sounds very unpleasant. I’m sorry. Do you have a link to this list? I am kind of curious to check it out now.
Tricia is well on her way to being involved in serious trouble over this situation. She has not truthfully depicted how this mess started so I will. I posted on her WaterDragon list a comment which read [exactly] “I always thought that bowels were intestines” after someone comically misspelled the word bowls as bowels [repeatedly]. I was instantly attacked by a number of members for my “insensitivity”, etc. The comment was a joke and a few members even pointed out how asinine it was to attack me for the joke. Tricia immediately threatened to ban them from the list for “taking my side”…nice, huh?
I have read her WaterDragon list for over a year, and the members of this list are not exactly MENSA members. They have killed no less than 10 WD’s in the year that I read the list and many “caregivers” have abandoned their pets after they realized how difficult they are to take care of. If you doubt what I am saying here, ask Tricia for a transcript of the attacks on me immediately following my comment. Or, better yet, join her WD list and sit back and enjoy the inane discussions that take place there.
Obviously, Tricia does not want this issue to go away or she would not be keeping it alive here on this site. Why did she even bother posting the issue here? I think that’s obvious. She must enjoy drama in her life. Yes, I posted some unkind comments, but only after her members went ballistic over a simple joke.
A bit of advice [Jean Luc], telling Tricia to “hunt him down relentlessly” is not going to help her down the road. I never threatened Tricia, but again, she appears to be a woman who exaggerates things to evoke sympathy, or whatever…who knows. Feel free to contact me if you question anything I have posted here.
John
– Tricia I suspect that you do not have the courage to post this comment in its unedited entirety. If you wanted this issue to go away, you certainly would not have carried it over to this site. Remember that as you continue to exacerbate this situation you surely will reap what you continue to sow.
John .. Seriously??? You’re not threatening me when you say “Tricia is well on her way to being involved in serious trouble over this situation”or “continue to exacerbate this situation you surely will reap what you continue to sow”.
I never posted your name, nor the name of the list, nor slandered you. You’ve slandered me on the list and in private email, and with your personality likely other places as well.
What serious trouble could I be in? I’ve done nothing wrong. The list is a a PRIVATE list. I have a right to add or delete anyone that I want to. Your harassing me and others on the list, and then me by email and now on my blog, tells me that I did the right thing in making YOU my third ban in only 10 or 11 years.
Yes you made a joke on the list over a misspelling. If that’s all it was I would have let it go but when anyone posted to say “hey she’s just a kid” you personally attacked them and their level of intelligence. You’ve done that several times before. As I said in my reply in this post, I’m not a babysitter. I don’t have time to hold your hand and make sure you’re behaving so I banned you. You obviously have a HUGE problem with that. So be it.
I’m not into drama. My readers wanted to know more so I replied to this post. I do have a right to do that. It’s my site.
This is MY blog and I blog about my life. The list is but one very small part of my life, and very unfortunately you have also become and even smaller part of my life this week.
So sorry I decided to discuss this publicly, but as I said it’s my site, and I didn’t even mention your name or the list in my post so I haven’t slandered you. In fact I don’t believe I’ve done anything wrong. I’ve stated the facts as I see them. You’ve now stated the facts as you see them. Let’s be done with this shall we? I have far better things to do with my time than play games with you.
BTW what do you mean I’m well on my way to serious trouble over this situation? What do you think you can do to me? Don’t you see that by saying that you are in fact threatening me?
Readers – am I right?
BTW I’m not going to defend the list that I run. I know that I’ve helped thousands of people with it and my site over the 12 years it’s been running, and both have saved thousands of reptile lives too.
Oh yeah I did make one tiny edit on your comment. I’m actually stupidly protecting you by changing your email addy very slightly so that my readers don’t take it on themselves to send you emails. You can thank me anytime.
Tricia,
I have had a group of cyberstalkers following me around for 8 months now. They are very difficult to get rid of. They live for the attention, apparently.
When it started, I made the mistake of responding to them, attempting to defend myself against defamatory comments. It got much worse.
At this point, I am blogging about it because it is really the only viable option I have, IMO. Had I never responded, I could have taken legal action and won.