How to Spot a Message Board Troll

Message board culture includes a wide array of personality types. Some people seek out message boards for information. Others seek out social relationships. Many folks look to find answers to highly specific questions, while others enjoy being the expert, answering questions and directing users to resources online. Still others enjoy message boards for entertainment value. And then there is the message board troll. Message board "trolls" are people who come to message boards to cause trouble. They might start out appearing to fit in to the community, but later turn out to be a troublemaker. Sometimes message board trolls are new identities created by long-established members of the board; they create the message board troll to cause mischief, or to say nasty thoughts they feel they cannot express as their more established identity. Message board trolls can make or break a message board. It's important to know how to spot a message board troll.

Instructions

1. Examine the pattern of message board posts to see if the user knows more about the message board than a new user ("newbie") should know. Does the suspected troll mention events that happened long before their join date? If so, be suspicious.

2. Look at the suspected troll's user name. If it seems to allude to a past even or other user's identity, watch out. This can be a big clue in spotting a message board troll.

3. Go to the suspected troll's member profile, and read his or her past threads and posts. If they all seem negative or about a thread that happened before joining, that is a huge red flag. If so, that's a big clue you're dealing with a troll.

4. Ask the suspected troll lots of questions on the message board. Eventually he or she will trip up, and he will say something that is inconsistent with the persona they've created.

5. Call the troll out. Start a new thread in the most-trafficked area of the message board, and be ready with your suspicions, links to posts where the troll is inconsistent, and start a "flame" on the suspected troll.

6. Ask an administrator to do an "IP check" if the suspected troll denies being a troll. IP cross-checks can show whether two different users come from the same IP address. Some message board administrators will do this for you.

7. Search in a search engine for the troll's user name. You may find other message boards where he or she posts, and find good evidence to use to flush him or her out. Many trolls aren't creative, and reuse the same user name.

8. Put the troll on "ignore" if the board has that feature, and just don't respond to his or her posts.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't post a troll's personal information on a message board, even if it proves you're right. This is a serious privacy violation.